Unit 5::Identity, Gender And Ethnicity
Malini
In the play the major character Malini is the princess of Kashi, who is practicing Buddhism as taught by Buddhist monks but as the Kingdom is dominated by Hindu majority, the Brahmins demands the banishment of princess ,whom they think as a threaten to their ancient religion.
The Brahmins are lead by Kamankar who is radical Hindu. Kemankar has a friend name Supriya. Supriya is also a Brahmin but he is a liberal man and oppose the banishment of an innocent girl like Malini. When other Brahmin are drawn towards Malini fate, Kemankar tries to seek the help of the foreign soldiers to protect Hinduism. In the mean time when Kemankar is away from the state ,Supriya too is attracted by Malini's fate. Supriya helps the king to capture Kemankar ,But when Kemankar is bought to the palace he kills supriya also accepts his own death .The play ends with Malini pleading to King to forgive Kemankar.
Throughout the play Malini is the symbol of the love who wants to protect Kemankar life even though Kemankar desperately wants her banishment where as Kemankar has radical Hindu belief who even goes to the extent of Killing his own friend and accepting his own death in the name of religion. Supriya though he is a Hindu by birth but he can accept change in his religious beliefs.
In the play Kemankar appears to hold Patriarchal attitude and inferiories women. According to him the women as an enemy is to be dreaded more than all others because man's power gladly surrender itself to her powerlessness. "Here Kemankar is indicating Malini as a powerless and weak creatures and fears that the Brahmins might surrender themselves to Malini's powerlessness.
Unit 6::Life And Death
The Six Million Dollar Man
In this essay the writer examines and criticizes the statical statement that the chemical value of the human body is only a few cents and not even a dollar .The writer once got a birthday card which mentioned that the chemical values of the Human body in only 97 cents. He was not satisfied with this definition and wanted to make a complete study of that matter by himshelf. The writer took a chemical supply catalogue and began to look the prices of all the chemicals that composed the human body. As he calculated the percentage of each chemical in the composition of the human body, he found out that the average value of a dry human body (Body composition with out water) was 245.54 $/gram. The writers dry weight was 24436 grams .Finally multiplying his weight by 245.54 he found out that his body worth was more than $ 6 million.
But when the writer examined further he found out that the $ 6 million figure of the average human bodies worth is inaccurate .Even six million dollar were very low price for the human body. That figures applies only to the Human atoms price at their raw or informational state. But the chemicals in the human body are in purified stage .If the supply companies of chemicals had to purify or synthesize these chemical at raw state ,the price of a human body would be 6 billion dollar.
Now if these synthesized molecules were assembled into the cell, then the price would jump to six hundred billion or perhaps six trillion dollar. Now if we assemble the cells into tissues, the tissue into the organs and the organs into the whole body the price of the human body will increase beyond of ours immunization. Then, we suddenly realizes that each human being is infinity priceless.
Thus the writer begins with talking about the low price of human body and ends up talking about the priceless human being .He begins with isolated chemicals and then goes to larger compounds like cells, tissue, organ and then finally to a human being .From few cents he comes to dollar and from few dollar he comes to the great philosophical conclusion that every human being is endlessly valuable.
On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness
This poem is about the vanity and fulfillment of human greatness .According to the poet time is all powerful and every earthy thing is destroyed in course of time including our name, fame and greatness. A poet say's that however great a man may be now his greatness may be valueless in the future. To clarify his poem the poet brings forth the examples of mastodons, the Roman Emperor Charlemagne. The Just grizzly bear and the Great Julius Caesar.According to the poet, the tusks of mastodons fought powerful fights in the past but now they have become the play things. Similarly the sword of the great Roman emperor won many wars but now it has rusted, Likewise everyone was afraid of the grizzly when it was alive but now they sit's comfortably on it's fur because it has become rug. Finally the Great Julius Caser was the powerful general of his time but now his armless statue decorates the drawing room of the people.Thus the poet shows the futurity of earthy Greatness which is collapsed in course of time .The poet means that our name ,fame and Greatness which we boast so much is destroyed by the powerful time. The poet satirizes the human supposition that the great tomorrow .He suggest that it is useless to be proud of our present achievements because the value of our greatOn the Vanity of Earthly GreatnessThis poem is about the vanity and fulfillment of human greatness .
According to the poet time is all powerful and every earthy thing is destroyed in course of time including our name, fame and greatness. A poet say's that however great a man may be now his greatness may be valueless in the future. To clarify his poem the poet brings forth the examples of mastodons, the Roman Emperor Charlemagne. The Just grizzly bear and the Great Julius Caesar.According to the poet, the tusks of mastodons fought powerful fights in the past but now they have become the play things. Similarly the sword of the great Roman emperor won many wars but now it has rusted, Likewise everyone was afraid of the grizzly when it was alive but now they sit's comfortably on it's fur because it has become rug. Finally the Great Julius Caser was the powerful general of his time but now his armless statue decorates the drawing room of the people.
