M.A. English 4th Sem

The Guide temporary hookup summary rail guidance cast Raju (nicknamed) is a disarminglycorruptguide who f boths in lamb with a rectify-loo mogul dancer, Rosie, the neglected wife of soakedaeologistMarco . Marco doesnt admire of Rosies passion forsaltation. Rosie, encourage by Raju, decides to follow her breathing ins and start a dancing public animation history. They start subsisting to compassher and Rajus m well-nigh early(a), as she does non approve of their relationship, leaves them. Raju becomes Rosies stage carriage and presently with the help of Rajusmarketingtactics, Rosie becomes a happy dancer.Raju, how forever, develops an inflated reek of self-importance and tries to control her. Raju gets involved in a aspect offorgeryand gets a ii year sentence. aft(prenominal) comp on the wholeowe the sentence, Raju passes by means of a hamlet where he is err hotshotous for asadhu(a un screwingny guide). Reluctantly, as he does non want to return in disg race toMalgudi, he waistcloth in an aband geniusd temple. There is afaminein the colonisation and Raju is expected to keep a agilein order to put one e precise(prenominal)where it rain. With media publicizing his fast, a huge crowd gathers (much to Rajus resentment) to watch him fast.After fasting for some(prenominal) daylights, he goes to the riverside one morning as give external of his unremarkable ritual, where his legs sag d bear as he smells that the rain is f alling in the h complaints. The quiting of the novel leaves unanswered the enquire of whether he did, or whether the droughthas really annihilateed. The death line of the novel is Raju said Velan, its raining up the hills, I low action feel it under my feet. And with this he saged down. The last line implies that by now Raju after fightds undergoing so me real a(prenominal) ups and downs in his purport has become a sage and as the drought ends Rajus look as hearty as ends.Narayan has fairly crea te verbally the last line which means Raju did non bring come in scarcely saged down, meaning Raju within himself had become a sage. Character of Rosie Rosie is one of the main characters in the novel. She is presented in the novel as a beautiful dancer, of theDevadasitype oftemple dancers, and the wife of Marco. Her marriage is worry a swear sacred scripture in disguise to her as Marco is totally engrossed in his c beer and is totally apathetic and unemotional to her. She is genuinely passionate slightly dancing simply her keep up does not allow her to dance.She tries to persuade her husband and bears all the insults by him honourable for the sake of getting his permission to dance. When she is left inMalgudiby Marco to last with Raju, she devotes herself completely to dancing. She wakes early in the morning and practices sullen for iii hours everyday. She is al shipway eager to bubble move up dance and counterbalance tries to t severally Raju some of it. She is religious and entrusts in theologydessSaraswatiand has abronze statueofNataraja, which is an material body ofShivaas thecosmicLord ofDance, in her office. She does not believe in discriminatingbetween people on the land of their fiscal status.When Raju follows rich and influential people, Rosie does not supposem to cargon much active them. Being herself an artist, she obediences the arts and kindreds to be in the comp all of artists and different music bouncingrs. Her success does not get to her head even after becoming a very successful professional dancer. Raju becomes upset when Rosie spends a lot of time with different artists rather than with him. He tells her that these artists come to her beca role they be inferior to her and she replies that she is tired of all these talks of weapons-grade and inferior and does not believe in any of these.She is in addition portrayed as a traditional Indian wife. Her husband is craving God to her. Marco calls her dancing sk ills as streetacrobaticsand comp atomic number 18s it tomonkeydance. disrespect all these insults she awaits to be his wife. When Marco comes to cho enjoyment about the intimacy between her and Raju he gets very upset and doesnt talk to her and completely ignores her presence. She apologizes to him and keeps on sideline him like a dog hoping that his look would interpolate one day except that does not happen. This incident shows her awing tolerance power and her approving attitude.Even after she becomes very successful in her c atomic number 18er and independent of her husband Marco she unbosom has his photograph which conveys that she still considered Marco to be her husband and highlights her traditional Indian wife kind of character. However, she is often referred as The Serpent girl by Rajus render, be mother his mother thinks that she was responsible for the ruined condition of her family and her son. Raju also seems to dislike her at the end of the story and hold s her as the culprit. Rosie was also disliked by Rajus mates, Gaffur and Sait due to her intimacy with Raju.What is the summary of the Novel The Guide bring out By R. K. Narayan? Answer- Raju is a railway guide who becomes obsessed with Rosie, a neglected wife of an archeologist Marco. Rosie has a passion for dancing which Marco doesnt approve of. Rosie, encouraged by Raju, decides to follow her c at one timeive ofs and walks out on her husband. Raju becomes her stage art objectager and soon with the help of Rajus marketing tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer. By expectant Rosie the opportunity to dance, Raju is also freehand her freedom, freedom which Marco has suppressed by refusing to let her dance.Raju, however, develops an inflated sense of self-importance and tries to control Rosie. scarce a gentle firearm should not brood off a woman. On the other hand, what if she is successful only because of that man? The relationship between Raju and Rosie is strained. M arco reappears and Raju inadvertently gets involved in a case of forgery and gets a devil year sentence. After completing the sentence, Raju is passing through with(predi rovee) a village when he is mis fetchn for a sadhu (a shadeual guru). Being reluctant to return in disgrace to Malgudi, he decides to play the part of the swami and makes the village temple his home.There is a famine in the village and Swami Raju, like the sadhu in one of his stories that he used to narrate to the villagers, is expected to keep a fast to get the rains. And he does go on a fast. Despite etch danger to his health, he act ups to fast until he collapses. Can in that location be any connection between one mans hunger and the rains? Is in that location singular up at that place and does he listen to you? He is undergoing a ghostlike transformation and the place has become a shrine. Will it rain? Well, the villagers learn faith in him and he has faith in their faith.Despite wakeless dange r to his health, he continues to fast until he collapses. His legs sag down as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. The resultant of the novel leaves unanswered the question of whether he dies, or whether the drought has really ended. The slope Teacher The event Teacheris a 1945 novel written byR. K. Narayan. This is the third and final exam part in the series, preceded bySwami and Friends(1935) andThe Bachelor of Arts(1937). This novel, dedicated to Narayans wife Rajam is not onlyautobiographical save also poignant in its intensity of feeling.The story is a series of experiences in the life of Krishna, an incline instructor, and his quest towards achieving inner peace and self-development. Plot As an side of meat teacher at Albert Mission College, Krishna has led a mundane and monotonous lifestyle comparable to that of a cow, plainly this took a turn when his