The political situation in the country, while the children are growing up is corrupted and unstable. However, the children seem to be sheltered from it in the city. How does the political situation influence the story? How does it create a tension in the family? Would the story be different if there was a peaceful backdrop?
Latoya Letlow, Janyessa Humphrey, Grace- ann James and Sharia Greene.
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The political situation in the novel, “Clear Light of Day” is said to dictates the course in which the story takes. It determines the action and conflict within the story. It is said that the political situation within the country even thought the political situation in the country while the children were growing up was corrupt and unstable, that children were not fully exposed to it because they lived in the country and not in the heart of the city where there was mass conflict between the Hindus and Muslims. Most of the action within this novel is as a result of politics. For example, the Hyder Ali and his family had to move from their home in the country and into hiding, in order to save their lives against the Hindus who were after the Muslims.
ReplyDeleteThe political conflict within the country impacted the family relations. There was additional tension added to the father-son relationship between Raja and his father because of the country’s politics. Raja was eager to go to “Jamia Millia”, a school he considered to be “the centre of Islamic studies”. By going there he would have been able to study learn more about the Muslims and their culture. However his father strongly disagreed with this idea, because of the political situation in the country at the time. Raja’s father was afraid that if he when to the Jamia Millia school he would be killed my the Muslims when they found out that he was a Hindu and that he would also be on bad terms with the Hindus for “deserting them and going over to the enemy”.
Even though Raja did not fully understand what his father was trying to protect him from, he had to abide by his father’s rules. Instead of going to Jamia Millia, Raja proceeded dispiritedly on to Hindu college.
It is believed that, if the story had a peaceful backdrop, it would have indeed taken a different course. If the conflict between the Hindu and Muslins did not come into existence, the Hyder Alis would not have had any need leave their home and go into hiding. Raja dream of going to the Jamia Millia School would have also been granted by his father if there was no Hindu-Muslim rivalry. There is a possibility that the story would have been tranquil without the political situation in the country.
Latoya, Janyessa, Grace-ann and Sharia.
The political situation in the country is one to be looked at as at the tine there was as mentioned before and ongoing war between the Muslims and the Hindu. There is evidence of this in Chapter 2 where it shows that even friends are willing to betray their own allies because of their hate for the other opposing religion. Raja's friends sold him out to the police and for a while there was a plain clothes policeman outside their gate. Probably the friends had told the police that Raja was planning to ally with the Muslims. This shows the extent to which there is political conflict in the country.
ReplyDeleteThe impact on the family not only has to do with the father and son relationship but also the circle consisting of the 3 siblings. Raja is willing to abandon his family to go and support a religion that is ccontested against by his own. He does in fact abandon them when he gets better from his illness and this shows that the political conflict helps to cause the family to tear apart.
Also not mentioned is with a peaceful setting there would not be the war and so much violence between the two conflicting religions
Why do you think Raja friends ratted him out?
ReplyDeleteIf we try to become one with exactly what transpired in the Novel, then many things that do not seem understandable will immediately become clear. Raja's friends ratted him out, only because they thought it was the right thing to do. The family settings in Indian societies are normally Patrifocal and fathers tend to have large impacts on all of the family members. The boys only informed on Raja because they were of one religion and we can see how Raja's father treated him when he realized, that Raja had a love for a religion that was not their own, so if we place all these obvious facts together, it is seen that if we had put Raja his friends shoes then maybe Raja would've done the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI find the Question, my colleagues posted to be a very good one. Briefly I would just like to state that in any country, politics is a foundation and without it, chaos and confusion would reign. In the Novel chaos and confusion reigned because of the politics and I feel that the reason behind this, is because there was noted segregation amongst the population because of religion. Humans tend to mingle where they feel comfortable, and even though Politics and religion cannot be mixed, it was mixed because of the religious influence. If one set of hindus voted for Alp, because they thought that Alp did for them what no other party could, then muslims would vote for UPP.Now, UPP is not doing anything to benefit them, but because a bunch of non believers of their religion voted for the opposing party then their best bet would be to vote for the other side to please their religious beliefs.
ReplyDeleteNow i do agree with Brittany to some extent, when she claims that the life of the Children were secluded or sheltered but not from Politics because as i said previously, politics is the foundation of any country, they were sheltered from learning to live lives, that were filled with the necessary levels of normalcy.
Raja Went to school and so did Bim, and i'm sure everyone would agree with me, when i say, schools are breeding grounds for politics. Mere, interactions with people on the street can influence you politically.
Sheltered is not a word i would use, because Raja's father even though his character plays an extemely minor role in some sense, voiced his concens on Raja's inept interest in the the rivalling religion.
And here's another interesting point, they may have been sheltered physically, but mentally they were quite aware of the going ons in their country. Prime example, if Raja was so covered from political unrest, why did he think to hide his application form from his father? If he was oblivious to what was deemed right and what was deemed wrong, then what prevented him from displaying openess where he wanted to continue his studies...Think people! Think...When looking at a story, think of it as a long poetic form, it doesnt just mean what the words say...!!!!
oh and it would not have been any different if there was a peaceful backdrop...Rephrase the peaceful backdrop part of the question, because easily i could overthrow you by simply saying "LOOKS ARE DECEIVING". A peaceful backdrop doesn't mean that a home is filled with less issues, a peaceful backdrop can be a very artful disguise for a turbulent storm......PHYLICIA E. JOESPH!!!
ReplyDeleteLol Phyllicia you have some strong points there that i agree with and also I would like to add that although i do believe that his friends ratted him out because they thought it was right there can be two sides to every story whereby it could be that they were not truly his friends in the first place because if you see your friend doing something he thinks is right and your religion may not support it would you tell on them to the authorities if you were really, truly their friend?
ReplyDeleteMy sentiments exactly Leanne....That's exactly my point...
ReplyDeletePolitics is present in all parts of the world in every country and without it their would be no leadres to govern our people and this would cause serious problems also with politics their is confusion as some or most politicans get really power hungry. The politics within the book Clear Light of Day made the story as good as it is and withour it it would not be effective.
ReplyDeleteI agree strongly that the political situation in India while the children were growing up is very corrupt and unstable. This conflict arose because of the struggle between two religious groups, the Hindus and the Muslims. This political situation striked fear into the characters. The political situation caused Raja's father's disapproval of him attending the "Jamia Millia" school which was a muslim school. Therefore causing Raja to attend a school which was not in his favor. The political situation showed that Raja's friends were disloyal. They ratted him out because of differences in religious beliefs. The political situation even though the children were sheltered from it in the city caused Aunt Miras and their father to fear for the childrens safety.
ReplyDeleteWithout the political situation the story will be stripped of its action and thus the novel would not be so interesting.
The political tension of Hindu against Muslim which is mostly religous sets the basis for the story.I think it influences the story by providing a good plot for the story. Readers get an insight in to the culture of indian people, not forgetting to mention that the political situation helped to shape most of the characters of the book. For instance Raja and his preference of Muslim over Hindu while he himself is a Hindu. Also Hyder Ali and his family having to escape from Delhi because they are Muslim.It creates tension in the family because just as the country is being divided, one side against the other,the same is happening in the family,mainly between Raja and his father.Raja had no bad feelings againsts the Muslims even though he is Hindu.In fact he is fascinated with them,while his father did not share the same sentiments.I think the story would be different if there was a peaceful back drop.Why? Becausse the peaceful back drop would then have some sort of influence on the characters lives just as "the unstable and corrupted" political situations had. May be under different circumstances Bim would have married and have a faily of her own, Raja wouldn't have left and Tara would have felt closer to her siblings.
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