Poetry Analysis Mystic Drum Where I To Choose Telephonic conversation

 

M.A.Part-2 Sem-3

African Literature

Poetry Analysis Mystic Drum Where I To Choose Telephonic conversation

By: Jayshree Kunchala   Submitted To: Heenaba Zala Dept.Of English M.K.Bhavnagar University Bhavnagar

 

Introduction About Poet:

Gabriel Okara

Gabriel Okara is one of the most significant and serious early Nigerian poets. The motifs of childhood, innocence and nostalgia run through many of his poems. He is often concerned about the identity of African people.

“I have endeavored in my works to keep as close as possible to the vernacular expressions. For from a word a group of words a sentence and even a name in any African language one can glean the social norms attitude and values if a people.”

Okara’s remarks are clear contrary to the example of Nazi Boni Okara’s writing is a conscious attempt to use the words and expressions in the way he has chosen. Both poems are famous and thus they show okara’s potentiality in writing poems.

Cultural conflict is one of the most striking points in African poetry. In African what is culture and tradition that seems uncultured or peculiar to the western. African poet Gabriel okara focuses the ice cold attitude of Europeans to the African culture. In African what is traditional and cultured and humorous to Europeans. They also represent the African culture in humiliated sense.

Gabriel jibaba okara was born on 24 April 1921. He is Nigerian poet and novelist who were born in Bomoundi in Bayelsa state, Nigeria. He was awarded the commonwealth poetry award in 1979.his most famous poem is “you laughed & laughed & laughed” it’s a frequent feature of anthologies. Okara is worried about the attack of western culture over the African ancient culture. His poem once upon a time deals with same theme also his novel “the voice” depicts this theme in to protagonist okara like many post colonial. African is haunted by society and society by his own ideals. Unfortunately many of okara’s many scripts have been destroyed in the civil war.

Gabriel okara was born in Nigeria when there was a British colony and indeed would be nearly forty years before his country was to gain independence in October 1960. During his life okara did jobs like initially working as a book binder. Journalist radio broadcaster and news paper editor. He has also travelled to the USA where he helped raise money for Nigeria by giving poetry recitals.

Okara’s poems tend reflect the problems that African’s notions face as they are torn between the culture of their European colonialist and their traditional African heritage. He also look at the traumatic effect that colonization and de-colonization can have on the self and a one’s sense of personal  identity for example okara often depicts character suffering from culture shock as they are torn between this two irreconcilable cultures. On the one hand there is Christianity and the definite. Material benefit such as classroom education and well paid jobs that the European way of life offers while on the other hand there is the unspoken expectation that the true African was allegiance to his original tribal culture and should embrace these roots.

Mystic Drum

The mystic Drum is okara’s love lyric. The Mystic Drum evinces a tripartite ritual pattern of imitation from innocence through intimacy to experience by comparison to the way of zone as manifested in the experience of Zen master Chin Yuan- wei-Asian this pattern resolves itself into an emotional and epistemic logical journey from conventional knowledge to learn of experiences empowers the lover to understand that beneath the surface attractiveness of what we know very well may lie an abyss of the unknown and unknowable  belching darkness. But experience teaches us at this stage of substantial knowledge not to expose ourselves to the dangers of being beholden to this unknown and unknowable reality by keeping our passions under strict control including the prudent decision to ‘pack’ the ‘mystic drum’ of our innocence and evanescence making sure that it dose not beat so loud any more.

Okara mentions in one of his interviews that the mystic drum is essentially a have poem:

This was a lady I loved and she coyly was not responding directly but I adored her demeanor seemed a mask her true feelings at a distance she seemed adoring however on coming closer she was after all not what she seemed.

This lady may stand as an emblem that represents the lure of western life how it seemed appealing at first but the mystic drum and light.

“The mystic drum beat in my

And fishes danced in the rivers

And men and women danced on land

To the rhythm of my Drum.

“But standing behind a tree

With leaves around her waist

She only smiled with a shake of her head.

“the drum in African poems generally stands for the spiritual pulse of traditional African life the poet asserts that first as the drum beat inside him fishes danced in the rivers man and women danced on the land to the rhythm of drum but standing behind the three there stood and outsider who smiled with an air with quickened tempo. Compelling dead to dance and sing with their shadows. The ancestral glory over powers other outside rations so power full mystic drum that is brings back evens the dead alive. The rhythm of the drum is the aching for an ideal Nigerian state of harmony.

The outsider is used in the poem for western imperialism that was looked western alien and there for incomprehensible for their own good as the other. the African culture is so much in tune with nature that the mystic drum invokes the sun the moon the river gods and the trees began to dance. The gap finally gets bridged between humanity and nature the animal world and human world the hydrosphere and lithosphere that fishes turned men, and men become fishes. Life now become dry logical and  mechanical  thanks to western scientific imperialism and everything found its place leaves started sprouting on the woman she started to flourish on the land. Gradually her roots struck on ground   spreading a kind of parched rationalism smoke issued from her lips and her lips parted smile the term suggestive of the pollution caused by industrialization and also the clouding of morals ultimately the speaker was left in the bleaching darkness alludes to the futility and hollowness the imposed existence the outside at the first only has an objective role standing behind the tree. Eventually she intrudes and tries to behave their spiritual life the leaves around her waist very much suggestive of eve who adorned the same after losing her innocence. Leaves start growing on the trees but only sprout on her head implying deforestation. The refrain remains us again and again that this eve turns out to be the eve Nigerian damnation.

The poem where I to choose is reminiscent of yeast poem cold Adam’s curse. The poet has tried to compare Adam’s toiling in the soil with the Negros working in the soil. They broke the stone themselves which was their very foundation. The red streams are symbolized for the multilingual diversity that reaches the womb Africa.

Cain in this poem metaphorically represents the next generation. ‘I’ in Okara’s poems generally refers to the tribe. The poet implies that he is currently imprisoned in the present generation and the crisis of identity of generation. The earlier generations gaze would not go beyond; but he does and to him the world is looked at from the brink.