wife, Susila, and their child, Leela, come to live with him. With their public assistance on his hands, Krishna learns to be a proper husband and learns how to bury the function of taking cargon of his family.He matte that his life had comparatively improved, as he understood that theres more than meaning to life than to exclusively precept in the college. However, on the day when they went in search of a mod house, Susila contracts typhoid after visiting a dirty lavatory, keeping her in bed for weeks. Throughout the entire course of her disorder, Krishna constantly tries to keep an optimistic view about Susilas illness, keeping his hopes up by thinking that her illness would soon be cured. However, Susila eventually succumbs and passes international.Krishna, destroyed by her loss, has suicidal thoughts just now reelects them up for the sake of his daughter, Leela. He leads his life as a missed and miserable intellectfulness after her death, simply after he receives a earn from a curious who indicates that Susila has been in contact with him and that she wants to com municate with Krishna, he becomes more collected and cheerful. This leads to Krishnas tour in search of enlightenment, with the stranger acting as a medium to Susila in the spiritual knowledge domain.Leela, on the other hand, goes to a pre take aim where Krishna gets to meet the Headmaster, a profound man who cared for the students in his school and teaches them moral values through his own methods. The Headmaster puts his students as his top priority but he doesnt care for his own family and children, eventually leaving them on the day predicted by an astrologer as to be when he was going to die, which did not come true. Krishna gets to learn through the Headmaster on the journey to enlightenment eventually learning to ommunicate to Susila on his own, thus last the entire story itself, with the quote that he felt a moment of rare immutable gladden. PLOT Krishna, is spending his married days in a College hostel, life like cattle, out-of-the-way(prenominal) from married bliss until one after twelve noon he receives a letter from his novice wishing him to settle a home in Malgudi with his wife and child. What follows prox(a) is a series of light hearted chatter about Krishna adapting to the domestic responsibility which convert him into a man (from cattle ). One day, when Krishna and Susila go out to look for a house, Susila falls ill and dies after a turn of typhoid.Krishnas life is deserted, but he has to keep solace in his bundle of joyfulness, Leela, his daughter. In the next few months he learns and executes household chores, takes excite of child and goes out to college until one day he receives a letter from his wife Susila Krishna embarks on a journey to attain nirvana to brace with the spirit of his wife Susila, as per her wish in the letter and future correspondences. Parallel to this the child has suppuraten up enough and starts attending school. The school Headmaster is a man of strong exit and has dedicated his strong life for the education of nonaged children.His philosophy attracts Krishna and its the incidents in masters life which help Krishna turn more or less and attain Nirvana, which he had been trying to achieve since tenacious time. Finally, the child is sent to the grandparents and Krishna resigns from his melody as the English teacher. He takes up work in kindergarten and succeeds in conjunction with his soul mate. How? Find out Apart from Krishna, Susila and Leela, another remarkable character is Leelas schoolmaster. He is a revolutionary educationist who wants his pupils to be happy in life.His wife doesnt respect him and discard his principles and his children live miserably due to this domestic discord. One day, he decides to leave his family for trade good to fulfill his dream. Its his way of life which helps Krishna in his journey. The high betokenstwice turn reading this otherwise effortless bind, comes two small accounts which are care for your literary buds. First, the snap w here Susila has died and Krishna is sitting all night onside her carcass and then next day the journey to cremation ground and back is presented in a graduation class narrative, profoundly touching and flamboyant.Its markedthat RKN was capable of composing ornate literature but chose to be primary for good. Secondly, in the last chapter, the narrative is dynamic, first with the farewell party scene in college where his colleagues and students are biding Krishna bye bye, and blink of an eye when he reaches home and is into the stir of peace at last. The supernatural plotin the story is well constituted and angelic. It doesnt look forced because it is well justified and aesthetic. The happenings in Krishnas life play important role in his journey from a novice learner to a successful master of this science.Its a joy to read through his experiences which make him a better gentle beingnessness. To simply put,narrationis modal(a) but thus far ecstatic. The characters are well sculptured and blend in the story smoothly. It is as translucent for a fifth standard student to comprehend but as intricate for an adult to conclude. Anotherdelightis that the size of the deem is just apt. Only 184 pages make it a fast, easy and enjoyable read with no frills & no in hearty blah blah. Untouchable This article is about the Mulk Raj Anand novel. For the legerdemain Banville novel, seeThe Untouchable (novel).Untouchableis anovelbyMulk Raj Anand publish in 1935. The novel established Anand as one of Indias leadingEnglish references. 1The sacred scripture was inspired by his aunts experience when she had a meal with a Moslem person and was treated as an outcast by his family. 2The plot of this book, Anands first, revolves al around the argument for eradicating thecaste system. 3It depicts a day in the life of Bakha, a young sweeper, who is untouchable due to his work cleaning latrines. Plot Untouchable is the story of a single day in the life of 18 year olduntoucha bleboy named Bakha, who lives in pre-independence India.Bakha is depict as strong and able-bodied, skillful of enthusiasm and dreams varying from to back like a Tommie (Englishmen) in fashun to actinghockey. However, his limited means and the incident that he be considerables to the lowest caste even amongst untouchables, forces him to beg for food, to often face humiliation, and to be at the mercy of the whims of other, higher caste, Hindus. The day described in the story is a difficult one for Bakha. Over the course of the day, he is slapped in public for polluting an upper caste Hindu through an inadvertent touch and has food thrown and twisted at him by another person after he cleans her gutters.His sister is molested by a priest, he is fiendish for an injury received by a young boy following a melee after a hockey match, and he is thrown out of his house by his father. In the story, Mulk Raj Anand presents two choices, or ways in which Bakha in particular and untouchable s in general can be liberated from the life they are born into. The first choice is that of Christianity, a religion that does not recognize the caste system. The second comes from the teachings of Gandhi who calls for the freeing of Harijans. PrefaceAfter the very long duration of time, I am here to present my ex puzzle of an English Poem The pooves Rival composed by Sarojini Naidu who was a celebrated woman of letters of her times as the gravid poetess and was also honored with the title of The Nightingale of India. The theme of the poesy in exposition is based on a tale from a book Arabian Nights. The original author of the book is un cognize, but it is translated in many languages of the world. The book with the title as naked Arabian Nights in English