Monday, 25 March 2019
Sunday, 17 March 2019
Short Story: 'Girls' from Yuvakatha
Girls is a short story written by Mrinal Pande
1. Eight years old narrator
The story is told from the viewpoint of eight years old girl. His father is a kind man and he wants to educate his daughters. The narrator's mother, Lali, has three daughters and is expecting a fourth child, fervently hoping that it is a boy so that she will be rid of the nuisance of going through another pregnancy. Lali, the narrator and her sisters go to Nani's house for the last month of Pregnancy.
2. Inferior position
The narrator overhears her aunt complaining in whispers to her mother of the problems she has to endure as a woman. Such incidents leave a lasting impact on the already insecure mind of the narrator who is curious to know why the elders consider women and girls to be inferior. Her innocent curiosity greatly angers lali, Nani and the others.
3.The story ends with the celebration of Chaitya Shukla Ashtami, a Hindu Holiday when Young girls are worshipped as incarnations of Devi, or the divine feminine spirit. Part of the celebration involves all the girls wearing a red tikka on their foreheads, but the narrator refuses.
"Why pretend to worship girls on one day, when you hate them on all the others"
The narrator strongly shows her anger in the end against the male dominating system of society.
Criticism: Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness
Elaine Showalter was born in 1941 and has worked as a professor of English at Princeton University. Showalter's work was a major contribution to the project of feminist criticism. Her article 'Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness' was first published in 'Critical Inquiry' in 1981. She finds Feminist Criticism no more unified but more adventurous in assimilating and engaging with theory.
In the beginning of the article Elaine Showalter talks about the two modes of feminist literary Criticism.
i) Righteous, angry and admonitory compared to the Old Testament
ii) Disinterested seeking the grace of imagination compared to the New Testament.
The well known critic Geoffrey Hartman tells that all criticism is in wilderness. It is also observed that the feminist literally criticism appeared more like a set of interchangeable strategies than any coherent school. Black Critics protest the 'massive silence' of the feminist criticism regarding the black and also the third world women writers and call for the black feminist aesthetic that would deal with both the racial and sexual politics.
All the above observation suggest that feminism is a vague term and feminist criticism includes numberless ideologies. One of the chief quality of feminist criticism is openness to all outside factors.
Feminist Critics like Virginia Woolf, Mary Daly, Adrienne Riche, Marguerite Duras are advocates of the anti-theoretical position in feminist criticism.
There are two distinct modes of feminist criticism.The first is ideological; it is concerned with the feminist as a reader and it offers feminist reading of text which considered the images and stereotypes of women in literature. The second mode of feminist Criticism is engendered by the study of women as writers and its subjects are the history, styles, themes, genres and structures of writing by women.
Gynocritics
Showalter gives new critical term 'Gynocritics' and says that unlike the feminist critique, Gynocritics offer many theoretical opportunities. All feminist criticism in some sense revisionist, question in the adequacy of accepted conceptual structures. Patrician Meyer Spacks was the first academic critic to notice the shift from Androcentric to a Gynocentric feminist criticism.
Four models of difference:
i) Biological
ii) Linguistic
iii) Psychoanalytic
iv) Cultural
Each model is an effort to define and differentiate the qualities of the woman writer and her text. Each model is also offers a school of Gynocritics feminist criticism with its own favourite texts, styles and methods.
Novel: The Great Gatsby
i) Thriller novel
The Great Gatsby is most popular thriller novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In 20th century many literary forms developed and old forms were modified. In modern times, new literature known as popular literature emerged. The thriller falls under the category of popular literature. It essentially include the elements of suspense and romance. The thriller novel thrills reader through its content. The hero of Great Gatsby is romantic by nature. He leads the life of 'eat, drink and be merry'. He is fond of giving parties not only to his friends and relatives but also to the strangers.
ii) Love Triangle
The central theme of the novel is love triangle in which Tom Buchanan is the husband, Daisy Buchanan is the wife and Jay Gatsy is the outsider. The story revolves around these three characters. Jay identifies himself as the old lover of Daisy and claims that she is his first and true love. On the other hand Tom develops an extra marital relationship with Myrtle Wilson , The wife of George Wilson. Though Tom loved Daisy very much, he kept myrtle as his mistress. The novel reflects loose moral standards of the American society.
iii) Narrator
Nick Caraway is one of the major character of the novel. He is the narrator character as we know the entire story through him. He is the young bachelor from a Patrician mid-Western. He belonged to the wealthy family but he had very modest living.Daisy Buchanan the heroine of the novel, was Nick's second cousin once removed. Nick becomes the next door neighbour of Jay Gatsby and he also proves to be the well wisher of Jay Gatsby. He narrates the thrilling life story of Jay Gatsby with a neutral attitude. Daisy's friend Jordan was attracted to Nick and the affair begins between the two but Nick predicts the relationship as a superficial one.
