For this Week: The Picture of Faith

Remember, this entire week (or part of the week, if it goes faster) we're going to read your images of faith/belief and discuss how they relate to the quotes you've chosen. This is our "text" for the week and you must be present to discuss your picture/description. This is a small part of your Paper #2 assignment, but an important one, since it can help you write the paper (it's kind of like a warm up). Also, you can hear other people talk about their images and that can help you consider how you plan to approach your subject. 

If you haven't given me your image and passage already please do so immediately. I will randomly go through the images in class, and the less images I have, the more time we'll spend discussing each one. So, if we run out of time and your image hasn't been discussed, you'll get a zero for this (easy) part of the assignment. So don't be left in the cold! 

See you next week...

For Friday: Narayan, The Guide, Chs.10-11

Answer TWO of the following: 

Q1: How does Raju’s transformation begin in prison? Why is it appropriate that he became a visionary in the place where his vision was most restricted?

Q2: Since most of the novel is actually Raju’s narration of his story to Velan, to expose the hypocrisy of his career as a guru, how does Velan respond to this? What might this say about the nature of Velan’s faith—and what he sees in his guru?

Q3: What makes Raju finally decide to make “an earnest effort; for the first time he was learning the thrill of full application, outside money and love” (189)? Is this, too, tinged with a secret motive? Or has he finally decided to become the guide every expects of him?

Q4: How do you think we’re supposed to read the ending? Do you think the rains are coming—and does this matter? Is the manner of Raju’s death (if he dies) noble, or is he simply trapped in the role fate laid out for him? Has Narayan redeemed his hero, or just caught him in an inescapable trap? 

For Wednesday: Narayan, The Guide, Chapters Eight & Nine

NOTE: Remember that I’ll be gone on Monday due to a dental procedure out of town (ugh). So we’ll have to reschedule class for Wednesday, at which time we’ll discuss the next two chapters. If you missed class on Wednesday (before break), I handed out the second paper assignment, which you can find below. Read it carefully, though I’ll discuss it again on Wednesday.

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: At the end of Chapter Nine, Rosie says, “I felt all along you were not doing right things. This is karma. What can we do?” (170). Do you think Narayan agrees with this? Are all of Raju’s problems due to his karma—or his refusal to follow his duty? Or does Narayan offer more “Western” reasons for his ultimate failure?

Q2: How does Raju manage to jumpstart Rosie’s career as a dancer? How might this be linked to his abilities as a guide and a guru? What glimpse of his character do we get here, and how might it explain the villagers’ fascination with him in the ‘present’?

Q3: According to Raju’s family, Rosie is a “saithan,” or she-devil who has possessed him and made him betray his family. Even Marco, her own husband, dismisses her as an abomination. How does Narayan want us to view this “modern” woman with her love of ancient tradition? Is he suggesting that such women have no place in Indian life? Or is he more sympathetic to her than to Raju himself?

Q4: In Chapter Nine, Raju reflects that “I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing in this world can be hidden or suppressed. All such attempts are like holding an umbrella to conceal the sun” (156). How might this connect to similiar wisdom in the Tao te Ching or The Bhagavad Gita. What me he—or Narayan—actually be saying in this passage?

Non-Western Literature, Paper #2: The Picture of Faith

Our last two works, The Bhagavad Gita and The Guide are both about the nature of faith and enlightenment, and how we can recognize the presence of the divine. In one work, Krishna turns out to be a lowly charioteer, and in the other, a crooked guide suddenly assumes the role of Mahatma for an isolated village. Each work also tries to illustrate what faith looks like, so we can see the “moon” behind the finger and clearly distinguish the two. Though the two works might not completely agree with each other (Narayan is writing a thousand or so years later), they both believe there is indeed a moon to be found if we look carefully enough, even if others deny its existence.

PART ONE: So for your second paper, I want you to find your own illustration of faith. By this, I mean find an image (photo, painting, etc.) that represents something about how you express or illustrate the concept of “faith.” Whether you consider yourself religious or not, we all understand the concept of faith and believe in something, even if only a vague notion of good and evil, or justice, or love. Find an image that represents some aspect of this and describe it in the beginning of your paper: assume we’ve never seen it, so describe it as accurately as possible, while also interpreting for us (explain why it represents your notion of faith).