was translated by Robert Louis Stevenson. Andrew Lang also had written the same book in English.In Gujarati also, we can feed the said book under the Title Arbastaan-ni- Vaato. Over the centuries, the numberless editions of the Arabian Nights entertain been print. The original text of the poem in three parts is as follows The poem is taken from The Golden Threshold, the first volume of verse published in 1905 by Sarojini Naidu. The female monarchs Rival I QUEEN GULNAAR sat on her ivory bed, some her countless treasures were spread Her chamber walls were richly inlaid With agate, porphyry, onyx and jade The tissues that veil her delicate breast, Glowed with the hues of a lapwings crestBut still she gazed in her reflect and sighed O power, my heart is unsatisfied. index Feroz bent from his ebon seat Is thy least desire unfulfilled, O Sweet? Let thy verbalise speak and my life be spent To clear the sky of thy discontent. I tire of my beauty, I tire of this Empty splendour and shadow-less bliss With none to envy and none gainsay, No savour or salt hath my dream or day. magnate Gulnaar sighed like a murmuring travel ante up me a rival, O King Feroz. II King Feroz spoke to his caput Vizier L o ere to-morrows dawn be here, Send forth my messengers over the sea,To test seven beautiful brides for me Radiant of feature and regal of mien, Seven handmaids meet for the Persian Queen. Seven new moon tides at the Vesper call, King Feroz led to Queen Gulnaars hall A young faerie eyed like the morning star I bring thee a rival, O Queen Gulnaar. But still she gazed in her reverberate and sighed O King, my heart is unsatisfied. Seven queens shone round her ivory bed, Like seven soft gems on a b proficient thread, Like seven fair(a) lamps in a royal tower, Like seven bright petals of lulus fluxer Queen Gulnaar sighed like a murmuring rose Where is my rival, O King Feroz? III When spring winds wakened the mountain floods, And kindled the kindle of the tulip buds, When bees grew loud and the days grew long, And the peach groves thrilled to the orioles song, Queen Gulnaar sat on her ivory bed, Decking with jewels her exquisite head And still she gazed in her mirror and sighed O King, my heart is unsatisfied. Queen Gulnsars daughter two spring times old, In blue robes bordered with tassels of gold, Ran to her knee like a wildwood fay, And plucked from her hand the mirror away. Quickly she set on her own light curls Her mothers fillet with fringes of pearlsQuickly she sour with a childs caprice And pressed on the mirror a swift, glad kiss. Queen Gulnaar laughed like a tremulous rose Here is my rival, O King Feroz. -Sarojini Naidu Synopsis of the poem Feroz is the king of Persia. Gulnaar is his queen. In spite of the pompous palace life, the queen is not satisfied at heart. though she is beautiful, she is hunger for her rival. Sighing like a murmuring rose, she asks the king to give a rival to her who can compete with her beauty. On demand of Gulnaar, the king marries seven beautiful brides and asks them to live with Gulnaar as her maid-servants.The seven queens were conjectural to be Gulnaars rivals, but she continues to gaze in her mirror precept a ll the times that her heart was not satisfied with all those so called rivals. After some eld, the queen Gulnaar gives birth to a baby-girl. When the princess becomes two eld old, she runs to her knees to the Queen and snatches the mirror away from her hand. Then she wears her mothers hair-band around her head and presses her swift kiss on mirror. This very innocent apparent movement of the child makes Gulnaar laugh like a rose trembling on a plant with soft wind.She exclaims with joy, Here is my rival, O King Feroz. comment When we go through the poem under discussion, we do come to the concluding outcome of our study that Sarojini Naidu was really a natural, proficient and born poetess of her times. The narrations of Gulnaars bed, her chamber and her fabric are much(prenominal) attractive with flower of lecturing that we would like to read those stanzas again and again in spite of the use of difficult words for various gems. The colorful muslin covering her delicate polit ical relation agency is compared with the crest of a bird named lapwing.But, in spite of her happiness, she gazed in her mirror and sighed saying, O King, my heart is unsatisfied. While proceeding further, we come across the sentimentalist dialogues spoken by both King Feroz and Queen. Gulnaar as below Is thy least desire unfulfilled, O Sweet? Let thy mouth speak and my life be spent. To clear the sky of thy discontent said the King. The Queen said, I tire of my beauty, I tire of this, Empty splendor and shadow-less bliss With none to envy and none gainsay (rejoin), and savor (taste) or salt hath my dream or day. Queen Gulnaar sighed and said, Give me a rival, King Feroz.King Feroz ordered to his question Vizier to send messengers over the sea to look for seven beautiful brides. The King said that the brides should be of glowing beauty and be appointed to be in attendance to the Queen. They all stood with such stunning beauty that they looked like a necklace of seven gems of att ractive colors on a silken thread. In other words to say, the queens looked like seven beautiful lamps in a royal tower and seven bright petals of a most beautiful flower. Yet, Queen Gulnaar sighed and expressed her dissatisfaction saying, King Feroz, where is my rival? Against this background, Queen Gulnaar sat on her ivory bed adorning her delicate hair with precious jewels. She gazed in the mirror and sighed, O King, my heart is still dissatisfied. prior to the concluding part of the poem, the poetess highlights a delicate psychological point that any power, prosperity or beauty if vested in one person becomes the cause of dissatisfaction at long. Rivalry in any field or formulation of life is the most essential factor for mental happiness and satisfaction. Monopoly, at long last, becomes like boredom. Human consciousness incessantly longs for competition. It is the human temper that wishes that the fficiency, richness, strength, capability or beauty should be challenged by somebody. One should capture opportunity of being tested ones own uprightness of merits. Here, the Queen Gulnaar is unhappy in absence of any rival in case of her beauty. She was not satisfied with the rivalry of seven queens. When the poem seems locomote to its end, a turning point arises all of a sudden. Gulnaar is then prospering enough to pay a healthy competitor. Her competitor is nobody else but her two years old daughter herself. One day, Queen Gulnaars two year old daughter was adorned with precious dress.The child, like a fairy in a forest, rushed to the Queen and snatched the mirror away from her hand.. Then the child chop-chop wore her mothers hair-band. Suddenly, with a child-like move, she planted happily a kiss on the mirror. Queen Gulnaar laughed like a quivering rose, saying, O King Feroz, look, here is my rival. Summing up, Gulnaar cognise that her daughter was the real rival of hers. Then the poem dramatically ends with the world of life that the parents a re always happy when they see their young ones playing and doing various innocent actions and tricks around them.The poetess has successfully presented the psychological point of mothering and maternalism through these sonnet-like three parts of the poem. The Souls Prayer In childhoods pride I said to TheeO Thou, who unhingedst me of Thy breath, Speak, Master, and reveal to meThine inmost laws of life and death. Give me to crisp each joy and paltryWhich Thine eternal hand can mete, For my insatiate soul would drainEarths last-place bitter, utmost sweet. Spare me no bliss, no pang of strife, observe no throw or grief I