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ENGL 1201.3 Introduction to English Literature

First Year Second Semester Examination – 30th November, 2021 English
AF Number – AF/19/15917
AR Number – 101031

5. Write a critical appraisal of a novel/short story/drama you liked the most

from your syllabus.

Hanif Kureishi, a second generation migrant, wrote the 1985 play "My Beautiful Laundrette,"
which might be considered a satire of post-colonial Britain. The plot centers around a young guy
named Omar, who rises through the ranks of success while encountering several social and cultural
challenges. As a result, we can observe that the play is also based on the playwright's experience,
which contains a combination of comprehension and awareness of Pakistan and London. The
reason I liked this drama so much is that I see it as a formation of the Western and Eastern worlds,
and I prefer the way Hanif Kureishi expressed his dissatisfaction with so-called white people, how
migrants were treated, and the common problems they faced at the time, such as racism,
xenophobia, and so on.

Throughout the play, we can see that through the characters as well as the incidents, the author
tries to question the problems that he has. As we can see in the drama, the main problem he tries
to raise is why the migrants were considered second-class citizens in England. As we can see from
the story, as migrants, they had to deal with a variety of issues, and we can see how white men
reacted to and treated these people. If we take an example from the story, it is said that Omar's
father was a well-known British-Pakistani journalist in India, but he was not given the job as he
was promised in London. I think that is where the disappointment and his dissatisfaction with the
world start in the story. But at the same time, we see that Omar’s uncle, Nasser, is a privileged
migrant and also an entrepreneur. From all these scenes and actions in the story, the playwright
also tries to evoke the dual aspect of Thatcher’s government at that time. In the 1980's, Margret
Thatcher was the Prime Minister of England, the longest-serving Prime Minister, and in this drama,
the writer has been successful in showcasing the characteristics of Thatcherism. For instance, the
story gathers around a launderette. In Thatcher’s time, she implemented policies such as
privatization of traditional industries, which led to the rise of small businesses. Therefore, most of
the people had to deal with unemployment and many other social issues. This is more evident with
the character Omar and also with his old friend Johnny, because even though Johnny was a kind
of activist in London and also because he was an Englishman, he had to end up working at the
launderette. Moreover, there was a huge polarization between "white people" and ethnic
minorities. There is an incident where once Omar was driving Salim and his wife home at night,
the three of them were attacked by a group of right-wing extremist street punks. It indicates the
opposition and the hate that were shown by the white people, or natives, of the country. Also, the
character Salim is a person who traffics drugs and hires him to deliver them from the airport. All
the above mentioned incidents and characters show the xenophobia that was faced by immigrants
at that time.

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The launderette is another landmark that may be seen in the play. It is a symbol employed
by the author to represent both Omar's independence and liberation. The launderette is a
coin-operated public washing machine and dryer. In this case, however, the writer has
utilized it as a location where race, gender, and sexuality are meaningless, and where one
might recreate himself/herself. It also represents optimism and a brighter future for Omar
and Johnny.

Similarly, the author has not failed to mention women in this narrative. While the fact that
there aren't many female characters in the novel, Tania, Nasser's daughter, who was forced
to adapt to Pakistani cultural standards despite being reared in British society, plays an
important part. Her persona also demonstrates how women live in a world where women
are given same possibilities as men. But, as we can see in the end of the novel, she leaves
the house to get away of all these family issues as well as for her own independence and
liberation. In this situation, we can see that the writer has not neglected to address the
common family concerns that most Asian-cultured families experience. Furthermore, the
playwright also reveals the intimate relationship between Nasser and his mistress Rachel,
in which Tania confronts Rachel about having an affair with her father. There we could see
the effect of westernized ideas to the character Nasser and the writer has presented the
cultural divides and mixture of them. The scene where Rachel gets ill with a skin rash and
it is presented as a ritual curse from Nasser's wife, writer again brings out the mixture of
experience he had with these two cultures.

