LITERATURE

Contents..

• Summary of Animal Farm
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• Book Summaries of Animal Farm
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• Literature of Srilanka
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• Romeo and Juliet (play)
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• On His Blindness   By John Milton (1608-1674)
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• Death in life  By :- “Sithy Hamid”  
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• “Death in Life” is the most appropriate title “Sithy Hamid” could have decided for her short story discuss / explain?
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• “Animal Farm” as a satire on the history of Soviet Union
• 
  
• Characters in the Animal Farm which represent the Communism
• 
  
• Events in the “Animal Farm”
• Summary of Sanatorium 
• My Aunt's Gold Teeth
• British Control of the Caribbean and Its Allusion in Caribbean Literature

Summary of Animal Farm

Old Major, a prize-winning boar, gathers the animals of the Manor Farm for a group meeting in the big barn. He recites a prophetic dream he has had in which all animals live together without the farmers to oppress or control them. He convinces the animals that they must act toward such a paradise and teaches them a song called "Beasts of England," in which his prophecy is lyrically depicted. The animals accept Major's vision with super enthusiasm. When Old Major dies only three nights after the meeting, three younger pigs—Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer — develop his main rationales into a doctrine called Animalism. Late one night, the animals manage to overcome the farmer Mr. Jones in a battle, running him off the land. They rename the property Animal Farm and devote themselves to achieving Major's ambition. The cart-horse Boxer devotes himself to the cause with exceptional zeal, committing his great strength to the prosperity of the farm and adopting as a personalized maxim the affirmation "I will work harder."

Animal Farm is a great success - at least for a while. Snowball begins teaching the other animals how to read, while Napolean starts to educate a group of young puppies about Animalism. One day Mr. Jones appears at the farm with the sole purpose to take it back from the animals. However, he is once again defeated in what the animals call the "Battle of the Cowshed," and they take Mr. Jones' abandoned gun as a token of their victory. Everything is going good for a spell - but as time goes on, Snowball and Napolean begin to fight about the plans for the farm and eventually the controversy turns into a power struggle. When Snowball comes up with a idea to build a windmill for electricity to power the farm, Napolean ignores it. The animals hold a meeting to decide whether or not to build the windmill, and Snowball gives an enthusiastic and persuasive speech. Napolean, however, says only a few words. Then he makes a weird guttural sound, and the 9 puppies he was supposedly teaching exploded in and chase Snowball from the farm. Napolean takes full control of the farm and calls off all future meetings, telling the other animals that from then on the pigs will make decisions on their own for the good of the rest of the animals.

Napoleon now promptly switches his mind about the windmill, and the animals, especially Boxer, devote their efforts to completing it. After a storm, the animals come outside to see the windmill has been demolished. The farmers from the encompassing area smirk and say that the animals built the walls to light, but Napolean blames Snowball, saying he crept back in to sabotage the windmill. Napolean announces any animal who helped Snowball in his conspiracy to demolish the windmill must be purged, and orders the attack dogs on them. Napolean goes to expand his power, feeling as though any animal who may have been a possible threat to him has been eliminated by the attack dogs. Boxer takes on a new slogan, reading "Napolean is always right.". Napoleon also begins to behave more and more like a human being—sleeping in a bed, downing whisky, and engaging in business with other local farmers. The traditional Animalist precepts strictly disallowed such actions, but Squealer, Napoleon's propagandist, excuses every action to the other animals, telling them that Napoleon is a wonderful leader and is making things better for everyone — in spite of the fact that the common animals are cold, hungry, and overworked.

Napolean is supposed to do a trade for some timber with Mr. Frederick, a local farmer, but Mr. Frederick rips off Napolean and blows up the windmill with dynamite. Animal Farm goes to battle with the other farmers and, although they take triumph in the end, Boxer sustains substantial wounds. Boxer later collapses while working on the windmill, and feels that his time is almost up. When Boxer abruptly dissapears one day, Squealer tells everyone that he passed peacefully at the infirmary, using his final breath to support the Rebellion. However, the reality is that Napolean sold-out his most loyal follower to a glue maker so that he could have money to purchase more whiskey.

Years go by, and the pigs become more and more like human beings—walking upright, carrying whips, and wearing clothing. Eventually, the seven principles of Animalism, noted as the Seven Commandments and inscribed on the side of the barn, become trimmed to a individual precept reading "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Napoleon entertains a human farmer named Mr. Pilkington at a dinner and declares his intention to join himself with the human farmers in opposition to the laboring classes of both the human and animal communities. He also alters the name of Animal Farm back to the Manor Farm, claiming that this name is the "correct" one. Watching in at the party of elites through the farmhouse window, the common animals can no longer tell who the pigs are and who the human beings are.

Book Summaries

Animal Farm

Published 1945

I  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, Bengal, India, on June 25, 1903, George Orwell was the son of a British civil servant and belonged to what he considered 'the lower-upper-middle class.' He returned to England with his mother in 1905 and attended a fashionable preparatory school before winning a scholarship to Eton, where he first demonstrated an apparent animosity toward convention and authority. Consequently, as a form of rebellion, Orwell decided against continuing his studies at either Oxford or Cambridge and instead enlisted with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, a decision that would permanently affect his philosophical perspective, political consciousness, and creative legacy.

Orwell returned to England in 1927, ostensibly on leave after serving overseas for five years. Within a month of his arrival he resigned his post, announcing to his parents his intention of becoming a writer. Attracted to a bohemian, artistic lifestyle, he traveled to Paris in 1928, where he lived for eighteen months. He started a career in journalism in Paris, but did not fully realize his literary potential until after his return to England. His work began to appear in The Adelphi, most notably with the publication in 1931 of his enduring and masterful essay 'A Hanging.' His first book, Down and Out in Paris and London, was rejected by several publishers, including T. S. Eliot of Faber and Faber, before it was reluctantly accepted by Victor Gollancz and released under the pen name of George Orwell in January 1933. As a result, Orwell continued to use this pseudonym for the remainder of his life and literary career, never legally changing his given name, however.

Despite high praise from critics for a relatively unknown author, the book was commercially unsuccessful and disheartening to Orwell. Undaunted, he earned his livelihood as a journalist while continuing to publish both fiction and non-fiction. At this point Orwell left England on assignment to observe and fight in the Spanish Civil War, where he was seriously wounded, necessitating his return to England in 1938. Later that year, Orwell wrote about the experience with horrific realism and perception in Homage to Catalonia.

In 1939 Orwell published Coming Up for Air, the first of his novels to attain commercial success. This personal triumph, however, was soon overshadowed by the outbreak of the Second World War. Denied military service for reasons of health, Orwell was nonetheless active in civil defense.

During the war years Orwell originated the idea for Animal Farm, a novel that was initially rejected by British and American publishers, who feared the repercussions of promoting a work critical of the Soviet Union, then a military ally. When Animal Farm finally appeared in May 1945, however, it met with an unprecedented public reception. As a result, Orwell achieved overnight recognition and financial independence.

In 1947 Orwell settled on the island of Jura off the west coast of Scotland. Here, although physically ill and increasingly pessimistic about the state of the world, he completed Nineteen Eighty-Four, a work of immense critical and cultural importance. The novel was published in 1949 just months before Orwell's premature death from a tubercular hemorrhage on January 23, 1950.

