“The Role of Memory in the Sense Of an Ending”

Prakruti B. Bhatt

Roll:no. 12

Paper: 13 - The New Literature

Date: 12/03/2014

Guide: Dr. Dilip Barad

Submitted to - Dept. Of English

“The Role of Memory in the Sense Of an Ending”

The Sense of an Ending is about "memory and time”. The book opens with a short list of memories. not all of which the as yet unnamed narrator actually saw. Immediately we’re on warning, if one of these memories is imagined rather than real, can any of them be trusted? As the narrator says, “what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed.”

From there the novel develops in two reasonably distinct halves. The first is the narrator’s (who we eventually learn is named Tony) memories of his final years at school and his early years at university. The key here is that as a reader we’re not experiencing Tony’s early life directly, we’re experiencing what he remembers it as being like which may not be the same thing at all. This is underlined, time and again, with barely a page passing without Tony Barnes reminding the reader that none of this can necessarily be trusted.

A new boy, Adrian, joins the school and becomes a key member of Tony’s small clique of friends. They consider themselves philosophers, intellectual rebels, they look to great art and literature for inspiration and they are convinced as was I and as no doubt were many reading this that they have insights that the old and adult world never knew or has long since forgotten. They look down on those around them with all the haughty certainty of adolescence, and they look forward to lives which whatever they may be will not be like their parents, or so at least they hope.

The Sense of an Ending is written from the perspective of Tony Webster as he reflects on a relationships that shaped his life. The narrative – at least in Part One – is written as a recollection. But not a factual recollection. Tony concedes that Part One is made up of his imperfect, shabby memories which, even as he writes, he realises are inaccurate. 

A few incidents that have grown into anecdotes, to some approximate memories which time has deformed into certainty. If I can’t be sure of the actual events any more, I can at least be true to the impression those facts left. That’s the best I can manage.And so the narrative voice brings us face-to-face with the shoddy reality of one’s own memory, prompting me at least to consider my experiences of having my own memories proven wrong.

The Sense of an Ending reminds us of the uncertainty of memory and cautions us against drinking too pensively nostalgia’s nepenthe. Julian Barnes’ has achieved something remarkable with this text, creating a work that is honest in its inaccuracy, that is genuine in its falsehood. 

Through the narration of The Sense of an Ending, its protagonist Tony Webster teaches himself a set of lessons about the erratic itineraries of memory. We could say that a reflection is offered on how the chronological time of life gets itself undone through the durational time of memory. But realizing, by which I mean assuming in everyday behavior, ourselves as divided by chronology and duration does not place us outside either. They carry us on forward in time. Even in moments of realizing ourselves as split by chronology and duration, we dance free-style to the beats of being and time. Living implies constant narrative shifts, adjusting to the rhythms of our truths, lies, and indifferences Memory, as Barnes understands it and as Tony is forced to realize is far more edited than we'd like to believe.

"I have a brother who's a philosopher," Barnes says. "He maintains that almost all memories are false, all fallible, and that memory is the act of imagination, rather than the act of a lucid remembering machine somewhere up in our brains. I have a more sort of old-fashioned, pragmatic view of memory. But I certainly increasingly think that it's not only faulty but sometimes over-reliant on the imagination."

Memory, individual rather than collective, accounts for who we are and what we have become. And early memory is particularly valuable, though it can be misconstrued. Its influence can persist throughout adult life, though what is cause and what effect may be difficult to judge. In this short but compelling novel Julian Barnes tracks the origin of one particular memory through a long and apparently uneventful life towards an explanation that leaves traces of unease that are difficult to dismiss. 

The facts are quite simple. Three school-friends, of whom the narrator, Tony Webster, is one, are joined by a fourth, Adrian Finn, who is much cleverer than any of them. They age and lose contact with one another. But Webster, eventually married and divorced, cannot rid himself of the memory of his former girlfriend, Veronica, at whose family home he once spent a weekend. At the time he had felt uncomfortable, socially inferior, and he was hardly surprised when the enigmatic Veronica took up with the more prestigious Adrian. His early misconception hardens imperceptibly into a mystery that is exacerbated when he learns of Adrian’s suicide. Nor can he understand why Veronica’s mother should leave him a small legacy and the news that she possesses Adrian’s diary. 

