Foe by J.M.Coetzee 

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, Writing this blog for the novel which is Foe by J.M. Coetzee. And it is the thinking activity given by Yesha Madam, Here we have to give answer the questions which are asked by teacher.

John Maxwell Coetzee is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language.

Coetzee continued to explore themes of the colonizer and the colonized in Foe (1986), his reworking of Danial Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Coetzee’s female narrator comes to new conclusions about power and otherness and ultimately concludes that language can enslave as effectively as can chains. In Age of Iron (1990) Coetzee dealt directly with circumstances in contemporary South Africa, but in The Master of Petersburg (1994) he made reference to 19th-century Russia ; both books treat the subject of literature in society. In 1999, with his novel Disgrace, Coetzee became the first writer to win the Booker Prize twice. After the novel’s publication and an outcry in South Africa, he moved to Australia, where he was granted citizenship in 2006.

Q. 1 – How would you differentiate the character of Cruso and Crusoe?

This Robinson Crusoe is much more in tune with his own reality and interested in his own accomplishments than Foe's Cruso. This is also evident in the number of tools and objects that Robinson Crusoe makes in comparison to Cruso.

Robinson Crusoe’s name is changed to “Cruso” which marks the first in a series of differences between the character of Cruso(e) in Foe and Robinson Crusoe. The Cruso that Susan describes in the quote is one who is completely disconnected from reality and confused about his own past. When Susan questions Cruso about his history on the island the details in his stories vary wildly each time they are told. When asked if Friday was a child when he came to the island Cruso would sometimes exclaim, “Aye, a child, a mere child”, but other times Cruso would say, “Friday was a cannibal whom he had saved from being roasted”. This uncertainty about events could stem from the fact that in Foe, Cruso is very against keeping written documentation of his days on the island; proclaiming,

“Nothing I have forgotten is worth remembering”.

Cruso’s lack of journaling is a stark contrast to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe is much less passive and senile in regards to his own development on the island. Crusoe kept a painfully detailed account of every action he does on the island in a journal he updates daily. Robinson Crusoe fills his multiple homes with various types of pots, tables, chairs, fences, and even a canoe. All of these items Crusoe builds are to improve and aide in his growth on the island, and he must be mentally sharp in order to build these items. Cruso in Foe has not put any effort towards building tools, as he only has a bed when Susan arrives at the island, and from the quote, it seems like he may not have the mental capacity to build these tools. Although Cruso does builds many terraces, he exclaims that they are for the future generations and not himself.

The difference in mindset and mental stability in the two Robinson Crusoe’s may be that in Robinson Crusoe, Crusoe felt that his island life had more value than Cruso did. Before becoming stranded on the island, religion wasn’t a focus in Robinson Crusoe’s life, and he frequently sinned; such as when he disobeyed his father. After becoming stranded on the island, Crusoe began to read the bible and incorporate God into his daily thoughts and actions. Crusoe expressed deep regret for his sinful past, and often attributed hardships to a lesson from God. This newfound lifestyle gave significant meaning to Crusoe’s daily actions as they represented growth in his faith, and a positive change in character. For Cruso, the island did not lead him to make any significant changes in his character or ideals. Therefore, his daily actions had less significance to him, and when his reality and sense of self began to slip away from him he was not concerned.

Q.2 Friday’s characteristics and persona in Foe and in Robinson Crusoe.

Friday doesn’t need help, in reality, he’s a more complete and complex character in both Robinson Crusoe and Foe than any other character. Even Daniel DeFoe and J.M. Coetzee creates the illusion that the white European heroes in each of the stories know better than Friday and that their stories are more compelling than his, it can be argued, neither story's protagonists know best; in spite of the rampant white saviour complex and promotion of colonisation ideology.