II  OVERVIEW

Conceived and written as satire, Animal Farm is generally acknowledged as presenting many of Orwell's views on humanity and politics. The novel relates the overthrow of a farmer's tyrannical rule by the animals in his barnyard and the animals' aborted efforts to establish an 'egalitarian' society. Clearly alluding to political events in Russia from the Revolution to World War II, Animal Farm primarily attacks the extremes of Stalinism, yet goes beyond to dissect the anatomy of revolution and the lure of power. The ponderous political implications of the novel, however, are deftly interwoven into a fantastic tale of animals that talk, walk on their hind legs, write laws, spout propaganda, and commit crimes, all in the name of equality. Once the animals attain their freedom and begin to organize the farmyard, it becomes obvious that their behavior parodies human political and social hierarchies.

III  SETTING

The novel takes place on Manor Farm, which is renamed Animal Farm after the animals expel Mr. Jones, the farmer, from its grounds. It is a typical barnyard, except that the animals have assumed the farmer's tasks. Their aspirations are high; they write seven commandments on the wall of the barn, including 'All animals are created equal,' and 'Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy,' and thus stake their claim. They build a windmill—an object of much contention—that is rebuilt several times after being destroyed by a storm and then by a band of farmers with dynamite. Originally, the animals pledge to preserve the manor house as a museum, but as the power structure becomes more unbalanced, the pigs move into the house, which becomes their domain. The farmhouse symbolizes the new totalitarian rule of the pigs and is indeed indicative of the 'revised' commandment: 'All animals are created equal but some animals are more equal than others.' Orwell, by restricting all the action to the farmyard, creates a microcosm of society.

IV  THEMES AND CHARACTERS

Modeled on a relatively simple premise, the novel begins as the animals of Manor Farm unite against farmer Jones to overthrow his tyrannical rule. Understandably ecstatic over their sudden and rather unexpected good fortune, the animals create a new order for the future based on equality and equity. The paint is hardly dry on their barnyard manifesto, however, when the hated forces and attitudes that triggered their revolt begin to reemerge, eventually to destroy their dream of emancipation. Orwell undoubtedly passes judgment on the fate of revolution by comparing ideological promises with their practical application.

In essence, Orwell does not condemn revolution but agonizes over the betrayal of its ideals. Possessing superior knowledge, the pigs assume leadership of the farm, taking a first step to replace the tyranny of the past with a new and more terrifying threat for the future. The pigs learn to control the means of communication and literally create their own truth to dispense to the inhabitants of the farm; this is perhaps the most pessimistic aspect of the novel. In the end, pigs are indistinguishable from farmers and the ideals of the revolution seem distant in the face of terror, manipulation, and despair.

Appearing in a dream, the birth of revolution was the inspiration of old Major, a pig renowned for his wisdom and benevolence. But as the dream becomes reality, the responsibility of the revolution falls on the two most 'preeminent' pigs, Snowball and Napoleon. Thinly disguised, these represent the principals behind the emergence of Soviet Russia—Major and Snowball are Lenin and Trotsky, and Napoleon is Stalin.

Although a clear distinction is made at the beginning of the novel between Jones, as the representative human, and the community of animals inhabiting the farm, the focus quickly shifts to the animals once Jones is overthrown and specifically to the rivalry that develops between Snowball and Napoleon.

The novel follows the ruthless Napoleon in his quest for individual power. Driving Snowball into exile, Napoleon imposes his oppressive authority on the animals through his manipulation of language, as demonstrated by Squealer, the voice of the revolution who is capable of turning 'black into white,' and the menacing presence of a private army of fierce watchdogs capable of enforcing adherence to his regime.

The failure of the revolution is largely the result of self-defeatism, cynicism, and the inability of the animals either to recognize or resist the oppression imposed on them by Napoleon. Even the basic goodness of the animals, as characterized by the horse Boxer, the symbol of strength, self-sacrifice, and trust, cannot overcome the demise of idealism into blind allegiance and delusion.

V  LITERARY QUALITIES

An extremely disciplined writer, Orwell consistently used language to enhance the development of plot while providing insight into thematic concerns. This is especially true in Animal Farm, an imaginative examination of the interaction of language and political method. Written in a pure, subtle, and simplistic style, Animal Farm evokes descriptive imagery and stunning clarity of purpose. Although the novel begins with a relatively light tone, it gradually evolves into a menacing and debilitating void. Coming full circle, the novel ends with a tremendous sense of futility and loss as even the memory of the revolution fades into quiet and passive oblivion.

Orwell conceived of Animal Farm as an allegorical beast fable, drawing on a literary convention attributed to Aesop and dating from the seventh century bc. Popular in almost every literary period, the beast fable is most often designed to satirize human folly as well as to provide moral instruction. An avid reader, Orwell was undoubtedly influenced by the work of the seventeenth-century French writer La Fontaine and in his own century by Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book and Just So Stories.

Orwell clearly descends from an impressive lineage of English satirists, particularly those of the eighteenth century including Dryden, Swift, and Pope. Animal Farm is consistently and appropriately compared to Swift's Gulliver's Travels as having the capacity to simultaneously delight while pointing an accusing finger at the limitations of human kindness and decency. In the twentieth century, satire is generally utilized in the fictional narrative as it is in Animal Farm to criticize with the ultimate goal of improvement. In this capacity, Orwell joins company with such diverse writers as Evelyn Waugh, Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis, and Aldous Huxley. Integrating political and artistic purpose, Orwell's beast fable proved a radical departure from his previous work but an extremely successful literary vehicle and quite possible his most distinguished creative achievement.

VI  SOCIAL SENSITIVITY

During the mid-1930s, Orwell like many of his literary contemporaries, became increasingly more perceptive of the social and political concerns of the age. Clearly a turning point for Orwell, this period would ultimately define his artistic purpose and direction as a writer and simultaneously crystallize his prophetic vision of the future. Unquestionably a literary extension of Orwell's political development, Animal Farm is most often identified as a satire on totalitarian communism and the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. Orwell recognized the ability of emerging political regimes to replace poverty with a form of security based on social and economic servitude. Committed to the preservation of intellectual liberty, Orwell further realized the inherent danger of sacrificing this ideal to governmental control. Orwell's primary concern by the close of the decade was to discover the proper medium through which to communicate his message.

VII  RELATED TITLES/ADAPTATIONS

Similar in thematic content to Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four is both an indictment of political oppression and a vigorous attack on the corruption of language. Throughout the novel, Orwell is relentless in his disparaging analysis of totalitarian society. More impressive, however, is his ability to demonstrate the use of language as a tool of government to exercise and ensure control over its people. Deprived of access to their historical and cultural traditions, the inhabitants of Orwell's world become enslaved to the immediacy of existence.

Animal Farm was made into an animated cartoon in 1954, directed and produced by John Halas and Joy Batchelor and released by Louis de Rochemont Associates. Presented as a full-length adult satire, the film was considered an artistically successful rendering of Orwell's book made into vivid and realistic animation. A superb creative achievement, the film is executed with technical precision and visual brilliance, distinctly reminiscent of the 'Disney' style. The thematic elements of Orwell's novel remain consistent in the film and quite possibly are enhanced by the striking contrast of presenting political satire in the medium of cartoon.

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H.N.D in English SLIATE

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Literature of Srilanka

A.     Literature

Early Sinhalese literature was primarily religious. Buddhist monks compiled what are considered the earliest texts of Sri Lanka. The Mahavamsa (Great Chronicle), written in the ad 500s in Pali (the language of Theravada Buddhism), chronicles the rise and fall of successive Sinhalese kingdoms in Sri Lanka, beginning with the legendary colonizer of the island, Prince Vijaya, in the 500s bc.

The development of Sinhala as a vernacular and literary language is well illustrated in the rock fortress of Sigiriya. From the 600s to the 1400s, visitors to the fortress created a wall of Sinhala graffiti, scribbling nearly 1,500 pieces of prose and poetry on a highly polished wall of rock. Poems based on the Jatakas, the stories of the lives of the Buddha, were composed in the Sinhala language from as early as the 1200s.

