Representation of Violence in the Short Stories of Temsula Ao
Dhriti Sundar Gupta
The North-East of India is quite different from other regions of the country. The seven states of the North-East namely Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura are affected by several insurgent groups. The North-East, having 262 tribes and 31 million populations (1991 census) has proved very vulnerable to insurgency due to its sharing international boarder, availability of arms and training camps, demographic imbalance created by immigrants, nexus(tie) between politicians and insurgent groups, huge economic underdevelopment and pressure and isolated standing from the mainland India connected through a 50 kilometer corridor called
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This is what Temsula Ao writes about in her volume of short stories “These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone”. Ao’s stories take us to the heart of a trouble-torn land which is historically and politically located. She describes how ordinary people cope with violence perpetuated by various militant outfits as well as the armed force. Temsula Ao’s stories echoes her protest against such atrocities.This paper is an attempt to foreground and highlight the underlying theme of violence in the short stories of Temsula Ao. In the introduction to her book These Hills Called Home, Temsula Ao says about her stories that “Many of the stories in this collection have their genesis in the turbulent years of bloodshed and tears that make up the history of the Nagas from the early fifties of the last century”. (Ao x) Referring to the violence inflicted on the people she says “for the victims the trauma goes beyond the realm of just the physical maiming and loss of life --- their very humanity is assaulted and violated, and the onslaught leaves the survivors scarred both in mind and soul.” (Ao …show more content…
The offerings or help that the village people made to their so called ‘brothers’ fighting for their Land was a voluntary act but the bitter realization of the truth and the loss of the intitial romantic fervour have made them feel that the rebels are nothing more than extortionist. The starting of the story aptly presents the feelings of the poor villagers: “There was an uneasy quiet in the village: the underground extortionist had come and gone and along with them the hard earned cash the vilagers had earned by digging the first alignment for a motorable road to their village.” (54) The poor villagers were fed up of the viloence wreaked by the overground as well as the underground army. They succumbed to the pressure and gave up without any resistence. The following lines reflect the fear and the helplessness of the villagers: “they knew that these fierce looking goons from the forest had come to the village at night with only one purpose: to rob them in the name of underground government. Resisting them was of no use: they carried guns and the consequences of any conflict would only mean retaliation.” (55) At one point of the story, when a poor man appealed to the leader of the rebel group to excuse him this time as he
“Facing it” by Yusef Komunyakaa and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, are two powerful poems with the graphical life like images on the reality of war. It is apparent that the authors was a soldier who experienced some of the most gruesome images of World War I. In “Ducle et Decorum Est” Owen tells us about a personal experience in which he survived a chemical warfare attack. Although he survives, some of his fellow troops do not. As in “Facing It” Komunyakaa is also a soldier who has survived a war. Komunyakaa response to his war experience is deeply shaped by his visit to Lin’s memorial. Inspired by the monument, Komunyakaa confronts his conflicted feelings about Vietnam, its legacy, and even more broadly, the part race plays in
Despite their clear desperation and young age, time and again the boys find villages turning them away, denying them food, and directing them back into enemy hands. Why do the villages do this?
Whether it’s war or terrorism, children who want to grow securely is living amongst the affected nation. War is obliterating those talented individuals in their childhood who can radically transform the world itself. The two disputed countries may also have justifications to protect the welfares of their own people. There can be wealth and nuclear weapons to demolish this world as a whole. However, peacefully negotiated approach is coveted to compromise on each other. No country can rationalize weapons of mass obliteration and debacles. Often, it is a foolish decision of the pioneers of the country, making it a pretext for the combat. It’s the upright soldiers and their families who need to survive the demise and serious injuries from the weapons. For the last centuries, the spontaneous overflow of poetry has portrayed human emotions concerning wide range of universal issues. Both the poets Donald Bruce Dawe and Wilfred Owen exemplify this cataclysm of losing your families and the conditions the soldiers face, through their notable poems Homecoming and Dulce et Decorum Est.
the pain that the readers must feel as they witness as the tribe’s erosion under the influence of the
War is a horrible and devastating event that hurts many people in many ways. This something many people have to cope with. Authors are among those who have to cope with war as well. Many people cope different ways but authors cope by protesting war. To do this authors use imagery, irony, and structure.