Friday slowly emerges as the heart of the novel. He is a slave who lives on the island with the man who is ostensibly his master. Cruso says that a slaver cut out Friday's tongue many years ago and Cruso never taught Friday any language beyond the most rudimentary instruction. This inability to communicate leaves Friday trapped in a silent world. Friday leaves the island and travels to England but it is only at the novel's end that he comes close to being able to express himself. The journey toward this act of self-expression emerges as the narrative of the novel. Friday attempts to express himself in a number of different ways. He ritually scatters petals on the sea, he plays music on his homemade flute, and he performs frenzied dances. Friday imbues these actions with a private meaning that is unknown to the rest of the world. Susan is the only person who attempts to glean meaning from these actions but she fails to understand their significance. Friday is shut inside his silent world even when he is trying to communicate. Friday eventually learns to write. Though he can only write a single letter over and over, it is the first step toward a shared understanding of Friday's pain. Foe and Susan provide Friday with a voice by teaching him to write. Meaning no longer has to be projected onto Friday's actions. He finally possesses the tools to make the world understand his pain.

Q. 3 Is Susan reflecting the white mentality of Crusoe (Robinson Crusoe)?

Through the words of J.M. Coetzee, the character of Susan Barton describes her life during and after her time on the desolate island with Cruso. Barton’s time on “Cruso’s island” is spent in preoccupation with Cruso’s way of life, and life after her rescue is spent in reflection of her relationships with Cruso, Friday, and Foe. This female voice is presented through the words of a male author, J.M. Coetzee, who presents Barton as a submissive supporting actress to the extremely dominant character of Robinson Crusoe.

Susan Barton, the narrator in Foe, finds herself shipwrecked on a desolate island with a man named Robinson Cruso. It does not take long for Barton to recognize her status on the island after she tells Cruso her story of being washed ashore. She says,

“I presented myself to Cruso, in the days when he still ruled over the island, and became his second subject, the first being his manservant Friday”.

Throughout the novel, even long after Cruso’s death, she describes the island as “Cruso’s island.” She finds herself as the mere female companion to the king and his manservant, Friday. Barton rationalises Cruso’s role of king as she sees him “on the Bluff, with the sun behind him all red and purple, staring out to see…I thought: He is a truly kingly figure; he is the true king of the island” . Coetzee makes Barton the woman behind the man, defining her as a “free and autonomous being like all human creatures that finds herself living in a world where men compel her to assume the status of the Other”. Barton is quick to assume the submissive role on the island as the assertive character of Robinson Crusoe takes the lead on the island and in her story.

Q. 4 Traces of white mentality in all the characters. (Master-slave, savage- Christian (white - civilized), giver – taker, shifting of power position – One is always

ready to take place of Master)

Susan Barton is Foe's protagonist and storyteller. The story is written in quotation marks, which further emphasises Susan's role in retelling her tale first with Cruso on the island and later with Friday in England. Susan struggles for voice and gradually that voice is rendered voiceless. Although she is European and essentially part of the hegemonic power structure, once she becomes a castaway on Cruso's island she becomes a subaltern character like Friday, both colonised others adhering to Cruso's authority and lifestyle.

Old Man Cruso, although once part of the elite class, becomes far removed from social conformities and expectations. He was at peace with the solitude the island brought him and he had no desire to leave it. Ultimately by the end of his life Cruso represented otherness even if it was by his own choice. His last fever came on at the time of the rescue by Captain John Smith.

Even in this weakened state Cruso resisted leaving his island: But when he was hoisted aboard the Hobart, and smelled the tar, and heard the creak of timbers, he came to himself and fought so hard to be free that it took strong men to master him and convey him below.

Susan's narrative voice is initially strong on Cruso's island. She is inquisitive and implores answers from Cruso. At one point Susan asks him why he had not built a boat:

"Why in all these years have you not built a boat and made your escape from this island?".

Cruso responds,

"And where should I escape to?"

Susan realises it is a "waste of breath to urge Cruso to save himself". Susan cannot get through to this man and it is the first glimpse of her struggle for voice. Later in the story, Susan struggles with Foe as she did Cruso:

"Finding it as thankless to argue with Foe as it has been with Cruso, I held my tongue, and soon he fell asleep".