Thus the poet shows the futurity of earthy Greatness which is collapsed in course of time .The poet means that our name ,fame and Greatness which we boast so much is destroyed by the powerful time. The poet satirizes the human supposition that the great tomorrow .He suggest that it is useless to be proud of our present achievements because the value of our greatness vanishes in course of time.ness vanishes in course of time.
In Bed
In this essay the writer conveys the painful expression of migraine headache. She describes the migraine headache in general but particularly focuses on her own experiences as a migraine sufferer. According to her she spends her day because of the migraine pain 3-5 times a month. In the beginning she thought that she could be free from it by simply denying it. But unfortunately the savior pain of migraine never denied her. For writer her identity as a migraine sufferer was a "shameful secret" it was because she had internalized the societies mission caption that migraine was the result of "bad attitude, unpleasant temper, wrong think".
Later ,the writer accepted the existence of migraine headache, She accepted it as something with which she would be living ,like some people live with diabetes that mean the writer gradually accepted the migraine because she had now realized that migraine was not the result of her bad attitude but the result of stress, allergy, tiredness, change in the air pressure etc. The writer had also understood that migraine was hereditary in nature. According to writer ,she has migraine because both of her grandmother had it ,her mother had it and also her father had it.
In the essay Didion wants to correct the society min conception about migraine. To the society the migraine problem is imaginary then heredity. The non-sufferer think that the sufferer refuse to take any medicine thus make themselves sick. As they say," why not take a couple of aspirin". The writer describes the insensitive treatment of society received by the migraine sufferer s like her. She even say's that she is even lucky because her husband has migraine and know it's pain .At least, she doesn't have to receive mistreatment front her husband.
Even the doctor are insensitive to words the migraine patient's the doctor have misconception of a "mikgane personality". They think that a migraine personality is ambitious, inward, systematic and perfectionist .Once a doctor told the writer that she didn't look like a migraine personality .Simply, her hair was messy .The doctors too ,like the rest of others, are unable to feel the pain of the migraine sufferers.
Towards the end of the essay the writer says that now she has completely accepted migraine as her friend .Now she doesn't deny it, nor does she fight with it .Thus by using both the impressionistic and impartial styles the writer successfully describes the painful expression of being a migraine sufferer and the mistreatment that the migraine sufferer receive from the society.
The Gardener
"The gardener "is the story of a women named Helen Jurrell who is left with an illegitimate son to bring up. Helen Jorrell is living in a country village where she grew up .Once she goes to France saying that she had some health problems and returns with a baby. She explains to her villagers that the is the son of her recently dead brother .Actually it is not her brother child it is her own child. She went to the France not due to her health but because she was having a baby. Being an unmarried women. She told these lies so that she wouldn't be hated in her society for bearing an illegitimate son.
When a child whose name is Michael turns six, Helen tells him that she is his aunt ,he may call her "Mummy" at bedtime. When a boys comes to ten, He is an orphan and fears that his aunt may reject him. But the bond between Helen and Michael grows closer. Michael grows up and wins a scholarship to Oxford University. But when the world war I break's out he join army. However soon Michael was killed in the war and his body was not found and he is posted "missing" .Later, Helen is officially informed that Michael body is buried in Military Cemetery at Hagenzell. Then she sets out her journey to Hagenzell.
On her way Helen meets a women named Mrs.Scarsworth who say's that she is visiting a cemetery on behalf of her friend. But later she confesses to Helen that she was actually going to her lover grave. Helen's response to Mrs.Scarsworth confession is surprising .She catches the women's hand and bows her heart over the hands. Helen was not able to sit for a long time that night. It is because too is living with a tragic secrete for a long time. Next day, Helen goes to the cemetery where she sees a gardener. She asks him where to find out grave of her nephew. Then the gardener says ,"Come with me and I will show you where your son lies". The gardener knows that Michael is not her nephew but her son in this sense, gardener is non other than God himself.
The story is the moving example of the story on the aftermath of World War .Michael death resembles the death of many innocent young lives in the war .In fact in the story Kipling has depicted his own experience of loosing his only son 'John' in the 1st world war .The body of john was lost and was never found during Kipling life time .Kipling died in 1936 and the grave of his son was eventually found in 1992.
The story also shows the shallowness or meanness of our society. Helen represents all those women who have been defeated by the repressive patriarchal society. Because of the fear of the social disgrace, Helen is compelled to tell a tragic lie that Michael is not her own son.
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