                 The poem is written in 1950, the period of Nigerian independence, the poet sees his ancestors-their slavery, their groping lips, the breasts molted by heart-rending suffering. The poet’s vision goes outside and backgrounds. The memory is like a thread going through his ears.

          The poet compares Cain with modern man, Cain was a wonderer and if he was caught by anybody, he would be definitely slain. Similar is the condition of the modern uneducated man who does not pass any aim. The poet, at the age of 31, is multilingual and thinks about the medium of his instruction. The tower of Babel symbolizes unity. When the ‘Tower of Babel’ was constructed, God cursed the concerned people. The people wanted to construct a great tower signifying oneness and around it people would stand united. They wanted to speak the same language but God despised the fact. There is no proper foundation or structure remaining. His world has deteriorated to ‘world of bones’.

Telephone Conversation

By Wole Soyinka

                                                                     

Telephone Conversation depicts a conversation between a white lady and an African American man which casts a harsh light on the racism and prejudice which grips society.The title reveals the fact that two people are talking on the phone, so the beginning of the poem is on a positive note: The man is searching for a house and the land lady has named a considerable price, and the area where it is located is an impartial and not racially prejudiced. Also the man could enjoy his privacy as the land lady does not live under the same roof. The African man is ready to accept the offer, but maybe there has been a similar incident in his past, for he stops and admits to her that he is black, saying he prefers not to waste the time travelling there if she’s going to refuse him on that bounds.
There is silence at the other end; silence which the black man thinks is the reluctant result of an inbred sense of politeness. However he is wrong because when she speaks again, she disregards all formalities and asks him to explain how dark he is. The man first thinks he has misheard but then realizes that that is not true as she repeats her question with a varying emphasis. Feeling as if he has just been reduced to the status of a machine, similar to the telephone in front of him, and asked to choose which button he is, the man is so disgusted that he can literally smell the stench coming from her deceptive words and see red everywhere around him. Ironically he is the one who is ashamed by the tense and awkward silence which follows, and asks for clarification thinking sarcastically that the lady was really helpful by giving him options to choose from. He suddenly understands what she is trying to ask, and repeats her question to her stating if she would like him to compare himself with chocolate, dark or light? She dispassionately answers and his thoughts change as he describes himself as a West African Sepia as it says in his passport. The lady remains quite for a while, not wanting to admit to her ignorance, but then she gives in to curiosity and asks what that is. He replies that it is similar to brunette and she immediately clarifies that that’s dark.
Now the man has had enough of her insensitiveness. He disregards all constraints of formality and mocks her outright, saying that he isn’t all black, the soles of his feet and the palms of his hands are completely white, but he is foolish enough to sit on his bottom so it has been rubbed black due to friction. But as he senses that she is about to slam the receiver on him, he struggles one last time to make her reconsider, pleading her to at least see for herself; only to have the phone slammed on him. Wole Soyinka uses two main literary devices to drive home the message of the poem. The first of the two is imagery. Right at the beginning, the imagery used to describe the mental image the man has of the woman: “lipstick coated, gold rolled cigarette holder piped”, just from listening to her voice shows one that he thinks that she is, socially speaking above him, from a higher social class.
Then when he hears her question regarding how dark he is, he is so humiliated and angry that he sees red everywhere. The imagery of the huge bus squelching the black tar is symbolic of how the dominant white community treats those belonging to the minor black one.
The next most evident use is that of irony. In the beginning of the poem, the African says that he has to “self-confess” when he reveals his skin color to the lady. The color of his skin is something that he has no control over, and even if he did, it is not a sin to be dark skinned, so the fact that the man feels ashamed and sorry for this is ironical and casts light on how ridiculous racism is that one should apologize or be differentiated against solely because of the color of one’s skin. Also, it seems almost comical that anyone should be so submissive when he has actually committed no mistakes.
On the other hand, the lady is continuously described in positive terms, suggesting that she is of a good breeding and upper class. Even when the reader finds out that she is a shallow and racist person who exhibits extreme insensitivity by asking crude questions, the man seems to think that she is ‘considerate; and her clinical response to his question shows only ‘light impersonality.’ The repeated and exaggerated assertions of the woman’s good manners and sophistication drip with irony as her speech contradict this strongly.
Also the basis of the woman rejecting to lease her house to the man is because of the prejudiced notion that African Americans are a savage and wild people. This idea is completely discredited by the ironical fact that throughout the poem the man retains better manners and vocabulary than the woman, using words such as “spectroscopic” and “rancid”, whereas she does not know what West African Sepia is and is inconsiderate in her inquiries. Using irony in this manner, Soyinka proves how absurd it is to judge the intellect or character of a man depending on the color of his skin only.

The poem deals with a foul subject, that of racism and prejudice, in a lighthearted, almost comical manner. A most important device which Soyinka has used to highlight this sense of racism, which was previously widespread in western society, is that of the telephone. Had the person been speaking face to face with the lady, this whole conversation would never have taken place. She would have either refused outright, or would have found a more subtle way of doing so. The whole back and forth about ‘how dark’ the man is wouldn’t have occurred. Thus the telephone is used to make the issue of racism clear and prove how nonsensical it really is.
Written in an independent style and delivered in a passively sarcastic tone, this poem is a potent comment on society. Soyinka might be speaking through personal experience, judging by the raw emotions that this poem subtly convey: those of anger, rage, shame, humility and an acute sense of disgust at the apathy and inhumanity of humans who won’t judge a book by its cover but would turn down a man for the color of his skin. In today’s world, racism might be a dying concern; but that does not mean that discrimination against other minorities has been completely eradicated. Despite the progressing times, people continue to harbor prejudices and illogical suspicions about things they do not understand: may it be others ideals, religions or traditions and customs. Thus this poem remains a universal message for all of us, as Soyinka manages to convey just how absurd all prejudices are by highlighting the woman’s poor choice of rejecting the man just because he does not share the same skin color.
‘Telephone Conversation’ is a favorite, both for its excellent use of rich language and the timeless message it conveys.