"He is a bootlegger," said the young lady, moving somewhere between his cocktails and his flowers"
This is the sentence spoken by one of the lady in the party of James Gatsby. She reveals the true identity of James by saying that he is is a bootlegger. She knows that Gatsby was connected to the underworld activities. The references suggested that the entire life of Gatsby was connected to sensuous pleasures.
iv) Failure in love
"Nothing happened," I said vainly. "I wailed, and about 4 o'clock she came to the window and stood there for a minute and then turned out the light."
James wanting to revive his past love speaks to Nick. Hence, he came to long island and bought a house in West Egg not very far from the Buchanans' at a visible distance. He desperately longed for getting back the love of Daisy for him. He wanted to see her face at the window of his house but did not succeed. The present reference shows Jay's intensity of love feeling for Daisy. These love feelings are marked with a sense of disappointment.
Saturday, 16 March 2019
Poem: Daddy by Sylvia Plath
When we read the title of the poem, then the first thought came in our mind is love between Daddy and Daughter. But this poem is not about the love but hatred. Sylvia Plath represented her hatred for daddy through this poem.
The question came in our mind is that why she needs to write such poem?, Why she needs to destroy her relationship with her dad?
The answer to this question is difficult to understand. She has given many reasons but mostly all believes that because of her mental instability she wrote such piece of work. Otherwise there is nothing cruel in the relationship between her and her dad.
1. Male Domination
The poem is very strong expression of resentment against the male domination and also the violence of all kinds for which man is responsible. 'Daddy' is a symbol of male dominating society. This is also a symbol of general agents and forces like science and reason, violence and war, the German and their Hitler, and all other inhuman agents. Thereby the speaker is a symbol of female and creative force.
2. Psychological point of view
This poem can be analyse from psychological point of view. Sylvia Plath is suffering from neurotic anger. Though it is slightly autobiographical, the poem must be interpreted symbolically and psychologically. From the very beginning to the end, Sylvia keeps on attacking on her daddy through words. There is no stronger weapon in the world than our words.
"You, "Black Shoe", I have had to kill you"
The speaker wants to kill her dad, she lived for thirty years, poor and white, as in the Nazi concentration camps of the second world war. She is not able to breathe or express her pain. Her tongue is struck in her jaw. She is always scared of daddy or the German images of terror. She feels she is descendant of a gypsy ancestress. She is afraid of the neat Moustache like that of Hitler, and the Aryan eye. She thinks that her daddy had a brutish black heart
3. Mental Death not Physical
The speaker's daddy is already died when she was ten years old. But she wanted to kill him again and throw him out of her mind. She also tried to die herself, but they prevented her. She made a model of her daddy and killed it. She had killed him and his vampire that drank her blood for seven years. The worst thing she did is calling him a Bastard.
4. Extremity of anger
The entire tone of the poem is extremity of anger. This signifies that it is not common with a normal person in real life. The poem does not literally express the reality alone: it is the relieving anger and frustration in the form of poetic expression. In reality Plath's father loved her very much when she was a child. So her death was always a shock to her. But while she felt tortured without her father, she also felt suppressed by her father's dominating image.
5. Female protest
The female speaker represents the creative force and she is angry with the destructive forces symbolised by he daddy. The speaker says, " I'm trough", meaning "I, m satisfied" at the end. She is relieved.
Play: Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
1. Tragedy and the role of fate
Romeo and Juliet is a great tragic play by William Shakespeare. The story line is about two star crossed lovers. Their families were enemies which is responsible for their tragic doom. Shakespeare always combines the role of fate and the weakness of a strong characters in his tragedy. Both are equally responsible for the tragic fall of the hero. In other words both the lovers were ill-fated. They were destined to meet their tragic doom. They were unlucky lovers and their stars did not favor them. Unfortunately both the lovers belong to the families involved in quarrelling with each other.