Mr. Foe is the only character that has elite or patriarchal power. He realises Susan is hiding or denying something from her experience in Bahia. As the novel escalates, Foe tries to persuade Susan to disregard her story and envision the possibilities that are in his mind. In doing so. Foe marginalises Susan's voice by insisting on writing the 'other' story that Susan resists telling. Susan struggles to regain control over her own story, persisting that the island tale is significant in and of itself. Her refusal to tell her 'other' story begins to discredit her character and her credibility starts to wane. The emergence of the little girl and the nanny strike a chord with Susan. A dark undercurrent becomes prevalent in the novel and Susan's denial of these characters questions her authority:

But if these women are creatures of yours, visiting me at your instruction, speaking words you have prepared for them, then who am I and who indeed are you?

Friday's voicelessness permeates through the story with a resounding silence that transforms into a voice of its own. Susan attempts to teach Friday his letters by drawing words on a slate. Soon after, Foe and Susan find Friday at the desk making 'rows and rows of the letter o. This exemplifies Friday's voicelessness. Like his mouth, the letter is open in suspended silence, Friday's silence is his choice; a victory of resistance against his postcolonial oppression and it becomes the most significant voice in Foe. Friday's defiance is evident in the last pages of the novel. The narration in the last section of Foe departs from Susan and Mr. Foe to an unidentified narrator that culminates in a pivotal display of metafictional literature. The narrator dives into the wreck and finds Friday.

Thank you!

The Final Solutions

 Final Solutions

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, Writing this blog as a thinking activity for the play "Final Solutions" which is written by the very well known literary figure Mahesh Dattani . 

Mahesh Dattani is an Indian director, actor, playwright and writer. He wrote such plays as Final Solutions, Dance Like a Man, Bravely Fought the Queen, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, Tara, Thirty Days in September and The Big Fat City. He is the first playwright in English to be awarded the Sahitya Akadami Award.

The theme of gender discrimination is all dominant in the drama. It circles around the grave and traditional issues of gender bias. The issue of cultural discrimination and injustice with women has been elaborately and comprehensively dealt by Dattani in the play.

Mahesh Dattani's Works :

His plays deal with gender identity, gender discrimination, and communal tensions. The play 'Tara' deals with gender discrimination, '30 Days in September' tackles the issue of child abuse head on, and 'Final Solutions' is about the lingering echoes of the partition.

Basically, this play Final Solutions is based on the communal riots and there are many stuffs which can be examine under the various aspects like minority vs majority, Hindu vs Muslim, past vs present, liberality vs bigoted etc. And it has story of a Gujarati family.

Here I would like to put some observations of the play by various literary figures.

In her analysis of the play, Deepali Agarwal observes:

Mahesh Dattani puts the eternal question with his play Final Solutions that every now and then rankles our consciousness – are the human beings real humane. It propels us to perennial problems as to what’s that we should have priorities – our religion, our perennial ideals or our compassion for other human beings. (Agarwal, Deepali: 81)

Alyque Padmasee (Directed of the play) comments:

As I see it, this is a play about transferred resentment. About looking for a scope goal to hit out when we feel let down humiliated. Taking your anger on your wife, children, or servants is an old Indian custom. This is above all a play about a family with its simmering undercurrents.” (Padmasee: 161)

1.)What is the significance of the subtitle "The Final Solutions"?

When we see the title of the play “Final Solutions”. We find that at the very first look we can assume that it could be the solutions of some issues or it can be the interpretation of salvation of souls even. But it is about hatred and bitterness of Hindus and Muslims against each other. In the play we can see that there many issues around the characters and the plots its selves. Communal crisis happening there and it has started and it is still going on so there was no final solution to stop it and flawlessly it will go on. So we can say that author has given the title in the paradoxical way like we find that there must be a solution but in the play we see there is no such finalized solution to get rid of these kind of crisis.

2.)Do you think Mahesh Dattani’s “The Final Solutions” makes any significant changes in society?

