LitAide

Dr. Pal is one of the crucial characters of the novel "The Financial Expert". It is very difficult to either categorise under good ones or bad ones. His character is quite complicated. He selflessly helped Margayya in reaching the heights of success. He gave the manuscript of his book "Bed life" to him in return for a minuscule sum. He wanted him to earn much from the book. He is very knowledgeable and works as a journalist. In the beginning, we witness his ambitious side where he tells Margayya about his plan to launch a "sociology clinic" for solving domestic problems of husband and wife. He told him he was a sociologist. Margayya finds his ideas vulgar. Pal has no regard for a settled life. He has no fixed aim in life. He lives like a vagabond. He holds rational thoughts and emotions play no role. Perhaps, that's why he didn't marry. Money is not his concern and if he wanted money, he could earn a lot. It is undisputed because only one boo...

In her short story, Once Upon A Time, Nadine Gordimer uses many symbols to present her ideas/views upon the several aspects of the society. One of the recurring symbols she employs is, of Alarms. It reflects the underlying theme of alertness and distrust in the minds of people about their security. People residing in the suburb are apprehensive of burglaries, so they install security system including alarms, barb wires. Security Alarms are widely used appliance not only in the home of the protagonist family but also in all the houses in the suburban area. Pets or other animals like mice trigger the alarms. "The alarm was often answered—it seemed— by other burglar alarms, in other houses, that had been triggered by pet cats or nibbling mice." Moreover, the people are now accustomed to the sound of alarm as it is not unusual if there is an alarm buzzing in the neighbourhood. The sound of it is compared to an insect or a frog's croak. "The alarms called to one an...

Nora is the protagonist of the play "A Doll's house". She is married to Torvald Helmer having three children. Like an "ideal" wife, she loves and takes great care of her bossy husband and her children. She ignores her personal needs to ensure her family's comforts. She is naive and childlike and her husband frequently calls her words like "little person", "little squirrel". Torvald criticises her for extravagance which she never does. She took great pains to save husband's life and it cost her her marriage with Torvald. Besides being childish, she is an imaginative sort of person. She fancies jokingly that a wealthy suitor would allocate a part of his fortune to her after his death and she could pay the debt he took for her husband's sake. Mrs, Linde perceived this fancy of her as a real fact. Nora is like a usual wife who dedicates her life to the family. Her personal wishes take a toll at the cost of the cozy life of the fam...

The character of John in the novel "Brave New World" represents an individual of the pre-World State order. He is raised in Malpais, a place in Savage Reservation. He is an illegitimate son of Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning. Due to his upbringing, he is old-fashioned as compared to the citizens of World State. He leads his life with practices of the Tribe like flagellation, simplicity, non-materialist. He is an ardent believer in God and tries his best to persuade Mustapha Mond about the importance of God in people's life. John wants an ideal and romantic love but disgusts at the love-making prevalent in the World State. He truly loves Lenina and wants her love too but in a solemn and traditional way. He wants to marry her but Lenina was conditioned to polyamorous love. John doesn't want to involve straight into sexual love, he wants a girl like "Juliet" which wasn't possible at the time. John has lived and studied Shakespeare's works and hi...

Positive Features : None of the citizens carries/acquires any disease because of the advancement in medical science. Treatment of every disease is possible there. Moreover, no one grows old and people remain young throughout their life. War has no place in the World State and various arrangement are made to avoid a war. In fact, violence is totally prohibited. It's all about happiness. The government wants its citizen to live jubilant life with no distress or loneliness. Soma is a life-saver. Every basic amenities are provided to people and there is no dearth of nearly anything. It is wholly a productive society. Protection and adaptation against the occupational hazards. Chemical workers are immunized against toleration of lead, caustic soda, tar and chlorine. Similarly, rocket-plane engineers are enhanced with an improved sense of balance. Negative Features : An advance yet class-based (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon) society which is contrary to a highly modern w...

Cordelia - A true daughter of her father who unconditionally loved him with no hidden greed to his share of the kingdom. She is plain and simplistic and doesn't want to show off the love towards her father she has in her heart. This is her only flaw, she is too honest to be misunderstood. This brings her from being an apple of her father's eyes to one whose father banish her with hatred. But she remains faithful to his father till the end despite earlier his rude conduct. Goneril and Regan - Both of these elder daughters of King Lear share a common character of conditional love for their father. They pretend to show love to their father just to get a bigger share of the kingdom after his retirement. Their love was fake. Both of them remain greedy first for the larger share, then for Edmund. Both of them admit that they could face defeat at the hands of French but could not see Edmund with the other. Their intention was to marry Edmund and in this race, both lost their live...

Most of Shakespeare's tragedies depicts the fall of powerful people from great heights to their total destruction not only in terms of their reputation but their life also. King Lear too faced such prospects of having ruled England undisputably with no one to question him. His hyper-assertive and naive character prohibit him to see the world reasonably, he couldn't see the true faces of his daughters who showed him the life of misery. Her daughter's flattery hides their true character. Their insidious behaviour deceives Lear into rewarding them the shares of his kingdom. His tragic flaw depicts his poor judgement of true characters of people. He misunderstood Kent and Cordelia's plainness and honesty as their apathy towards him. The impression of their unappealing conduct changed the course of his own life. Even after retirement, he intended to live like a king which created conflicts with his daughters. His daughters didn't like his kingship, they didn't wa...