2. Theme of death
The theme of death counterbalance the love theme in the play. The playwright tells about several deaths. During the physical fight between Tybalt and Mercutio, Tybalt killed Mercutio. Therefore the death of Mercutio is the starting point of death. The references of the deaths of these two minor characters are , in fact, the background prepared by the playwright for the death s of two lovers at the end of the play. In the middle of the play, Romeo expresses his Strong desire to meet death. Similarly Juliet takes a potion from the friar that could help her to look dead.Both the lovers enact the drama of death before meeting the final death.
3. Theme of young love
The central theme of the play 'Romeo and Juliet' is the young love because the play tells about the tragic story of the two lovers who are passionately in love with each other. Both the lovers are very young. In the play there is also mention of the age of Juliet by her nurse. Nurse stats that Juliet will be fourteen years old. Similarly Romeo has not seen much in connection to real world experience. It is remarkable that even after having known about the enmity between the two families Romeo dares to enter into the house of the Caplets to meet Juliet at night.
Romeo praised the beauty of his love to Benvolio:-
"O, she is rich in beauty, only poor,
That when she dies with beauty dies her stone."
Romeo tells about Juliet's attitude toward love. By no means, she is ready to accept that his beloved is very beautiful but if she does not surrender to love, her beauty will die with her death.
"Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears;
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving sweet."
It is a part of the long speech projected in the mouth of Romeo. He tells about his experience of love to his close friend Benvolio. Romeo has recently been rejected in love and so, he looks at love negatively. These lines denotes the pessimistic view of Romeo.
Why do I like this play:
I like the depth of true love between Romeo and Juliet.
Friday, 15 March 2019
Thinking activity: Sense of an Ending
This blog is a part of thinking activity given by our Professor. To view his blog click here
1. How do you understand memory and history with reference to your reading of this novel.
Memory is "unreliable", History is a "lie spoken by Victors and there is always great unrest in history. This definition seems very healthy or true to life. It can be applied to everyone life. The memory which we have is all about our own thinking, it can be wrong, untruth or unreliable. We cannot come out in conclusion with our memories. When the same story of our life told by other then it will totally different then our perspective. It means memory keeps on changing based on various perspectives.
For example, Tony Webster himself not sure about his past memories. He begins the novel by stating that,
"I remember, in no particular order"
It means he is not sure about his narrative. Same is the case with the definition of History. According to Marshall's definition "there was great unrest" in history. it is truth of life that whatever we have done in our entire life, in the end result we get only unrest. The last line of novel is ended with the statement by Tony that:
"There is accumulation. There is responsibility. And beyond these, there is unrest. There is great unrest."
2. How do you understand the concept of suicide with reference to your reading of literature ranging from Renaissance play Hamlet, 20th century Existential Philosophy and this 21st century novel The Sense of an Ending?
The theme of suicide is common from very ancient time in Literature. but the thought behind suicide is different from time to time. Like in the play Hamlet, suicide is a sin, and those who committed suicide should not be buried with Christian traditional rule. For example, Ophelia committed suicide by drowning herself into river. In the grave digger scene there was dialogue between the two grave diggers about the suicide of Ophelia:
"First Clown: Is she to be buried in Christian burial, when she willfully seeks her own salvation?
Second Clown: I tell thee she is. Therefore make her grave straight. The crowner hath sat on her and finds it Christian burial....
Second clown: Will you ha'th truth on't? If this shad not been gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of Christian burial."
But with the Renaissance period, there is great enlightenment and change in the mind of people. Now suicide is not taken in narrow boundaries of religious. Now it is right of people to commit suicide. if the life is a gift by God, then we have right to return this gift. In this novel also Adrian happily ended his life and gives philosophical meaning to his suicide.
1. How do you understand memory and history with reference to your reading of this novel.
Memory is "unreliable", History is a "lie spoken by Victors and there is always great unrest in history. This definition seems very healthy or true to life. It can be applied to everyone life. The memory which we have is all about our own thinking, it can be wrong, untruth or unreliable. We cannot come out in conclusion with our memories. When the same story of our life told by other then it will totally different then our perspective. It means memory keeps on changing based on various perspectives.
