Friday 25 February 2022

Examination Point of View Approach-Zeitgeist - Part - 2

 


II MODULE - SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT CONTINUATION - 'ZLATEH THE GOAT'


‘Zlateh the Goat’ is an amazing and at the same time a touching story of Issac Balshevis Singer.  Through this story the author reveals the mutual relationship of warmth and togetherness between man and animal. Reuven, the furrier has no other way except selling Zlateh the goat to a butcher for the expense of Hanukkah.  Aaron takes the goat to the butcher.  A blizzard made them get trapped in a haystack for three days.  There Aaron sucked the milk of Zlateh and Zlateh ate the hay.  The interdependence of the two results in Zlate’s continuing its life as a member of the family then. 


III MODULE - GENDER


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’.

 

 IV – Human Rights


  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.



Suppose you are not able to vide the video here you can click the you tube link given below and listen


-------Thulasidharan V




 

Monday 21 February 2022

Examination Point of View Approach-Zeitgeist - Part - 1

 

ZEITGEIST

 

Zeitgeist means the general spirit of a period in history, shown in the beliefs and ideas. It is a common course teaching material for first year graduate students of Calicut University. It has 4 modules namely Indian constitution and secularism, Sustainable environment, Gender, Human rights. Every module has 3 to 4 chapters in it. I am here to help you to remember the main ideas discussed there.

1.   1.   Indian Constitution and Secularism – the 1st module. In this module we have four chapters.  The very first one is

'Should the assassin of Gandhi be killed?' By Pearl .S. Buck

          Pearl. S. Buck, who won Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938, says that the people believed in Gandhi because he did what he taught.  Considering Godse, the man who was in prison having killed Gandhi, she says that he should not die by violence.  Because, Gandhiji was a man who refused to use violence.  So, if India decides not to kill the man who killed Gandhi, it can be worthy of India’s Gandhi.

The preamble to the constitution of India is considered as the identity card of the constitution.  It had 395 articles in 22 parts and 8 schedules when it came into force on 26 January 1950.  Now it has a preamble, 25 parts with 448 articles, 12 schedules, 5 appendices and 101 amendments.  As India is a Sovereign, Socialist Secular Democratic Republic, its objective is to secure to all its citizens social, economic and political justice, liberty of thought, expression, belief faith and worship, equality of status and opportunity, fraternity for the unity and integrity of the nation.

        Toba Tek Singh is a satirical short story of Saadat Hasan Manto.  It talks about a social and psychological territory in which ‘madness’ is the reigning norm.  Through Bishan Singh’s refusal to move either to India or to Pakistan at the end, the author satirises on the absurdity of partition.  Through Fazal Din’s visiting Bishan Singh with a bag of sweets the author shows the presence of secularism and its need.

        Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Freedom’ is a fine poem where he says that Real freedom constitutes the freedom from religious, political, moral and intellectual oppressions.  So, freedom from fear, freedom from the burden of all ages, freedom from the anarchy of destiny and freedom from the insult of dwelling in a puppet’s world are necessary.


MODULE II – SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT

          ‘The End of living and the beginning of Survival’ is the speech of chief Seattle that delivered on March 11, 1854.  It is a powerful, bitter sweet request to respect the rights of native Americans and the environmental values.  He reminds that the earth does not belong to the man; the man belongs to the earth.  So, he needs kindness to our brother rivers.  Similarly he asks all white men should treat beasts as their brothers.  He also says as the earth is precious to God, if the earth is harmed it will invite God’s contempt.  The damage that has been done to the earth so far is not small.  That is why it seems that the living has come to an end and the survival has begun, he says.

          Gieve Patel’s ‘Killing a tree’ is a poem with irony and detachment that describes man’s cruelty to trees.  The poem focuses on the resilience nature of tree against human violence.  The poet sarcastically conveys his anger against environmental destruction.  A simple jab won’t kill a tree.  The root is to be pulled out entirely from the earth-cave.  It should be exposed to air and sun.  Then only scorching, twisting and withering will cause its death.  Through the step by step process of killing a tree the poet has effectively used irony as a poetic device in the poem.



https://youtu.be/UAjH8V5grX8

          

Suppose you are not able to watch it here you can click the link given above and watch it.


------Thulasidharan V