As a result, we can claim that the author has successfully conveyed themes such as cultural
alienation, identity crisis, and a sense of belonging, gender politics, and sexuality using
narrative tactics, particularly through the romantic connection between Omar and Johnny.
As a result, Hanif Kureish portrays the entire drama as a comedy about how race and class
discourses impact each other and how there is always a need to talk about hybridity by
focusing on social class concerns encountered by immigrants in the majority of the world's
westernized countries.

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2) Compare the theme of “female emancipation” in relation to any

two texts set for your study
The novel "The Waiting Earth" by Punyakante Wijenaike represents the Sri Lankan state, with a
focus on development, as well as the social instability created by resettlement in the 1960s.
Punyakante Wijenaike, a renowned Sri Lankan writer in English whose fictional universe has been
described as a woman's world, examines these issues in the context of Sri Lankan culture, while
the short story Bliss by Katherine Mansfield deals with psychological conflicts, uncertainties of
family and sexual life in the 20th century. To discuss the theme of female emancipation, I would
prefer the two characters, Sellohamy in the novel "The Waiting Earth" and the main character of
the short story "Bliss," Birtha.

Punyakante highlights in her story the good attributes of a husband, who can only be the finest
soother and consoler to a wife even when things are awful. She also depicts the spectral
fluctuations in a woman's life caused by her spouse, who is cruel at times and compassionate at
others, such as Podi Singho. In Bliss, Birtha is a wife as well as a mother from a well-to-do family,
and she obviously looks so happy with the life she has. The word "bliss" is symbolical because
Birtha wants to express her bliss by being with her own baby, and her feelings are aroused by the
baby's smile. We could see some inner thoughts as well as some typical feelings of a wife
throughout the story. However, when we compare the two characters, Sellohamy and Birtha, we
can see that Sellohamy is a loyal wife, despite the fact that there is rumor in the village that Rappiel
Appu and Sellohamy are having an affair, and the worst thing is that her husband and daughter
believe the gossip. Furthermore, Sellohamy must withstand the whole conflict while also
protecting herself from Rappiel Appu's evil clutches. . As a result, Sellohamy may be described as
a loyal and faithful wife. But when it comes to Birtha, even though she attempts to appear joyful,
we can tell that she has fallen for a lady named Pearl, or as the writer refers to this person as her
discovery.
“………and a "find" of Bertha's called Pearl Fulton. What Miss Fulton did, Bertha didn't
know. They had met at the club and Bertha had fallen in love with her, as she always did fall
in love with beautiful women who had something strange about them”

According to the foregoing text, we can see that, despite her appearance as an ideal wife and
mother, Bertha was not truthful to her husband. However, in the latter half of the narrative, we
learn that she intends to address this to his spouse while also stating that she has previously spoken
with this husband where she finds anything unusual in her sentiments. However, we can observe
how Punyakanthi showed a traditional Asian lady who will do anything for her family, but
Mansfield presented a westernized wife who mostly thinks about herself via her tale.

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Consequently, another noticeable fact that can be considered in these two stories is that we can see
that Birtha is always concerned about her expectations and feelings, while Sellohamy is concerned
about her dignity and family. Furthermore, she doesn’t let her daughter go to school at the
beginning because she believes a daughter should always learn to cook and should get ready to
become an ideal wife. When his husband said that Mudalalis's proposal regarding their daughter,
she accepted it without any second thought. "Is there a question of Selling? She asked. These
People are own people and what is wrong in giving our child in marriage to them". So even here,
it shows how Sellohamy tries to fulfill all of her responsibilities for Podi Singho, who longs for
his own piece of land. Despite her lack of education, Sellohamy adheres to Buddha's teachings.
She observes all of her family's conventions and traditions.

In contrast, if we compare the character of Birtha, even though she tries to act as a perfect wife,
even in the short story, through the modern narrative technique of a stream of consciousness, where
we get to know characters through inner thoughts passed through their minds, we can identify that
she always gives priority to her thoughts and as a middle class wife, she enjoys the parties and she
thinks about her happiness all the time. Also, there is no clear end to her thoughts, and towards the
end of the story, she desires her husband for the first time, but when it comes to Sellohamy, she is
always ready to fulfill her responsibilities to her husband.

