Alex Tischer's
British Literary Crusade
A blog delving into British texts from the last 200 years
The time has come for my final blog of the British Texts 3230 Class! The final topic will be Kiran Desai’s “The Sermon in the Guava tree”. Falling under this week’s analysis of hybrid identities, Sampath, the main character who decides to call a random guava tree his home after running away from his parents, is at a crossroads of society. In this short story Desai is showcasing the merge of India’s culture from being very invested in lore and pious belief to skepticism and science. As well, she disparages the age-old practice of high, preposterous standards of young women looking to become a bride. Disguised in what appears to be a funny story of a cunning, potentially-actually crazy young man is the political and societal commentary of one who is fed up with the stubbornness of her culture.
At the beginning of the story, as Sampath climbs a tree in the forest because of his unhappiness with his parents and home, his family treats him harshly and unforgivingly as they try to get him to become sensible and descend from the tree. A crowd forms around him in his new home, and he starts spilling secrets about crowd members, as he worked at the post office and secretly viewed all the letters being sent around town with local gossip. What started as insults becomes praise as the town starts to think he is a sage, all-knowing young man that has come to give them help with their problems. Desai shows how quickly the Indians revert to their antiquated lore beliefs, throwing modern science and intelligent thought to the wayside. Sampath’s family sees him as a moneymaker and now encourages his arborous behavior. On the third and fourth page, Desai takes a different tone and speaks about the “prerequisites” for a woman who wants to marry, as in how she should look and act. “She should be fair-complexioned” and with her eyes should be “lowered and head bowed”. Desai is frustrated with India’s confinement of women to certain careers and aspects of life. Desai herself is an example of an Indian woman who has risen above that damnation, becoming a critically-acclaimed author and reaching world recognition. A wonderful, engaging and thoughtful short story, and a wonderful way to end my British Texts analysis the last 6 weeks. Thank you to those who have been reading these entries! To more reading, Alex Tischer Cool links to check out - https://www.washingtonsquarereview.com/blog/2019/11/12/activism-amp-discipline-an-interview-with-kiran-desai https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/06/07/daily/hullbaloo-book-review.html
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |