Literary Analysis : Nectar Of A Sieve

Providing for your family and yourself is a important key to survival, in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry the Youngers know the true struggle of survival in the 1960s being an african-American family in a low income neighborhood. The family of five (soon to be six) living in a two bedroom apartment must share everything and live paycheck to paycheck. The play itself shows the hardships the family are trying to overcome poverty, but once they receive knowledge of a check that is, ten-thousand dollars, coming for Lena (Mama) Younger from the life insurance of the Youngers’ (Walter Younger Senior) deceased father. Since the coming of the check everyone seems to have their own plans for the check. The check changed everything, we

Mahasweta Devi’s short story, “Giribala,” is about the life of Giribala, a girl of Talsana village located in India. Born into a caste in a time when it was still customary to pay a bride-price, Giri is sold to Aulchand by her father. From this point on, we see a series of unfortunate, tragic events that take place in Giri’s life as a result of the circumstances surrounding Giri’s life. There are many issues in Giri’s life in India that Devi highlights to readers. First, the economic instability of the village leads to an extremely poor quality of life for the lower, working classes. Next, the cruel role of women determined by men in society is to either satisfy the sexual desires of men or to reproduce offspring who can work or be sold off to marriages. There are also other social norms and beliefs which discriminate against women that will be discussed.

Power and control plays a big role in the lives many. When power is used as a form of control, it leads to depression and misery in the relationship. This is proven through the themes and symbolism used in the stories Lesson before Dying, The fun they had, The strangers that came to town, and Dolls house through the median of three major unsuccessful relationship: racial tension between the African Americans and the caucasians in the novel Lesson before Dying, Doll’s House demonstrates a controlling relationship can be detrimental for both individuals and The Stranger That Came To Town along with The Fun They Had show that when an individual is suppressed by majority they become despondent.

In past years, as well as, in the twenty-first century, African Americans are being oppressed and judged based on the color of their skin. In, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines, this is the primary conflict that plagues Jefferson’s as well as Grant’s everyday life. By pleading guilty to a murder that he did not commit, Jefferson has to choose to die just as he is, a hog in the white’s eyes, or die a man. On the other hand, Grant, who is his teacher, is faced with being looked down upon by his community all because of his race and status. He is graced with the challenge of turning Jefferson into a man before his execution date. It is only a matter of time before they both realize that they cannot change the past and they have

Indian men celebrated women’s roles in food providing and child bearing in religious ceremonies (64). Indian women unlike the English women of the seventeenth century had a voice. She was treated more as an equal. Even though there was still gender separation between Indian men and Indian women, in the responsibilities they share, the women were more respected. Indian women still didn’t have easy lives.

Rukmani is told that she will have a grand wedding and is going to be married to a rich man, but instead she is “married to a tenant farmer, who was poor in everything but love and care for me”. (Markandaya 8). Rukmani went from a very nice house with her parents to a poor farmer’s house to spend the rest of her life. In the prime of her life, she is having trouble becoming fertile. Rukmani visits a white doctor named Kenny and asks for treatment. After a couple years, Rukmani has six children, one girl and five boys. Rukmani is overjoyed with her fortune. The calm in the storm soon passed, and Rukmani started to face adversity. One of her sons are killed, another dies of starvation, and three go off to work. Rukmani’s only daughter, Ira, turns to prostitution to save her starving brother, but does not succeed, and the landlord of their farm wants to collect rent. Rukmani’s life could hardly get worse. Soon, monsoons come and replenish the land, and their crops are plentiful. Rukmani could have chosen to give up, but instead she fought hard to provide for her

In the novel, A Lesson Before Dying by _________, the main character, Grant, is trying to console Jefferson. Jefferson has just been framed for a murder he did not commit, and many believe it is because he is black. Two drunk, white men went into a liquor store, already drunk, and attempted to shoot the owner who, in turn, shot back. In the end of the firefight, Jefferson was the only man standing. When at the trial to convince the jury Jefferson did not actually shoot the people, his attorney realizes his attempts at proving Jefferson’s innocence were futile, and says, “What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this” (8). He is asking the jury to spare the life of Jefferson, by implying that Jefferson is no more intelligent than a hog. The attorney is white, and is voicing the common belief among whites that all blacks are animals. Throughout the novel, Jefferson becomes haunted by the