“were I to choose”

By Gabriel Okara

“When Adam broke the stone

and red streams raged down to

gather in the womb”

                                                       Adam’s toiling in the soil can be compared to the Negros working in the soil. They broke the stone themselves which was their very foundation. The red streams are symbolic of multilingual diversity that reaches the womb Africa. These lines present it,

“in Cain, unblinking gaze”

Cain metaphorically represents the next generation. ‘I’ in Okara’s poems generally refers to the tribe. This lines talks about Cain,

“and thirty turns, the world

Of bones is Babel, and”

 The earlier generation’s gaze would not go beyond. Written in 1950, the period ofNigerian Independence, the poet sees his ancestors – their slavery, their groping lips, the breasts muted by heart – rendering suffering.At the turn of 31years, the poet is multi – lingual and he wonders what should be the medium of his instruction. The tower of Babel symbolizes unity.

“And when the harmattan

of days has parched the throat”

 During the construction of the Tower of Babel, God cursed the people concerned. God despised the very fact there now remains no proper foundation, or structure and his world has deteriorated to a ‘world of bones.’He wants free himself from the imprisonment of this dark halo. The poet likens his predicament with the Harmattan, a parching wind mingling with dust during the month Dec. to Feb. inNigeria. The colonial period has made him an amalgam of European and Africancultures, and now he finds himself in a no man’s land. He relishes the idea of resolving the crisis by seeking refuge in the silence of the grave. He, then, would be even cheating the worms because he would enjoy that state of affairs.

Okara’s remarks are clear. Contrary to the example of Nazi Boni, Okara’s writing is a conscious attempt to use the words and expressions in the way he has chosen. Both poems are famous and thus they show Okara’s potentiality in writing poems.

Image of India as delineated by Adiga.

M.A.Part-2 Sem-3

New Literature

Image of India as delineated by Adiga.

By: Jayshree Kunchala Submitted To: Dr.Dilip Barad Dept.Of English M.K.Bhavnagar University Bhavnagar

Aravind Adiga’s the White Tiger

Introduction

Indian writing in English holds the sway and continues to make waves on the international scene. Detractors may not like it, but it goes without saying that Indian writers have made a mark. Writing from India or form the diasporas speeches they have been writing international awards including the Nobel prize, Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Commonwealth Prize, Sahitya Akademi Awards and many others. 

Aravind Adiga was born to Dr.K.Madhava Adiga and Usha Adiga on 23 October 1974, in Chennai. He spent his child hood in Mangalore by the Malabar Coast; he studied at Canara High School and then at. Aloysius High School where he completed his SSLC in 1990. After immigrating to Sydney, Australia with his family, he studied at James Ruse Agricultural High School. For further education he went to the state and studied English literature at Columbia University in New York Where he Studied with Simon Schama and graduated as Salutatorian in 1997. He also studied at Magdalena Collage Oxford having secured a scholarship and had Hermione Lee as one of his tutors.

The social evils that are projected, and often suggested in these skeptches are elaborated in the novel The White Tiger. Adiga comes out as a angry young man of India who shouts at the politicians for not taking basic steps to lift the 400 million Indians who lives in extreme poverty, at the executives whose Corrupt practices erode the effectiveness of the meager anti poverty programmes currently in place, At the religious fanatics who are behind riots and tensions and last but not least at the well of citizens who go on arguing about corruption. Adiga is a promising writer who tries to make his fellowmen understand the world we live in.

The Postcolonial creative writers from Third World countries, including India, have been waging intellectual war in the form of literary cult. The writers of this movement are characterized by their defiance of the imposed Western aesthetics, coining of indigenous aesthetics and asserting their voice through their own brand of English. The novelists such as Arundhati Roy, Aravind Adiga and even Vikas Swarup are found making experiments with architectonics of the plot-construction and the structure of the novel; there is playfulness with the art of story-telling and narrative technique, use of literary devices, syntax, aesthetics and even language. The novels The God of Small Things, Q & A and The White Tiger propose a novel form and style of writing, totally discarding the stipulated aesthetics of the West. These typical Postcolonial Indian writers propound a novel linguistic and formalistic idiom in these novels; they deviate from the conventions of Western aesthetics through quintessential Postcolonial narrative style, architectonics, Indianized English etc. Mixing vernaculars with English words and phrases, excessive use of pidgin words, typical Indianized imageries and allusions in the structural design, deliberate violation of sense of time, place and action----all characterize these novels as literary end-products of Postcolonial counter politics through style and unprecedented aesthetics from Third World countries.

Image of India As Delineated By Adiga

There is a lot of darkness, disharmony and suffering in our world today. There is a lot of injustice and violence too. Balram Halwai unfolds his journey from the Darkness of the Laxmangarh to India of light. Indians hate politicians and love Politics: that’s great paradox of the Indian democracy. The novel uncovers the shady deals of the corrupt politicians. The unusual journey of Balram Halwai is the major theme of Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger. Aravind Adiga asks‘ Where’s this shining India everyone is talking about? He says”it was time someone broke the myth.”  The journalist turned writer broke the myth. The myth the West likes to read. Adiga said his book was an “attempt to catch the voice of the men you meet as you travel through India. The voice of the colossal under class.” It is alleged that the Indian writers write on a themes, which are normally expected by the Western readers e.g. arranged marriages, partition, spirituality, caste clashes etc. In India the social discontent is rising, but there is a very little violence around us. Is it not a surprising thing? The novel begins with the sentence: Mr. Premier Sir Neither neither you nor I speak English but there are some things that can be said in English.

With this sentence begins the journey of Balram Halwai who is given the name ‘white Tiger’ by a visiting inspector in his school. The entire episode of receiving the name of ‘White Tiger’ is funny.

Aravind Adiga 's famous novel The White Tiger is an unflattering portrait of India as a society racked by corruption.TheWhite Tiger is presented as an epistolary novel- a series of letters written over the period of seven nights to the Chinese premier who is going to visit India in the coming week after being very much impressed with India's economical growth and development. The plot of the novel revolves round Balram Halwai alias Munna, the son of a rickshaw puller who becomes the owner of a famous company named The White Tiger by involving in crime and corruption. Through his letters Balram explores the burning issue of corruption and bureaucrats and entrepreneurs and something of the new India.