“The Final Solutions” is the dealing with the burning social and communism riots. There are the characters and they representing various aspects of it. The mob or chorus are representing the hatred towards majority and minority. Or somehow it is symbolizing the whole society and it’s psyche towards one and another. The play has come into the year of 1993 but when we look at the present time scenario, we still feel the same things but in the different ways may be. So, if people are having courage to change the society and the way to treat each other, to behave in a such manner, to learn from the literature then only it can be helpful to the society in the better way. Because this the attempt that can make us aware that how we are threatened and having hatred in people’s hearts.

Hardika, in her diary entry, she mentions:

After forty years … I opened my diary again. And I wrote a dozen pages before. A dozen pages now. A young girl childish scribble. An old man’s shaky scrawl, yes, the things have not changed that much. (Act I) .The dialogue itself speaks a lot.

3.)How are the beginning and the end of the movie? Do you feel the effect of communal disturbance in the movie?

An innovative narrative technique + The major dramatic events

It starts with the recalling the past within the present. We can say the third act is the climax of the story. When it witnessed the truth behind everything. There is the dialogue of Chorus also shouts, “Our future is threatened. There is so much that is fading away. We cannot complement about the glorious past seeing us safely through.” (Act III)

So there is communal disturbance we feel at the both points.

4.)The movie comes up with many different symbols and colors. Write about any two symbols which caught your attention. What does it signify?

The movie comes with in a very unique way. It was the play performance more than the movie. And directed has used very minutely ideas to symbolise the things on the stage. Like the colors, equipment, props and the very interesting was the chorus as mob. The setting was even in a very proper way when characters use the whole setting in the very good manner of play performance. Here the symbols which has caught my attention and how the author or directed wanted to signify such thoughts.

The diary:

In Final Solutions, Dattani projects multilevel stage to represent multiple layers of context involved in the issue of communal violence. In Daksha’s reflections and recollections of Diaries, Dattani exposes inner world of individuals encountering tensions and conflicts of personal relationships. She recollects the memories of her husband Hari and the friend Zarine. She also feels nostalgic for the melodious songs of Noor Jahan.

The cap and idol of lord Krishna:

These are the stuffs we can interpret it to take help of the religion symbols. In the play there is incidence of the cap when those young characters are having. And another incident of the idol of lord Krishna when Aruna is worshiping and bobby touched that idol so she was very disappointed for that cause she is the character here who is very rigid and conservative towards the religion and society.

5.)Is Ramnik a liberal thinker? If yes then why? If not then why?

At certain points we feel Ramnik is a liberal thinker and at some points we don’t agree even to our own arguments. Like when we became ready to rescue these both the Muslim boys and even the family members were his against so at that time, we feel his liberality but when the truth reveals at the end we feel very opposite of that same person. When there is the revelation period we find him not liberal rather then we feel him as selfish because ultimately he was doing this kind of help to these boys for himself only cause he only knew the truth so he wanted to be free from that prison of thoughts and acts.

6.)Does education make any difference? Comment with the reference to the women characters.

In the “Final Solutions” we find three major women characters like Smita, Hardika or Daksha, and Aruna, Dattani admits that women have greater consciousness and deeper realization of communal and religious identities.

Smita, Gandhi’s daughter talks to her friend Tasneem whose hostel was the center of blast. Smita, a girl of liberal ideology views the whole situation as an individual and constructs an ideology beyond the ideology of religious and racial prejudices. She reveals her feeling to her mother:

It stifles me! yes! Maybe I am prejudiced because I do not belong. But not belonging makes things so clear. I can see so clearly how wrong you are. You accuse me running away from my religion. Maybe I am embraced, Mummy. (Act III, 57)

Education makes the differences like:

1. Independent thinking
2. Individual identity
3. Think beyond their physical conscience
4. Retain their awareness in society
5. Aware about their position, desires and dreams
6. Quest for the improvement of social status
7. Accept the challenges of Inter-community

These are the differences we can found in the educated people with reference of this play and its women characters. By the observation we can find different qualities or mindsets of women which Dattani has portrayed here to make difference.

