Some analytical works from "The Grass is Singing"
Question:
01) a) Compare how the practice of apartheid and its decline has been shown in
Gordimer’s “The Moment before the Gun Went Off” and Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing.
Answer to the Quest. No. 01 (a)
“The conquest of
earth which mostly means the
Taking
it away from those who have
A
different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves,
Is not
a pretty thing when you look into it too much.”
-Joseph Conrad
Through
this quote, Conrad has referred to the evil practice of racial segregation and
denounced it.
The cultural and scientific explosion of Europe
strengthened the spine of European civilization and they started conquering the
lands of the natives forgetting the egalitarian principle, “All people are born
equal.” Rather, they represent the paradoxical line, “All men may be created
equal, but some are more than equal.” The Crusades, lust for gold, and
inordinate passion for name and fame pushed the white to colonize the lands of
the natives.
Racial segregation or apartheid came to an end in the early 1990s and
Nelson Mandela became the first black president in the new South Africa based
on the majority rule. Militant blacks were fighting against inequality and the
liberal whites raised their voice for equality. Nadim Gordimer played a prominent
part in her writing to reflect the plight of the black people.
The
title of this short story “The Moment before the Gun Went Off” is quite
intriguing. It can be considered as a sibling literary work of The Grass Is Singing because both of
them share the same theme “Racialism”. Only the position of the killers is
changed.
In
this story, a white farmer named Marais Van der Vyver accidentally kills his
black servant. Accidental death of the white was quite a common incident at
that time because “guns are domestic objects” and children play “fatal game”
with their father’s revolver. Investigation and interrogation will be done for
the death. But the climax is the ultimate twisting point where the truth is
revealed. Lucas is Vyver’s own son. But Vyver cannot give his son any
recognition just because of skin color. Skin tone wins over relationship. So,
the murder of Lucas is not a mere accident. It highlights that the white will
never be able to protest against their norms. Consequently, the black people
will always be killed in their hands both physically, mentally, and
psychologically.
The
mental condition of the black is always the same no matter whether they are
victim or killer. In the novel, it is said, “Moses was quite impassive,
allowing himself to be directed without any movement of his own. His face was
blank.” In the similar manner, the mother of Lucas is psychologically broken in
the story. The narrator says, “But she says nothing, does nothing. She does not
look up, she does not look at Van der Vyver whose gun went off in the truck.
She stares at the grave.” Marais is psychologically dead since he cannot
confess the truth.
The
novel The Grass Is Singing also
focuses on the theme of racial segregation strongly. Doris Lessing has raised
her voice to stop the torture on the black people. In an interview, it is said,
“She has given her voice to the silent and the refugees and homeless of our
country from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.” In her work, she kills Mary to protest
against apartheid.
Now, we will focus how racial acts are intensified in the novel through
different characters:
1) Indignant
attitude of Mary toward the black:
In this novel, Doris Lessing has
painted her protagonist Mary with all the antagonistic colors to criticize
racial discrimination. Mary is the lively embodiment of the British Empire.
Maryß-------------------------àThe British Empire
The common points:
1) Gender:
Mary
is a woman. Great Britain, too, is considered feminine in French. In French,
Great Britain is called “la Grande Bretagne”.
2) Zeal
for civilization:
Both
Mary and the British Empire have a strong zeal for civilization.
3) Feeling
for supremacy:
They always like to be treated as SUPERIOR.
4) Repulsion
for the natives:
The
black people are tortured both by Mary and the British rulers.
5) Hibernation:
When
Mary’s transition from town to village is done, isolation devours her. So, she
sleeps all the day long.
Similarly, the British Empire was also in hibernation when the Normans invaded
England in 1066.
6) Unstable
relationship:
Mary’s unstable relationship with her husband
indicates to England’s colliding relationship with Ireland in the 19th
century.
So, Mary
tortures on her black servants, accuses them of theft, and beats them heavily.
It is said, “If she disliked the native men, she loathed the native women.” She
carries the sjambok with her and feels more confident.
2) Dick’s
attitude toward the black:
Dick has better understanding with
the black. He feels sympathy for them. But he is not like Nelson Mandela, the
true savior of the black. Dick believes that the black should remain
subservient to the white.
3) Charlie
Slatter’s denigrating attitude toward the black:
Charlie Slatter is also an example
of a good colonizer. He once killed a native and uses sjambok to control them.
His racial mindset can be caught through this line, “He could not bear the
half-civilized native.”
Kazi Nazrul’s famous lines from the
poem “Sammyo” translated as “Equality” are given below:
“Here in
this abode of equality,
Different ways of apparel,
Do not
give rise to vicious quarrel,
Here
clothed in dusty costume,
Men
are satisfied and happy,
Here in this land of peace and equality.”
Question: 01) b) Analyze Mary’s transformation from
a free, independent woman to a woman trapped through her marital bond.
Answer to the Quest. No: 01 ( b )
Human beings have gone through five stages of evolution to develop on
the earth from their apelike ancestors. Physical transformation is visible and
it is common to all. But it is our subtle psychological process that makes us
different from others and determines our ultimate destiny. Curl Gustav Jung
says in this regard, “The pendulum of the mind oscillates between the sense and
non-sense, not between the right and wrong.