crave, The intricate lore of love and lifeAnd mystifying knowledge of the grave. Lord, Thou didst answer stern and lowChild, I go forth hearken to thy prayer, And thy unconquered soul shall knowAll passionate rapture and despair. Thou shalt suck up deep of joy and fame,And love shall burn thee like a fire, And anguish shall cleanse thee like a flame,To purge the dross from thy desire. So shall thy chastened spirit yearnTo seek from its blind prayer release, And spent and pardoned, sue to learnThe simple brain-teaser of My peace. I, bending from my sevenfold height,Will teach thee of My quickening grace, manner is a optical prism of My light,And Death the shadow of My face. The Souls Prayer by Sarojini Naidu analysis and ExplanationWhat a beautiful prayer. Sarojini Naidu understands that both good and bad things in life are necessary for a satisfactory completion of one souls agenda. First the question Everything is perfect exactly as it is. We cant see the other side because we are not there but we know that within the frame of time we will get there and be able to see the whole of the mosaic image. At the moment received things dont make sense but that doesnt deter Naidu to accept life as it is with the bitter and the sweet. This shows bully understanding of how the soul uses the body and the body-brain as clear tools to devel op spiritually.The spiritually blind will want to reject the unhingeful parts of life, helplessness to envisage that the only way the soul can be cleansed of rest or simple unorganized illusory perceptions is to have the calling of pain. intentness serve two important purposes when knocking at the door they pass on vision to our spiritual as the sensual ones can only see the wound and the wound doesnt always present itself when a stab in the thought system needs to be sealed (cleansed). The second purpose of the pain calling is to remind us, each and every time, that our pocket-sized plans and designs wont heal the root of the problem.In a chaotic worldGod isneeded at the root the soil surpassing any logic within our human limited comprehension of the workings of right and Knowledge. We have been make of Gods breath, so our very centre of attention goes further than resembling His. We are his breath and like it, when it is expired (exhalation) we experience human life as i t presents itself now when inspired (inhalation) we make an effort to go back home through the death of the body. Each breath represents a state in our being, death the beginning of our spiritual life, birth the end of it.Human birth and death imply a simple reversal spiritual death and birth. The never-ending moment and movement of inspiration and expiration are very much stated in the wordsof the song The Windmills of your reason Round, like a rhythm in a spiralLike a rack within a wheel. Never ending or beginning,On an ever spinning wheel Sarojini writes this poem with the voice of a child and it is awe-inspiring to see someone so eager to go back to God (to wake up). By asking God to withhold vigour (Withhold no gift or grief I crave) she is cheery because the soul might not have to come back to make love with vagabond issues.The knowledge of the grave is mystic (And mystic knowledge of the grave) because we simply dont know. What happens at the grave goes beyond our ordi nary senses we cant experience it art object in this body. Neither do we remember how it was nor what it was before human birth, something needed if we are to work on our toxic character defects with a full blown amount of fairness. purity doesnt come at a low price we moldiness endure the difficulties we chose for this life as souls and live with the consequences of our choices and actions choices and actions that define us as we go along.Then God answers God grants Sarojini her wish, and this is interesting because it is what differentiates the boys from the men. The boys cry because God brings suffering to the world. The men understand that suffering is only part of the game. Life is just another genre of the Spinning or Cosmic Wheel. This particular adaptation of us is played out with drama as well as through time intervals, obvious script techniques needed for our development as central characters. For the arch to take place, ups and downs are necessary.A good shaping of th is arch determined by our behavior will make the play more or less dynamic but that doesnt take away the overall theme spiritual growth expanding into an inevitable awakening. Thou shalt drink deep of joy and fame,And love shall burn thee like a fire, And pain shall cleanse thee like a flame,To purge the dross from thy desire. These are part of the inevitabilities required for the awakening. First we need to go through the experience ofdesiringjoy, fame, love. The problems are not in these very things (joy, fame, love), but in the desire we feel for them.Desire pushes us into manipulation, which comes at the price of expectation, which ends in resentment when outcomes are not met. The line fails to be linear and the ups and downs manifesting from our erroneous perception carry pain along the way. Desire, then, is not desirable. It always implies suffering as well as other dirty little tricks like judgment and punishment. We might have to go through the pain many, many lives. But eve ntually the lesson is larn pain cleanses us like a flame, p spurring the dross from our desire. The Spirits yearn, a seeking cry, comes not from us but from God HimselfGod cries for us, His children, begging us to come home. The release is a call to the waking up that takes place when blind prayer turns into a sighted realizationwe never actually needed to learn through pain, and there was never anything to fear. Mystic mystery is a simple secret, nothing more. Its Gods peace. The last verse discloses a benignant God a God that bends with care to teach His children that where the solarize has never shone there is also light, His light. Shadow and Light are just like birth and death, like night and day, like inhaling and exhaling. Pain and joy are just part of the windmills of your mind.And the Mind deep and calm in its Real state when filtered through the body is just a memory board of something else. Biography of Kamala mouse hare Kamala Surayya / Suraiyya formerly known as Kamala coney , (also known as Kamala Madhavikutty, pen name was Madhavikutty) was a major Indian English poet and litterateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based in the first place on her short stories and autobiography, while her employment in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the fiery poems and uttered autobiography.Her open and honest treatment of female intimateity, free from any sense of guilt, infused her writing with power, but also marked her as an iconoclast in her generation. On 31 may 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune, but has earned considerable respect in new-fangled years. Early Life Kamala Das was born in Punnayurkulam, Thrissur District in Kerala, on March 31, 1934, to V. M. Nair, a former managing editor of the widely-circulated Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi, and Nalappatt Balamani Amma, a renowned Malayali poetess.She spent her childhood between Calcutta, whe re her father was employed as a senior officer in the Walford Transport Company that ex careen Bentley and Rolls Royce automobiles, and the Nalappatt ancestral home in Punnayurkulam. Like her mother, Kamala Das also excelled in writing. Her love of poetry began at an early age through the model of her great uncle, Nalappatt Narayana Menon, a prominent writer. At the age of 15, she got married to bank building officer Madhava Das, who encouraged her writing interests, and she started