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Essay Draft Two
Anna Peng
2007-5-18
Draft Two
Black Humor in the Grass-Eater and its effect
India is an extremely polarized society, where the richest people hold a huge share of fortune while the poorest almost have nothing——they live without a decent shelter, without sufficient food, without necessary infrastructure and public facility. Mumbai, a city with the largest population in India, has the largest slum area in Asia and many people can not even find a home in slums and shantytowns. Hinduism, the dominant religion in India, believes in incarnation, which means you lead a bad life because you performed badly in your “former life”, and that prevent Indian from questioning and rebelling against the unfairness they are facing.
The Grass-Eater by Krishnan Varma is the very story that reveal to us the callous social reality. However, Varma does not reveal it directly through straight criticism. Rather, he narrates the story in a light, airy, and unconcerned tone. The sharp contraction between tone and intention creates a dramatic effects——black humor[1]. Varma uses black humor to express his severe criticism of the cruelty and callousness of the society.
The short story took place in Calcutta, one of the largest cities in India, with a population of over nine million, in the 1980s. Ajit Babu, the narrator and also the protagonist, was a primary school headmaster, struggling to survive by living on grass and struggling to find a suitable shelter.
To understand the black humor in the story and see its effect, we need to first analyze the characteristics and the image of Ajit Babu.
Babu is seemingly very optimistic and easily content even thought the situation is terrible for anyone to live in. We usually take it for granted that a principal should have one appropriate domicile due to his profession and social status as a headmaster. On the contrary, he, with his wife, lives in a pipe! Before that, they’ve been living on a footpath, an abandoned freight wagon and after that it’s a roof! This is something unbelievable. Yet our hero does not seem to mind that at all. He feels like in “heaven” and he was “God” when seeing the wagon as it has a door that can be shut and open. He find the pipe “any of our previous homes.” (56). He even consider himself lucky to manage to live on a roof with lower rent, “more light and ventilation” and no nibbles by rats and rodents. It’s not normal to be happy in such bad condition. In a deeper sense, his optimism is just a tool to avoid reality and the cover fact that he’s just on the edge of survival, which is a typical state for the poor in India.
His image is laughable, funny and ridiculous to us readers. The vivid description of the events he’s experienced and grasp of details help to portrait Babu’s image. His hurring escapes from the husband of the woman, his sudden near-to-licking kiss, his numerous suggestions to Swapna as a potential shelter, his straight expression that Swapna does not need to wear clothes before him, etc, all leave us the image of a ridiculous funny man. This ridicule is more or less “irrational” and his image is “anti-hero”, two important characteristic of black humor novels.
In nature, Babu is more indifferent and insensitive. He makes fun of his handicap. He “survived , but minus one ear” How simply and briefly he says but it’s an ear lost! He “lost the other after a fall from the roof of the tram” towards which he in fact doesn’t mind at all for he ”need wear only one sandal and thereby save on footwear.” That’s absolutely not the normal logic---depression about being handicap, worry about future life, feeling of insecurity, rather he’s relieved because he can save some money! The indifference and insensitivity to one’s own body , the disregard for handicap can only be seen in a society where the basic necessity of life can not be ensured and all one can care about is food and shelter rather than dignity and humanity.
Other details that can show this kind of indifference and insensitivity are related with his family. For instance, his response to the news that Swapna is pregnant is worth noticing. “…it would be. Someone to look after us in our old age, to do our funeral rites when we died.” (57) He expect a boy, who do not mean a son who symbolize a member of family, a warm hope of being together, a mental companion but someone to support them in old age and do funerals, a material provider.
Another example is his indifference and insensitivity towards social movement aiming at improvement. Prodeep, their forth child , took part in the Naxalite underground, a movement aimed to change India’s social structure by liquidating estates and distributing land among the rural poor thus gradually set up 'liberated zones' in different parts of the country that would eventually coalesce into a territorial unit under Naxalite hegemony – a la Yenan of China![2]. It has an abiding appeal among the dispossessed and underprivileged rural poor in several parts of India, who see in it a hope to free themselves from their present miserable conditions. He’s someone we can call Pioneers of Conscience. However, in Babu’s narration, we do not find any pride, glory or appreciation. The only comments he leaves on is “there is some compensation…had he been with us, we would have had to wear clothes.” There’re two ironic points. First, the only thing good about Prodeep’s taking part in the social movement is liberating them from the trouble of wearing clothes. Second, can we call wearing clothes a bad thing?
