Rohinton Mistry's a Fine Balance: an Analysis

In addition, the author seperates and accepts what real life is compared to the fantasy world that is conveyed through the novel, therefore creating the theme of the novel. For example, Goldman reflectes that, “All I knew was I was forty years old and I didn’t mean to be here when I was forty, locked with this genius shrink wife and this baloon son” (31). Most people plan a life for themselves, but often times things do not go as planned. Real life does not meet up to the expectations that the author imagined and hoped for, causing a sense of regret. While attempting to persuade the reader into believing the characteristics of the novel do not occur in real life, the author asserts that the “true love and high adventure” that is shown in the novel is something he wished for and wanted in life, but people do not use swords and tell killers to get ready to die. As also said, true love does not exist either (35). While these two aspects are something amazing to have in life, they are far from reality. The world just does not work like that. As later argued by Goldman, Westley, Fezzik, Buttercup, and Inigo did not necessarily have a hapy ending because they had their seperate issues in the end (358). Although the

Despite an expanded outlook on the world, Luke and Anna find themselves in a place of vertigo as they struggle to come to terms with the harsh world that is Garra Nulla. The metaphor “some days she feels like a fly caught in an invisible web” establishes a visual of one who is confined by their negative experiences, unable to escape, whereas the description of “an invisible web” depicts an image of an unexpected challenge that has impacted on Anna’s initially idealistic view of country living. However, despite the couple’s dislocation and the destructive yet regenerative bushfires an overall feeling of hope at the end of the novella is reassuring. Lohrey delineates this through the symbolisation of the black swans at the closing stage of the novella. “Look”, she says, “the swans are back.” Representing a return to normality in their world as the re-emergence of the swans metaphorically represents the return of hope. The omniscient narrator reveals Anna’s inner dialogue “Ah, she says so you are leaving us. So you are on your way at last. But it’s okay, it’s alright; yes, she thinks, I am ready for this…” displaying that they are finally able to attain comfort over the grief of losing their son. Despite Anna’s and Luke’s negative experiences, the responder attains a feeling of reassurance as through the distinctive images created we observe a return to normality and ultimately a positive feeling of

It is an incredible novel told in a gripping form that was difficult to put down. The novel amalgamates both sorrow and humor to produce the perfect balance. I personally prefer not to read lengthy novels spanning 600+ pages, so when I first began to read the novel I was uninterested in the extensive details and descriptions, but as I progressed into the novel I began to fall in love with the character Owen Meany and his persona, that I couldn’t resist putting this novel down. I found the novel to be life changing as it irrefutably reflects the perpetual axiom that you don’t have to be “someone great” in order to be an influence for others. After all, it is the minute things we do in life that can have a substantial impact on

Ray Bradbury’s stories have a different meaning if you read between the lines. Like most writers his stories consist of a hidden meaning about different

As a means of assessing the extent to which the work was successful, I evaluated the books ability to answer the questions the author himself posed to the audience. These questions were discussed in the introduction where Ozment presented two questions before he launched into the narrative in search of their answers. Ozment asked: “What exactly had [Anna] done to cause her father, the Burgermeister, to denounce her as an “evil serpent” and the government of Hall to declare her a renegade?” and “Why did the behaviour of one woman rivet the attention and disrupt the lives of so many important people for so long a time?”. According to Ozment, answers to these questions can be found “in the internal workings of a distant society and in the inner lives of people who were both like and unlike ourselves” (3). Therefore, in considering whether or not this book was successful I looked

Many people today consider Wise Blood to be one of history’s greatest examples of Southern gothic literature. With its twisted plot, scenes of self-mutilation, and overall dark tone it is easy to understand why people from all find Wise Blood to be dark and depressing. However, Flannery O’Connor, the novel’s author, claims that she wrote the novel to be a comedy, rather than a tragedy (O’Connor). The elements of the novel that O’Connor and others have considered especially “comedic” are its examples of surprise, mistaken identities, and especially, irony. Readers can find irony throughout the entirety of Wise Blood, as well as its theme of fate over free will. Irony ties in with this theme often through the characters’ actions, thoughts, and emotions.

The narrator in Louise Erdrich’s The Strange People is characterized as a doe, a “lean gray witch” (i, 20) and finally, a “shadowy body.”(i, 25) Her own actions ultimately trigger this transformation, and are further emphasized through three jarring shifts within the poem. Despite portraying the narrator as prey in the beginning, she is not faultless. By placing double meanings on the word “burning,” (i, 6) it allows the self-destructive actions of the narrator to be evident. Also, by juxtaposing the cold and warmth described in the poem, the reasoning behind the doe’s self-destructive actions is explained, and ultimately paints her in a more nuanced light. Even so, her self-destructive actions highlight the consequences resulting from her attempt at self-preservation. She transforms into a “lean gray witch” to save herself, and yet it destroys her self-identity. The poem exposes the bleak yet nuanced consequences of destructive desires and self-preservation, and how even when necessary and justified, leads to the unfortunate loss of one’s identity.