PART TWO: After you describe your image, I want you to add a significant quotation from any of the works from class (from Writings from Ancient Egypt to The Guide) to caption your image (a few sentences to a paragraph). Imagine this image will be on display with the caption below it, as a way of explaining the image. Choose a passage that you feel can help “illustrate” what you saw in the picture or can help illustrate the words. In the paper, I want you to introduce the work and context of the passage (explain where it comes from), and then analyze the quotation, explaining what you think it means and how it relates to your work of art. Remember, you can choose any quotation you think is useful, but choose something that would help someone see more in the image and about your faith.

ALSO: After you write your paper, e-mail me your image and passage. I will paste all of them into a Powerpoint file and we will share them with the entire class. Don’t worry, this will be very informal; all I want you to do is briefly explain the image and quote when I flip through your slide. This is meant to be an interesting way to share our ideas and take a brief interlude from the normal business of class.

REQUIREMENTS

• At least 2-3 pages, double spaced
• Detailed description and analysis of the work of art
• A pertinent quote from one of the books which is quoted and given appropriate context, and then discussed with the photo/painting
• DUE DATES: Need Picture & Passage by Friday, October 27th; Completed Paper due no later than Friday, November 3rd (the last day of presentations)
• We will present/discuss the images on the week of September 30th in random order, so be ready to discuss it. The paper is worth 15 points, and the presentation is worth 5 points, so skipping or not being prepared will affect your grade. 

For Monday: Narayan, The Guide, Chs.6-7

Photo by Steve McCurry

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Why does Raju agree to fast for two weeks in knee-deep water even though he knows he’s not the savior they expect? Does he begin to believe in his own power and his divine “role”? Or is he merely buying time and hoping against hope?

Q2: Marco and Rosie both seem to represent “modern” India, one that has one foot in the East and one in the West. Does Narayan suggest that they have made the inevitable compromise of the postcolonial world? Or does he intend to satirize one—or both—of them?  In his mind, can you be a Western Indian, or is such a marriage doomed to failure?

Q3: What is the significance of Rosie's dancing in the novel?  Why is her husband so disgusted by it, and why does it even shock Raju's mother?  How might this relate to the caste system, which even after Independence continues to shape the society’s values?

Q4: To return to our in-class writing question on Friday, can a man be a guru or even a Mahatma even he secretly doesn’t believe in his own power? The villagers consider it a great honor to even stand near him, not realizing that he is secretly thinking of food and escape. Is this proof that he is ‘evil’ or fraudulent...or is this merely a necessary stage in his Enlightenment? 

For Friday: Narayan, The Guide, Chapters 1-5 (only added one chapter to last Wedneday's reading)

NOTE: Since I got the impression that not everyone had read the novel, I want to do an overview of the first Four Chapters, as well as add Chapter Five for Friday. No questions, but we will do an in-ciass response when you come to class. I talked a bit about the difficulty of being a postcolonial writer in class on Wednesday, so consider how Narayan writes between two worlds--English and Indian--and what he translates for a Western audience and what he doesn't. Also, consider how much of Raju's story is specifically Eastern--drawing on The Bhagavad Gita, in particular.

See you then! 

For Wednesday: Narayan, The Guide, Chs.1-4 (pp.1-40)

Photo by Steve McCurry 

For Wednesday, start reading Narayan's The Guide, a novel that brings the 'Non-Western' world into the 20th century.  In this book, Raju, a con-man and criminal, has recently been released from jail and winds up being mistaken for a holy man by a local peasant.  While conning this peasant and his village, Raju begins narrating the story of his life which leads up to his arrest; the result is the story of one man's struggle for identity in the midst of India's own identity crisis after over 200 years of British colonization. We’ll talk about some of the context of India, colonization, and the use of English as an ‘Indian’ language in class, since this book is not translated—it was actually written in English.  

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Even though Narayan wrote the novel in English, he also spoke Tamil, a South Indian language, so he is in effect writing from two cultures.  Even though the story is ‘translated’ into an English-language novel, are there some practices or concepts he doesn’t translate? What aspects of the book seem to need more translation or explanation, and why do you think Narayan didn’t provide this?

Q2: Remember that The Bhagavad Gita urges us to “do thy duty, even if it be humble, rather than another’s, even if it be great. To die in one’s duty is life: to live in another’s is death” (20). How might this explain why Raju agrees to be a holy man for the village? While some would call him a criminal, how does Raju see—and defend—himself?

Q3: How does Raju find his calling early in life?  What attracts him to the role of a 'guide,' even though he has very little knowledge to begin with?  Consider his statement on page 36, "I learned much from scrap."

Q4: How might Raju’s saintliness, at least in the eyes of the villagers, echo the events of Kumare? What do they see/find in him, and how much of this is through his own doing? If we all seek the guru inside us, what are they looking for—and finding—in Raju?