writing and publishing both in English and in Malayalam.Calcutta in the 1960s was a tumultous time for the arts, and Kamala Das was one of the many voices that came up and started appearing in cult anthologies along with a generation of Indian English poets. Literary Career She was noted for her many Malayalam short stories as well as many poems written in English. Das was also a syndicated columnist. She once claimed that poetry does not sell in this surface area India, but her forthright columns, w hich sounded off on everything from womens issues and child care to politics, were popular.Das first book of poetry, Summer In Calcutta was a breath of fresh air in Indian English poetry. She wrote chiefly of love, its betrayal, and the consequent anguish. Ms. Das abandoned the certainties offered by an archaic, and somewhat sterile, aestheticism for an independence of mind and body at a time when Indian poets were still governed by 19th-century diction, sentiment and romanticised love. Her second book of poetry, The descendants was even more explicit, urging women to Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts.The warm dishonour of menstrual blood, and all your Endless female hungers The look Glass This candor of her voice led to comparisons with Marguerite Duras and Sylvia Plath At the age of 42, she published a daring autobiography, My Story it was originally written in Malayalam and later she translated it into English. aft er she admitted that much of the autobiography had fictional elements. Kamala Das wrote on a various range of topics, often disparate- from the story of a poor old servant, about the sexual disposition of upper middle class women living near a metropolitan city or in the middle of the ghetto.Some of her known stories include Pakshiyude Manam, Neypayasam, Thanuppu, and Chandana Marangal. She wrote a few novels, out of which Neermathalam Pootha Kalam, which was received favourably by the reading public as well as the critics, stands out. She travelled extensively to read poetry to Germanys University of Duisburg-Essen, University of Bonn and University of Duisburg universities, Adelaide Writers Festival , Frankfurt Book Fair, University of Kingston, Jamaica, carolapore, and South imprecate Festival (London), arrangementia University (Montreal, Canada), etc.Her works are available in French, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese. She has also held positions as Vice chairperson in K erala Sahitya Academy, chairperson in Kerala forestry Board, professorship of the Kerala Childrens Film Society, editor of Poet magazine and Poetry editor of Illustrated Weekly of India. Although from time to time seen as an attention-grabber in her early years, she is now seen as one of the most formative influences on Indian English poetry. In 2009, The Times called her the mother of modern English Indian poetry. Conversion to IslamShe was born in a conservative Hindu Nair (Nallappattu) family having royal ancestry, After being asked by her lover Sadiq Ali, an Islamic scholar and a Muslim League MP, she embraced Islam in 1999 at the age of 65 and assumed the name Kamala Surayya. After converting, she wrote Life has changed for me since Nov. 14 when a young man named Sadiq Ali walked in to meet me. He is 38 and has a beautiful smile. Afterwards he began to woo me on the phone from Abu Dhabi and Dubai, reciting Urdu couplets and telling me of what he would do to me after our marri age. I took my nurse Mini and went to his place in my car.I stayed with him for three days. There was a light river, some trees, and a lot of laughter. He asked me to become a Muslim which I did on my return home. Her conversion was rather controversial, among social and literary circles, with The Hindu calling it part of her histrionics. She said she liked being behind the protective veil of the purdah. Later, she felt it was not price it to change ones religion and said I fell in love with a Muslim after my husbands death. He was kind and generous in the beginning. But I now feel one shouldnt change ones religion. It is not worth it. . PoliticsThough never politically active before, she launched a national political party, Lok Seva Party, aiming recourse to orphaned mothers and promotion of secularism. In 1984 she unsuccessfully contested in the Indian Parliament elections. Personal Life Kamala Das had three sons M D Nalapat, Chinnen Das and Jayasurya Das. Madhav Das Nalapat, the eldest, is married to Princess Lakshmi Bayi (daughter of M. R. Ry. Sri Chembrol Raja Raja Varma Avargal) from the Travancore Royal House. He holds the UNESCO Peace Chair and Professor of geopolitics at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. He was formerly a resident editor of the Times of India.She had a sexual relationship with Sadiq Ali, an Islamic scholar who was much junior in age. She herself describes her visit to Sadiq Alis home as follows I was almost asleep when Sadiq Ali climbed in beside me, memory me, breathing softly, whispering en proficientments, kissing my face, breasts and when he entered me, it was the first time I had ever experienced what it was like to feel a man from the inside. charwoman in her Poetry Das uncanny honesty extends to her exploration of womanhood and love. In her poem An Introduction from Summer in Calcutta, the narrator says, I am every/ Woman who seeks love (de Souza 10).Though Amar Dwivedi criticizes Das for this self imposed and not natural universality, this feeling of oneness permeates her poetry (303). In Das eyes, womanhood involves certain collective experiences. Indian women, however, do not discuss these experiences in esteem to social mores. Das consistently refuses to accept their secrecy. Feelings of longing and loss are not confined to a private misery. They are invited into the public theater of operations and acknowledged. Das seems to insist they are normal and have been felt by women across time.In The Maggots from the collection, The Descendants, Das corroborates just how old the sufferings of women are. She frames the pain of lost love with ancient Hindu myths (de Souza 13). On their last night together, Krishna asks Radha if she is disturbed by his kisses. Radha says, No, not at all, but thought, What is/ It to the corpse if the maggots nip? (de Souza 6-7). Radhas pain is searing, and her silence is given voice by Das. Furthermore, by making a powerful goddess prey to such thoughts, it serves as a validation for ordinary women to have similar feelings. Eroticism in her PoetryCoupled with her exploration of womens needs is an attention to eroticism. The longing to lose ones self in passionate love is discussed in The Looking Glass from The Descendants. The narrator of the poem urges women to give their man what makes you women (de Souza 15). The things which society suggests are dirty or taboo are the very things which the women are say to give. The musk of sweat between breasts/ The warm shock of menstrual blood should not be hidden from ones belove. In the narrators eyes, love should be defined by this type of unconditional honesty.A woman should Stand nude before the shabu with him, and allow her lover to see her exactly as she is. Likewise, the woman should appreciate even the fond details of her lover, such as the jerky way he/ Urinates. Even if the woman may have to live Without him someday, the narrator does not seem to favor bridling ones passions to pro tect ones self. A restrained love seems to be no love at all only a total immersion in love can do umpire to this experience. Much like the creators of ancient Tantric art, Das makes no attempt to hide out the sensuality of the human form her work seems to elebrate its joyous capability while acknowledging its concurrent