II MODULE - SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT
CONTINUATION - 'ZLATEH THE GOAT'
Gender
is the 3rd Module. In that
module, we have Adrienne Rich’s ‘Claiming an Education’. She is a renowned poet, essayist and
political activist. She has defined
herself as ‘woman, Fabian and feminist’.
It is actually the convocation speech delivered in Sep 1977 to the women
students of Douglass College, New Jersey, USA.
Here, she explains that being educated is a right and therefore women
should claim that right. She also needs
woman’s experience and thought should be included in the curriculum. Women should take responsibility towards
themselves. Women should never allow
others do their thinking, talking and naming for them. Women should love only those who should be
able to respect them apart from loving them.
The teachers of women should believe that women’s mind and experience
are intrinsically valuable. Thus this
speech has become one of the best critiques of the present system of education
from the woman’s perspective.
‘The
story of an hour’ is a story with a startling anti-climax of Kate Chopin. She reveals what it means to be free and
happy from a feminist perspective. Great
care was taken in breaking the news of the death of her husband to Mrs.
Mallard. As she hadn’t often loved him,
she whispered ‘Free, body and soul free’.
Though she pretended well, her grief to others, on seeing her dead
husband alive, the rude shock killed her at the end.
Lee
Mokobe’s ‘What it’s like to be transgender’ is a heart rending poem that
reveals the hard realities in the life of transgender people. Though the poet was the mystery of an
anatomy, the poet decided to be a boy.
So, he played hide and seek and did all that boys did. But the transphobia nature of the people
continued with its issues of gender identity.
That was why many transgender people like Mya Hall and Leelah Alcorn
either killed by others or committed suicide.
But Lee Mokobe is optimistic and so he concludes his poem ‘May be God
finally listened to my prayers’.
W. H. Auden’s ‘Refugee Blue’ is one of
the most important poems that responded against the imprisonment and brutal
killings of the Jews of Europe, by Hitler.
It is a poem of twelve stanzas consisting of three lines in each
stanza. The speaker of the poem
addresses his lover about the pathetic condition of the refugees. The repetition used at the last line of each
stanza is touching and powerful. As the
birds in the forest and fishes in the water are free, the narrator is jealous
of them. When the consul found him
without passport, says, ‘If you’ve no passport, you are officially dead. He is shattered on his hearing from others,
‘If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread’. Thus the poem talks about Migration, which is
still continuing as one of the burning human rights issues of the world.
‘Amnesty’
is a moving story of Nadine Gordimer, who won Nobel Prize for literature in
1991. The narrator of the story is the
fiancée of the nameless protagonist of South Africa. Amnesty means the forgiveness given to those
who committed political crimes. The
unionist came back after 6 years imprisonment.
Though his wife and parents had tried to meet him earlier in the prison
they couldn’t because of their ignorance and illiteracy. Even after his arrival, the unionist continues
with his movement for bringing good future to the people of South Africa. That is why when the narrator says about
their second ‘child coming’, he answers ‘He will born and live in the new world’. Thus, they all wait for their freedom and
rights.
‘The
outcaste’ is a pathetic story of Sharan Kumar Limbale, that shows a true and
realistic picture of the darker side of Indian Society about half a century
ago. It is about a few students belonged
to untouchable family. The high-caste
village boys and low-caste village boys had two different games at two places
on their going for a picnic from the school.
When they settled down to eat the teachers asked the Mahar boys and
girls to sit under a tree separately.
They were given the left-over food of the high-caste boys and
girls. That leftover food was nectar not
only to the Mahar boys but to the mother of the narrator, who couldn’t taste
it. Next day the narrator and other boys
were asked to write about the picnic, by the teacher. The narrator recollected all that happened
then. He didn’t know what to write and how to begin
‘Chemical Happiness and the meaning of life’ is a discourse of Yuval Noah Harari on the meaning of life. Harari is the author of the international best seller ‘Sapiens: A brief history of Humankind’. He says that happiness is the result of chemical process taking place in the human brain. According to him, Serotonin, a chemical produced in the nerve cells; Dopamine, an organic chemical that controls the brain’s pleasure centers; Oxytocin, the love hormone are having their key roles to make a person happy. Money, social status, beautiful houses won’t bring happiness. Lasting happiness comes only from Serotonin, dopamine and Oxytocin. To this, a meaningful life we need. This can be achieved through personal delusions and collective delusions. If we want to consider both or synchronize both, we should be obliged to self-delusion. Thus he concludes self-delusion brings happiness through the chemical changes in the body.
-------Thulasidharan V