Educational institutes are the sacred places where the lesson that honesty is the best policy is taught to the students .Schools are supposed to be free from corruption. But what do we see in India's village school. There is midday meal scheme in government schools. Uniforms are also provided free of cost to the poor students ,but the school teacher has stolen money allotted for the mid day meals of the children. Their uniforms are sold in neighboring villages.

BalramHalwai says-.If the Indian village is a paradise, then the school is a paradise within a paradise. There was supposed to be free food at my school a government program gave every boy three rotis, yellow daal, and pickles at lunch time. But we never ever saw rotis or yellow daal,or pickles ,and everyone knew why: the school teacher had stolen our lunch money..

There is no duster in the classrooms, there are no chairs the money for these articles has been digested by the school teacher. When asked by the inspector while inspecting Munna's school about children's uniforms and furniture in the school the school teacher accepts his cheating and gives the excuse to steal the money as he hadn't pay his salary in sixmonths.

As the stories of rottenness and corruption are always the best story, India's government hospitals' condition is also pathetic. They are meant for the poor people for their treatment but the fact is that they are meant for the doctors to make money. The government doctors take their postings in village hospitals only to get their salary .For this purpose they bribe the govt. Medical superintendent for considering

‘The White Tiger’ is the black story of an escape from the Rooster Coop. In this story we observe the protest, anger, disgust, and a sense of compassion. There is a concern for the sufferings of others. The sad story of our hospital reads like this:

Kishan and I carried our father in, stamping on the goat turds which had spread like a constellation of black stars on the gound. There was no doctor in the hospital. The ward boy, after we bribed him ten rupees, said that a doctor might come in the evening. The doors to the hospital’s rooms were wide open; the beds had metal springs sticking out of them, and the cat began snarling at us the moment we stepped into the room.

It’s not safe in the rooms- that cat has tasted blood.’ A couple of Muslim men had spread a newspaper on the ground and were sitting on it. One of them had an open wound on his leg. He invited us to sit with him and his friend. Kishan and I lowered Father onto the newspaper sheets. We waited there.

Balram Halwai wants to escape from the India of Darkness to become man of big belly. The journey is not an easy one. Balram knows that experience is hard teacher, because it gives the test first, the lesson afterward. About his journey he clearly states that – “In his journey from village to city, from Laxmangarh to Delhi, the entrepreneur’s path crosses any  number of provincial towns that have the pollution and noise and traffic of a big city – without any hint of the true cities, built on half-baked men”. Balram decides to learn driving. Initially his granny doesn’t approve the idea. She thinks that he is a greedy pig. “She wants you to all the gods in heaven that you won’t forget her once you get rich”.

At last the granny agrees to give money to learn a driving. Balram along with Kishan came to an old man in a brown uniform. Kishan explains the situations to him. At first he is reluctant to let Balram join the driving class: “The old driver asked, ‘what caste are you?’ Halwai , sweet maker, the old driver said shaking his head. “That’s what you people do. You make sweets. How can you learn to drive? He pointed his hookah at the live coals. ‘That’s like getting coals to make ice for you. Mastering a car”.

Arivind Adiga represents India 's picture deeply rooted in the mess of corruption and rottenness, dominated by entrepreneurs who use money to achieve their ends. The basic factor responsible for this corruption is either poverty or the ambition to get power over the others. The poor persons indulge in corruption to meet their needs while the entrepreneurs and the politicians use money to achieve their ends. With no moral standards and value system, a dismal and murky picture of India emerges. Hence I feel a study of the works like The White Tiger will open the eyes of our common people who can see the height of corruption shadowing the society and politics of India.

The old driver adds that only a boy from the warrior castes can manage that. He presumes that Muslim, Rajputs, Sikhs-can be good drivers as they are fighters. At last  the lessons begin but each time Balram makes a mistake with the gears, the old man slaps on his skull and asks: “Why don’t you stick to sweets and tea?”

After the completion of the driving lessons Balram gets a job as a driver at the Stork. Balram drives straight at the Stork’s feet. Balram says that he is from Laxmangarh, the Stork’s village. The Stork says “Ah the old village. Do people there still remember me? It’s been three years since I was there”. The Stork enjoys the following remarks: “Of course Sir – people say our father is gone. The best of the landlords is gone, who will protect us now?”. Blaram gets the job as a driver. He quickly adjusts to the rhythm of the house. He gathers details of the Stork and his son Ashok who has come back from America. Balram beholds India as a country having two castes: Men with Big Bellies, and Men with Small Bellies. ‘And only two destinies: eat or get eaten up’. Balram says that “this country, in its days of greatness, when it was richest nation on earth  was like a zoo. On the 15^th August 1947- the day British left – the cages had been left open; and the animals had attacked and ripped each other apart and jungle law replaced zoo law”.

Balram begins his stereotyped existence in the Stork’s family only to realize that in India- or, at least, in the Darkness – the rich don’t have drivers, cooks, barbers, and tailors. They simply have servants. When Balram is not driving the car, he has to sweep the floor of the courtyard, make tea, clean cobweb with a long broom, or chase a cow out of the compound. At the beginning , he is not allowed to touch the Honda City.

Ashok tells his wife Pinky that in India, no one follows any rules. Unpleasant reality is described in the pages to come: “A tractor was coming down road at full speed, belching out a nice thick plume of black diesel from its exhaust pipe”.

His scene is not uncommon in rural India where the traffic police pay hardly any attention to law- breakers. It is through Balram Halwai, the central consciousness of the novel, that we are given a glimpse into the privet lives of the politicians and businessmen. Balram is proud that we have ideal democracy.

The novel presents deep crises of identity in any democratic set up. The leaders are projected as vote- buyers. They have no vision but to rule the darkness for years. Balram calls himself as India’s most faithful voters   who steel have not seen the inside of a voting booth.