Poetry flourished as the earliest literary form in the Tamil language. After Sanskrit, Tamil is the oldest literary language of the Indian subcontinent (see Indian Literature). This strong Tamil literary tradition was part of the cultural heritage of Tamils who migrated to Sri Lanka in ancient times. The earliest known Sri Lankan Tamil poet was Eelattu Poothanthevanar, whose poems were included in the Tamil cankam (sangam) poetry anthologies compiled in southern India before 250 ad. A distinctly Sri Lankan Tamil literary tradition first developed in the 1940s with the works of the so-called marumalarchi (renaissance) writers Mahakavi, A. Kandasamy, and Varadar. The poetry of Mahakavi, in particular, helped distinguish the literature of Sri Lankan Tamils from that of Tamils in southern India.

B.     Sri Lankan writers

Sri Lankan writers established fiction as a literary form in the 1900s. Martin Wickramasinghe was one of Sri Lanka’s first modern Sinhalese novelists. He authored a trilogy that captured social changes related to the end of colonialism in Sri Lanka. The novels of the trilogy were Gamperaliya (Village Revolution; 1944), Yuganthaya (End of an Era; 1948), and Kaliyugaya (Inauspicious Era; 1957). A large body of modern literature has developed in both the Sinhala and Tamil languages. Writers producing poetry and fiction in English include Jean Arasanayagam, Ann Ranasinghe, and Romesh Gunesekera. Their works examine the effects of ethnic strife and war in people’s lives. Award-winning Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje based his humorous semiautobiographical novel Running in the Family (1982) on his return visit to Sri Lanka, the country of his birth and childhood.

C.     Theater and Film

Ediriweera Saratchandra’s Maname (King’s Name), produced in 1956, is considered the first modern drama in the Sinhala language. It was staged in the traditional folk drama style known as nadagam. Political and social themes are often the focus of contemporary dramas. Locally produced motion pictures are exclusively in Sinhala. Tamil-language films are imported from southern India.

M.H.Zafras Ahamed

B.A & H.N.D. in English

SEUSL & SLIATE

E-mail:- safrassiya@gmail.com, safrassiya@yahoo.com

Website: - http://explore-safras.blogspot.com

Romeo and Juliet (play)

Romeo and Juliet (play), tragedy written by William Shakespeare in about 1595. The play dramatizes the fate of two young lovers whose tragic deaths are brought about by feuding between their families and by their own passionate temperaments. One of the most famous love stories in all literature, Shakespeare’s moving drama of these “star-cross’d lovers” is noted for the lyrical beauty of many of its speeches.

The play opens in the Italian city of Verona, where the families of Montague and Capulet are engaged in a bitter feud. Romeo, the heir of the Montagues, loves Rosaline. Discovering that Rosaline has been invited to a Capulet banquet, Romeo attends in disguise. There, he meets and falls in love with Juliet, the beautiful daughter of the Capulets. They kiss, initially not realizing their families are enemies. Romeo slips into the Capulet orchard at night and overhears Juliet confessing her love for him on her balcony. Romeo identifies himself, and they pledge eternal love despite the hostility of their families. They are secretly married the next day by the benevolent Friar Laurence.

Shortly afterward Romeo encounters Tybalt, who is a Capulet, and an exchange of insults escalates into a brawl. Romeo’s friend Mercutio is mortally wounded by Tybalt; Romeo then kills Tybalt. The Prince of Verona banishes Romeo from the city. Romeo spends his last night with Juliet and then leaves in the morning for exile in Mantua.

Juliet’s father orders her to marry Count Paris within three days. Juliet, in desperation, goes to Friar Laurence, who gives her a potion that puts her into a deathlike sleep. Believed to be dead, she is placed in the Capulet burial vault, while the friar sends a letter to Romeo to take her away when she awakens. In Mantua, Romeo hears of Juliet’s death, but the letter from Friar Laurence never reaches him. Romeo believes that Juliet is truly dead and resolves to die beside her. He rushes back to Verona and breaks into the tomb, drinks poison, and dies beside the sleeping Juliet. When Juliet awakens, she finds Romeo’s body and stabs herself with his dagger. The Montagues and Capulets arrive at the tomb, where Friar Laurence explains the tragic events. They realize the disastrous effect of their feud and are at last reconciled.

Romeo and Juliet contains some of Shakespeare’s finest poetry. It is also noteworthy for its deft mixture of comedy and tragedy. The cynical wit of Romeo’s friend Mercutio and the worldly humor of Juliet’s nurse provide a vivid contrast to the tender lyricism of the love scenes. One of the highlights of the play is the balcony scene in the Capulet orchard. Lines often quoted from the play include “A plague on both your houses!” and “What's in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.”

The characterization of the play is superb; even minor characters like the nurse and Mercutio spring into life. And the development of the two major characters from the dreamy boy and the innocent girl of the first act to the tragic figures of the last is something new in English drama. The entire play is something new, for Shakespeare felt strong enough to break with the dramatic conventions of his time and write the first English tragedy dealing sympathetically with the theme of romantic love.

M.H.Zafras Ahamed

B.A & H.N.D. in English

SEUSL & SLIATE

E-mail:- safrassiya@gmail.com, safrassiya@yahoo.com

Website: - http://explore-safras.blogspot.com

On His Blindness

By John Milton

1608-1674

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WHEN I consider how my light is spent
         E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,
         And that one Talent which is death to hide,
         Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
         My true account, least he returning chide,
         Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,
         I fondly ask; But patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
         Either man's work or his own gifts, who best
         Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
         And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:
         They also serve who only stand and waite.

Poem analysis

Line 1

The poem starts with the speaker who is the poet himself John Milton, reflecting upon his blindness and how God expects him to make full use of his ability as a writer, if he cannot even see the paper on which he writes. The talent of the poet is useless now that he is losing his sight The poet considers how his “light” is used up or wasted . “light” for this deeply religious poet it mean an inner light or spiritual capacity. So He uses the word "light" to refer to his blindness and also his inner light.

Line 2

The poet assumes that his life is not yet over. The phrase “in this dark world and wide” is a very honest image.

Line 3

This line as I read refer to a story in the Bible .which speaks of a bad servant who neglected his master’s talent "a talent was a kind of coin" instead of using it. He is "cast into outer darkness.". It can also mean Milton’s talent as a writer.

Lines 4-6

"Lodged with me useless" means that his talent as a poet is useless now that he is losing his sight. Line 5 expresses the speaker’s desire to serve God through his poetry, to use his talents for the glory of God."Though my soul more bent/ to serve therewith my Maker" , here the poet is saying that although my soul is even more inclined to serve God with that talent, I want to serve God with my writing , but he feels that his talent will be wasted as he becomes blind. He wishes to "present his true account," or give a good account of himself and his service to God. The sixth line may refer to the second coming of prophet Jesus peace be upon him "Lest he returning chide", as a Christian poet he didn't  won’t to be blamed or rebuke when Jesus returns.

Lines 7-8

Milton asked if God just wants lesser tasks since his blindness denies him from using his talents.

Patience is capitalized in the eighth line and becomes more clearly personified when answering Milton's question.

Line 9

Patience speaks, to prevent that "murmur," Milton’s questioning of God’s will in previous line.

Lines 10-14

Patience’s reply explains the nature of God. First of all God does not need man’s work.

"Who best / bear his mild yoke" means the people who are most respectful to God's will. These people are the ones who serve God best. The image of the yoke is also Biblical. " yoke " was a kind of harness put on oxen but in other bible it is an image for God's will.

God's greatness "His state is kingly" was explained here .