We can put these three characters in different kinds of categories. Like Daksha and Smita both are educated but not behaving in the same way. In other had we have Aruna’s character, in which we can see very narrow mind set’s qualities.

So, this is my interpretation of the play “Final Solutions”. I have done it with various perspectives like Social, Communalism, Feminism as Dattani has successfully used his pen for women characters in his works.

Thank you!

(words 1515)

Thinking Skills - Two day workshop

Thinking Skills -Two day workshop by Prof. Milan Pandya

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, writing this blog for the special event and that was the workshop for Thinking Skills by the very good resource person Prof. Milan Pandya. Milan Pandya is a teacher, trainer and educator in the field of Thinking Skills i.e. Critical, Creative and Design Thinking, English Language Teaching & Communication Skills. With more than 12 years of teaching experience, Mr. Pandya has authored 02 books, and presented and published a number of research papers in national and international conferences and journals. He has taught/trained in numerous Universities/Institutions training more than 30,000 people in Thinking Skills across world. Mr. Pandya has BA & MA in English Literature, M.Phil. in English Language Teaching (ELT) & his Ph.D. involves study into Online Teaching, Communicative Competence & Critical Thinking. He currently holds a position of Vice President of Advancement at Critical Thinking Solutions company in Ontario, Canada, and teaches at multiple colleges such as Conestoga and Sheridan college in Ontario, Canada.

On 13-14th August 2022, We had a workshop for thinking skills which was by Prof. Milan Pandya sir. It was extremely enriching as well as hard nuts to cracked. Many things were discussed there like, 

Critical thinking and Creative thinking,

Critical Thinking and Creative thinking both are having it's own values like the Creative thinking can lead us towards the ideas which are not chewed and also having it's worth within itself. and to examine that we use the critical thinking. 

Skeptical and doubtful

Logical, rational and scientific

The Speaker also mentioned the great philosopher Socrates. I wanna put here the quote by this man, 

"I know you won't believe me but the highest form of human excellence is to question oneself and others" - Socrates. Might here he wants to said before he made statement because he is saying that you will not believe me that means he is gonna say something which is not ordinary sort of things. And from his style to expression we can come to know that in which level or manner he has used. and he said the excellence is to act of questioning the things and also we can have critical corner by only the corner of questioning by various perspectives and flexibility.  

Further the speaker gave the definition of critical thinking and that the core I found for myself, 'Thinking about thinking, in order to improve thinking'. Here the act of thinking is fir the act of improving the thinking process that how we think in certain kind of patterns and flows.

Also he talked about 'Facts' and 'Opinions' by it's nature. As per understanding of that Facts are those which are not going to be change ever, and Opinions are those which can change anytime.

"If something is true, What else has to be true in that"  

Possible and Plausible 

The crux of all Or the flame for me was that slide which was containing.

"Your teacher might be wrong. Learn to think for yourself".-Tao Te Ching.

Milan sir talked about it very clearly that, How we can think and how we should think for ourselves rather than do not believing in the things which are told to us and taught to us by the teachers. 

Thought Experiment 

In this slide we can see that there are so many objects together come out. And we had done activity of it too. It was kind we have to find out various categories the objects can be put under that. And we found it's like limitless thoughts process which is going on and on into our brain and we can found more and more categories. Which were like very different and so many. 

Then there was those hard nuts which we were not able cracked very easily. In that sir gave scenario to us and we have to think a lot with like lot of struggle even. By that we got the glimpse of how criticism and creative thinking skills are difficult to have. And also at very last he told that It's the life skill not only thinking skills. Because "You are what you are, because of Thinking"   

Bunch of thanks to Dr. Dilip Barad sir for organized this wonderful workshop and also to resource person.

THANK YOU!

Selected Poems 

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, writing this blog as a thinking activity which is given by Yesha Bhatt madam. In this we have to do very unique tasks like creating a literary excerpt in a such way. We have to pick up any  one line/word/phrase/thought/idea from the poem An Introduction by Kamala Das. 