Balram is driving the Honda city in New Delhi now as Ramprsad has left the service. While driving the Honda city Balram has no difficulty as he has the follow the buses. There are buses and jeeps all along the road. And they were bursting with passengers who packed the inside the huge out of the door. And even goat of the roofs.they was all headed from the darkness to Delhi. You would think the whole world migrating.

In a few days Balram learns many things about Delhi and its people. He has hear the air is so bad in Delhi. Adiga’s novel is a trenchant critique of contemporary India. India is emerging as a powerful country in the globalized world. He talks about the progress in almost all the fields but behind this bright shine there are billions who are deprived of basic necessities of life. The novelist exposes and explores this grim facet of Indian life. The novel presents the negative aspects of modern India through a narrator in a humorous way. Because of the Globalization the economic growth has accelerated but the rich-poor gap has widened.

                     The novel undertakes the extraordinarily difficult task of gaining and holding the reader’s sympathy for a thoroughgoing villain. The Narrator says,-

“The story of a poor man’s life is written on his body, in a sharp pen.”

The novel is a study of metamorphosis of an uneducated chauffer. It’s written in confessional mood. He communicates to the communist leader the rags-to-riches story of his own life as a microcosm of the ‘new India’. The seven night actions cover the whole lifespan of Balram which has brought important change in his life. Balram becomes ‘entrepreneur’; the word refers to a person who takes risk in order to make profit.

            The undercurrent of this simple story of murder is sufferings of poor Balram. He curses his poverty and lack of education-

“Why had my father raised me to live like an animal?”

            Adiga deals with the psyche of a poor Indian who is not able to materialize his dream. His character’s pain is revealed-

“All my life I have been treated like donkey. All I want is that one son of mine- at least one- should live like a man.”

Balram’s two remarks about the city(Delhi) are

Ü  Unsystematic housing lane and traffic

Ü  The second one is people live like animals in a forest do. Minute description of urban and rural life is remarkable.

                        The novelist exposes how money given for students meal is manipulated and stolen by teachers, how the uniforms are stolen and sold by teachers on the pretext of their poor salary, how free coal can be arranged from government mines by paying regular installment of bribe, how culprits and criminals protect themselves by grassing the palm of carried out openly and brazenly. In Delhi Balram explores ‘new India’. Gradually he adopts Ashok’s living style. He starts drinking and going to red areas. This is how villagers are eager to live the city life. Adiga writes about two destinies- eat or get eaten. Like Macbeth to lead a lavish life like wealthy, Balram killed Ashok.

                        Through the heinous act of the protagonist, the novelist warms the society that the increasing gap between upper and lower class may produce many criminals like Balram. He further hints to stop corruption at all the levels, create social awareness and close monitoring of functioning of the government machinery.

Bibliography

Adiga, Arvind. "The White tiger." novel (2008): cover page.

R.K.DHAWAN. "A Symposium of Critical Response." tiger, The new morality Indian the white. A Symposium of Critical Response. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 2011. 187-193.

Representation of Woman in advertisement

M.A.Part-2 Sem-3

Mass Communication And Media Studies

Representation of Women in Advertisement

By: Jayshree Kunchala Submitted To: Dr.Dilip Barad Dept.Of English M.K.Bhavnagar University Bhavnagar

Definition of advertising

According to Angela Goddard  the term advertisement and advertising have, at their root, a latin word, “advertere” , meaning turn towards ‘. She goes on and defines the word advertising by stating that it is a discourse which contributes to the construction of our identities; it is also an act of communication.

Advertising is often an index of attitudes because, in order for an advert to work, it must tap into some thinking “out there” in the marketplace, but it would be a mistake to think that adverts are a simple reflection of who we all are , in some natural way . Advertising, as a very public form of discourse, is also part of the way we construct our ideas about he world around us: what people are like, who does what, who is important and why, what we should be worried about, and so on

CouThe influence of socialization on the portrayal of women in TV ads:

                                                                      

Socialization is perceived as the process via which individuals acquire what is expected from them, including social norms and gender roles. Socialization is important to the process of the individual’s entry into society and acceptance of social standards. According to Scollon and Scollon (1995)p. 150,” primary socialization consists of the processes through which a child goes in the earliest stages of becoming member of his or her culture or society. Generally speaking, the learning takes place within the family and among close intimates. In this same frame work, then, secondary socialization refers to those processes of socialization which take place when the child first begins to move outside the family, such as when the child first goes to school and begins to interact with other non-familial children”.

In our Moroccan context based on my personal observation, I have learned a lot from my parents and my surrounding via watching what the others are doing .I have learn how to dress, how to eat, how to talk; for example when I am talking to someone who is older than me I am not going to address him as the way I talk to my friends. Our parents teach us that lying is harame you will get punish by God in the day of Judgement if you lie on people or you deceive them. Our parents teach us that sex is harame before marriage. Girls should remain virgin until they get married. That virginity is symbol of purity should be preserved for the husband. They teach us that politics leads always to jail, therefore, we should not interfere in political issues. This process of learning from the society is called the primary socialization, that Scollon states:

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Advertisements are a crucial part of mass media and the whole television industry. The prime use of advertisements is to sell products but not only do advertisements sell tangible products; they also sell products that are intangible. These intangible things vary from pictures or representations, principles or morals, love, sexuality, achievement and much more. One significant issue that advertisements are infamously known to sell through images is how the ideal beauty of a woman and her body should look like. The use of a woman’s body as an object in advertisements is seen as an example of commodification because it sells to and attracts a mass audience. Watching a couple of videos by Jean Kilbourne, a feminist speaker who spoke about advertising’s images of women, made me more aware of how underrepresented women are in advertisements because most of them focus mainly on the woman’s body instead of other things that make up who they are. The representation of women in advertisements is very dehumanizing which can lead to violence. One deceitful and convincing aspect in advertising is the use of today’s technology of Photoshop. Photoshop is a crucial part of the media and helps sell a woman’s body even more. These photo-shopped advertisements of the perfect body and look on a woman affect the lives of everyday people. Girls tend to learn from an early age what the ideal female beauty is depicted as, which in return can lead to obsessions and health problems, such as anorexia and bulimia. This leads to a controlling image of how woman should look like, which is sexy with flawless skin, beautiful, unnaturally thin, no wrinkles on her face, and much more. These images of impeccable women are also the perfect example of media and social construction. The media constructs how the ideal woman should look like which lowers the self-esteem of women who don’t look like what they see in the media. Women who do not live up to these standards eventually gain a sense of failure and are seen as unacceptable to some.