For example, Tony Webster himself not sure about his past memories. He begins the novel by stating that,
"I remember, in no particular order"
It means he is not sure about his narrative. Same is the case with the definition of History. According to Marshall's definition "there was great unrest" in history. it is truth of life that whatever we have done in our entire life, in the end result we get only unrest. The last line of novel is ended with the statement by Tony that:
"There is accumulation. There is responsibility. And beyond these, there is unrest. There is great unrest."
2. How do you understand the concept of suicide with reference to your reading of literature ranging from Renaissance play Hamlet, 20th century Existential Philosophy and this 21st century novel The Sense of an Ending?
The theme of suicide is common from very ancient time in Literature. but the thought behind suicide is different from time to time. Like in the play Hamlet, suicide is a sin, and those who committed suicide should not be buried with Christian traditional rule. For example, Ophelia committed suicide by drowning herself into river. In the grave digger scene there was dialogue between the two grave diggers about the suicide of Ophelia:
"First Clown: Is she to be buried in Christian burial, when she willfully seeks her own salvation?
Second Clown: I tell thee she is. Therefore make her grave straight. The crowner hath sat on her and finds it Christian burial....
Second clown: Will you ha'th truth on't? If this shad not been gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of Christian burial."
But with the Renaissance period, there is great enlightenment and change in the mind of people. Now suicide is not taken in narrow boundaries of religious. Now it is right of people to commit suicide. if the life is a gift by God, then we have right to return this gift. In this novel also Adrian happily ended his life and gives philosophical meaning to his suicide.
Reflective blog on Andy Goldsworthy's Rivers and Tides
Rivers and Tides
- A documentary film by Thomas Riedelsheimer(2001)
"Rivers and Tides" offers a rare glimpse of the creations of Andy Goldsworthy. The theme of this short documentary is "Transitory nature of art and life". Everything which is created is destroyed by nature after some period of time. Birth and death is the truth of nature.
In this documentary Andy creates unique things. The natural shape of nature is round. Nature has no sharp design. Sharp design is created by human.
Andy is constantly working with tides and rivers and beautifully created the things with stones, leaves, woods etc.
 |
| created with stones |
Andy Goldsworthy is making shape of tides with iceberg. He has done so much effort to give shape to teh iceberg but how long it leave. It will melt when sun rays passes on it. He is working with time wchich is constantly changing. He uses land as canvas to show his artictic value and also gives philosophical meaning into it. Destruction is the rule of nature.
Spiral shape of nature
Everything in this nature is in spiral shape or circular. There are no triangular shape
This short documentary is excellent example of documenting events.
Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Webquest activity: Harry Potter
This blog is a part of thinking activity given by our Professor. To visit his blog click here
1. Feminist Reading in Harry Potter
Portrayal of female character in Harry Potter series is very significant. J.K Rowling has minutely observed and portrayed real life characters. There are so many female characters in the series which are different from each other. Like some are strong, some are soft, girlish ,fearful etc.
i) Hermione Granger
- Not Static
Hermione is one of the main female character of Harry Potter series. She is intelligent, fierce and a loyal friend The portrayal of her character is not static in all series. The character is changing from very beginning to the end. Like in the first part most of the tasks were done by Harrry only and she remains behind the wall. Then suddenly her character change in the third part where most of the task performed by her. Or she supports Harry and Ron in every task. Her presence is significant without her it becomes difficult to reach to the conclusion.
- Look Conscious
When Hermione visit past through her time locket than she saw herself from backside and think of her look for a while. Whereas Harry did no think aboout his look. In this way the difference between girl's and boy's thinking came out.
Other female characters like Professor Mcgonagall, the strict but fair teacher, Molly Weasley the caring yet brave mother, Ginny Weasley for transforming from a shy little girl to a fearless warrior etc scattered throughout the series.
