The Big Clash

Cal by Bernard MacLaverty was a wonderful novel full of political crisis and citizen alienation taking place in a small country with big conflict. MacLaverty offered up a deep plot that kept me on the edge of my seat, with danger lurking around every corner, literally. I thoroughly enjoyed this very straightforward portrayal of this young man just trying to live life in the midst of civil dispute on a grand scale. We definitely see the trouble colonialism causes in this very culturally rich country divided by two religions and the usurped control of a foreign government.
It was tragic to see the state of life for the Irish Catholics in Ulster. I was sympathetic for Cal and his father and the struggle they faced. I do not understand why their pride was more important to them than their quality of life. They stay living in a town they are constantly persecuted in even though they have no ties there but each other. Only the father has a job, but they refuse to relocate for a life that could be significantly happier and safer to say the least. Pride seems to drive all the trouble the characters face throughout the novel. Both sides are prejudice and murderous over the difference of religion. A fact we see across time and across nations.
All in all, amazing novel, eye opening and sobering to see through the eyes of a young man caught between his conscience and the loyalty to his nation.

A Little Bazaar

First I will start off with what I disliked about the Dubliners by James Joyce. Bypassing the actual short stories, I want to get right into the critical essay by Heyward Ehrlich, “Araby” in Context…. Though this essay got off to a good start, providing helpful and informative facts to clarify some rather sketchy topics in Dubliners, it moved onto a monotonous barrage of WAY to much information about the history of bazaars in Europe. Not only was it more than what was needed to give some insight, it was beyond repetitive. I came across three instances where he goes into detail on the number of people in attendance (Joyce 267, 272, 273). One great piece of information I took away from this essay was the history on Irish Orientalism. I am happy to see this term come up in our reading since we haven’t had much of it yet. It was very intriguing to learn how much of Irish culture was taken from the Orient (Joyce 262).
On a lighter note, the two stories Araby, Eveline seemed much like Lahiri’s writing in the sense that it was very true to reality. There was not a lot of fluff which kept the stories easy to navigate, but both ended so abruptly I was left wondering what the point of the story had been. There would definitely be two short stories I wouldn’t mind having a little more background on to gain a broader understanding of Joyce’s purpose for the tales.

Happy Endings

The point that stood out to me the most from all the blogs I read was what Stevie (http://stevie-z.blogspot.com/ ) had to say about all of Lahiri’s stories having a happy ending. When reading the stories, I did not come to that conclusion myself. However, after reading Stevie’s blog I realized they really did have a happy ending. Even though each story contained plenty of struggle and difficulty for its characters, Lahiri leaves us with an ending that is open enough to imagine that there could be a better future than what they have experienced. It is true with A Temporary Matter, because the couple could have gone on to repair their marriage after all the truth came out, in The Treatment of Bibi Haldar because now that she has a child and a business her life can flourish even without her family and or the possibility of a husband, in Interpreter of Maladies because Mr. Kapasi didn’t get caught up in a most likely fruitless relationship with the American woman, and in The Third and Final Continent because Lahiri shows us that the narrators life goes on to be happy and full of success. So with each story, we walk through the initial harsh experience that the main characters face, but they always come out clearly on the other side.

A New Audience

The short stories written by Ha Jin contain messages and details of Chinese life that would be illegal to read in his homeland. For instance in Saboteur, he depicts a man basically framed by the police of the city he is in. This story which clearly shows the controlling and manipulative behavior of Chinese officials would be criminal if distributed to the masses in China. This kind of conflict would further deter writers from creating literature that reflects the reality of the situation they live in. It will continue to be tailored to the needs of the communist party leaders as we see in Jin’s story A Tiger-Fighter is Hard to Find. Here the producers of a short film create a scene that satisfies the propaganda the party wants the citizens of China to believe, no matter how unrealistic they are.
If Conrad had written Heart of Darkness in his native language, I think it would have affected the impact his story had on the world and postcolonial literature. By writing in English, he opened the doors to the people that would be able to read and understand the issues faced in Africa. Had he written in his native language I believe he would have been seen in a different light, taking the role of an outsider to western society trying to portray an injustice without having the foothold to do so. Having tailored it to an English audience, he proved a connection with Western society and thus bought himself more respect.
For Jin to write his stories in English, having been a migrant to the US, changed his perspective on writing. He was no longer just a Chinese native writing about conflict he perceived within the limits of his immediate world, but instead his perspective was cultured and he was able to gain wider view of his homeland, by being outside of it. In this way his experience with Western culture made it possible for him to so accurately portray the affects the American restaurant “Cowboy Chicken” would have on a society that operates very differently than it is used to.