These facts throw into relief his inability to reconstruct his relations with either Adrian or Veronica. What remains in his memory is the discomfort he felt on that weekend, a discomfort he cannot explain even at an advanced age. The clue might lie in the diary, but attempts to get hold of it are unavailing. He is up against an initial misalliance to which others are being added, containing the same characters but no further explanation. 

Webster’s attempts to resolve this enigma form the bulk of this clever novel, in the course of which it becomes clear that the character of Veronica is pivotal. Even her random impulses, to which Webster had become accustomed, seem opaque. The explanation, when it comes, is so fortuitous that it throws into doubt that early unease and what Webster had made of it. The unease had been, and had remained, authentic. This is a fact to which others are gradually added. 

Going back in his mind, Webster unearths another memory of that uncomfortable weekend: the odd kindness of Veronica’s mother and her eventual legacy. His reading of the incident had been inconclusive: later reconstructions supply more clues. Finally he accepts an alternative version, which turns out to be the correct one, though it is a betrayal of all concerned. 

“An issue of Culture and Language in A Grain Of Wheat”

Prakruti B. Bhatt

Roll:no. 12

Paper:14 - The African Literature

Date: 12/03/2014

Guide: Heenaba Zala

Submitted to - Dept. Of English

“An issue of Culture and Language in A Grain Of Wheat” 

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, a Kenyan writer of Gikuyu descent, began a very successful career writing in English before turning to work almost entirely in his native Gikuyu. In his 1986 Decolonising the Mind, his “farewell to English,” Ngugi describes language as a way people have not only of describing the world, but of understanding themselves. For him, English in Africa is a “cultural bomb” that continues a process of erasing memories of pre-colonial cultures and history and as a way of installing the dominance of new, more insidious forms of colonialism. Writing in Gikuyu, then, is Ngugi’s way not only of harkening back to Gikuyu traditions, but also of acknowledging and communicating their present. Ngugi is not concerned primarily with universality, though models of struggle can always move out and be translated for other cultures, but with preserving the specificity of his individual groups. In a general statement, Ngugi points out that language and culture are inseparable, and that therefore the loss of the former results in the loss of the latter: specific culture is not transmitted through language in its universality, but in its particularity as the language of a specific community with a specific history. Written literature and orature are the main means by which a particular language transmits the images of the world contained in the culture it carries.

Language as communication and as culture are then products of each other.  Language carries culture, and culture carries, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we perceive ourselves and our place in the world. Language is thus inseparable from ourselves as a community of human beings with a specific form and character, a specific history, a specific relationship to the world. 

The character in the novel each see Kenya and Uruhu from individual unique perspectives. They however, cannot fully see each other’s truths and each other’s lives. The biggest divisions that separate them are those of cultural. The white upper class in British. They bring with them not only British technology, soldiers, and weapons, but also British culture. Culture is what Thompson desperately wants to impose upon Africa, and he sees British culture as the height of human accomplishment. He doesn’t truly understend that the Kenyans also have a culture, and he cannot accept that the culture of kenyans could be equivalent in value to the culture of the British.

Meanwhile, the Kenyans do not see the British perspective. The British are merely tyrants and oppressors. There is nothing redeeming is Thompson to Mugo, when Thompson is spitting in his face or whipping him. “These people” are not human to Gikonyo, Kihika, or Mugo, just as Thompson does not consider the Kenyan men and women truly people.

All people look at the world from their own unique perspective. The people of the town see Mugo from one perspective, as a hero, while he is unaware of the people’s admiration and is torn up with guilt. The townspeople see Gikonyo as successful and admirable, a businessman who has pulled himself together after detention. Meanwhile, Gikonyo’s own perspective is that his life has fallen apart since returning from detention. The disparity between a private life and public appearance is a microcosm of the rift between culture and culture.