Representations of women in the media have become a serious problem in today’s world. As we become a more technology-advanced society, women become more falsely advertised, dehumanized, and hyper sexualized. I think the media should begin to stray away from the ideal image of a woman and should change their perspective on women. We are not objects and we should not be sold as objects to a mass audience.

A Roger David ad starring a teenage girl who has been ‘gagged’ with a union flag covered disc in her mouth, has a bar-code with the word ‘slave’ tattooed on her and is made to look sexualized despite looking incredibly young has been banned by the Australian standards watchdog for depicting her as a sexual object.

One of the complaints listed said: “The girl looks underage, dishevelled and is inappropriately posing with something in her open mouth and her bare shoulder with slave written on it with a “barcode” as if she is somehow for sale or belongs to someone. It is offensive due to its representation of young girls as vulnerable and slaves and lacks sensitivity to the growing child exploitation and sexist depiction of girls and women.”

But Roger David defended the ad, telling the ASB that the woman was 18 when the photo was taken and that she ”is a student of history, Spanish and English and is also a model in the United Kingdom” But Roger David defended the ad, telling the ASB that the woman was 18 when the photo was taken and that she ”is a student of history, Spanish and English and is also a model in the United Kingdom. Roger David also said the woman was fully clothed and that the ad did not portray sex, sexuality or nudity- completely missing the point.

Stefano Puntoni and his colleagues found that when women were exposed to gender cues, like the color pink, they were likely than women who had not been primed with a gender cue to think that they might someday get breast cancer and to say that they’d be willing to donate to the cause.  Pink, in other words, decreased both their willingness to fund research and the seriousness with which women took the disease.

The article doesn’t come right out and say so but I’ve read other pieces in the past (anyone have any good links?) that reflect my biggest problem with most breast cancer campaigns - that the focus on breasts as sexual (i.e. the whole “Save The Ta-Tas” thing) trivializes the seriousness of breast cancer, and that breasts are only worth saving when they are reduced to sexual objects.

Thus, the process of consumption was always regarded as women’s work. They are the ones who sell , and in return; they are the ones who spend too much in selling goods . “ …. If we look at overall purchase of consumer goods we see that women still control some 80 percent of the buying power"

In this research paper, I will merely shed lights on the negative portrayal of Moroccan women in TV ads. Increasingly, Moroccan women are taking on a broader role in society. Yet, our Moroccan TV ads still falsify the image of women through backward misrepresentation far from reality. This awkward portrayal gradually influences the people’s perception towards gender roles and this is accomplished through the repetitive exposure of woman as a housewife, mother or submissive being. The process of repetition help people to easily memorize images without questioning that is why I opt for the use of Cultivation theory by Gerbner (1979), because it deals with the effect of TV on viewers in terms of their perceptions and behaviors. This theory suggests that, the effect of all this exposure to the same messages produces what has been called cultivation, or teaching of a common worldview, common roles and common values

Cultivation Theory holds the assumption that media, for instance TV, has got the power to influence and manipulate the people’s mind through repetitive exposure. Television regarded as the major source of information today has become a part of our daily life and part of our family

“Compared to other media, television provides a relatively restricted set of choices for a virtually unrestricted variety of interests and publics. Most of its programs are by commercial necessity designed to be watched by nearly everyone in a relatively nonselective fashion. Surveys show that amount viewing follows the style of life of the viewer and is relatively insensitive to programming. The audience is always the group available at a certain time of the day, the week, and the season, regardless of the programs. Most viewers watch by the clock· and either do not know what they will watch when they turn on the set or follow established routines rather than choose each program as they would choose a book, a movie, or an article.”

This statement suggests that, the magic box , TV monopolizes others forms of media and it is considered as powerful medium used by professional communicators for learning and persuasion away from deliberation and comprehension .To put it differently, people can easily be convinced and perceive the world as what is depicted through television. For that purpose, TV ads are the most influential tools used in the world of advertising. Their effect is more enduring than any other form of mass media.

The current study will explore the various ways in which Moroccan women characters are portrayed in Moroccan TV ads. My ultimate goal is to find out whether the portrayals of women characters are fair and accurate representations, or does it represents a fake reality by portraying women in stereotypical manner so as to maintain a particular social order which favor men over women in order to preserve customs and tradition . The portrayal of women in Moroccan TV ads will elucidate on the effect of television on viewers, more specially the influence of TV ads on the people’s attitudes and perception towards gender role.

My objective is to investigate the reasons why Moroccan TV ads, despite the increasing development of mass media, television, internet and digital evolution; still portray women in traditional way .

The portrayal of women in TV ads is an important topic to consider because of the unequal representation that women receive from Moroccan media. Television does not portray how women are capable of reconciling different functions of their professional, private and personal lives. In other words, Television does not alter the image of men, and continues to promote male dominance. Hence forth, the image of Moroccan women is misrepresented, manipulated and it does not mirror the reality.

Nowadays, women rub shoulders with men in many domains that have been dominated by men in the past time. Moroccan women become active members in society; they have gained ground not only in the work but also in the society. Women become financially independent, in addition to being equal in terms of many rights & duties. Now, we can find women’s sitting in restaurant, while other women are smoking in the cafes wearing modern clothes either miniskirts, jeans and dressing in fashionable manner. These changes that are mentioned above are signs which indicate that women situation has changed in today’s Morocco. Thus, there is a break away from male domination and social chains. Now, women are able to define their social role and dictate their rule.