The deceptive simple character of Forrest Gump portrays many
characteristics of psychology such as emotion, behavior, IQ development and
adaptation in different ways. Similarly, the protagonist Mary Turner in the
novel The Grass is Singing gives us
an in-depth understanding of her intricate psychology and the consequent
transformation throughout the novel.
Mary leads an independent life in the town of Rhodesia. Still, the
society thinks that she should depend on her male counterparts. Being defeated
in the battle of “individual versus
society”, she marries to a man named Dick who possesses an opposite mindset to
Mary.
The transition after marriage is mainly
responsible for Mary’s transformation. Though she always dreams of a rich,
civilized life, she has to survive in a stark poverty-stricken situation. The
narrator says, “Her attitude toward him is fundamentally one of contempt. As a
man, she paid no attention to him.” One day, Mary says to Dick, “I hate your farm.
I hate it.”
After
her marriage, she comes closer to the black people whom she hates utterly. She
tortures on them from the beginning. But it is her weakness toward Moses that
tortures her till death. Here, Mary can be compared to Dylan Thomas who is
both “mocker” and “mocked”. Thomas
mocked a hunchback in his childhood and is mocked by the society in his later
life. So, Mary is both “torturer” and “tortured”.
Mary also wants to be a mother although she feels disturbed to have sex
with Dick. But when she sees the breast-feeding scene of the black women, she
starts abominating the idea.
The
marriage of Mary furthers her psychological entrapment when she starts feeling
fascination for Moses’s “broad-built” arms. There is no sneaky point to escape
our sexual drive as it emanates from the inner organism. Mary is not an
exception. She feels helpless in front of Moses. He appears in Mary’s dream both as a
protector and a hunter. Her super-ego bites her for being too rude to Moses two
years ago. She makes a heart-wrenching appeal to him by saying, “You mustn’t
go! You must stay.”
Mary’s marriage is a complete devastation of her life. She can neither
be happy with her husband nor with Moses. Still, she cannot suppress her
feeling for Moses. Consequently, the degree of her neurotic behavior gets
intensified and leads her to death gradually. Lessing unfolds some important
messages through the death of Mary. These are-
# Distance in conjugal life can never present an
ideal generation.
# Good parenting is very important.
# Individual is lost in the battle of society.
# Racialism should not be encouraged.
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Answer
to the Quest. No: 02 ( a)
Dick:
“Many of
life’s failures are
People who
did not realize
How close
they were to success
When
they gave up.”
-Thomas Edison
From this
quote, we can understand that the white people are not beyond all mistakes.
Rather, they are also flawed. The French writer Arthur de Gobineau writes in
his essay “Essay on the Inequality of Human Beings” that the white are the
highest development of human beings. But Lessing has punctured this idea
through Dick Turner. Dick is a failure as a farmer because he makes futile
attempts to make profit. His relationship with his wife is also shaky because
he is poor. He represents the battle of “individual versus society”. In spite
of being a white, he feels sympathy for the black. Though he can make money by
planting tobacco, he thinks that it is an “inhuman crop” and he continues to
take care of his soil by planting trees. Dick highly resembles Clym Yeobright
from The Return of the Native.
Answer to the Quest. No: 02 ( b )
Tony Marston:
There goes a famous saying, “Feeling hopeless and
full of despair is just a slower way of being dead.” This quote perfectly suits
the character Tony Marston in the novel The
Grass Is Singing. The biasness of the white people has left him absolutely
disappointed. Tony is a young Englishmen who is passionate for working in farm.
He has been given the responsibility of looking after Dick’s farm. He is
nastily interrogated by Charlie and Denham after the death of Mary which agitates
him a lot. They set a ‘Kangaroo Trial’ and condemns Moses. Tony realizes that
no brotherhood is possible between the white and the black. This realization
frustrates him. So, he starts working in bars and hotels and drink excessively.
Answer to
the Quest. No: 02 ( c )
City Life:
The city of
South Rhodesia, the kingdom of bricks and walls, plays different roles in Mary
and Dick’s life. Mary enjoys her life in the city a lot. She always remains active
here by working in her office and playing games in her leisure time. But Dick
feels absolutely “claustrophobic” here. Mary’s passion for city life makes her
parallel to the British Empire. So, one day, she escapes from the village to
lead a civilized life again. Ironically, her dream is shattered because the
people of the city reject her for her poverty and decaying beauty. Doris Lessing
has revealed the hypocrisy of the city people through this incident.
Answer to the Quest. No: 02 ( d )
Esprit de corps:
This term refers to a principle of the white
settlers in South Africa. It means ‘Pride in one’s group’. But Dick and Mary
have failed to adopt this principle in their life because they always remain
isolated from others. The activities and lifestyle of the couple do not match
with others at all. Though Mary is a colonizer like others, she develops an
intricate relationship with Moses later which is very suspicious to others.
Dick never behaves like a typical white colonizer. Rather, he shows sympathy
for them. Most importantly, he defies the idea of being rich by cultivating
tobacco and continues his life as a poor farmer. Their cottage symbolizes their
failure of being successful colonizers in South Africa. Rather, it is like a
prison for them which resonates the famous lines from Dostoyesvesky’s The House of the Dead:
“But
on this side of the enclosure,
One imagined that world to be some unattainable fairyland.
On this side, there was a peculiar world,
A world set apart that was unlike
anything else.
A world with its own peculiar laws, dress, and customs,
This was a house of the living dead.”
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