Bradbury’s title for part two of the story is the “Sieve and the Sand.” A sieve, also known as a strainer is a tool used to strain or separate certain items, but in this story in takes on a much deeper meaning. Bradbury’s use of the sieve symbolizes the emptiness of their society, and this is first alluded to in part one. Montag was eavesdrop on a conversation at Clarisse’s house and a man states, “Well after all, this is the age of disposable tissue. Blow your nose on a person, wad them, flush them away, reach for another …Everyone using everyone else’s coattails” (Fahrenheit 451, 15). This conversation began to show the emptiness of their society, and does so by demonstrating how their society simply uses each other for what they need and then discards them.

Has someone ever noticed that one of their family members was alike a story character? My Grandpa Al was similar to Jefferson in the book A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. This story gives a pleasing insight into Jefferson’s journey into becoming a man. Jefferson and my Grandpa Al are related in the way that they both never valued the joyfulness of life enough until it was too late. The two also resemble each other on the level that they are held back by the environment they are growing up in. They each needed to strive to become true to themselves.

Fahrenheit 451 is an interesting title for a book. The novel is named Fahrenheit 451 because the novel’s main theme is burning books. It takes 451 degrees Fahrenheit for paper to burn, so Fahrenheit 451 represents the temperature required to burn paper. . The firemen in the novel have 451 on their elements because they represent the burning of the books. The title of the first section of this novel is “The Hearth and the Salamander.” Hearths and salamanders are ultimately associated with fire. Hearths are like fire places and they represent warmth and comfort. The second section of the novel is “The Sieve and the Sand”. The title refers to Montages memory as a child trying to fill sieve with sand .He is reminded of this childhood memory when

As a result of Cuba being a communist society Nieves education was influenced by communist propaganda. When living in communist society you have to be cautious of what you say in public when criticizing the way things are. When Nieve gets an opportunity to write poetry for a Cuban festival for extra credit in school, Nieve’s mother warns her about how she should be careful about what she says during her speech “my mother said that the homeland is one thing and politics are another, and to be careful what I write” (58). This warning suggests that Nieve and other people in Cuba may have their freedom of speech and expression restricted by certain laws or social norms. Being subject to communist propaganda in school may cause you to view America

Traditionally, an Indian woman had only four roles and those were; Her role as a daughter, wife, sister, and lastly, a mother. The women in today’s time however are experiencing far reaching changes and are entering into new fields that were unknown to them. They are actively participating in social, economic and political activities. Unlike the older times, women today have received higher education.

In the novel, Nectar in a Sieve, the author, Kamala Markandaya creates various themes. One theme from the book is that tensions can be caused by modernization and industrial progress. This theme is highly prevalent throughout the story and broadens the reader’s outlook on modernization. Markandaya writes of a primitive village that is going through a severe change. Her ability to form a plethora of characters with different opinions, yet to share one main culture, helps highlight the tensions in the village.

Rukmani, the heroine of Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a sieve is a poor peasant woman and the whole novel depicts the common dilemmas of misfortunes faced by ordinary peasants particularly the tenant farmers. Rukmani has to face a lot of hardships; but she remains spiritually stoic and strong as in the case of Rosie, because of the traditional attitudes and beliefs.

Feminism in India is a set of movements which defining, establishing and defending equal political, economic and social rights and equal opportunities for Indian women. Feminist criticism was not inaugurated until late in the 1960s.Behind it, however lie two centuries of struggle for the recognition of women’s cultural roles and achievements and for women’s social and political rights marked by such books as Mary Wollstone Craft’s A Vindication Of The Rights Of Women (1792), John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection Of Women (1869), and the American Margaret Fuller’s Women in The Nineteenth Century