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Englisch

Burier, Suisse

2015, Analyse livre, East West

Ella F. ©
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0.33 Mb
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ID# 48606







Salman Rushdie ; East, West


Biography


Salman Rushdie is an Indian writer, but he writes in English. He was born in 1947 in Bombay and moved to England when he was 14. He often criticizes religion in his books, and after the publishing of one of his book, he received death thread from the ayatollah from Iran. He asked for his execution since his book was "blasphemous against Islam".


East: Good advice is rarer than rubies


Summary


Miss Rehana, a young Indian lady, goes to the British Consulate on the last Tuesday of the month. On that day, Indian ladies go there to get a permit for London, in order to join their (future) husband. While she is waiting to go inside, Muhammad Ali, an advice expert, comes to talk to her. He offers her to give her some advice in order to be sure to get the permit.

Since she has no money, he does it for free. He ends up telling her that he has a British passport, that he could give her. She declines his offer and goes into the Consulate. When she comes out, she explains him that she doesn't want to go to England, and that she used his advice to say the opposite, to be sure not to go to England.


Comments


There are 2 meanings of good advice in this story:

for Mr Ali, good advice means cheating → good because it works but not good in moral meaning

for Miss Rehana, there is another meaning. She doesn't want to go to England, so she uses Mr Ali's advice to say the opposite and to be sure not to have the permit.


The free radio


Summary


This story is told by an old narrator, but we don't know him. He tells the story of Ramani, a young (~ 20 years old) rickshaw-wallah. He is seeing a widow, who is 10 years older than him. The narrator says he tried to warn him from her, but it didn't work. He even tells the thief's widow that she shouldn't be with him, but that didn't work either. We know that she has 7 children (5 alive), and that she is kind of poor, which might explain her interest in Ramani.

We also know that she earns money by "bad ways", maybe by prostituing. One day a white caravan arrives in town, and we understand that this caravan is used to do vasectomies. Ramani hears that if he goes to that caravan, he would get a free radio. He goes in there, because it allows him to marry the widow, since she didn't wan any children any more. They get married, but he doesn't get his radio.

He is riding through the city, with a hand up to his ear, imitating having the radio. One year passes and still no radio. One day, the caravan comes back, and after 3 days Ramani comes to get his gift. But he gets beat up, and the widow sees the whole scene without doing a thing. After that, the family leaves for Bombay. The narrator gets a letter telling how life was great there, that he had a lot of success and so on.

But we understand that the narrator isn't sure about the sincerity of these letters, and thinks Ramani may invent it.


The prophet's hair


Summary


The story happens in winter in Srinagar. Hashim, a rich moneylender and father of two children , Atta and Huma, found the Prophet's Hair, a relic that had been stolen a few days before. He decides to keep it. As soon as the relic was in the house, Hashim's behaviour changed. He became violent, very religious (even a bit extremist) and mean. He forced his family to pray, he burnt all the books of the house except the Qur'an, even beat his wife and daughter, threatend Huma not to let her live in their house anymore if she didn't wear a headscarf, and so on.

One day, Atta decided to steal the Prophet's Hair to get rid of it. But during his trip to the mosque, it fell from his trousers, and Hashim found it again. After that, Huma decided to go to the disreputable part of the city to hire a thief. Before her, Atta had tried the same but had been stolen and beaten. Huma found a burglar and told him he had to come that night.

The burglar was called Sheikh Sin, and also "the thief of thieves". But he was sick, and wanted to do this last thing to earn enough money for his family. That night, he came into the house, but Atta woke up from his coma and, not expecting him, shouted "thief! thief!" and then died. Hashim also woke up, took a sword, and killed his daughter, thinking it was the thief.

During this time, the thief was able to steal the relic and go home. But somebody called the police, and the Deputy Commissioner was alerted. Huma had given him a letter before going to hire the thief, telling where she was. He couldn't open it until she was dead, so when he heard the news he read it and went to the thief's house and killed him by a bullet through the stomach, which was the worst death the burglar could imagine.


Comments


Moral of the story:

  • don't keep something that doesn't belong to you

  • criticism against money (lending, keeping, giving importance)

  • good/bad

  • what belongs to the community isn't private

  • there's no absolute truth


The 2 first come from the old testament and the Coran.


The father's behaviour is violent and religious, because of the relic, so she must have magical power, but why? The father did 2 bad things:

1) he is a moneylender, and it is forbidden in the muslim religion

2) he keeps the relic but he should have given it back

→He is maybe punished for that.


Rushdie uses this story to criticise religion.


Common things in the 3 East stories


  • Money : attraction-repulsion → complex relationship

  • Choices : we have to do our own ones → right-wrong, reasonable

Choices changes destiny


West: At the auction of the ruby slippers


Summary


We suppose the story happens in the future. There is an auction to sell the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz. There are a lot of different people there: movie stars, political refugees, orphans, . Homeless people try to come in. We learn that outside the city there is a no-man's-land. The world seems in a chaos. The people there want the slippers because they are known to have magical powers.