Hence, we could see that when it comes to the theme of female emancipation, in the story Bliss,
Birtha is restricted from emancipation because she feels frustrated most of the time, and also, at
the end, she finds her husband is cheating on her own "finding," which she could never have
thought of, and in contrast, Sellohamy is trying her hard to fulfill her responsibilities, even though
his husband doubts her. So we can see that both female writers do their best to imply the theme of
female emancipation and the issues that led to these two female characters not enjoying that
emancipation that they should get with the writers’ own experience in their time.

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3) Analyze the effectiveness of literary devices used in any two short stories set
for your study.
“The Yellow Wallpaper," a famous short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, portrays the narrative
of a young woman's steady decline into madness. Also, it is sometimes considered as an early
feminist work that precedes women's voting rights in the United States. Further, it deals with the
tackles challenging issues about women's roles, specifically their mental health, autonomy, and
self-identity. A Private Experience by Chimmanda Ngozi Adichie is a story that is told in the
present tense by a third-person narrator. When telling of events that have not yet happened and
emotions not yet felt, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie uses the future tense. It revokes around the
character Chika is young and has little knowledge about either religion or politics. However at the
end of the story, direct experience, both with the riot and with someone from another religious
group, will change her outlook. Accordingly, both the writers has used many literacy devices to
express their thoughts and ideas to present the story as follows.

The Yellow Wallpaper is a symbol that is used by the writer. The yellow wallpaper initially
fascinates and disgusts the narrator, and her comprehension and interpretation change and intensify
throughout the novel. Because she doesn't have anything else to think about or to stimulate her
mind, the narrator goes to the yellow wallpaper to study and understand. The pattern soon becomes
clear as bars, and she notices a lady inside the pattern. This signifies feeling suffocated.The narrator
feels the woman has emerged from the wallpaper towards the end of the story. This shows that the
narrator has finally succumbed to her madness, becoming one with the home and domesticated
dissatisfaction.

Dramatic and situational irony are used well in "The Yellow Wallpaper." Dramatic literary device
in which the reader is aware of or comprehends information that the characters are unaware of.
Situational irony occurs when a character's actions are intended to accomplish one thing but really
accomplish another. As an example when the narrator first enters the room with the yellow
wallpaper, she thinks it's a nursery. The reader can readily see, however, that the chamber might
just as well have been used to confine a mentally disturbed individual. Moreover, the clearest
example of situational irony is John's continued prescription of the rest-cure, which considerably
worsens the narrator's condition. He encourages her to sleep more after meals, which causes her
to be awake and aware at night, when she has time to sit and assess the wallpaper.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has used several literacy devices such as Simile, Metaphor, Imagery,
Flashback, Flash Forward, Comparison and Repetition throughout her story.

This place safe," the woman says, in a voice that is so soft it sounds like a whisper. "Them not
going to small-small shop, only big-big shop and market."

In the above phrase to imply about the circumstances and also to present the experience which this
Muslim woman had and the chika didn’t, writer has used a simile as above. Furthermore, in the
story we can find more similes such as above to indicate different themes of the story.

Moreover, writer has used the technique Imagery which is a mental picture, portrait or illusion
created as a result of a reader’s reaction in understanding the short story. In this story, writer has

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used different kinds of imagery such as Auditory, Visual, Olfactory, Kinestic Imagery. Most of
the time, We can see many instances where chika passes comments about the woman. In those
instances Adichie has used Visual imagery where in these construct mental images by Chika
regarding the women. Also, another noticeable thing that writer has done is using two imageries
at once. As an example, “Chika will imagine the man's head, his skin ashen in death, and she
will throw up and retch until her stomach is sore.” Here, both Visual and Kinesthetic Imagery
are used.

Repition is another literacy device that has used in this short story. Repetition of “Window, Hausa
Muslim and Igbo Christain, Scarf, Riot, the woman are some instances. Also, a major technique
that has been used by writer is repetition. But she has no reason to agree or disagree, she knows
nothing about riots” Here, writer compares the knowledge of Chika, Nnedi and woman about
riots which shows Chika doesn’t know about riots but Woman has more experience and knowledge
about riots. Also, the empathy towards the women is also illustrated where Chicka’s thoughts are
given as a typical lady as “It was the same with my mother. Her nipples cracked when the sixth
child came” Furthermore, throughout the story we can see that writer compares Situation inside
the store and the outside of the store.