The author's context and intensions are completely irrelevant and are considered only to the extent to which they confirm negative position of women within the patriarchal structure of power. Instead of the author's context it is the reader's context that is examined from the feminist perspective(Paul 1999)
2. Discource on the purity of blood and Harry potter
"No one asked your opinion you filthy little mudblood", he spat
This is the comment of pure blood boy over mud blood girl. Draco commented on Hermione that she is mudblood. The concept of racism, casteism and class conflict is common in Harry potter series. Three types of caste based on blood Idea, Pure blood, half blood, mud blood. Harry is half blood because his father is pure blood but his mother is a Muggle.Likewise Ron's parents were also Muggles. Mudblood is very impolite term in Wizarding circles(Pottermore). It is some witches and wizards' attitude towards non-magical individuals that form the basis of Voldemort's pure blood Ideology.
Barrett says that "across the wizarding world, attitude towards muggles include egalitarianism, disregard, avid curiosity, paternalism, and outright hatred"(Lund University).
3. Confronting reality by reading fantasy
In the world of fantasy J.K Rowling highlights some serious issues of the real contemporary society like class conflict, politics of power, racism, corruption, injustice system etc. She has covered each reality with fantastical world but if someone looks deep down into it then they will find the hidden message. Rowling books are not conventional fairy tales, her success show the continued power of the form and the archetypes that those long-ago Germans perfected. Harry's situation contains many of the inchoate fears of childhood, not just the parental abandonment fear. Harry is skinny and weak and wears glasses patched together with tape, and in this sense he stand in for the vulnerability, the powerlessness that children feel. The rest of the story shows Harry assuming his true identity, gaining the courage to overcome obstacles and winning a battle against the adversaries of his ancestors(critic's notebook, Richard Bernstein).
4. Self-help culture and Harry Potter
The characters of Harry Potter series are struggling to gain something. In a way all are helping themselves with some ideologies. Harry is treated very badly in his guardian home. He learns to stay strong in awkward situations in life. His life battle is fought by himself without any kind of support. When he left all alone in the dangerous situation then with his own power he fought with the death eaters. There was one scene in the last part when Sirius is killed then Harry saves his body and himself also from the Dementors. Same is the case with other characters like Hermione, Ron who are constantly struggling for their identity. Hermione wants to show her talent that she is best from all the pure blood students. She is intelligent and with her knowledge she defeats everyone and in this way help herself. The children or even adults also learn things from Potter series about self help culture.
5. The discourse of power and politics
"Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don;t know who's working for him who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able stop themselves. You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing...The Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere...panic...confusion..that's how it used to be."
Children's literature is largely written, produced and consumed by adults. Therefore an author should advance some political message under the guise of children's literature(Rajendra kumar das, M.Phil)
Rowling has presented power dynamics from the very first part to the end. There is fight between Harry and Voldemort, in which Harry stands for the voice of suppressed and Voldemort is in the evil power who wants to rule. Ruling over other, dominating other, killing innocent, these all things is a part of the corrupt political system. In the fifth part "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, new rule came into the school of Hogwarts. Fudge appoints Umbridge as High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, giving her the authority to inspect all faculty members and evaluate their skills. However, Umbridge misused her power as like common corrupt leaders and started dominating others. Harry raised his voice against her and formed a community in which he trained the students for the defence against the dark art. Later on, truth wins and she is discarded from her post. In this way Rowling presents the power conflict in Potter series.
6. Children's literature
Harry Potter series is full of fantastical, supernatural or magical elements which put it into the category of Children's literature. Normally in Children's literature we found a quest of Hero, Hero rescuing his princess, Magic, fantasy, happy ending, good vs evil, ideal hero etc. In the second part, "Chamber of secrets" Harry rescued Ginny in the end like true ideal hero. In all the parts there is quest or adventure, fight against the evil Voldemort, virtue rewarded and vice get punished.The magical world fantasise children and gives immense pleasure. But harry Potter series is not fall under the classic children literature because of its deep moral and philosophical lessons, political meaning.
"When you first start reading the books, they're just kids. But as she(JK Rowling) develops them through happy and sad moments, they feel more and more real," says Marine Davidson.
7. Speculative Literature
Speculative fiction encompassing fiction with certain elements that do not exixt in the real world(wikipedia). There is more imagination than the reality. Harry Potter series is full of imagination, supernatural things which doesn't exist in the real world. Like magical wand, Dementors, hoarcruxes, Sorcerer's stone, liquid luck, invisible caps everythings is just an imagination. In the third part there is one werewolf charcater Prof. Lupin who turned out as werewolf in full moon night. There is nothing like werewolf, all these is exist in fantasy world only. There is no truth behind this. Therefore Harry Potter series is fall under the genre of speculative fiction.