At God’s bidding or will, thousands of people "speed and post" all over the world all the time. This line means that the whole world is servants to God. There is more than one way to serve God, and patience is telling the poet that even his waiting caused by his blindness can be a kind of service.

Death in life

By :- “Sithy Hamid”

 “Death in Life” is the most appropriate title “Sithy Hamid” could have decided for her short story discuss / explain?

“Death in Life” is a short story written by “Sithy Hamid”. She is a Sri Lankan writer. This story criticizes the customs followed by Muslim community. It is noteworthy here that the writer has the courage to criticize her own culture. She depicts the sufferings faced by a widow in the Muslim community in many ways through her emotional lines in the story. She tries to generalize the idea with the use of the pronoun “She” instead of giving a name for the protagonist.

With that I would like to enter in to the topic of my research. When the reader goes through the title of this short story, he will understand that the short story is going to deal with a person who suffers a lot in his life. Certainly, the title gives the complete idea to the reader about the plot. The writer “Sithy Hamid” has chosen the most appropriate title to convey her message to the readers. The title “Death in Life” proposes the idea of how a person dies when he lives in this world. If a person dies when he lives it means he faces a lot of unbearable circumstances. In this short story also the protagonist; a Muslim woman faces a lot of problems due to some customs followed by a sector of Muslim community.

It is compulsory on Muslim woman to live in seclusion for four months and ten days with abiding by some rules and regulations for the death of her husband. There are many implications behind this act. Due to the intrusion of superstitious beliefs among Muslims, this act has become a pain taking one on Muslim women. The short story is a real portrayal of the sufferings faced by a Muslim woman in her life after her husband’s death. The protagonist of the short story; a Muslim woman suffers a lot after the death of her husband. The rituals imposed on her give her pain; the people around her give her pain; the customs followed by the people give her pain, almost all the things around her inflict pain on her, as a result of this the protagonist becomes lifeless when living in this world. This death denotes the spiritual death, she mentally exists in this world, but physically she is no more here. This thought pervades in each line of the short story. Thus we can say that the writer “Sithy Hamid” has chosen the most appropriate title for her short story.

Soon after the death of the husband she is forced to pray; the people around the corpse of “Nazeer” call him body; they accuse her for the death of the man; they take her into a strange place.  The Protagonist shows her disapproval to their activities and hammers the people around her through the following words. She says “What are they doing to me? “Did you want this done to me? You must have, or else you wouldn’t have died so young leaving me to the vultures. These heartless dogs who will now pounce on the carcass of my life”. These words propose the idea that the protagonist already knows that she is going to die after the death of the husband.

When we take the place where she lives to observe the rituals and waits for four months and ten days also equates a coffin where dead bodies were kept and buried in the graves. She is given a very small place which affords her presence only. She has only few things around her. 

On the other hand, the colour “ white” shows many ideas about the plight of the woman.  The short story says that everything around her becomes “white” even the slippers and the mug. Her room is also painted with white, the sari she wears also white with white blouses. Protagonist says “The colour of life left me with my husband’s death. White is the colour of non-existence. Almost like an attempt to erase me from the face of the world”. Through these lines the writer suggests the non-existence of the protagonist, because she is forced to wear the colour that she doesn’t like. “White” is the colour of non-existence. It is all around her now after the husband’s death. That colour is covering her. “The colour of life left me with my husband’s death” when the protagonist says like this, it shows how she feels the emptiness in her life. She leads a battered and dry life without spiritual health. All these features about “White” proclaim that the protagonist is physically alive, but she is mentally dead.

Moreover, the people around her also don’t treat her as a human being. They don’t notice her presence, because she does not exist in here. Even though she is with them, they don’t even talk to her. In the short story it is mentioned that the people come there with the cluster of two or three and speak among themselves and leave the place; they pray the prayers that wouldn’t console them; they bring trays of food which is rarely served to her. All these occurrences show that the woman is not treated properly as a human who is still alive. By this also the writer takes the advantage of painting a vivid portrait to her title about the death of a living human being.

Apart from that, the protagonist is not given the freedom to express and the freedom to lead a happy life when “Nazeer” lives and after his death as well. We feel as if the word “Freedom” is lifted from the dictionary of the protagonist. When she lives with “Nazeer” she is compelled to live with the sister in law “Umu Naima”. “Umu Naima” is a cruel lady who tries to keep the control of the family and interfere in the matters of the couple. She doesn’t allow her to go wherever she wants to go with her husband. “A Muslim woman should stay at home, she would say, and I would cry for hours alone in my bedroom he had left me behind without a second thought”. The above mentioned lines propose that she is left at her room by “Nazeer” while she cries until he returns back home.

On the contrary when “Nazeer” dies also, she is obliged to live alone without associating anyone. There are two watchdogs that scrutinize her motions. She totally lives a life of a prisoner. All these things are imposed on her in the pretext of preventing her from seeing and meeting an unknown person. She totally denies this thought by saying “Do they really think that I will think of other men with my husband buried only few hours”. This thought also nourishes the title of the short story briefly.

While considering the narrative style also, we can get some important ideas which justify the most appropriate selection of the title for the short story. The story starts with the third person point of view at the beginning. At the middle, which deals with the sufferings of the widow, it moves to the first person. With the transformation of the point of view, the writer shows the pathetic situation of the widow. When the person who suffers states about his plight and suffering, it will be more effective than others relate that. At the end of the story it moves from first person to third person.

In a nutshell, it is clear that the writer has chosen the most suitable title to convey some important ideas about the plight of the Muslim widow who suffers because of the superstitious beliefs followed by a sector of the Muslim community. As the life she leads after the death of her husband totally changes in to dark side, she faces numerous problems. Everything and everyone turns against her, subsequently, she suffers a lot and becomes lifeless. She equates to a dead body spiritually. As these are the thought pervade the whole story, the writer has chosen the most appropriate title “Death in Life” for the short story.

Prepared by

M.H.Zafras Ahamed

B.A & H.N.D.in English

SEUSL & SLIATE

“Animal Farm” as a satire on the history of Soviet Union

“Animal Farm” was written by a prominent writer, Novelist, and Journalist “George Orwell” in 1947. He has many reasons behind this novel. It is believed that he wrote this novel to keep the scars of the Second World War and the history before that in the people’s mind as he saw the people forgetting the real history gradually. As a result of that he used the animals in the satire to ridicule and mock the Communism and its allies.

Most of the people think that this is a novel which tries to describe a group of animals that try to take control of the farm from men. It adds taste in reader’s mind when seeing the animals unite to fight against a common enemy. In fact, the gullibility of the animals annoys the reader. Eventually sadness pervades over the plight of the animals, especially Boxer.

While considering this novel as a satire, this is a masterpiece of “George Orwell” in which he constantly ridicules and criticizes the history of “Soviet Union” ruled by communism, with the fine use of the animals that he brings in the novel. Almost all the events in the “Animal Farm” portray the history of “Soviet Union” vividly and all the characters have the real characters in real. The writer tries to convey the noble message “The Capitalism was toppled by Communism, Eventually the Communism itself watered Capitalism”. 


With that introduction, I would like to enter into the history of “Soviet Union” before the revolution in 1917. Before the First World War “Soviet Union” was ruled by the king “Tsar Nicholas”. Capitalism was nourished by him and it flourished. Capitalism says that the “capital” will be in few people’s hand and the others will be working class. The majority of the people strived for the well being of a small group of capitalists. In similar terms, the people were suppressed to get the utmost benefit for few. This cultivated a sense of disapproval among the proletarians. On the other hand people didn’t want the king to enter into the world wars and worsen the prevailing pathetic situation in the country, but he did. So, this fed the unrest in the country which ended up in the denouncement of the king.