Despite all these changes, yet what our Moroccan TV ads communicate to the masses messages that still represent the old version of Moroccan women, and here we refer to the traditional woman whose main job is to serve her husband and to devote all her life to her children. The prototype that is represented in our Moroccan TV ads is far from what is really going in Morocco. In a recent study by Al Magharebia newspaper, a Moroccan journalist named Siham ALI in her article titled “Moroccan media distorts women's image”, study says : “

“Overall, Moroccan females believe that their image is so misrepresented and manipulated that it does not mirror the reality of Moroccan women, the survey said. Siham Ali goes on and states: “Advertising and drama are the farthest from reality in terms of perception of everyday women's lives, said women whose opinions were recorded in the final report released on June 30th.” “Moroccan media distorts women’s image”.

“According to survey participants, advertising focused more on household chores and presented women as traditional, unskilled and submissive to men. In drama, women felt they were portrayed as more manipulative, promiscuous and dumb”. By Siham Ali , El Magharebia newspaper 06/07/2010.

According to this study, media in general and advertising in specific do not mirror the reality of Moroccan women. What it portrayed to us as viewers is only a partial image of Moroccan women . Our TV ads do not show how women are able to perform various functions of their professional, personal and private lives. I personally have never seen a Moroccan TV ad in which the husband is helping his wife in the kitchen or taking care of his kids. Normally, television should rectify the women’s image , reflect the social developments of women , present a more diverse picture of women, and bring to the fore their different professional and marital statuses. Instead of portraying sex objects , housewives who exist to please their husbands and children. In doing so, the power of patriarchy is reinforced and encouraged, and women's status quo is keept stagnant.

Stereotyping women

Advertising is a medium which is used by media whereby it can create and perpetuate stereotypes. TV ads do not only act as a means to bridge the gaps between companies and consumers; but they also have a stereotypical function. When we are watching TV ads, we are watching a representation of a culture, this representation might be true or not, it depends on the ideology and the agenda of the TV advertisers. Audiences are not equipped with TV ads techniques in order to track down whether what is represented to them is empty from any hidden ideologies or vice versa. If we are unable to unhidden messages that are transmitted to us as viewers, the stereotypes that are portrayed unconsciously affects our view and perception of the world around us.

Moreover, it might even impose on us how we should interpret a specific culture whether it is our culture or not .

The major problem about stereotypes in TV ads is that they are not significant. Very often, the stereotypes that we get from TV ads may take a short time before they start being part of our way of thinking. Once we are watching an ad for example about the portrayal of women in cleaning or cosmetic products. Then, after finding the same image in different TV ads, that image immediately becomes stuck in our mind till we start to believe in it and support it.

Feminists argues very strongly that the presence of sex-role stereotyping in advertising content enhance patriarchy which is still a dominant ideology embedded in media content. Likewise, it reinforces patriarchy through the representation of women in negative manner in comparison to men. Nevertheless, stereotypes are not all the time negative in studies, but there are regarded determining factor when trying to observe whether women are portrayed fairly or not. Additionally, stereotypes are also a process of otherness and exclusion and therefore linked to power

Women' roles in TV ads:

TV ads become an essential tool used by advertisers; it has become a part of our daily life we cannot imagine a TV box without TV ads. TV ads shapes our perception as well as beliefs. There is no doubt that nowadays TV ads may go further and dictate to us how to do things and how to manage our life. Overall, there is no ambiguous space between what real life is and the one depicted in TV ads; and this is actually what has urged many scholars to scrutinize media content and help the audience decode media texts. This chapter will be concerned with how gender roles are constructed and how they affect our view of gender. Before we start talking about gender, first of all we need to differentiate between sex and gender, because there are not the same . Sex is biologically while gender is socially or culturally constructed. On the other hand, Judith Butler argues that both sex and gender are culturally constructed; to further explain, TV ads portray women and men as different individuals and each one has a place where to stand. TV ads enhance the patriarchal system through usual depiction of women as housewives. Women’s roles in TV ads are usually limited to households, submissive citizens, and slaves of beauty which consist of makeup, fashionable clothes, and products. This portrayal of women in negative and restrictive way has narrowed the picture of women . Thus, women become burden for their society because they are regarded as consumers more than productive. What is dangerous about the misrepresentation of women’s roles in TV ads is not the representation itself instead it is the manner viewers react to this depiction.

Portrayal of women in TV advertising

                                                                       

This evaluation of a study gives such an insight into how advertisements work, and if presenting a women, half naked or in a sexual manner does not effect the product sales, then I don't understand why this still takes place in the media industry so much. It is doing nothing more than damaging the self esteem of many women and allowing men to have less respect for women who don't offer themselves as visual value. Children who are exposed to these images and messages in the media, grow up believing this is what it is to be a woman, and that this is what is expected them from society and even from their male counterparts.

I have learnt a lot from this essay and I am now understanding how this subject is huge, and how my research project will easily become too broad if I don't specify what I want to look at. From Lin's essay, I have learnt that women have been objectified for decades and decades into the past, and that this is an ongoing theme in media sexism. I didn't realise so many studies were completed throughout the 70's, 80's and 90's, analysing how women are represented in TV advertising. It is quite surprising to see that this much work and effort has been poured into gender equality in TV commercials, and still women are used as a decorative component or presented only in a traditional way.

Every day we are exposed to advertising, we drive down the highway and see billboards, we scroll down our news feed on Facebook and see side ads, and our favorite shows cut to commercials on television. According to Jean Kilbourne, advertising is an over 100 billion dollar a year industry and we are exposed to over 2000 ads a day. Advertisements don’t just sell us products, they sell images, values, and concepts of success, worth, love, sexuality, and normality. By doing so, they tell us what we should be. They set unrealistic standards, especially for women. The women in advertisements are more often than not young white women portrayed as beautiful housewives and sex objects, or in other words, these women are objectified. Advertisements should be critically analyzed because they are one of the main sources of influence for young people and what they teach may not be what is best for society. Advertisements often sexualize the product they are trying to sell. Axe commercials are one of the first advertisements that come to mind. One commercial for Axe hair products from 2012 portrays a story of love between a disembodied head of hair (the male) and a dismembered pair of large breasts (the female), that closes with them transforming into the attractive people they represented under the line: “Hair: it’s what women notice first”. This commercial is a prime example of how women are objectified in advertisements as it suggests that the first thing men notice are breasts and gives the impression that all women are just a pair of breasts for men to ogle. This also teaches young women that if they want men to want them, they need to have large breasts and be overall attractive. Another sexualized advertisement was posted by Belvedere vodka on Facebook and Twitter, then removed almost immediately. The ad pictures a man seemingly taking advantage of a woman and says “Unlike some people… Belvedere always goes down smoothly”. Belvedere apologized on...