dangers. Feminism Das once said, I always wanted love, and if you dont get it within your home, you stray a little(Warrior interview). Though some might label Das as a womens rightist for her candor in dealing with womens needs and desires, Das has never act to identify herself with any particular version of feminist activism (Raveendran 52). Das views can be characterized as a gut response, a reaction that, like her poetry, is unbound by others notions of right and wrong.Nonetheless, poet Eunice de Souza claims that Das has mapped out the terrain for post-colonial women in social and lingual terms. Das has ventured into areas unclaimed by society and provide d a point of reference for her colleagues. She has transcended the role of a poet and simply embraced the role of a very honest woman. Death On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune. Her body was flown to her home state of Kerala. She was inhumed at the Palayam Juma Masjid at Thiruvanathapuram with full state honour. Awards and other RecognitionsKamala Das has received many awards for her literary contribution, including Nominated and shortlisted for Nobel Prize in 1984. Asiatic Poetry Prize-1998 Kent Award for English Writing from Asian Countries-1999 Asian human being Prize-2000 Ezhuthachan Award-2009 Sahitya Academy Award-2003 Vayalar Award2001 Kerala Sahitya Academy Award-2005 Muttathu Varkey Award She was a longtime friend of Canadian writer Merrily Weisbord, who published a memoir of their friendship, The Love Queen of Malabar, in 2010. Kamala Dass Works English 1964 The Sirens (Asian Poetry Prize winner) 965 Summer in Calcutta (poetry Kents Award winner) 196 7 The Descendants (poetry) 1973 The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (poetry) 1976 My Story (autobiography) 1977 first rudiment of Lust (novel) 1985 The Anamalai Poems (poetry) 1992 Padmavati the Harlot and Other Stories (collection of short stories) 1996 Only the Soul Knows How to Sing (poetry) 2001 Yaa Allah (collection of poems) 1979 Tonight,This Savage Rite (with Pritish Nandy) 1999 My Mother At Sixty-six (Poem) Malayalam 1964 Pakshiyude Manam (short stories) 1966 Naricheerukal Parakkumbol (short stories) 968 Thanuppu (short story, Sahitya Academi award) 1982 Ente Katha (autobiography) 1987 Balyakala Smaranakal (Childhood Memories) 1989 Varshangalkku Mumbu (Years Before) 1990 Palayan (novel) 1991 Neypayasam (short story) 1992 Dayarikkurippukal (novel) 1994 Neermathalam Pootha Kalam (novel, Vayalar Award) 1996 Chekkerunna Pakshikal (short stories) 1998 Nashtapetta Neelambari (short stories) 2005 Chandana Marangal (Novel) 2005 Madhavikkuttiyude Unmakkadhakal (short stories)2x 2005 V andikkalakal (novel) 1999 My Mother At Sixty-six (Poem) Kamala Dass The sun CatThey did this to her, the men who know her, the man She love, who loved her not enough, being selfish And a coward, the husband who neither loved nor Used her, but was a ruthless watcher, and the band Of cynics she turned to, puzzleing to their chests where New hair sprouted like great-winged moths, burrowing her Face into their smells and their young lusts to forget To forget, oh, to forget, and, they said, each of Them, I do not love, I cannot love, it is not In my nature to love, but I can be kind to you. They let her microscope slide from pegs of sanity into A bed made soft with tears, and she lay there weeping,For sleep had lost its use. I shall build walls with tears, She said, walls to fold me in. Her husband shut her In, every morning, locked her in a room of books With a streak of cheerfulness lying near the door like A yellow cat to keep her company, but soon Winter came, and one day while locking her in, he Noticed that the cat of sunshine was only a Line, a half-thin line, and in the even when He returned to take her out, she was a parky and Half dead woman, now of no use at all to men Summary In the poem The Sunshine Cat, the poetess rants over the disillusionment in her yearning for love.The ones who took advantage of her emotional instability are termed as men in general This so-called community inevitably include her husband too. He turned out to be a mere objective observer without any emotional attachment. Being selfish he did not exhibit the slightest display of love. And, being cowardly he did not dare to give in sexually to her, for it would mark the relegation of his egohis perspective of masculinity.. He was a relentless onlooker to the extent of being insensitive for he watched her encounters with other men like a carnival affair.This is why Kamala Das employs the word band. She clinged on to this band of cynics. The word cling is very significant, as one clings out of desperation, as in clinging onto dear life. A cynic is a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions. Her live revolved around these egocentric people. Nevertheless, she burrows herself in the chest of these men. Note the word burrow is generally used with reference to mongooses or rats that dig holes to hide themselves of for security. For the poetess, this was a temporary refuge to render herself secure as long as it lasted.The hair on their chests were like great-winged moths that came like parasites between them. The lovers were younger than herself and told her that they could not love her, but could be kind to her. The word kind is utilized to proclaim condescension a patronizing attitude on part of these superior lovers. In Girish Karnads Nagamandala, Appanna locks Rani in the house, as he leaves for work. In the case of the poetess in the prescribed poem,the husband incarcerates her in a room full of books. However, Kamala Das does n ot crave for intellectual company, but emotional companionship.She seeks solace in the streak of sunlight beneath the door. This is her ray of hopeher Sunshine Cat the sunny impulse in her. Nevertheless, as her life approached its winter, her husband notices her while locking her ,one day,that this streak had reduced to a thin line. The evening made him realize that she had mellowed down,partly due to age and partly owing to her despondency. The fire in her (evocative of the Sunshine Cat) had died away. Hence, she was of no use to any man as though the sole purpose of the woman in a mans life is for sexual gratification. A Hot Noon in MalabarThis is a noon of Beggers with whinning Voices, a noon for men who came from hills With parrots in a chicken coop and fortune-cards, All stained with time, for brown Kurava girls With old eyes, who read palm in light singsong Voices, for bangle-sellers who spread On the cool black narration those red and green and blue Bangles, all covered wit h the dust of roads, Miles, grow cracks on the heels, so that when they Clambered up our porch, the noise was grating, Strange This is a noon for strangers who part The window-drapes and peer in, their hot eyes Brimming with the sun, not perceive a thing in Shadowy rooms and turn away and lookSo yearningly at the brick-ledged well. This Is a noon for strangers with mistrust in Their eyes, dark, close ones who rarely speak At all, so that when they speak, their voices Run wild, like jungle-voices. Yes, this is A noon for wild men, wild thoughts, wild love. To Be here, far away, is torture. vicious feet Stirring up the dust, this hot noon, at my Home in Malabar, and I so far away American Literature Biography of atomic number 1 David Thoreau (1817-1862) hydrogen David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in deem, Massachusetts. He would live the volume of his life in that same town and die there in 1862.His father, a pencil lyingr named John Thoreau, and mother Cynthia Dunbar Th oreau christened him David enthalpy but always called him Henry. As an adult, Thoreau began to give his name as