Soon after the revolution communism took control of the country. The revolutionary thought was led by Vladimir Lenin, but he died before his dream come true. Subsequently, Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin, the disciples of Lenin tried to get the leadership of the new born baby. They proclaimed “All human beings are equal; everyone should get the equal share in everything”. Mean while they both had a power struggle. Leon Trotsky expanded his sphere of influence through his fine speeches whereas Joseph Stalin kept his activities secretly to ally a force to overcome his enemies in the political arena. Joseph Stalin exiled Trotsky from the town and later he was assassinated by the order of Stalin.

Stalin demolished all the communist thoughts and almost implemented the capitalism. The people starved more than they did in monarchy. People thought that the revolution will bring the heaven to the earth, but it brought an antithesis. Finally, Stalin went through all the avenues of tyranny and become a worse dictator of the country.

On the other hand while having a glance on the plot summary of the “Animal Farm”, It will throw some light on the theme of the satire. The “Manor Farm” is under the control “Mr.Johnes”. He doesn’t feed the animals; beats them harshly; and over burdens them. No animal wants to have him there. So, Old major, the prize boar comes with the dream of the farm which is ruled by the animals themselves. As a result of this, the idea of rebellion is spread among the animals.
When the farmer leaves the animals unfed for certain days, it ends up in a rebellion. Subsequently, Mr.Johnes is chased from his place. The animals wish to have a heaven in the earth. They think that everything is going to be changed, but they don’t get what they wanted. 

In the post rebellion era, the pigs get the leadership. Among them Napoleon and Snowball are two prominent pigs who try to take the leadership which leads to a power struggle between them and ends in the exile of snowball by Napoleon.

In the climax, the pigs who are the controllers of the “Animal Farm” take the power and lead a tyrannical ruling in which the animals are unfed, over burdened, and exhausted. The animals preferred a heaven in the earth, but eventually they get a hell in the earth, which is tarnished by the same creatures like them.

Characters in the Animal Farm which represent the Communism

Animalism                                               Communism
Mr.Johnes                                                Tsar Nicholas
Old Major                                                 Karl Marx/ Vladimir Lenin
Napoleon                                                 Joseph Stalin
Mr.Pilkingto and Mr.Fredrick                       German and Britain
Snowball                                                  Leon Trotsky
Squealer                                                   Media
Boxer                                                       Working class
Moses                                                       Religion
Sugar candy mountain                               Heaven

Events in the “Animal Farm”

• Battle of Cowshed

Soon after the revolution the western allies tried to reinstate the rule of Nicholas in the country. There they came with all of their forces to fight against communist party, but they were defeated by the “Red Army”. This battle is explained as battle of cowshed in which the animals showed their unity. 
• Rebellion

The revolution took place in the history of “Soviet Union” in 1917. This revolution reasoned the “Bolsheviks”, the party of Lenin to rule the country. In this revolution the people fought against their common enemy. They were martyred in this process for the sake the well being of the country’s future. This is portrayed in “Animal Farm” when animals unite and chase the farmer “Mr.Johnes”.

• Collapse of the windmill
Windmill represents the five year plan which was initiated by Stalin to stabilize the economy of the country. In both places, the real and the satire, the Proletarians strived hard to change the dream into true. But it was collapsed and demolished by Mr.Johnes. Likewise the economy of “Soviet Union” was forced backward when Adolf Hitler tried to invade the country with all of his forces. 

• Confession of betrayal and prompt executions

Soon after the banishment of snowball many animals came forward to confess their conspiracy with snowball to assassinate Napoleon and accepted the execution. In Russia also most of the people were beheaded in the pretext of conspiring with the enemies of the country. It ended up in killing of millions of innocent people.

• Playing card game

In the climax of “Animal Farm” the pigs play a card game, holding alcohol in their hands with their human friends which breaks the commandments of “Two legs are bad and four legs or those who have wings are good” and “No animal shall drink alcohol”. The animals from outside of the ballroom peep into that, there they don’t recognize who are animals and who are human beings.

In “Soviet Union”, the capitalism was the common enemy for them. Hitler was the common for them. He killed many communists in the country. Later Joseph Stalin Signed “Tehran Convention” with “Roosvelt” and “Churchill”. This is a great betrayal of the communistic theories. As a result of this there the people don’t find any difference between communism and capitalism in the country.

Prepared by

M.M.F.JUMLA

 H.N.D.in English

Sanatorium 

By W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

Type of Work

......."Sanatorium" is a short story centering on tuberculosis patients. It first appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine in the issue of December 1938.  

Setting

.......The setting is a tuberculosis sanatorium (also spelled sanitarium) on a hilltop in northern Scotland. The action begins in the winter and ends in the spring. 

Characters

1.      Ashenden: Newcomer to the sanatorium. The third-person narrator tells the story from his perspective.

2.      Mr. McLeod: Patient who has stayed at the sanatorium longer than anyone else—seventeen years. He despises Mr. Campbell, although he dines and plays bridge with him.  

3.      Mr. Campbell: Patient who has stayed at the sanatorium longer than anyone else except McLeod. He despises McLeod as much as McLeod despises him.  

4.      Dr. Lennox: Physician in charge at the sanatorium. The narrator says he is "small, brisk, and genial" and that he is a good doctor and businessman, as well as an avid fisherman. 

5.      Major George Templeton: Patient in his early forties who falls in love with another patient, Ivy Bishop. He was a wealthy playboy before he became ill. 

6.      Ivy Bishop: Pretty woman, age twenty-nine, who agrees to marry Templeton. 

7.      Henry Chester: Accountant in his thirties who obsesses about his health and mistreats his wife when she comes to visit him at the sanatorium. 

8.      Mrs. Chester: Wife of Chester. She is a pleasant woman and a good mother to her two children. 

9.      Old General: Dining companion of McLeod, Campbell, and Miss Atkin. 

10.  Miss Atkin: Middle-aged spinster, honorary librarian, and gossip. 

11.  Nurses 

12.  Matron 

13.  Old Indian Civilian: Onetime ruler of a province in India. He has been at the sanatorium longer than anyone else except McLeod and Campbell. 

14.  Navy Sub-Lieutenant: Pleasant twenty-year-old who dies a few months after arriving at the sanatorium.

Point of View

.......Maugham tells the story in omniscient third-person point of view, enabling the narrator to reveal the thoughts of the characters. The narrator tells the story from Ashenden's perspective as a new patient getting to know the other residents at the sanatorium.

Source

.......In writing "Sanatorium," Maugham, a physician, drew upon his own knowledge of tuberculosis. He also drew upon his own experiences as a patient at a Scottish sanatorium after serving in the British intelligence service in Russia in 1916 and 1917. He spent a year in the sanatorium.

Plot Summary

....After contracting tuberculosis, Ashenden travels to a sanatorium on a hilltop in Scotland for treatment and rest. He has been told that he can recuperate if he takes good care of himself. He lies in bed for six weeks before the doctor allows him, with the help of a nurse, to go down to the veranda for some sun. He is heavily wrapped, for it is mid-winter. He and other patients lie on deck chairs as they look out upon the snow-covered countryside.

.......The nurse introduces him to a gaunt man in the next chair, Mr. McLeod, who has been a patient in the sanatorium longer than anyone else. Lounging on the other side of Ashenden is a pretty girl with red hair and a thin face. 

.......McLeod strikes up a conversation with Ashenden, saying he has the best room in the place. Another man, Mr. Campbell, covets the room, he notes. But McLeod says he has a right to it, for he has been a patient for seventeen years compared to Campbell's sixteen-and-a-half. Although McLeod used to leave the sanatorium in the summer to visit friends and relatives, he now remains there.

