Answer TWO of the
following…
Q1: How does Naipaul
satirize democratic elections in a postcolonial nation? How does the system not work—and how is the
very idea of democracy often misunderstood by Ganesh and others?
Q2: Once the American
soldiers arrive in Trinidad , America Britain
Q3: Once Ganesh enters
politics he emulates the reforms and ideals of Gandhi, who liberated India
Q4: How do you understand
the end of the book, when the narrator, now a grown man, encounters Ganesh in London
Q1: Naipaul satirizes democratic elections and democracy as a whole really well in this book. The residents of Trinidad have no clue what they're doing, but know the names and labels of different representatives. The first glimpse I got of this was when they were deciding positions and responsibilities for The Dharma. They ended up voting, but not really, because Ganesh was the ultimate leader and made the choices. They ended up with a business manager, a sub-editor, an editor in chief, and an editor. That's just too many editors for a 4 page paper. They were also really corrupt and infiltrated the association with blood thirsty attitudes and added more "delegates" and added more "branches" with a total of around 60 branches. Basically it was just chaos. They had no order or reasoning, they just knew they liked Ganesh and didn't like Narayan. They don't understand that a democracy is ruled by elected officials, but they do understand that it's ruled by the majority.
ReplyDeleteQ4: I understood this as Ganesh pursuing his political goals and traveling as a representative for Trinidad. I assumed that he changed his name to a more western sounding name so he could blend in with his surroundings better. He's been good at that the entire book. G. Ramsay Muir sounds much more European than Ganesh Ramsumair. Also I think that he probably recognized the boy from his mystic days and acted coldly to him when addressed by his Trinidadian name because he was trying to leave that part of his life behind and live under a new identity free from the bad memories of his past.
Q2: Coke. Good ol’ Coca-Cola. To most foreign countries, the best thing America has ever exported. The two worldwide representatives of the U-S-of-A are the President and Coke. Also, america represents high culture to the people of Trinidad, so whatever they can get their hands on from america is immediately going to be put on a pedestal and praised as amazing. Like their fancy names.
ReplyDeleteQ4: G. Ramsay Muir is the English and Americanized version of Ganesh. He has become “civilized” and with civilization comes an idea of being proper and upstanding. How can you do that with a name like “Mystic Ganesh Ramsumair”? How do you garner any respect in the field of politics in a Westernized world with a mystic eastern name? You don’t. So you change yourself to conform to whatever you believe to be important.
Q1: The people of Trinidad are shown to have a knowledge of elections, knowing what roles exist and what larger governments do with it, however, they don’t seem to understand how to apply it. They’re whole system is corrupted and quite frankly, almost redundant. The people who were the leaders before the election are always the people who were the leaders after. Ganesh was the symbolic leader (if not the real leader) of a large amount of the Hindu Association, but they still felt the need to elect him to position. They almost have a strange reverence of leadership, as we see with Narayan and Ganesh. They become leaders simply because they have power and knowledge, not because they are particularly qualified to lead.
ReplyDeleteQ4: Ganesh has decided to integrate himself into English society. From the specification that he said his new name “coldly”, its implied that not only has he done this, he wants to remove himself from Trinidadian society all together. Ganesh has decided that he wants to be a member of the English society. Likely, it is because he has slowly been elevated higher and higher among the power ladder through his life, and with his pledging to fight against communism, he might find it best to do so in English society, which has more impact on the global culture as a whole.
Q1: Trinidad is a society that has trouble coping with the sudden political change thrust upon them as a newly independent land. The way in which the politicians try to emulate British dignitaries might signify that the island doesn't really know how to think for itself yet, and they rely on British culture (or something that looks like it) to feel confident in their political system. Democracy is a brand new concept to the Trinidadians. Also, without a Western power to guide them, the island finds itself too diverse to easily decide on a direction to take in shaping its own culture. Like I mentioned in one of the in-class questions, Trinidad is an Eastern world that secretly wants to be Western. Ganesh is no exception, and his Eastern roots and Imperial idolization prevent him from understanding the workings of democratic government.
ReplyDeleteQ3: Ganesh is only trying to copy the image of Gandhi. Personally, I think saying that Ganesh is deliberately manipulating the people of Trinidad by channelling Gandhi would be giving him a bit too much credit. I think that Ganesh believes in his own sincerity, or at least he feels to a certain extent that he is doing the right thing. However, Ganesh is far more concerned with the social status that comes with his political position. Anything he does beyond that point is sort of a "Well, since I'm here I might as well do some good" type of mentality.
Q1: Naipaul satirizes democracy in a postcolonial nation very well. He explains fully how twisted and faint their idea of democracy is. Their idea of democracy is more like the idea of dictatorship with a few "representatives". No matter what each representative thinks, they always conform to what a higher up thinks. They vote in the way of their leader and never go against them. They misunderstand the idea of democracy fully because of this. There are no distinct parties, just one single opinion from the "president" and no other opinions are expressed. They are like little minions saying, "yes master" to whoever is president because they know no better.
ReplyDeleteQ2: Americans begin to influence Trinidadians from the very first day they arrived in Trinidad. I mean, Ganesh has a toilet paper roller that sings yankee doodle dandy, you cannot get much more American than that. Also, Ganesh and Leela base some of their mansion just on the fact that American soldiers will be seeing it. The Americans also bring ideas into Trinidad, like democracy and Christianity. The Hindu people were amazed at the soldiers commitment to their religion. This made Ganesh rather intrigued by the Christian faith, being he had paintings of Jesus and Mary in his mansion.
Q1: Naipaul shows us that the "democracy" that the Trinidadians begin to use is meaningless. They miss the whole point of having elections and being able to the leader yourself as the people of Trinidad. The same people were in control and had all the power after the elections. Like most of the book Naipaul was showing us the Trinidad culture and how much emphasis it puts just on the "form" of things. They believe they are a democracy because of the ability to vote. But what is the point of that if you truly don't understand that the people have the true power of a democratic government. As the people you are able to elect who will lead the country. They don't understand this, all they think is that they have to appearance of a democracy.
ReplyDeleteQ3: Ganesh tries his whole life to be in a position of high regard and respect. Not necessarily by doing something good, but just by appearing to have knowledge and power. I believe he thinks he is doing something good for his people by bring them "healing" and making them more civil with politics. But to me it just seems he is looking to improve his status and personal gain in his culture. His goal in life, I believe, is to get out of Trinidad and become a western citizen and in order to do that he cannot be a part of the Trinidadian culture.
Q2: America had been influencing Trinidad since its creation. They look to America to decide what is considered high class. So Ganesh tried to institute a view that he was high class by having many American things, such as a singing toilet and the biggest thing, Coca-Cola. He instituted the "American" culture even more by giving people some degree of Coke to drink whenever they came over to speak with him.
ReplyDeleteQ4: I believe that Ganesh changed his name to escape his past. It would have been harder to escape his past after he left due to the colonial office reporting him as an "irresponsible agitator with no followers." Another reason for the name change could have been to blend into his culture. I think Ganesh got tired of his life in the spotlight, and decided to have a relaxing life in the shadows. The first way to accomplish that would be to change his name so he's unrecognizable.