The novel "Things Fall Apart" depicts the life of Igbo people and particularly focuses on the life of Okonkwo, a great warrior and his downfall. It would not be wrong to say that Okonkwo was a Tragic hero whose fall was due to his own recklessness and short-temper. Even the opening lines of the novels derived from the W.B Yeats's The Second Coming give the impression of the chaos loosened upon the world of Igbo in the form of British imperialists. So the title of the novel Things fall apart tells the negative implications at the end of the novel. The novel is divided into three parts, the first part provides a description of the life of Igbo people of Africa with an understanding eye of the author, who is an African himself. The second and the third part chronicle the advent of the mighty wave of the Britishers who turned the world of Igbos upside-down. In first and second parts, we vaguely get the omen of future unfortunate happening for both our protagonist and the ...

Merits: 1. Igbo society is an epitome of meritocracy as it gives the even remotest and segregated individuals to climb to the highest ladder of the society. Our hero Okonkwo, whose father Unoka was certainly not a great man but due to his son's persistent hard work and determination, he achieved a high status in his society. 2. Igbo people respect their traditions and religiously follow it. And cultural traditions bind people together and give them a sense of identity and dignity. Even an arrogant person like Okonkwo bows before the priest, Ezeani, the priest of the earth goddess when he punished him for beating his wife during the week of peace. 3. Their Justice system is efficient to deliver justice to its people. There are no arbitrary decisions made by their law. Even a high-status person gets the same punishment for an offence as a poor one does. As it happened to Okonkwo who unintentionally killed the son of an elder person. For punishment, he had to leave the villa...

Kamala Das's poetry reveals her personal thoughts and anguish of her failed married life. She employs various imageries and symbols in her poetry which usually depicts confessional subjects. The symbols used in the poetry are common things meant to describe the personal meaning she attached to them. In her poem "The Sunshine Cat", her mental and physical breakdown is depicted with her words "they let her slide from pegs of sanity" which describes their insensitive attitude towards her. The imagery of building "walls with tears" shows the defensive mechanism and her distrust of men. The depiction of the male body is shown in the lines : "clinging to their chests where  New hair sprouted like great-winged moths, burrowing her  face into their smells" The poem "The Freaks" too depicts the image of the lustful male body which regards as an agent of corruption. Her husband is hungry for carnal thirst and this excessive desire makes ...

Balu is the only son of Margayya, the chief protagonist of the novel 'The Financial Expert'. From his childhood, Balu has been nurtured as a pampered child by his parents because they had no children for years after their marriage, that's why Balu remain too precious to them. This later culminates in him becoming a spoiled child with no purpose in life. Unlike his father, he doesn't possess any cleverness and hard-working attitude. He never performs his only duty of studying. All his life, Margayya works day and night to ensure a comfortable life for Balu but he never stands up to his father's expectations of making a big man. Margayya took pains to help Balu pass High school, even indulges in corrupt practices but it was no use. Balu tore all his hopes and left his home. He began to work as a "sandwich boys" in Madras, he was working there diligently and honestly unlike his earlier traits. We see a change perhaps due to his excessive hate towards stud...

The Poem "Portrait of the lady" features the constraining relationship of the young narrator and the mature lady. The lady shows the indirect signs of unrequited love or attachment towards the young man but he doesn't feel the same way or we can say that he is not interested in any serious relationship with the lady. The lady tries her best to win his heart with her loneliness and self-pitying. She maintains her kind attitude with him, showing how much she cares for his friends (him) and how it's difficult for her to live this wretched life.              " How much it means that I say this to you —                Without these friendships — life, what  cauchemar !"  She tries to advise the man to open himself and not to hold back while he is young. The young man has an art to remain indifferent, at least on his facial expression and "remain self-possessed" But we know how much he strives to c...

The life represented in the novel shows the futuristic version of our world. The world has reached the zenith in the field of technology. People are governed by World Controllers. There are Ten World Controllers who run the government at the peak level. Their governing motto is: "Community, Identity and Stability." Children are not born here, they are nurtured in a lab where they are conditioned by Hypnopaedia (learning by hearing while asleep). Certain fundamental norms of the society are transferred to their minds with the above technique. They regard Henry Ford as an equivalent of Christ. Their A.F (After Ford) refers to the number of years according to their calendar. The division of the society remains static throughout their lives. They are classified into as follows : 1) Alpha  ------------- Privileged class 2) Beta    ------------- Privileged class 3) Gamma  ---------- Lower class 4) Delta     ---------- Lower class 5) Eps...