"I’ve got a brother and two sisters," he says, "but . . . they’ve got families; they don’t want me. . . . Your pals have gone their own ways and you’ve got nothing in common with them any more . . .  No, one’s better off here."

.......McLeod says he spends a good deal of the day coping with his disease—taking his temperature, weighing himself, resting. He also plays bridge, goes for walks, and mingles with other patients, who "come and go"—either as cured patients or as corpses.

.......The redhead breaks into the conversation, saying McLeod gets a good laugh out of seeing a hearse. McLeod says, "Well, I’m just as glad it’s him and not me they’re taking for a ride."

.......McLeod then introduces Ashenden to the girl: Miss Ivy Bishop, a twenty-nine-year-old Englishwoman who has resided at the sanatorium for two years. Previously, she had spent six years in other sanatoriums in Switzerland and England. The sanatorium's physician, Dr. Lennox, has told her she may be able to go home in a few months.

.......When a Major George Templeton comes by leaning on a cane, Miss Bishop says she is happy to see him up and around again. Templeton—tall, somewhat handsome, and in his early forties—then suffers a coughing spell. When he recovers, he blames his smoking habit, which he says he cannot shake. He asks Miss Bishop to go for a walk with him, and she obliges. McLeod says, "I wonder if there's anything between those two." Templeton was reputed to be a ladies' man before becoming ill. 

.......Ashenden says Templeton does not now appear to be up to the task of wooing ladies. McLeod says, however, that a lot of romancing does go on at the sanatorium. For example, he says, "there was a woman here who was pretty hot stuff." Her husband visited her often, but Dr. Lennox suspected she was having an affair with another patient. One night, after everyone had retired, Lennox had a thin coat of paint applied to the floor outside her room. The following day, he found paint on the bottom of the slippers of a male patient. Lennox got rid of him. 

......."He doesn't want the place to get a bad name," McLeod says. 

.......McLeod says Ivy Bishop would be foolish to fall for Templeton, for she will probably get well soon. Templeton, on the other hand, appears to be very ill and, according to McLeod, may not last more than a few years.

.......A nurse takes Ashendon back to bed. Dr. Lennox comes in and, after looking at his temperature chart, says, "That's not so bad."

.......Lennox is a good doctor. When he asks Ashendon whether he has met any patients, Ashendon mentions McLeod. The doctor, laughing, says McLeod knows everything about everybody, including all the scandal. He says McLeod and Campbell despise each other and complain often about each other. Campbell, who lives in a room beneath McLeod's, irritates McLeod by playing his fiddle for hours at a time. Campbell hopes to drive McLeod out of his room so he can move into it.

.......Oddly, the two men play bridge together and eat together—but not without eventually arguing. Sometimes, the doctor threatens to expel them, and their behavior changes for a few days. They regard the sanatorium as their home and don't want to leave it. They have no one to turn to elsewhere.

.......Now well enough to eat in the dining room, Ashenden surveys his fellow diners when he eats there the first time. They are young, old, and middle-aged. Some had been there for a year. Others are newcomers like Ashenden. One middle-aged woman, Miss Atkin, resides at the sanatorium in the winter but stays with relatives and friends in the summer. She returns to the sanatorium each winter because she likes it there and has standing as an honorary librarian. She is a gossip. But Dr. Lennox benefits from her stories because they contain information about the condition of the patients. She sits at the table with McLeod, Campbell, and an old general. 

.......When Ashenden meets the ill-tempered Campbell, the newcomer notices how thin he is and wonders how he manages to hold himself together.

.......“Are you fond of music?” Campbell asks him. 

.......When Ashenden says he is, Campbell invites him to his room to hear him play. McLeod warns that Campbell plays badly, but Miss Atkin says he plays “very nicely.” Campbell does not forget McLeod's criticism. All afternoon, he plays the same song again and again. McLeod complains, but it does no good.

.......When dining, Ashenden sits with Miss Bishop, Templeton, and a London accountant named Henry Chester, who is in his thirties. Chester is a small but stocky man with broad shoulders. He has a wife, two children, a nice home, and a good income. It was a shock to Chester when he learned that he had TB. The doctor told him he might be able to return to work in two years. But at the beginning of his third year at the sanatorium, Lennox told him that the disease was still active and that he would have stay for at least another year. 

.......Because Chester is not interested in reading and has no hobbies, he concentrates on his disease. He used to check his temperature so many times that the staff had to take the thermometer away from him. He is cheerful and friendly when talking with other patients. But the moment he is alone with his thoughts, his mind returns to his disease and the possibility of dying. His wife visits him two days a month. She is a pleasant woman, and one can tell she is a good mother. When Ashenden is alone with her, they take a walk. She asks his opinion of her husband's condition, and Ashenden says he seems to be getting along well enough. Then she begins crying, saying her husband is beginning to hate her. Trying to comfort her, Ashenden says her husband talks about her all the time and thinks highly of her.

.......“Yes, that's when I'm not here," she says. "It's when I'm here, when he sees me well and strong, that it comes over him. You see, he resents it so terribly that he's ill and I'm well. He's afraid he's going to die and he hates me because I'm going to live . . . He complains that I treat him as if he didn't count any more.”

.......As the days pass, Ashenden makes friends with a new patient, a handsome twenty-year-old who was a sub-lieutenant on a submarine. He is a cheerful fellow who enjoys discussing movie stars and musical shows and likes to read the sports section of the newspaper. One day, he is confined to bed and, two months later, dies. A cloud hangs over the sanatorium for a few days before everything returns to normal. 

.......Over time, Ashenden becomes a good friend of Templeton, who had served in the Grenadier Guards during the war and resigned after the armistice. He likes good food and drink, sporting activities, and the London social life. He has plenty of money and lost and won large amounts at Monte Carlo. Generally, he treats others courteously and kindly. Templeton is dying. But he accepts his fate, saying he had a good time while it lasted. In a way, he is grateful for living as long as he has, for he could have died in the war.

.......Women like him, according to his stories, and he has had numerous affairs—his latest with Ivy Bishop. She herself has had many affairs and wants to limit her relationship with Templeton to just that, an affair. Ashenden detects, however, that Templeton wants more than an affair. His feelings for her are deepening. Ivy's mother and sisters do not pay much attention to her. They write to her and visit her on occasion, but it is clear that they are caught up in their own lives. 

.......Ivy shows an interest in the welfare of other patients, and one day tries to cheer up Mr. Chester by noting that it is the end of the month—the time his wife visits. But Chester says she will not be coming. He says it was Lennox's idea for her to stay away. However, in a conversation with Ashenden the next day, Chester admits that he asked her to stay away in a letter Dr. Lennox wrote for him.

.......""I spend the whole month looking forward to her coming and then when she's here I hate her," he says. "You see, I resent so awfully having this filthy disease.”

 Ashenden says, “Aren't you afraid you'll make her very unhappy, not letting her come?”

.......“I've got enough with my own unhappiness without bothering with hers,” Chester says. “It's all very well for you to be disinterested and unselfish, you're going to live. I'm going to die. . . . Why should I? It's not fair.”

.......Meanwhile, everyone eventually becomes aware that Templeton loves Ivy. But no one is sure whether Ivy loves Templeton. When people try to get her to reveal her feelings, she cleverly evades their questions. McLeod disapproves of their relationship. Since they both have TB, he says, “nothing can come of it.” Campbell, on the other hand, says they ought to make the most of their relationship. Templeton confides to Ashenden that he would marry Ivy immediately if he could, saying she is so unlike other women he's known. What is it about her that's gotten to him? 

.......“Virtue," he says. "Last thing I've ever wanted in a woman. But there it is . . . she's good, and it makes me feel like a worm.”