Kamala Das is a literary figure as well as Indian poet from Kerala. She was noted for her several Malayalam short stories as well as poems written in English. Das was also a syndicated columnist. She once claimed that "poetry does not sell in this country [India]", but her forthright columns, which sounded off on everything from women's issues and child care to politics, were popular. Das was a confessional poet whose poems have often been considered at par with those of Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell.

Now, We will have a look towards her poem 'An Introduction'. 

Kamala Das - An Introduction

I don't know politics but I know the names

Of those in power, and can repeat them like

Days of week, or names of months, beginning with Nehru.

I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar,

I speak three languages, write in

Two, dream in one.

Don't write in English, they said, English is

Not your mother-tongue. Why not leave

Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,

Every one of you? Why not let me speak in

Any language I like? The language I speak,

Becomes mine, its distortions, its queernesses

All mine, mine alone.

It is half English, halfIndian, funny perhaps, but it is honest,

It is as human as I am human, don't

You see? It voices my joys, my longings, my

Hopes, and it is useful to me as cawing

Is to crows or roaring to the lions, it

Is human speech, the speech of the mind that is

Here and not there, a mind that sees and hears and

Is aware. Not the deaf, blind speech

Of trees in storm or of monsoon clouds or of rain or the

Incoherent mutterings of the blazing

Funeral pyre. I was child, and later they

Told me I grew, for I became tall, my limbs

Swelled and one or two places sprouted hair.

WhenI asked for love, not knowing what else to ask

For, he drew a youth of sixteen into the

Bedroom and closed the door, He did not beat me

But my sad woman-body felt so beaten.

The weight of my breasts and womb crushed me.

I shrank Pitifully.

Then … I wore a shirt and my

Brother's trousers, cut my hair short and ignored

My womanliness. Dress in sarees, be girl

Be wife, they said. Be embroiderer, be cook,

Be a quarreller with servants. Fit in. Oh,

Belong, cried the categorizers. Don't sit

On walls or peep in through our lace-draped windows.

Be Amy, or be Kamala. Or, better

Still, be Madhavikutty. It is time to

Choose a name, a role. Don't play pretending games.

Don't play at schizophrenia or be a

Nympho. Don't cry embarrassingly loud when

Jilted in love … I met a man, loved him. Call

Him not by any name, he is every man

Who wants. a woman, just as I am every

Woman who seeks love. In him . . . the hungry haste

Of rivers, in me . . . the oceans' tireless

Waiting. Who are you, I ask each and everyone,

The answer is, it is I. Anywhere and,

Everywhere, I see the one who calls himself I

In this world, he is tightly packed like the

Sword in its sheath. It is I who drink lonely

Drinks at twelve, midnight, in hotels of strange towns,

It is I who laugh, it is I who make love

And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying

With a rattle in my throat. I am sinner,

I am saint. I am the beloved and the

Betrayed. I have no joys that are not yours, no

Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I.

Now the further task is we have to create our own stuff by inspire it. And in this, I picked a word 'I' and I am presenting a short poem which is titled as "Crown of Humanity". So, let's have a look for that.

Crown of Humanity

I don't wear that costly necklace,

I wear that humble heart to confess!

I don't need anklets to dance.

I wear that trustworthy thread to spread grace!

I don't yearn rings to promises wildly,

I wear that rose to keep honesty!

I don't want that toxic tiara to be guilty,

I wear that nectar crown to flip humanity!

Interpretation of the poem :

 

Here I wrote the very short poem and it is based on the idea of materialistic world and specially when it come to the women normally people make them happy by gifting the expensive ornaments. But the thought I wanted to portrayed is that one should not look at another person as female and male at very first sight. Rather the all humans are same with the values and qualities. That is, we and the society make it biased by our perspectives.

I mentioned the materialistic things by comparing the very basic values of human life. Like necklace, anklets, rings, tiara and on their replacement, I used confesses, trustworthiness, honesty and the very required quality is humanity.

THANK YOU!