Under The Spell of Amazon: Exploring the Structures of Race and Class in John Updike’s Novel Brazil (Published)
This paper is an attempt to examine how John Updike (1932-2009) a prominent American novelist, constructs in Brazil (1994) scenarios that reveal to his readers, moment by moment, the rich complexity of Brazilian race relations. I also seek to point out how Updike sets forth the complicated racial issues in modern-day Brazil through the hardships his two main characters, Tristão and Isabel, undergo. In a way, Updike seeks to identify parallel selves in individuals of other nations; individuals whom one would typically categorize as “Others”. The paper also discusses how Updike attempts to de-emphasize racial differences and suggests that humans are all connected to one another as mixed combinations of color. I argue that in a society where racial identities are not clearly definable and where miscegenation is commonplace, interracial unions are more easily accepted. Updike, however, sees that behind this admixture there is a bias linked to skin color and social class. Meanwhile, I argue that Updike’s text is stronger in his sense of place than his sense of people. In other words, though Updike poses the problems of race and identity, he falls short of that, because the main ideas of the novel—the questions of race and class—are never deeply explored or illuminated.
Keywords: Brazil, Classism, Corruption, Identity, Miscegenation, Racism, Updike
A Critical Exposition of the Nature and Manifestations of Corruption in Ben Jonson’s Volpone (Published)
Corruption is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon which characterize the global economy and has different manifestations. To respond to this global challenge, a multidisciplinary approach is crucial in enforcement, investigation and prevention and it is a proven fact that public awareness/education is very critical in prevention. The use of drama to raise awareness and consciousness is very ancient and evident in all types of drama-traditional and modern. This study examines the relationship between drama and public awareness. It reviews the role dramatists have played in the fight against corruption. The nature, types and punishment for corruption as manifested in Ben Jonson’s Volpone is also evaluated. It is established that drama has played and still has a key role to play in the prevention of corruption.
Keywords: Ben Jonson, Corruption, Drama, Volpone
Contemporary Social, Political and Religious Satire under the Silent Penetration of Poverty and Class Discrimination: An Exploration on Aravind Adiga’s ‘The White Tiger’ (Published)
“The White Tiger” is a Man Booker Prize (2008) winning book is written by the great Indian-Australian writer, Aravind Adiga. This article lets us know how the class discrimination is engulfing the Post-Colonial Indian Society under the silent penetration of poverty and corruption and how the human morality is decaying under the religious and political unrests. Here, the narrator and protagonist, Balram Halwai, struggles against his lower class society from the very initial time of his life. His life undergoes with serious sufferings from economical solvency because of being in the lower Hindu cast. He senses the tortures of the elite class people towards the deprived poor. He witnessed the deaths of many dreams in a poor family. He observes it as a “Rooster Coop” that stands for the extreme poverty where the people below the social margin remain in a great danger and never rebel against the society as they have no wealth and power. He scrutinizes the huge corruptions in politics and in every class he went through. As a driver, he has had a great chance to discover the great Indian corruptions on the root levels of cities and towns. His mind always rebels against those terminations but he is to go on as to be alive in his ways of being an enlightened person. Nevertheless, he takes in a great loss of pain but what he has gained at last is nothing but dishonesty and rampancy of corruption because all his perceptions are only for earthly happiness of money. What he got after killing Mr. Ashok and stealing his money (700,000 Rs.) is really a mystery to the readers. Significantly, Aravind Adiga has tried to rectify the human society by upholding the above facts that are running on ahead.
Keywords: Corruption, Discrimination and Nihilism, Economics, Politics, Poverty, Satire, Sufferings
THE SOCIO-POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF SOME OF THE EPISODES IN CHINUA ACHEBE’S NOVEL “A MAN OF THE PEOPLE (Review Completed - Accepted)
The purpose of this Article is bring to the fore how Chinua Achebe has used A Man of the people to condemn the societal belief that politics is the best avenue for making money, which often lead people into siphoning money from the government purse unnecessarily when they finally have access to the mantle of power. Achebe has used different episodes in A Man of the People to show Clearly African people`s thinking about the political terrain, seeing it as an avenue to enrich themselves, with the Society adoring Corrupt politicians abnormally. This research work aims at exploring the implications of Achebe`s focus in putting in place this novel.
Keywords: Belief, Corruption, Episodes, Literary, Politics, Society