Comments


The story contains intertextuality (references to other stories)


Why The Wizard of Oz?

  • the main character is kind of homeless, as Rushdie

  • iconic film of fiction, dream

  • the auction is out of reality, as the story


Criticism about the importance people give to auction (money)


Themes:

  • reality/fiction

  • money

  • desire and love

  • violence

  • magical power


Christopher Colombus & Queen Isabella of Spain consummate their relationship


Summary


Columbus arrives as a supplicant at the court of Queen Isabella of Spain, hoping for cash and three tall ships. When the Queen asks him what he desires, he murmurs, "Consummation." The Queen is offended. Columbus becomes known at Isabella's court for his colourful clothes and excessive drinking. The Queen plays with Columbus, permitting him familiarities, then banishing him to the stables and piggeries for forty days.

Isabella's heralds arrive and tell Columbus that she has summoned him for his trip.


Comments


Christopher Colombus really came to Queen Isabella to ask her for money and ships, and Rushdie used this to write this short story.


The word "consummate" is used a lot of time during this short story, and all the meaning from a dictionary correspond to it → makes it a "dangerous word" (p.107) because there is some ambiguity.


The italics are mostly the heralds, but it is sometimes confusing and could be other people. For example, on page 113, a part could be Christopher Colombus thinking.


East, West


This part contains short stories talking about people coming from East but living in West.


Chekov and Zulu


Summary


Zulu and Chekov, who got their nicknames because they are fans of "Star Trek," are Sikhs working as diplomats at India House in London. ("Zulu" coming from "Sulu".) They have been friends since their boyhood in Dehra Dun. In August, 1984, Chekov arrives from Delhi. Zulu lives at Wembley with his wife and children. In November, Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards.

Despite Chekov's protests, Zulu goes underground to infiltrate the Sikh extremists assumed to be behind Mrs. Gandhi's assassination. Chekov remembers their previous months together in England. Chekov, after a period of modernity, had reverted to wearing the traditional Sikh beard and turban. While Chekov drove Zulu to Stratford, Zulu spoke about "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien, comparing the position of the Hobbits--knowing nothing of the forces that threaten them, or those that may save them--to that of the Sikhs.

Gandhi's assassination. Zulu leaves the service in disgust, and becomes a successful businessman in Bombay. In May, 1991, Chekov is with Rajiv Gandhi when a Tamil woman assassinates him with a bomb, killing Chekov as well. In his last moments, Chekov finds himself on the Starship Enterprise--he takes Zulu's hand as the ship is attacked by Klingons.


Comments


This story is based on two real events (the murder of Indira Ghandi and of Rajiv Ghandi) and a TV show : Star Trek.


In Star Trek, Sulu and Chekov are two of the three "strangers" in a team made mostly with American (Sulu is South African and Chekov Russian) → corresponds perfectly with the characters in the short story (Indians living in England).



The Courter


Summary


This short story tells the story of an Indian family. The narrator wants to tell it because his maid, Certainly-Mary, is sick. His childhood happens in the 60's, in London. The whole family comes from India, and one day the father decided that they should move to England. In their building, there is a porter. He's the one who surnamed the maid "Certainly-Mary" because she always says "oh yes certainly" or "no certainly not".

She calls him the courter because she can't pronounce the p in English (cf. the title). The narrator and his siblings call the porter "mixed-up" but his real name is Mecir. The father lives in the apartment next to the rest of the family's one. The porter and Mary begin to see each other. We follow the family's everyday struggle. Two Indian men come occasionally to visit them, the maharajas of P- and B-.

They say some men are looking for them and they must hide. But two men arrive, and beat the porter up. A few day later, the narrator's mother is having a walk, and two men mistake her with Maharaja B's wife. They say he is seeing prostitutes, and that he beat one up. The mother tries to tell them she isn't the wife they're looking for, but they don't seem to understand.

Mixed-up arrives and explains them, and they leave. Mary begins to have heart troubles, and she says it is because she is homesick. She then decides to go back to India. The narrator gets the British citizenship. He decides to go back to their old house, but the porter isn't there anymore.



The story is a bit biological.


The narrator is a bit lost, doesn't know where he belongs (as S. Rushdie, but also as a lot of people. → problematic of identity. But he decides not to choose : p.211 " I refuse to choose".


The character of the porter is a metaphor : a porter lets people go inside. But here, it could be the entrance in another part of the world (they're Indian and coming in England). And the name "courter" makes us think that the family has kind of to court the new country, the new life, and so on.


The 60's was a period in England when people did a lot of sexual experiences → explains the use of a lot of sexual words. And the protagonist is a teenage boy, who starts to want to know about sex, which explains it too.


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