Margayya is the protagonist of the novel "The Financial Expert" written by R.K Narayana. Margayya is quite suitable for a tragic hero. His shrewd and hardworking character leads him to the heights of wealth from being broke. Making wealth is his sole wealth throughout his life and there is no limit to his lust for money. But he has no interest in living a lavish life and doesn't spend money in extravagant things except an umbrella. In spite of all his flaws, we love his character because he lives his life with pragmatic principles which are must for survival in a brutal world. He is considered as a genius in financial matters and later in the novel  people regard him  as a 'wizard'. In the beginning, he helps villagers in getting loans from the Cooperative bank and makes a living for this work. He never admits this work as a business in front of the villagers, he tells them it is a merely a social service to help those poor souls. His genius is again exhibited w...

Confessional poetry is a style of poetry which deals with the personal and intimate thoughts, mental distress and individual experience. Often the themes presented in this type of poetry has elements of taboo issues. The term confessional was first used by M.L Rosenthal in a review of Robert Lowell's Life Studies entitled "Poetry as Confession". Other notable confessional poets include Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell. In order to publish such poetry, a great amount of courage and mental resilience is needed. The structure of the confessional poems are usually the same; they don't have any defined Rhyming scheme and are written in Free verse. This may be due to the fact that the poet outpour his/her predicaments and private thoughts on the paper and to make it more coherent is the last thought (s)he has. Kamala Das was one of the prominent poets whose poetry's main feature is confessional and autobiographical. In her autobiography "My Story...

The novel "The Financial Expert" gives the readers a realistic and detailed picture of the father-son relationship. Margayya and his son Balu share a fraught relationship throughout the novel. From his childhood, Balu was nurtured as a pampered child solely because he was their only child who was begotten to them after a long period of time. Balu was a menace to his parents but his parents adore him. In the beginning, Margayya bowed to all of Balu's demand and envisage a bright future waiting ahead of him. He wanted him to study in the US and marry a judge's daughter. But as Balu grew, Margayya was caught up in his work and couldn't spend his time with him. Balu couldn't excel in his school nor he had any liking towards studies or exams. But Margayya was keen to get him passed through high school despite Balu's reluctance to not studying. That's where their relationship got much strained, Balu has transformed into an adolescent and due to his father...

Kamala Das's poem "The Sunshine Cat" has both personal and universal elements reflected in it. Personal elements Like most of Kamala Das poetry, the poem sunshine cat is also a personal poem. the poem presents the downfall of the poetess who faced betrayal from both her alleged better-half and the lovers who used her to satisfy their carnal hunger. They refused to love her saying that it's not in their nature to love. After continuous failure in getting love, she was confined to a room by her husband whom she calls her a ruthless watcher. In the end, she ended up in the state of mental breakdown. Universal elements In addition to the poem being a personal poem, the poem reflects some universal happenings: The poem gives the real picture of the society where women have to live at the mercy of male members We also get a glimpse of mentality of some men who are keen to use a woman, usually an easy prey to quench their demonic thirst. The poem depicts the u...

The character of 'Okonkwo" plays the role of protagonist in the novel "Things Fall Apart" written by Chinua Achebe. A powerful character who flaunts his prowess in wrestling from his childhood. Despite being a son of a lazy and idle father, Unuoka, he has no hesitation to toil under the harsh sun. He has no respect for his father because he led a wasteful life and died a painful death, probably didn't find a place of burial. All his life, Okonkwo keeps a thought of humiliation due to his unworthy father who didn't earn even a single title. His hatred against his father's life moulded him to become a hard, arrogant person from his childhood. When he became a respectful person later in his life, he also targets weak or low people who have no titles. One main characteristic of Okonkwo is his rashness and short-tempered nature. He never talked softly. For minute reasons, he beats his wife and sons but later he regrets internally but he never apologize...

Mock-epic is a genre of poetry which creates parody by comparison of heroic poetry or classical heroes with the fool or poet's target on which he wishes to satirize. Mock-epic doesn't involve the seriousness of the epic. It works as a best way to make great satire because when there is comparison between a minor and the epic object, it results in incongruity and make the minor object more inferiorizing and funny. John Dryden's Mac Flecknoe is considered one of the best mock-epic poems of English literature. In it, Dryden attacks his rival and former friend Thomas Shadwell. The following features prove Mac Flecknoe as a Mock-Epic or Mock Heroic :- • Use of Heroic Couplet – Throughout the poem, Dryden used Heroic couplet (a pair of rhyming lines written in iambic pentameter) . It is commonly used in epic but here the subject of the poem is not of heroic doings of warriors but simply the description of foolishness and dullness of his contemporary rival Shadwell. • Dic...

After the fall of strict Cromwell government, Charles II was brought back from France. The period saw an unusual reversal of progress as in England, democracy succeeds monarchy. Now the Elizabethan works were no longer interesting and suitable for the age's demand. The quality of the works produced during the restoration age wasn't great when compared to early ages. The age didn't follow any ideologies from both early ages, it created its own trend. Some of the important features of Restoration age are as follows :- 1) Opposing or Rejecting Puritanism - With the restoration of monarchy, people started rejecting puritan values as they were very oppressive and imposed morality and simple living forcefully. People didn't like the prohibition and repression of human pleasures. Puritans were criticised and attacked by the Tories ( a party which support monarchy) which also included playwrights as before puritans banned theaters. Now theatres were reopened and all entert...