The scene in, “The Magnificent Seven”, begins with the bandits riding in on horses over a hill top towards a village to the tune of peppy western music. This scene is shot as a far away angle and is done so with no verbal communication, almost as if the bandits all have one common goal and they do not have to discuss with one another to know that is their intentions. This leads to the viewer being required to view the scene as a whole and consider what the intentions of these men must be and why they feel that way. When the men arrive to the village, the viewer is given little to no information regarding the village. The viewer then begins to wonder: “Who are these people?”, “Did they do something to deserve this?”, “Maybe they know each other personally.” The bandits then approach the villagers as if they “own the place”. They are asking for drinks, sitting down as they please, and even taking as they wish. The villagers seem to go along with this as though they are used to it and intend to fully comply. This can be seen through the conversation between the bandit and villager where the villager talks very quietly, slurring his words, and telling the bandit what he wants to hear. The bandits then begin to leave as a villager runs after the bandits with intentions of standing up to them, almost to be leading the village to rebell. The bandits quickly show they will not stand for this
World War II had a lasting impression on not only the countries but on the soldiers and people as well. POWs and internees had to experience things that would make a grown man cringe in fear. In the stories ”Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, and “Manzanar” by Jenne Houston Wakatsuki, tells the tragic story of how these men are stripped away of their human rights. As they try to struggle their way out of insanity, their stories will forever echo in history to show the outcome of war.
Trauma is not uncommon for victims of war, especially those who have been wounded by opposing forces. Mariatu has shared many traumatic events through her memoir, which help the reader further realize how grueling war can be. The following log shows 12 of these events, as well as the internal and
Nonetheless, the conditions children observe during a time of war and experience through violence around them are frightening and astonishing.
In the novel “Three Day Road”, two Cree Aboriginals, Elijah Weesageechak and Xavier Bird goes off to fight in World War I and becoming the most famous sniper team in the field. The author, Joseph Boyden writes about the dynamic changes in the states of Elijah Weesageechak and the corruption of war leading to his final moments. There are many types of pain that are induced in nature. However, there are only two categories that those pain fall into: Physical pain and emotional pain. With Elijah, war transform him into an apathetic killing machine.
Lastly, another situation in which the theme, abuse of power and bullying, is evidently portrayed is when society’s power is abused and bullies Hazaras. Racial conflict is common, especially in Kabul, when those
This was the pattern throughout the entire region in all of the villages. It set neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother all in the name of survival. Once someone you knew joined the collective farm, he was no longer your friend. The infiltration expanded into the exploitation of the farmers.
The collection of poems “Theater”, “Water”, and “Safe House” by Solmaz Sharif shows the varied viewpoints of how war affects the speakers and how death is all too common in the midst of warfare. The author uses a spectrum of literary techniques to enhance the experience of the reader, so we can fully grasp the severity of each speaker’s plight. All of Sharif’s poems differ in form with the use of white space and indentations in “Theater”, colons in “Water”, and a style of abecedarian using the letter S in “Safe House”. While her diverse use of forms generate different emotions from the reader, they share the same notion of how violence is problematic. Each poem has a unique outlook to the sight of war: “Theater” being in the position of a victim and an assailant of war, “Water” explaining a war mission and fatalities in terse terms, and “Safe House” as an observer of an activist against war. Sharif’s strategy to exemplify the effects of how war affects the victim and the civilian is particularly critical because mass media tends to hide the collateral damage of war and only illustrates why we should attack the “enemy”. Another approach the author uses to critique the speakers central conflicts is by arranging words from the US Department of Defense 's Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, to concur with the message of the several ways war influences the lives of those who are unwillingly encompassed by it. Sharif uses poetry as an outlet to show the underlying tone
In this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.
As long as there has been war, those involved have managed to get their story out. This can be a method of coping with choices made or a way to deal with atrocities that have been witnessed. It can also be a means of telling the story of war for those that may have a keen interest in it. Regardless of the reason, a few themes have been a reoccurrence throughout. In ‘A Long Way Gone,’ ‘Slaughterhouse-Five,’ and ‘Novel without a Name,’ three narrators take the readers through their memories of war and destruction ending in survival and revelation. The common revelation of these stories is one of regret. Each of these books begins with the main character as an innocent, patriotic soldier or civilian and ends in either the loss of innocence and regret of choices only to be compensated with as a dire warning to those that may read it. These books are in fact antiwar stories meant not to detest patriotism or pride for one’s country or way of life, but to detest the conditions that lead to one being so simpleminded to kill another for it. The firebombing of Dresden, the mass execution of innocent civilians in Sierra Leone and a generation of people lost to the gruesome and outlandish way of life of communism and Marxism should be enough to convince anyone. These stories serve as another perspective for the not-so-easily convinced.