Therefore, to sum up that has been stated so far, I would like to state that both the writers has tried
their best to use unique literacy devices as above to complete their short stories to confess their
messages and morals to the society.

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6) Priscilla Hart is a victim of politics at a particular period of history in India.

Substantiate the above argument with detailed reference to Shashi Tharoor’s
Riot.

The novel “Riot” by Shashi Tharoor spin a young ambitious American student named Priscilla
Hart travels to India to help with a female population-control awareness initiative. Priscilla meets
a handsome, but extremely married, government official while working in the little village of
Zalilgarh. Both of them feel an instant connection, and a tumultuous, covert love affair. However,
as a typical Indian Author, Shashi Tharoor has also been interested in history, politics, and culture.
This strong concern was perhaps inescapable given that the genre started and expanded
concurrently with the end of colonial authority, stirrings of nationalist feeling, and its full blooming
in the last stages of the liberation movement in India. Therefore, I would like to agree with the
above statement in the question.

Riot is based on a real occurrence involving a riot in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh.The fictional
portrayal of the riot, as well as the real-life events surrounding the Coca-Cola problem in India and
the Ram Janam Bhoomi/Babri Masjid clashes, all lead to a perspective of history that views history
to be fiction. Riot signifies the beginning of a new narrative perspective, since it obviously deviates
from being a portrayal of social reality. Rather of portraying a pre-existing reality or perspective,
the novel develops into a form of discourse production of ideas and an expression of multiple
opinions generating unique ties to historical events. Hence, we could say that with all these
surrondings writer wanted to see Priscilla as a victim of politics in this post- colonial Era.

Furthermore, with all these reasons writer also wanted present the themes such as cultural collision,
specifically the Hindu/Muslim collision, the American/Indian collision, and within India, the
collision between the English-educated elites of India and people in the rural heartland to bring
out Priscilla Hart as a victim of Politics in India at that time. And also, it is quite controversial
because the incident writer has used because it is quite rare where an English lady would come to
volunteer or work in a Post-Colonial Country. But from that also, writer tries to show the political
background of the country at that time. At the same time, even the affair that she has with
government official Lakshman shows how she ended up being Sufferer. It said that she was dead
during a riot but through these incidents writer also shows unknowability of truth and Love and
Hate that has faced by the character Priscilla Hart.

Moreover, Tharoor revisits the past with objectivity and irony, converting it into historiographical
meta-fiction that debunks history by depicting historical events and individuals.

“NEW DELHI, India, Oct 1 (AP) – A Rioting mob attacked and killed an American woman
in town east …..”

When it comes to writing a book as history, Shashi Tharoor is no different from a journalist. He
uses journalistic research, diary writing, and interviews as we can see in the whole book to convey
reality from various angles essential to his story. He is a writer who writes "with hatred for and for
everyone." He holds nothing precious and enjoys the task of slamming the establishment—the

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established order of things, whether social, political, cultural, religious, or historical—casting

aspersions on even the most distinguished.

Thus, at the end of the novel we can see that where U.S embassy spokesman says ‘that she was
simply in the wrong place at the wrong time” which evidently proves the above phrase in the
question where she just became a victim of Political Struggle in India. Therefore, we can identify
how Tharoor has worked hard to highlight the circumstances and history of conflict between two
religions, as well as a love tale of cross-cultural beings. It exposes concerns that go beyond the
confines of time, location, and culture to shed light on bigger themes. Also, the news of her death
is reported in all major worldwide publications, with headlines such as 'American Slain in India,'
'Death of an Idealist,' 'An American Death in India,' and so on proves that the focus of 'Riot' is not
Priscilla Hart's death but rather she is presented as a victim of commentary on modern India
grappling with the rising forces of communal violence which as a result of political insurgencies
that happened in India in the post-colonial era.