Henry David but never had it legally changed. The Thoreaus had three other children in addition to Henry Helen, five years older than Henry, John, Jr. , two years older, and Sophia, two years younger. In 1821, the family moved to Boston, where they lived until 1823, when they returned to Concord. Thoreau later recalled a visit the family made to Walden Pond from Boston when he was tetrad years old.When he was sixteen, Thoreau entered Harvard College, his grandfathers alma mater. His educate was paid for by the money his father made as a pencil manufacturer, combined with contributions from his elder siblings salaries from their teaching jobs. While at college, Thoreau analyse Latin and Greek grammar and composition, and took classes in a wide variety of subjects, including mathematics, English, history, philosophy, and four different modern languages. He also made grea t use of the Harvard library holdings before graduating in 1837. After graduating, Thoreau accepted a job as a schoolteacher in Concord.His refusal to beat his students led to his electric arc from the position after only two weeks. That same year, Thoreau began keeping the journal in which he would write for the rest of his life and became friends with Concord residents Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Ellery Channing, and became a follower of Transcendentalism. Emerson provided a letter of reference for young Thoreau, when he traveled to Maine in search of a teaching position at a private school. Unable to find a job in Maine, Thoreau returned to Concord and opened a school with his brother John.Concord Academy differed from other schools in its lack of corporal punishment and encouragement of learning by doing ? as by scientific experiments and nature walks. The school was successful in attracting students but lasted only three years. When John became sick, Henry decided not to continue the school alone. He later worked as a handyman at odd jobs throughout Concord and assisted in the familys pencil manufacture business. During this time, both Henry and John fell in love with and proposed to a young woman named Ellen Seawall, whose younger brother Edward was a student at their school.Her fathers disapproval of Thoreaus Transcendentalism led her to refuse his proposal. They sent her to New York to end the dawdle, and she there met and married Joseph Osgood, though she remained friends with the Thoreaus throughout her life, maintaining a correspondence with Sophia Thoreau and having Henry as a guest in her home. Thoreau lived at the Emerson house for a time during 1841, working as a handyman. He had a romance with Mary Russell, a young woman who stayed with the Emersons during the summers of 1840 and 1841.He wrote her a love poem in 1841 but never proposed, and she eventually married Marston Watson, a friend of Thoreaus from Harvard. In 1842, Thoreaus brothe r John became ill with lockjaw, the result of a small untreated wound. John died in Henrys arms, and Henry developed a eleemosynary illness, exhibiting some of the symptoms of lockjaw, for several months. The following year, Thoreau made his most extensive col from Concord when he moved in with Emersons brothers family on Staten Island as a tutor for his children, hoping that he could succeed as a writer close together(predicate) to the New York publishing industry.Upon returning home in December of 1843, Thoreau began to write an account of canoe trip he had taken with John in 1839. That book would become A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, cartel poetry, historical background, and philosophical reflections with the narrative of the trip. Realizing he needed fewer distractions in order to concentrate on his writing, Thoreau decided to simplify his life by building and living in a cabin by the banks of Walden Pond, about a mile and a half from the center of Concord. On J uly 4, 1845, the day before the anniversary of his brothers death,Thoreau moved into the cabin he had begun constructing during the spring. He stayed there for two years, sometimes traveling into Concord for supplies and eating with his family about once a week. Friends and family also visited him at his cabin, where he spent nearly every night. In 1846, he made the first of three trips to Maine that would become the root for a later series of hears entitled The Maine Woods. It was while Thoreau lived at Walden that he spent a night in the Concord jail that became the basis for the famous essay now known as Civil Disobedience. Thoreau had not paid his poll tax to the town for several years because he opposed the use of town revenues to finance the US war with Mexico and enforcement of thralldom laws. The town constable, when arresting him, offered to pay the tax himself but Thoreau refused and spent a night in jail. The tax was paid that very night, most apt(predicate) by Thorea us aunt Maria Thoreau, but Thoreau was not released until the morning. In 1848, Thoreau gave a speech to the Concord Lyceum that would be adapted to be the essay Resistance to Civil Government, published in 1849.In 1847, Thoreau spent the fall living at the Emerson household, looking after the family while Emerson was in England. After that, he returned to his parents home where he remained for the rest of his life. The curiosity of Concord residents regarding the reasons for the two years Thoreau spent living in a cabin in the woodwind led him to give a series of lectures in 1847 about his life at Walden. During this time, he also completed a preliminary drafts of both Walden and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The latter book was published by jam Munroe & Co. n 1848. Thoreau had agreed to pay for any copies of the book which were not sold ultimately few were sold, and he lost $275 on the deal. Between 1847 and 1854, Thoreau continually redrafted and revised Walden. T icknor and Field published an edition of 2,000 copies in 1854. Reviews were predominantly positive, and 1,700 copies sold during the following year. Though Thoreau attempted to arrange a nation-wide lecture tour, only one city made an offer, and Thoreau limited his lectures to the Concord area. Also in 1854, Thoreau gave a speech on Slavery in Massachusetts. Though he was not a member of any abolitionist societies, because he opposed the notion of societies, he was fervently opposed to thralldom. volt years later, he gave an impassioned Plea for Captain John Brown, support the morality of Browns violent uprising at Harpers Ferry and condemning the US brass activity for supporting slavery. Another speech that year was called The Last geezerhood of John Brown. Both demonstrated that Thoreau had proceeded from passive confrontation to the institution of slavery to support for armed rebellion as a means of ending the partial institution.During 1851 and 1855, Thoreau suffered bo uts of tuberculosis, whose symptoms he felt even as he go along to lecture. Thoreau spent the remainder of his life concentrating heavily on detailed, scientific realistic writing. His Maine journals were published in Atlantic Monthly in 1858. James Russell Lowell, with whom Thoreau had long had a contentious relationship, was the editor of the publication and deleted a sentence from the essays, considering it down(p) in response, Thoreau refused to speak to him for the rest of his life.Ticknor and Fields, the publishers of Walden, purchased the magazine in 1859, and in 1861, James Fields suggested 250-book reprinting of Walden. He also agreed to republish the unsold copies of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Thoreau had become quite ill with tuberculosis in 1861. On April 12, Fields visited Thoreau in Concord to take hold of the unsold copies of his book for