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Essay Draft Three
Anna Peng
June 20, 2007
Draft Three
Black Humor in The Grass-Eaters 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 facilities. 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.
The story of The Grass-Eater by Krishnan Varma 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 school master, struggling to survive by living on grass and struggling to find a suitable shelter. It is the very story that reveal to us the callous social reality. However, Krishnan does not reveal it directly through straight criticism. Rather, he presents the story in a light, airy, and unconcerned tone. The sharp contrast between the tone and intention creates a dramatic effect——black humor[1] . Krishnan uses black humor to express his severe criticism of the cruelty and callousness of the society.
The effect of black humor is usually achieved by the characterization of the hero[2]. To understand the black humor in the story and see its effect, it’s necessary 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. It is usually taken for granted that a school master should have one appropriate domicile due to his profession. On the contrary, he, with his wife, lives in a pipe! And they have lived on a footpath, an abandoned freight wagon and on a roof. Yet he does not seem to mind that at all. He feels like in “heaven” and he was “God” when seeing the freight wagon as it has a door that can be shut and open (57). He even considers himself lucky to manage to live on a roof with lower rent, “more light and ventilation” (58) and no nibbles “by rats and rodents” (58).
His image is laughable, funny and ridiculous to us readers. The vivid description of the events he has experienced and grasp of details help to portray Babu’s image. His hurrying escape from the husband of the woman (56), his sudden near-to-licking kiss (57), his numerous suggestions of potential shelters to Swapna (57), his straight expression that Swapna does not need to wear clothes before him (58), all leave us with the impression of a ridiculously funny man. This ridicule is more or less “irrational” and his image is “anti-hero”, two important characteristic of black humor novels. His optimism is not normal in such a bad situation and he is anything but brave, masculine or patriotic. The cruel reality of survival has reduced a man to misery and lack of self-esteem.
In nature, Babu is indifferent and insensitive. He makes fun of his handicap. He “survived, but minus one ear” (56). He does not mind the loss of one leg for he” need wear only one sandal and thereby save on footwear.” (58) The normal logic---depression about being handicap, worry about future life, feeling of insecurity is being replaced by the idea of saving money. The indifference and insensitivity to one’s own body can only be seen in a society where the basic necessity of life can not be ensured and all one cares about are foods and shelters rather than dignity and humanity.
Other details that can show this kind of indifference and insensitivity are related with his family. He refers to the child-to-be-born just as “someone to look after them in our old age, to do our funeral rites when we died.” (57) He will just be a material provider rather than a member of the family, a warm hope of being together, a mental companion.
Another example is his indifference towards social movement. Prodeep, their forth child, took part in the Naxalite underground[3]. 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 is someone we can call Pioneers of Conscience. However, in Babu’s narration, we find neither pride nor appreciation, but relief, for they “would have had to wear clothes” (58), if Prodeep had been there.
If it is understandable that social movement is way far from Babu so he has no awareness, one detail showing his insensitivity is more persuasive. He lived in East Bengal before moving to Calcutta, and East Bengal is a place “where Hindus and Muslims were killing one another”(56). It is cruel and brutal for people killing each other just for different religion yet Babu does not have much patience to describe that as 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 sadness and sympathy when hearing about people losing their life but when it is black humor, there is little social responsibility, moral standards and logic, by which means shows how poverty 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 oppresses people’s nature to insensitivity and indifference, toward oneself and the society.
The description of the social environment and background, both directly and indirectly, reveals the effect of black humor----to level criticism at the cruelty of Indian society.
To make his point clearer, Krishnan directly describes some of the unbearable phenomena. There are so many homeless people that the footpath is “crowded with residents, refugees” (56). The religious conflict is so intense that people were “killing one another.”(56) People under such circumstance have bad temper and are bitter toward each other as the woman waking up beside him nearly “scratched out” his eyes (56) and conductors will be beaten up if he tries to stop people from getting on the tram room (59). Babu and Swapna have to eat on grass “when the price of rice started to soaring.” (58).
More depiction is given indirectly 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” (57).The ecstasy of the couple is surely a funny and ridiculous scenario to us, but that exactly displays the strong desire for privacy rather than sleeping with a street of people together of a couple, which can not be easily fulfilled. A short period of possessing privacy is “heaven” to them and makes him feel like “God”. (57)
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[4]. . .two, from fatigue, on our long trek on foot to Calcutta.” Diphtheria is not commonly seen If there is good medical system to offer vaccination for the poor. Dying from fatigue is also not common cause of death in a society where people can dress warmly and eat one's fill.
These all give us the outline of Indian society at the 80s-----the poorest people are not able to have a decent shelter, sufficient food, let lone dignity, privacy, understanding the value of life.
The last paragraph affords 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.” (59) 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. . .
Works Cited
Krishnan Varma, “The Grass-Eaters”,1985. Rpt. in The International Story: An Anthology with Guidelines for Reading and Writing about Fiction. Ruth Spack. New York: St. Martin’s 1994.6-8
Wang Xiao Lin, “The Study of American Black Humor Novels”, Shanghai, Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2006
[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] The Study of American black humor novels by Wang Xiao Lin, p97
[3] 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.
[4] A serious infectious and contagious throat disease caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a bacterium, which produces a toxin that is carried in the bloodstream.
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