.......He has not made his feelings known to her, however, because he could be dead in six months.

.......One March day Ashenden plays bridge as McLeod's partner against Campbell and Templeton. It is a hotly contested game, and a small crowd gathers around to watch. McLeod plays brilliantly and wins.

.......“Play that off on your blasted fiddle,” he shouts. “Grand slam doubled and redoubled. I've wanted to get it all my life and now I've got it. By God. By God.”

.......Then he falls across the table, blood coming from his mouth. He is dead. Two days later, he is buried. A relative from Glasgow attends. Because he was not well liked, he is apparently forgotten by most of the residents. Not Ivy, though. “She cried her eyes out,” Ashenden tells Dr. Lennox. A patient from India gets McLeod's place at the table, and Campbell moves into McLeod's room. 

.......But Campbell is not himself. He won't play bridge or talk to anyone. He decides to move back into his old room, but Lennox won't let him. After all, the doctor says, Campbell had been trying to get that room for years. Either he stays there or leaves the sanatorium. Campbell stays—and merely exists from day to day. He doesn't even play his violin. Ashenden knows the time is not far off when he too will die.

.......Ashenden is recovering nicely and will soon be leaving the sanatorium. Templeton is not so lucky.

.......“The death-look was on his face,” Ashenden says. Nevertheless, Templeton tells Ashenden that he has asked Ivy to marry him. Ivy told him it was a ridiculous idea—but assented to the marriage.

.......Ivy and Templeton see Dr. Lennox to ask his opinion. His tests indicate that Ivy can withstand the strain of marriage if she does not unduly stress herself and does not have children. The doctor says Templeton can last two or three years if he does not marry—but only about six months if he does.

.......At lunch, Templeton and Ivy announce their plans. Ivy tells Chester she would like his wife to attend the ceremony. After a pause, he says he will write and ask her. Dr. Lennox will be giving the bride away. The the residents are impressed when they hear that Templeton is willing to shorten his life for the love of Ivy. Everyone adopts a spirit of good will. Even people who hadn't spoken to one another in a long time are speaking again.

.......Mrs. Chester arrives two days before the wedding. Mr. Chester does his best to be the good-natured fellow he probably was before coming to the sanatorium. On the day of the ceremony, Ashenden stands as best man. Everyone who is not bedridden attends the ceremony. After lunch, the newlyweds leave in a car while the patients and staff see them off. Afterward, Chester takes his wife's hand and apologizes for treating her poorly on her previous visits.

.......“All this about Templeton and Ivy Bishop—I don't know how to put it, it's made me see everything differently," Chester says. "I don't mind dying any more. I don't think death's very important, not so important as love. And I want you to live and be happy.”

Climax

.......The climax occurs when McLeod falls across the bridge table and dies. His death upsets Ivy, who “cried her eyes out,” and Campbell, who lost his savor for life. McLeod's passing also caused Templeton to review his life and tell Ashenden, “D'you know what I've done? I've asked Ivy to marry me.” Ivy later asks Mr. Chester to invite his wife to her and Templeton's wedding. He assents and later reconciles with his wife. Other patients do not mourn McLeod's death, for they did not like him. Perhaps they missed an opportunity to demonstrate love and concern.

Themes

The Importance of Love

.......The main theme of “Sanatorium” is that love is more important than long life. Mr. Chester learns this lesson through the example set by others. He tells his wife, 

I wanted you to suffer because I was suffering. But not any more. All this about Templeton and Ivy Bishop—I don't know how to put it, it's made me see everything differently. I don't mind dying any more. I don't think death's very important, not so important as love. And I want you to live and be happy. I don't grudge you anything any more and I don't resent anything. I'm glad now it's me that must die and not you. I wish for you everything that's good in the world. I love you.

.......George Templeton learns the same lesson. Before his affliction sent him to the sanatorium, he was a playboy. He wanted no commitments. Marriage was out. But after meeting Ivy Bishop at the sanatorium, he falls genuinely in love with her and marries her even though he knows the marriage will shorten his life.

The Importance of Friendship

.......Campbell and McLeod, sworn enemies, are forever trying to nettle each other. Yet they regularly eat at the same table and play bridge together. To be sure, they argue with each other and shout at each other at the dining and gaming table. Nevertheless, they continue to spend a good deal of time in each other's company. The fact is, they need each other; deep down, they are friends. Not until McLeod dies does Campbell fully realize how important McLeod was to him. 

Preoccupation With Death

.......Death stalks the patients at the sanatorium. Although many of them try to ignore it or push it to the far reaches of their minds, it manages to become a constant presence in their lives. The narrator says,

[T]he idea of death haunts the subconscious [of the patients]. It is a sardonic theme song that runs through a sprightly operetta. Now and again the gay, melodious arias, the dance measures, deviate strangely into tragic strains that throb menacingly down the nerves; the petty interests of every day, the small jealousies and trivial concerns are as nothing; pity and terror make the heart on a sudden stand still and the awfulness of death broods as the silence that precedes a tropical storm broods over the tropical jungle.

.......Henry Chester is among those preoccupied with the possibility of dying, even to the point that he resents his wife because she is healthy and he is not. Mrs. Chester tells Ashenden,

[H]e resents it so terribly that he's ill and I'm well. He's afraid he's going to die and he hates me because I'm going to live. I have to be on my guard all the time; almost everything I say, if I speak of the children, if I speak of the future, exasperates him, and he says bitter, wounding things. When I speak of something I've had to do to the house or a servant I've had to change it irritates him beyond endurance. He complains that I treat him as if he didn't count any more.

.......Templeton thinks often about death, but not because he fears it. What concerns him is whether his expected death in the very near future will stand in the way of his marriage to Ivy Bishop. 

Foreshadowing

.......McLeod's assessment of the condition of Templeton foreshadows the grim prognosis Dr. Lennox gives the major. McLeod tells Ashenden, "When I look at a fellow I make up my mind at once whether he’ll get well or whether he won’t, and if he won’t I can make a pretty shrewd guess how long he’ll last. I’m very seldom mistaken. I give Templeton about two years myself."

Conflicts

.......Here are the main conflicts in the story.

Patients vs disease: The narrator says, "There were people lying all along the veranda in deck-chairs, some chatting with their neighbours and some reading. Every now and then one would have a fit of coughing and you noticed that at the end of it he looked anxiously at his handkerchief." 

Campbell vs McLeod: Dr. Lennox says, "He [McLeod] hates Campbell, and Campbell hates him. Funny, when you come to think of it, those two men, they've been here for seventeen years and they've got about one sound lung between them. They loathe the sight of one another. I've had to refuse to listen to the complaints about one another that they come to me with. Campbell's room is just below McLeod's and Campbell plays the fiddle. It drives McLeod wild. He says he's been listening to the same tunes for fifteen years, but Campbell says McLeod doesn't know one tune from another." 

Chester vs his fears: The narrator says, "Having no resources in himself, no interest in books, he had nothing to do but think of his health. It became an obsession. He watched his symptoms anxiously. They had to deprive him of a thermometer because he took his temperature a dozen times a day." 

Chester vs his wife:

 Mrs. Chester says, "He resents . . . terribly that he's ill and I'm well. He's afraid he's going to die and he hates me because I'm going to live. I have to be on my guard all the time; almost everything I say, if I speak of the children, if I speak of the future, exasperates him, and he says bitter, wounding things. When I speak of something I've had to do to the house or a servant I've had to change it irritates him beyond endurance. He complains that I treat him as if he didn't count any more." 