If It’s understandable that social movement is way far from Babu so he has no awareness, one detail showing his insensitivity is more persuasive. He lieved in East Bengal before moving to Calcutta, and East Bengal is a place ‘where Hindus and Muslims were killing one another”. It’s cruel and brutal for people killing each other just because of different religion yet Babu do not have much patience to describe that because it’s none of his business. All he cares about is his home, his next shelter, his life rather than humane course. Normally people will show at least some sadness and sympathy when hearing about people losing their life but when it’s black humor, there’s little social responsibility , moral standards and logic, by which means showing how cruelty of the society can oppress and change a person in a negative way.
The characterization of Babu is a reflection of black humor---ridiculous and insensitive. Since one does not have the power to change the society, what one can do is to laugh at it. The real purpose is not to ridicule the hero, rather, to reveal the external surroundings, the society that oppressed people’s nature to insensitivity and indifference , towards oneself and the society.
Meanwhile, we should not neglect the description of the social environment and background, both directly and indirectly, which further reveal the effect of black humor----to level criticism at the cruelty of Indian society.
To make his point clearer, Varma directly describe some of the unbearable phenomena. “The footpath was so crowded with residents, refugees like us and locals, that if you got up at night to relieve yourself you could not be sure of finding your place again.” (56)There are a large number of people who have to live on the street. Conflicts between people are also intense. “We had just arrived in Calcutta from East Bengal where Hindus and Muslims were killing one another.”(56) This sentence reveal the religious conflict in India, which lead people killing each other. This an also been shown when the woman waking up beside him “very nearly scratched out my eyes.” People under these circumstance are sure to have bad temper and be bitter towards each other for they do not have other ways to vent their dissatisfaction other than people alike.
Apart from the direct description, there’s more indirectly done with the help of black humor. They are wild with joy on seeing the wagon with door and “did nothing but open and shut them for a full hour” because it has “all the privacy a husband and wife could want” (57) In such a society, privacy is something one can only dream of. The ecstasy of the couple is surely funny and ridiculous to us, but that exactly displays the strong desire for privacy of the poor, yet this simple desire can not be fulfilled. A short period of possessing privacy is “heaven” to them and makes him feel like “God”. When we think of this, it’s not just a funny scenario of two adults opening and shutting doors for a full hour. And let us not forget they’re husband and wife who have desires for each other, as Babu points out “all the advantages of living in a wagon - four walls, a roof and door absolutely free of charge, and complete freedom to make love day or night.” Privacy rather than sleeping with a street of people together is indeed what a couple need and want. If we take this into consideration, we can understand more of their strange and ridiculous behavior seeing a wagon.
The “dispassionate” narration, a commonly used tone in black humor novels, that the baby-to-be-born is not their first child, however, the other three all died. “One died of diphtheria…two, from fatigue, on our long trek on foot to Calcutta.” Diphtheria is a serious infectious and contagious throat disease caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a bacterium, which produces a toxin that is carried in the bloodstream but can be prevented by immunization and vaccination. Diphtheria is not commonly seen If there’s good medical system, which even if there is in India, it will not cover the poorest people. The other two who died from fatigue due to their long trek, which is also not common cause of death in a society where people can dress warmly and eat one's fill.
There’s exaggeration in the narration, which can be shown from the shock of Mr. and Mrs. Misrilal ----“exceedingly distressed” and “near to tears”. They eat on grass. They “beat him(train conductor) up, set fire to the tram”… Varma uses it to actually express his severe criticism of the society where the poorest people are not able to have a decent shelter, sufficient food and more importantly the dignity——privacy, rational understanding of life, the value of life.
The last paragraph afford us food for thought, especially the last sentence—— ”We live very quietly, content to look at the passing scene: a tram burning, a man stabbing another man, a woman dropping her baby in a garbage bin.” It sounds quiet, calm and peaceful. But let us listen carefully , there’s sound of sad echoing——burning…stabbing…dropping her baby…burning…stabbing…dropping her baby…burning…stabbing…dropping her baby…
[1] The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th edition “Black humor is grotesque or morbid humor used to express the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. Ordinary characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal satire or irony. “
[2] http://venus.unive.it/asiamed/eventi/schede/naxalbari.html
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With the comments left by my peers and the inspiration from my reading, I decided to revise my essay and change the structure. I first analyzed Ajit Babu’s image and characteristics to let you understand the black humor Krishnan uses and in second part, then gave you the social background stated directly by Krishnan and revealed indirectly by 7004.1 papers//70-290 papers//70-291 exam questions//70-293 prep//70-294 questions//70-401 exam questions//70-432 papers//70-433 exam questions//
Ajit Babu’s narration. With both parts combined together, how Krishnan uses black humor to criticize the callousness of the society can be shown. Another big change is the reduction of “sympathy” though I still believe Krishnan did sympathize with the poor people but it’s just hard to find evidence from the text.
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