“Ships at distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others, they sail farever on the horizon…” (Hurston 1). The opening sentence of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, translates into that people are always viewing their dreams from far. Some are able to their goals and others are left only thinking about them. The protagonist of the novel, Janie, spends the expanse of her life searching to find her true self. Along her journey, Janie meets Tea Cake, a man whose love guides her to her voice. The complexity of their relationship is shown through their passionate, yet doubting love.

There are many ways to interpret a book, one can read it as a character’s adventure, a conflict of ideas or emotions, or a story. For myself, I read the books, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville, in an ironic sense; and while doing this, I noticed that both books showed an intuitive sense of sociology. Furthermore, what mattered most by reading the books ironically is that it is easy to see the outcome of a situation which is pleasing to be conscious of. It is easy to see the outcome of a situation because when one is paying attention to a character, one’s attention is toward a character, except when one’s attention is on an entire situation, one’s attention is on the flow of events and then the

Animal motifs add significance to the narrative when Mildred, the wife of Montag, is treated with a snakelike mechanism. Bradbury’s intent to use an animal metaphor is to enlighten the reader about how wildlife is misrepresented during the work of literature. Within the world of destruction he created, Bradbury explains the lack of construction; therefore, the natural order is distorted. Over the course of the writing, creatures portray the corrupt environment; for instance, Montag describes, “They had this machine. They had two machines, really. One of them slid into your stomach like a black cobra down an echoing well looking for all the old water and the old time gathered there. It drank up the green matter that flowed to the top in a slow boil” (Bradbury 12). As Mildred lays unconscious in her bed the operator uses a snakelike pump machine to drain and replace Mildred’s blood; evidently, the symbol of animals is used to connect the meaning of altered

Flannery O’ Connor’s skillfully webs subtle ironic instances throughout the story that, later, helps readers see the bigger picture. After much debate about not traveling to

It is commonly known advice to not judge a book by its cover, but there is no prevalent platitude that claims the same for a book’s title. A story’s name can serve a number of purposes: it can be an extension of a character, a representation of a moral, or a simple reference to a main plot point. Nevertheless, the title of a book is what sticks in the reader’s mind, and how it will be initially remembered. Patrick Rothfuss’s own choice of a title, The Wise Man’s Fear, is a secret that is gradually unspun as the story is told. The yarnspinner, Kvothe, tells of many fantastical experiences of his youth, such as being a personal bard to the ruler of a foreign country, tracking down a group of truculent bandits in an unmappable forest, and training

Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog contains multiple themes and messages in the novel. However, one of the most prevalent themes that are consistent in the novel is what the meaning of life is and how it changes throughout the course of the novel through Renée and Paloma. The both constantly ask this question throughout the novel. Paloma questions the validity of life, whether it is worth it or not, while Renée questions why and how society defines the meaning of life through the artificial structures of class. The meaning of life also brings in the question of how the arts and intelligence comes into play. Both Paloma and Renée use these aspects in their lives, but hide them because of societal pressures telling them how life should be lived. This constricts the both of them living their life to their fullest potential. Barbery employs the symbolism of the hedgehog to compare both

She has a “controlling demon” that causes her to live in a fantasy world. McEwan uses Briony as a writer to construct his ideas about how throughout her writing, Briony develops a sense of atonement. In a final section, set in 1999, the aging Briony, now a successful novelist, learns that she is developing progressive vascular dementia. In this last part of the book Briony states her ability to remember and grasp reality will desert her, and she “will have lost the ability to comprehend anything at all”. But she has finished writing her latest version of Robbie and Cecilia's story, the story readers read in the first part of the novel, “Two Figures by a Fountain”, and can rest. Briony’s attempted atonement is found through her writing by giving the lovers Robbie and Cecilia a happy ending. “I like to think that it isn’t weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness, a stand against oblivion and despair, to let my lovers live and to unite them at the end.” Here McEwan has used a first person narrative voice to reiterate how personal this atonement of giving the lovers a happy ending is to Briony herself as a writer and also to McEwan’s ideas of atonement as a writer. McEwan uses symbolism to do this by using the happy ending of “Two Figures by a Fountain” as a symbol of Briony’s atonement. McEwan uses Briony as a writer as a main vessel to portray his memorable ideas of guilt and atonement throughout the

Finally she loses her flat and forced to her brother’s home as a servant. Rohinton Mistry highlights crucial events in the country’s chronicle by depicting the background of each leading star. “A Fine Balance” illustrates the deeper insight of political, nativity and struggle of suffering people. It always focuses on the deep structure of the individual’s existences of human life. “A Fine Balance” is taken up for analyzing the human sufferings in which Rohinton Mistry ultimately gives a space of endless sufferings of the