8. Theme of Choice and Chance
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abbilities."
-Dumbledore
There is choice of Harry Potter to stay with his guardian even if they are cruel. Harry got his magical power but still he didn't left his guardian home. Harry also chose to save humankind from the evil creature Voldemort. He chose to fight for other. There is chance for him to escape but he didn't and stand as a true ideal hero. In the end when everyone is fighting to protect Harry from Voldemort, then Harry realised that because of him many Innocent are killed by Voldemort. Therefore he decides to surrender himself. He has choices to make in his life that whether he become as cruel like Voldemort or good like Dumbledore. These all harry Potter series plays vital role in between Choices and Chances. Harry Potter is by chance becomes a part of horcrux that should be destroyed at the end. But he comes to life after death because Rowling wants to make happy ending and this could only done by making Hero alive.
9. Theme of love and death
There is death of Harry Potter's parents by Voldemort, after which the revenge motive came in the mind of Harry. From the very beginning he is in search of finding the truth and in search of Voldemort. He wants to destroy him and that is possible only if he destroyed all the horcruxes. In between this process of destruction, many innocent people dies. In the triwizard tournament Harry lost his friend. He lost his godfather Sirius when he is fighting with Voldemort. He lost his mentor Dumbledore who is killed by prof. Snape. In this way many dies in Harry Potter series, specially the close ones of Harry.
Theme of love is also going parallel. From the very beginning we can see the interest of Ron in Hermione, the way he get jealous with the partner of Hermione in Ball party clears the illusion that Ron hates Hermione. Inspite of it he loves her a lot. Harry when steps towards his adulthood tehn he develops starnge affection for Cho. Later on Ginny and Harry becomes love birds. In this way Death and love theme is significant in Potter series.
10. Moral and Philosophical Reading
Entire Harry Potter series teaches us very important life lessons. The popular book series urges us to accept our mortality so we can fully experience human virtues, partcularly the virtue of love. Accepting death can be seen as an important philosophical lesson. Harry Potter is not like all ordinary man who fears of death and wants to be immortal like Voldemort. He is happily and calmly accept death as it is. He is not reacting in each and every situation. In most of the places he stays calm. He follows the moral principles which were taught by Dumbledore. He always remains on the sideof truth. He doen's allow the evil side to win over his good side. He contantly struggling with is inner self. The philosophical speech about the life after the death of Harry by Dumbledore is very significant in the end.
"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love."
- Dumbledore
11. Christianity
The idea of Christianity is very much challenged in Harry Potter series. The debate is based on occult or Satanic subtexts. The Novel has anti-Christianity elements like witchcraft and Wizardry because these practises are abandoned in the Christianity. These considered as pagan worshipping. There is no any single Church in the series of Harry Potter and no one can ask help to God to fight with evil forces. So, in this way we can say that The Novel has anti-Christian elements.
Rowling rightly states that her book is highly significant for the young readers who learns to questions the authority, power status. To believe in any system without doubting is not the fair way of living life. Someone should raise his/her voice. Michel Foucault's theory of Power and Knowledge is significant under this context. There is social control through societal institutions on common man.
To see my webquest activity click here
To see my rubric of evaluation of my blog click here
Works Cited
1. Feminist Reading in Harry Potter
Portrayal of female character in Harry Potter series is very significant. J.K Rowling has minutely observed and portrayed real life characters. There are so many female characters in the series which are different from each other. Like some are strong, some are soft, girlish ,fearful etc.
i) Hermione Granger
- Not Static
Hermione is one of the main female character of Harry Potter series. She is intelligent, fierce and a loyal friend The portrayal of her character is not static in all series. The character is changing from very beginning to the end. Like in the first part most of the tasks were done by Harrry only and she remains behind the wall. Then suddenly her character change in the third part where most of the task performed by her. Or she supports Harry and Ron in every task. Her presence is significant without her it becomes difficult to reach to the conclusion.
- Look Conscious
When Hermione visit past through her time locket than she saw herself from backside and think of her look for a while. Whereas Harry did no think aboout his look. In this way the difference between girl's and boy's thinking came out.