Writing

.......Maugham's writing is straightforward and easy to understand, and it exhibits a keen understanding of people and their conflicts. Moreover, although his writing is generally concise and his use of adjectives spare, he knows how to write a convincing description when necessary, as the following passage demonstrates:

McLeod, lying there, gave you the impression that he was immensely tall; his skin was stretched over his bones, his cheeks and temples hollow, so that you could see the formation of his skull under it; and in that emaciated face, with its great bony nose, the eyes were preternaturally large.

A possible flaw in Maugham's plotting is that it is predictable. The death of one of McLeod and the reaction of the Campbell are not surprises. Nor are the Templeton-Bishop marriage and the reconciliation of Mr. and Mrs. Chester.

Study Questions and Essay Topics

• In your opinion, who is the most admirable character in the story? Explain your answer.
• Tuberculosis, or TB, was a leading cause of death in the world until the early twentieth century. Write an informative essay explaining the cause, symptoms, and treatments of TB. Include a section about whether TB still poses a threat in the twenty-first century. Use library and Internet research. 
• Winter traditionally symbolizes death; spring symbolizes life. Why does the story begin in mid-winter and end in the spring? 
• What caused Mr. Chester to overcome his fear of death?
• In your opinion, why did Maugham include the young sub-lieutenant in his story?

Genre:- Short Story

Keywords:- Chronic Illness/Chronic Disease, Death and Dying, Institutionalization, Patient Experience, Time, Tuberculosis

Summary :- This is a series of vignettes involving a small cluster of patients in an early twentieth century tuberculosis sanatorium located in Scotland. The stories are narrated by one of the patients who makes observations and predictions about his peers in the institution. The lives Maugham chooses to have narrated are those of two men, long-term residents, whose daily entertainment is to irritate one another. There is a mixture of humor and pathos in the dialogue between these two. The second story within a story is that of the developing love between a dying man and a moderately ill woman--and the decision they ultimately make about the importance of their relationship in the face of the man’s impending death.

Commentary :- This short piece could be a synopsis of Mann’s The Magic Mountain (annotated in this database by Felice Aull and also by Pamela Moore) in its presentation of the importance of time in thinking about pre-antimicrobial management of tuberculosis. The character sketches are believable and the vignettes illustrative, although relatively simplistic and predictable. The snapshots of physician/patient interactions create an image that reflects the powerlessness of the profession in dealing with this disease prior to the availability of specific interventions.

British Control of the Caribbean and Its Allusion in Caribbean Literature

The British have influenced the perspective of the Caribbean people in many ways. The people's self awareness, religion, language, and culture has coped with the arrival of British ideals and in coping, the people have changed to appease the islands' highly influential British population. It is highly influenced by the British ideals is "My Aunt Gold Teeth" by V. S. Naipaul. It shows among the people of the islands, whether native or foreign.

Naipaul uses an unidentified East Indian boy to tell his story. A unique interpretation of the British influence on the Caribbean people develops. Friction among people of different color is clearly displayed within the writings; however, In Lady Aunt Gold Teeth, the issue of color is evident through the aunt's religious affiliation. Changing the color of the narrator in My Aunt Gold Teeth might make a difference in the way the person perceives their aunt. For example, the narrator says, "I was rather ashamed at the exhibition" (Na463), when his aunt appears to have "got the spirit" (CS 462). The Indian boy is probably more ashamed of the aunt's reference to "Hail Mary" than her physical exhibition.

From the perspective of a white Anglican child at that time, the behavior of the aunt would be acceptable and understandable, but for the Indian boy, brought up on Hinduism, such actions would seem foreign and confusing. Racism is evident in the writings by Caribbean authors, and their intent to expose the British as the perpetrators of the racism is also apparent when looking at it through a white girl's perspective.

Religious confusion is another result of the British occupation in the Caribbean. Naipaul uses his writing to expose the problems Caribbean people experience with religion. The influence of the church is made apparent in the writings by him.

In the other passage by Naipaul, a similar confusion exists. "Aunt Gold Teeth" is confused by the barrage of propaganda by the various religious groups, and "every day her religious schizophrenia grows" (Naipaul 459). In trading the narrators' perspectives, one can assume the young white girl would react differently to the situation than the Indian boy. Assuming the white girl believes in Christianity, she would probably be happy, rather than confused, about the aunt's conversion in faith. The authors clearly show the people's confusion with religion, and in the process, they show the problem lies in the people's lack of self-awareness.

In "My Aunt Gold Teeth", Aunt Gold Teeth saw religion as a form of power (Naipaul 458). She was very powerful in her Hindu religion. Aunt Gold Teeth sought other religions to gain even more power. Naipaul writes of Ganesh and his successes in his profession for one major reason (461). Ganesh is successful because, he is willing to incorporate many faiths in his work. Naipaul used Ganesh to show Aunt Gold Teeth the power in "using" different faiths.

Simply put, Ganesh was just wood for the varied religious fire that Aunt Gold Teeth was building. An inadequacy in education also in his writing, and in doing so, it naturally focuses attention on the politics of the Caribbean islands involved in the passages.

Naipaul also shows the deficiency in education through an indirect method. "The District Medical officer at Chaguanas said it was [Ramprasad had] diabetes, but "Aunt Gold Teeth knew... ...her religious transgression was the cause" (Naipaul 459). The lack of common sense shows the extent of the education problems. For example if Gold Teeth received an education equivalent to a white person, she would be able to discern that her change in religion would not affect her husband’s health.

Caribbean writers clearly express the inadequacies in the education system, and the problems can be traced to the British occupancy. A final affect the British had on the people of the Caribbean was the loss of their identity, and the lack of personal identity is express throughout their literature.

For instance In "My Aunt Gold Teeth", a similar loss of identity occurs when Aunt Gold Teeth cannot accept the Hindu religion (CS 459). The concept of loosing individual identity is a consist theme used by Caribbean authors, and it is directly associated with the British occupation.

A myriad of problems are left from the British control in the Caribbean, and these problems are consistently alluded to in Caribbean literature. Problems with racism, religion, education, identity, and many others exist in Caribbean culture right now. However, as the British have slowly exited the Caribbean scene, the U.S. has increased its presence in the Caribbean due to the strategic location of the islands. The arrival of people is politically and economically activated. Without the outside world and the confusion it brings with it, the Caribbean would economically collapse, and with the intrusion of the outside world, the Caribbean people become confused with their identities. Perhaps one day the vicious circle will be solved, but until then, Caribbean writers will keep fighting for the justice their people deserve.

"My Aunt Gold Teeth" by V.S. Naipaul

Opinion

A LARGE Hindu woman so proud of her husband that she has her teeth pulled and replaced with gold ones, dabbles with Christianity to the point that she is convinced her husband has fallen ill because of her betrayal. She had been praying to conceive a child and had resorted to rosaries, prayers to Jesus, the kinds of things that her husband would shun.

She finally confesses to her husband and soon after he dies. Nothing changes for her but she sticks to Christianity and in her death, she is none the better. She is barren and the prayers all seem to, by the author, be something that can simply be chalked up to superstition.

“I never knew her real name and it is quite likely that she did have one, though I never heard her called anything but Gold Teeth”

The first line is so important to any story; I think this would flow better if you reworded the last part. Maybe something like, ‘I never knew her real name, and although it is quite likely that she did have one, I never heard her called anything by Gold Teeth’. Though it still feels a bit odd that you need to clarify that she probably did have a real name—having a real name is such an obvious thing, it would only be worthwhile commenting if she didn’t have one.

“Her family being Hindu, and her husband being a pundit, she too was an orthodox Hindu”. The repetition of ‘Hindu’ disrupts the flow.

Prepared by

M.H.Zafras Ahamed

B.A & H.N.D.in English

SEUSL & SLIATE