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| 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
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
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?
Joshua Willis
ReplyDeleteQ1: Seeing as Raju had planned to cheat and sneak food when people were not looking, I feel it is readily observable that his intentions were less than pure. However, I would also categorically state that Raju is not a bad person. Despite most of what he does being misconstrued nonsense, he is often trying to give good advice when he can get away with it.
Q3: They are shocked because she is a dancer. Dancers are a "low caste" profession. There is a stigma that will exist in India for well past the foreseeable future.
1. Because he figured that he didn't have any other choice. That to save this village, he needed to become something that he knew he was not. He was using the role for the food and fame, but never thought there would come a time when he would have to use it to save a village from a big disaster. Even talking to Valem, he doesn't want to actually do it, he's just trying to put on a good show and keep something that they hold high, alive.
ReplyDelete3. It shows that there is an individual in everyone that just wants to be out and move around and live in all of us. The husband hates it so much because it is forbidden to show off like the dancing does, looking at it like it is fowl and could kill a man. Raju's mother sees it semi the same way, but also seeing the individuality in her at the same time. Each person in each group has their own individuality, but they cannot express it because the women are prevented and forbidden from doing anything without a man at their side, and even then it is very limiting at what they can do.
Q2: There's an innocence to Marco and Rosie - a simplicity that seems indicative of people trying on another culture. Rosie seems both western and eastern - embodying the tension between the two; and Marco seems to be trying too hard to be western - valuing only the academic even to the extent that his wife must also serve only the academic. Indeed, Raju relates how Marco praises Joseph, the man who is taking care of him while he studies the cave paintings, saying he thinks maybe Joseph would be the best wife for Marco - silent in his service and almost unnoticeable. Not messy and ETHNIC like Rosie.
ReplyDeleteQ3: Rosie's dancing is a sign of her caste and her ethnicity. This ethnicity seems to be too messy and undisciplined for Marco; or perhaps anything at which she excelled would be met with the same disgust by her husband. The accusation that she is trying to compete with him (as though competition is the least desirable thing in a wife) is a sentiment which is shared by many modern men in the west. There are Christian sects which do not allow women to speak in church or to church leaders because it is a sign that the women are placing themselves on the same level as the men and that just is not allowed. Just a missing rib, seems to be the fearful narrative that is being played out between them; and shaming her for her ethnicity and cultural practices is just another tool to ensure her submission.
(I'm sorry to submit this a bit late!)