Other female characters like Professor Mcgonagall, the strict but fair teacher, Molly Weasley the caring yet brave mother, Ginny Weasley for transforming from a shy little girl to a fearless warrior etc scattered throughout the series.
The author's context and intensions are completely irrelevant and are considered only to the extent to which they confirm negative position of women within the patriarchal structure of power. Instead of the author's context it is the reader's context that is examined from the feminist perspective(Paul 1999)
2. Discource on the purity of blood and Harry potter
"No one asked your opinion you filthy little mudblood", he spat
This is the comment of pure blood boy over mud blood girl. Draco commented on Hermione that she is mudblood. The concept of racism, casteism and class conflict is common in Harry potter series. Three types of caste based on blood Idea, Pure blood, half blood, mud blood. Harry is half blood because his father is pure blood but his mother is a Muggle.Likewise Ron's parents were also Muggles. Mudblood is very impolite term in Wizarding circles(Pottermore). It is some witches and wizards' attitude towards non-magical individuals that form the basis of Voldemort's pure blood Ideology.
Barrett says that "across the wizarding world, attitude towards muggles include egalitarianism, disregard, avid curiosity, paternalism, and outright hatred"(Lund University).
3. Confronting reality by reading fantasy
In the world of fantasy J.K Rowling highlights some serious issues of the real contemporary society like class conflict, politics of power, racism, corruption, injustice system etc. She has covered each reality with fantastical world but if someone looks deep down into it then they will find the hidden message. Rowling books are not conventional fairy tales, her success show the continued power of the form and the archetypes that those long-ago Germans perfected. Harry's situation contains many of the inchoate fears of childhood, not just the parental abandonment fear. Harry is skinny and weak and wears glasses patched together with tape, and in this sense he stand in for the vulnerability, the powerlessness that children feel. The rest of the story shows Harry assuming his true identity, gaining the courage to overcome obstacles and winning a battle against the adversaries of his ancestors(critic's notebook, Richard Bernstein).
4. Self-help culture and Harry Potter
The characters of Harry Potter series are struggling to gain something. In a way all are helping themselves with some ideologies. Harry is treated very badly in his guardian home. He learns to stay strong in awkward situations in life. His life battle is fought by himself without any kind of support. When he left all alone in the dangerous situation then with his own power he fought with the death eaters. There was one scene in the last part when Sirius is killed then Harry saves his body and himself also from the Dementors. Same is the case with other characters like Hermione, Ron who are constantly struggling for their identity. Hermione wants to show her talent that she is best from all the pure blood students. She is intelligent and with her knowledge she defeats everyone and in this way help herself. The children or even adults also learn things from Potter series about self help culture.
5. The discourse of power and politics
"Imagine that Voldemort's powerful now. You don't know who his supporters are, you don;t know who's working for him who isn't; you know he can control people so that they do terrible things without being able stop themselves. You're scared for yourself, and your family, and your friends. Every week news comes of more deaths, more disappearances, more torturing...The Ministry of Magic's in disarray, they don't know what to do, they're trying to keep everything hidden from the Muggles, but meanwhile, Muggles are dying too. Terror everywhere...panic...confusion..that's how it used to be."
Children's literature is largely written, produced and consumed by adults. Therefore an author should advance some political message under the guise of children's literature(Rajendra kumar das, M.Phil)
Rowling has presented power dynamics from the very first part to the end. There is fight between Harry and Voldemort, in which Harry stands for the voice of suppressed and Voldemort is in the evil power who wants to rule. Ruling over other, dominating other, killing innocent, these all things is a part of the corrupt political system. In the fifth part "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, new rule came into the school of Hogwarts. Fudge appoints Umbridge as High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, giving her the authority to inspect all faculty members and evaluate their skills. However, Umbridge misused her power as like common corrupt leaders and started dominating others. Harry raised his voice against her and formed a community in which he trained the students for the defence against the dark art. Later on, truth wins and she is discarded from her post. In this way Rowling presents the power conflict in Potter series.