A Critical Analysis of Feminist Theories Concerning the Representation of Women in Advertising.

There are many forms of feminisms which often contradict each other and focus their efforts on issues which reflect their local concerns  states that there are at least two notable themes which reoccur within feminist media theory, these are stereotypes and gender socialisation, and ideology. These issues will be addressed with reference to several feminist theories to determine how women are represented in advertising. Pornography is considered by some to be a third theme which is a growing area of research for theorists  Some believe that these themes ‘belong’ to particular strands of feminism respectively liberal, radical and socialist feminism  The classifications of political and theoretical strands work to differentiate the gamut of feminisms, Liberal feminism is largely attributed to political strategy concerns in the United States and has not incited as much theoretical analysis as the social and radical strands which are associated with Europe  Whilst these strands have identified clear differences between feminisms they are now of less importance as each strand overlaps the other and encompasses a diverse range of positions . Throughout its history feminism has experienced a great deal of change both in the results of its actions and within its institution. The academic sphere first acknowledged feminism in the early 1970s when the collective effort of women to attain a more active role in public and academic matters was recognised oss,  The first wave of feminism pre dates this and is characterised by the suffragette movement where women fought for their right to vote. Second wave feminism focused on political structures and the oppression of women, it sought change in legislation and industry for equal rights. Third wave feminism...

Stereotyped representation of female body in advertisement

Lots of discussions show how women are portrayed in advertising which is geared towards men.  Female characters are objectified and devalued in advertisements. The roles of women are depicted as inferior and submissive. In contrast, men are depicted as masculine and powerful. Who caused these issues? I think the trend is caused by both producers and consumers.

In “Where the Girls Are," Susan Douglas indicates women’s feelings toward media. She writes, "in no small part because the media, simultaneously, love and hate women." She focuses on the mixed messages that pop culture broadcasts to women (Douglas 10). Media represents women as flawless beauties with perfect bodies, hair and skin. This perception is not true and until women realize this, they are victims of media. The media often portrays women as housewives who remain submissive to men who provide them material wealth. Females consume the images portrayed in the media and advertisements. These women are convinced to believe untruthful ideas. 

                                                 

The process of Media Production and the images in media convince women to believe the media’s perception of beauty. The creators, producers and editors of the media are mainly males. To be exact, the media is male oriented and images of beauty were made to be appealing to average white heterosexual men. The idenficiation of sex is considered to be the important factor that led to objectification of women. Women realized that they have lost both their sexual and spatial freedom because the media focuses on women as sexual objects. Becoming aware that “sexy” sells better, the media victimized women. According Jean Kilbourne’s “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising," she writes, "female is generally presented as superwoman, who manages to do all the work at home and on the job (with the help of a product, of course, not of her husband or children or friends)” (Kilbourne 125). The techniques various companies used were pretty similar that they were not only to objectify women but also utilize their insecurities producing more sales to relieve the insecurities. Kilbourne also wrote, “Advertisers are aware of their role and do not hesitate to take advantage of the insecurities and anxieties of young people, usually in the guise of offering solutions” (Kilbourne 129). This would be the evidence that indicates the purpose of such pervasive media was to sell a woman’s “body.” This successfully shaped the sense of each individual who became aware of the media’s standards regarding such activities as romance, sex, beauty and understanding of what is 'ideal' within the society. 

“Sexism,” in terms of media, had a corrosive impact on the ways a male-dominated society formed and ran. This impact shaped the people’s perception of their place within society. The messages media tried to send to the audience was that media has a greater effect on the younger generation who understood and perceived these images as instructive. Dressing up provocatively increased the intimacy and romance of an untruthful image in media that disguised women as “unsexed.” The second-wave feminist movement developed a population of true equality. Media distorted the definition of equality. Early publications in 1848 in Naomi Wolf’s analysis showed that the concept of feminists in those publications were portrayed as “Unsexed women, who were too repulsive to find a husband. Women, that are entirely devoid of personal attraction” (Wolf 68). Therefore, the perception of feminists was created by the prejudice of males that wiped off the cultural identities of women in media.  

                                                

Living in a world of patriarchy, men probably never realized the essential concern with the reversal of gender roles as Bell Hooks states “Men who have heard and know the word usually associate it with women’s liberation, with feminism, and therefore dismiss it as irrelevant to their own experiences” (Hooks 17). In order to stop this pervasive course of sexism in media, women or feminists have to reverse the gender roles and claim that they are "active" women. The advertisement of beer did not promote a person more of man. Perfumes did not make one any more of a woman. We need to be aware of how serious the issue is and be concerned for our well being as a society. Is it necessary to stop using female bodies to advertise and sell products? Is it helpful to stop being obsessed with flawless beauty? Should TV commercial or advertisement produce values or significance toward the audience of younger generation? People should not perceive ads and images based upon media's persuasion, instead, they should have their own thoughts to create a healthy, stereotype free and truly equal community.

Images found http://feministing.com/2014/10/31/friday-feminist-fuck-yeah-the-feminist-protest-in-barcelona/
                                                              Works Cited

Hooks, Bell. “The Oppositional Gaze.” Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992: 115-31. Print.

Wolf, Naomi. "Culture." The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used against Women. New York: W. Morrow, 1991. Print.

Douglas, Susan. "Introduction to Where the Girls Are" Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. Print.

Kilbourne, Jean. Beauty and the Beast of Advertising. 1999. Kilbourne Copyright. Print

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