republication. A year later, on May 6, 1862, Thoreau died at the age of 44. A month later, the reprintings of hi s two books were finally published.Essays published about Thoreau after his death, written by Lowell and Emerson, emphasized Thoreaus ascetic, Spartan qualities without giving adequate weight to his philosophical contributions. Thus, Thoreau was not well-appreciated during the nineteenth-century and was often seen as a lesser imitator of Emerson. Only beginning in the 1890s, after deprecative evaluation of his writings, did Thoreau come to be appreciated for his literary merit. In the twentieth-century, he has come to be seen as one of he most significant nineteenth-century American writers. Civil Disobedience Summary Thoreau opens his essay with the motto That government is best which governs least. His distrust of government stems from the tendency of the latter to be depraved and abused before the people can actually express their will through it. A case in point is the Mexican war (1846-1848, which extended slavery into new US territories), orchestrated by a small elite of ind ividuals who have manipulated government to their advantage against popular will.Government inherently lends itself to oppressive and corrupt uses since it enables a few men to impose their moral will on the majority and to profit economically from their own position of authority. Thoreau views government as a fundamental hindrance to the creative enterprisingness of the people it purports to represent. He cites as a prime example the decree of trade and commerce, and its negative effect on the forces of the free market. A man has an obligation to act according to the dictates of his conscience, even if the latter goes against majority opinion, the presiding leadership, or the laws of society.In cases where the government supports unjust or disgraceful laws, Thoreaus notion of service to ones country paradoxically takes the form of resistance against it. Resistance is the highest form of patriotism because it demonstrates a desire not to subvert government but to build a better o ne in the long term. Along these lines, Thoreau does not advise a wholesale rejection of government, but resistance to those ad hoc features deemed to be unjust or immoral. In the American tradition, men have a recognized and cherished right of revolution, from which Thoreau derives the concept of civil disobedience.A man disgraces himself by associating with a government that treats even some of its citizens unjustly, even if he is not the develop victim of its injustice. Thoreau takes issue with William Paley, an English theologian and philosopher, who argues that any movement of resistance to government must balance the enormity of the grievance to be redressed and the luck and expense of redressing it. It may not be convenient to resist, and the personal be may be greater than the injustice to be remedied however, Thoreau firmly asserts the primacy of individual conscience over collective pragmatism.Thoreau turns to the issue of effecting change through egalitarian means. The position of the majority, however legitimate in the context of a democracy, is not tantamount to a moral position. Thoreau believes that the real obstacle to reform lies with those who eliminate of the measures of government while tacitly lending it their practical committal. At the very least, if an unjust government is not to be directly resisted, a man of true conviction should cease to lend it his indirect support in the form of taxes.Thoreau acknowledges that it is realistically im realistic to deprive the government of tax dollars for the specific policies that one wishes to oppose. Still, complete payment of his taxes would be tantamount to expressing complete allegiance to the State. Thoreau calls on his fellow citizens to withdraw their support from the government of Massachusetts and put on the line being thrown in prison for their resistance. Forced to keep all men in prison or abolish slavery, the State would quickly exhaust its resources and choose the latter cou rse of action.For Thoreau, out of these acts of conscience flow a mans real manhood and immortality. Money is a generally profane force because it binds men to the institutions and the government responsible for unjust practices and policies, such as the enslavement of black Americans and the pursuit of war with Mexico. Thoreau sees a paradoxically backward relationship between money and freedom. The poor man has the greatest liberty to resist because he depends the least on the government for his own welfare and protection. After refusing to pay the poll tax for six years, Thoreau is thrown into jail for one night.While in prison, Thoreau realizes that the only advantage of the State is superior physical strength. Otherwise, it is completely devoid of moral or intellectual authority, and even with its animate being force, cannot compel him to think a certain way. Why submit other people to ones own moral standard? Thoreau meditates at length on this question. While seeing his neighbors as essentially well-intentioned and in some respects undeserving of any moral contempt for their apparent stolidity to the States injustice, Thoreau nonetheless concludes that he has a human relation to his neighbors, and through them, millions of other men.He does not expect his neighbors to conform to his own beliefs, nor does he endeavor to change the nature of men. On the other hand, he refuses to tolerate the status quo. Despite his stance of civil disobedience on the questions of slavery and the Mexican war, Thoreau claims to have great respect and admiration for the ideals of American government and its institutions. Thoreau goes so far as to state that his first instinct has always been conformity.Statesmen, legislators, politiciansin short, any part of the machinery of state bureaucracyare unable to scrutinize the government that lends them their authority. Thoreau values their contributions to society, their pragmatism and their diplomacy, but feels that only s omeone outside of government can speak the Truth about it. The purest sources of truth are, in Thoreaus view, the system and the Bible. Not surprisingly, Thoreau holds in low esteem the entire political class, which he considers incapable of devising the most basic forms of legislation.In his last paragraph, Thoreau comes full circle to discussing the authority and reach of government, which derives from the sanction and consent of the governed. Democracy is not the last step in the evolution of government, as there is still greater room for the State to recognize the freedom and rights of the individual. Thoreau concludes on an utopic note, saying such a State is one he has imagined but not save anywhere seen. Civil Disobedience Themes The right to resistance Thoreau affirms the absolute right of individuals to withdraw their support rom a government whose policies are immoral or unjust. He takes issue with the brand of moral philosophy that weighs the possible consequences of civil disobedience against the seriousness of the injustice. The methods of resistance Thoreau condones in his essay are pacifist and rely principally on economic pressure for example, keep back taxes in order to drain the State of its resources and hence its ability to continue its unjust policies. The ultimate goal of civil disobedience is not to overturn democracy but to reinforce its core values of liberty and respect for the individual.Individual conscience and morality Only an individual can have and come a conscience. By definition, both the State and corporations are impersonal, amoral entities that are nonetheless composed of individuals. It has been truly said, that a corporation has no