6. Children's literature
Harry Potter series is full of fantastical, supernatural or magical elements which put it into the category of Children's literature. Normally in Children's literature we found a quest of Hero, Hero rescuing his princess, Magic, fantasy, happy ending, good vs evil, ideal hero etc. In the second part, "Chamber of secrets" Harry rescued Ginny in the end like true ideal hero. In all the parts there is quest or adventure, fight against the evil Voldemort, virtue rewarded and vice get punished.The magical world fantasise children and gives immense pleasure. But harry Potter series is not fall under the classic children literature because of its deep moral and philosophical lessons, political meaning.
"When you first start reading the books, they're just kids. But as she(JK Rowling) develops them through happy and sad moments, they feel more and more real," says Marine Davidson.
7. Speculative Literature
Speculative fiction encompassing fiction with certain elements that do not exixt in the real world(wikipedia). There is more imagination than the reality. Harry Potter series is full of imagination, supernatural things which doesn't exist in the real world. Like magical wand, Dementors, hoarcruxes, Sorcerer's stone, liquid luck, invisible caps everythings is just an imagination. In the third part there is one werewolf charcater Prof. Lupin who turned out as werewolf in full moon night. There is nothing like werewolf, all these is exist in fantasy world only. There is no truth behind this. Therefore Harry Potter series is fall under the genre of speculative fiction.
8. Theme of Choice and Chance
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abbilities."
-Dumbledore
There is choice of Harry Potter to stay with his guardian even if they are cruel. Harry got his magical power but still he didn't left his guardian home. Harry also chose to save humankind from the evil creature Voldemort. He chose to fight for other. There is chance for him to escape but he didn't and stand as a true ideal hero. In the end when everyone is fighting to protect Harry from Voldemort, then Harry realised that because of him many Innocent are killed by Voldemort. Therefore he decides to surrender himself. He has choices to make in his life that whether he become as cruel like Voldemort or good like Dumbledore. These all harry Potter series plays vital role in between Choices and Chances. Harry Potter is by chance becomes a part of horcrux that should be destroyed at the end. But he comes to life after death because Rowling wants to make happy ending and this could only done by making Hero alive.
9. Theme of love and death
There is death of Harry Potter's parents by Voldemort, after which the revenge motive came in the mind of Harry. From the very beginning he is in search of finding the truth and in search of Voldemort. He wants to destroy him and that is possible only if he destroyed all the horcruxes. In between this process of destruction, many innocent people dies. In the triwizard tournament Harry lost his friend. He lost his godfather Sirius when he is fighting with Voldemort. He lost his mentor Dumbledore who is killed by prof. Snape. In this way many dies in Harry Potter series, specially the close ones of Harry.
Theme of love is also going parallel. From the very beginning we can see the interest of Ron in Hermione, the way he get jealous with the partner of Hermione in Ball party clears the illusion that Ron hates Hermione. Inspite of it he loves her a lot. Harry when steps towards his adulthood tehn he develops starnge affection for Cho. Later on Ginny and Harry becomes love birds. In this way Death and love theme is significant in Potter series.
10. Moral and Philosophical Reading
Entire Harry Potter series teaches us very important life lessons. The popular book series urges us to accept our mortality so we can fully experience human virtues, partcularly the virtue of love. Accepting death can be seen as an important philosophical lesson. Harry Potter is not like all ordinary man who fears of death and wants to be immortal like Voldemort. He is happily and calmly accept death as it is. He is not reacting in each and every situation. In most of the places he stays calm. He follows the moral principles which were taught by Dumbledore. He always remains on the sideof truth. He doen's allow the evil side to win over his good side. He contantly struggling with is inner self. The philosophical speech about the life after the death of Harry by Dumbledore is very significant in the end.
"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love."
- Dumbledore
11. Christianity
The idea of Christianity is very much challenged in Harry Potter series. The debate is based on occult or Satanic subtexts. The Novel has anti-Christianity elements like witchcraft and Wizardry because these practises are abandoned in the Christianity. These considered as pagan worshipping. There is no any single Church in the series of Harry Potter and no one can ask help to God to fight with evil forces. So, in this way we can say that The Novel has anti-Christian elements.
Rowling rightly states that her book is highly significant for the young readers who learns to questions the authority, power status. To believe in any system without doubting is not the fair way of living life. Someone should raise his/her voice. Michel Foucault's theory of Power and Knowledge is significant under this context. There is social control through societal institutions on common man.
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