The words which characters use to refer to others show their perspectives and cultural division. The Kenyan men refer to the British as “these people”. The white men are not individuals. Mwaura adds a diminutive ending to Thompson’s name when he talks about him. Similarly, Thompson uses words to solidify his position of power. After spitting in Mugo’s face, he demands that Mugo use a term of respect with him. Thompson is using words to humiliate Mugo and to make himself more powerful.

The novel uses local terms for important elements of life in Kenya. A shamba is a plot of land to farm, the origin of life. Another example is a panga, a local farming implement and part and part of the way of life of the Kenyans. When the kenyans refer to elements of British culture, they often put them into cultural contexts of Kenya. That is why the train is known as the iron snake and why guns are compared to bamboo sticks.

The last chapter of the novel is titled Harambee. This is a Swahili word meaning a coming together. It has a dual meaning. The Kenyan people are coming together as a community under an independent government, and also Gikonyo and Mumbi are coming together to a new, tentative understanding of each other. This emphasizes the parallels in the novel between large, social issues and personal, human issues. Unity and communication are the thing to strive for, both on the societal and the individual levels. 

Mau mau Emergency in A Grain of Wheat presented for the first time an African perspective on the Kenyan armed revolt against British Colonial rule during the 1950.A GRAIN OF WHEAT marked Ngugi’s break with cultural nationalism and his embarking of fanonist Marxism. It is the allegorical story of one man’s mistaken heroism and a search for the betrayer of a Maumau leader.Ngugi wa Thiongo portrays the disruption of Kikuya society as a result of the invasive pressure of colonialism.He depicts the struggle against colonial rule that culminated in Kenya’s acquisition of independence 1963, and traces the betrayal, by a corrupt post colonial state, of the hopes which had been invested in self-government. Multi-narrative liens and multi-viewpoints unfolding at different times and spaces replace the linear temporal unfolding of the plot form a single viewpoint. The collective replaces the individual as the center of history. Ngugi’s fiction reflects his abiding concern for the poor of Kenya who have been displaced by white colonialists and by African opportunists who seized power after independence. His early novels, all explore the detrimental effects of colonialism and imperialism.

“Cinema”

Prakruti B. Bhatt

Roll:no. 12

Paper: 15 - Mass Communication and Media Studies: An Introducation

Date: 12/03/2014

Guide: Dr. Dilip Barad

Submitted to - Dept. Of English

“Cinema”

Basic Introducation:-

“Cinema has several meanings like a movie, film making, etc. But many people refer it as a movie theatre.”

Impact of cinema :-

Now a days movies have a great impact on not only youth but also on children. Impact mainly depends on us, any movie will have bad and good and it is ourselves should able to distinguish between them. People watching too much of movies .People get very much attracted to the roles that involve interesting characters. They try to imitate such roles.

Positive Impact

The positive impact is-

Any kind of good behaviour of a character can affect the mind of a person and he/she can try to inculcate it in his/her life.Sometimes even sad movies help us to be thankful for what we have. It might make us feel lucky and leave a positive impression on our lives.If there is any kind of educational value or a great person’s life in the movie, people might try to do the same for a happy ending in their lives just like the movie.

Negative Impact

The negative impact is-

People try to copy stunts which the heroes of the movies do; thinking that they are brave which leads them to injure themselves. It can range from a minor bruise to a major fracture.Movies play an essential role in teaching a person; especially a child to accept ideas like a criminal attempted to murder, a victim attempted suicide, to hit a person in a cruel way or to do things using violent ways.Some children are fascinated by fiction movies which can affect their mind and they are not able to differentiate between real life and fiction life.Some horror movies can fear people and children a lot that they get scared of everything and never try to face it.Cinema effects health. Long movies can affect a person’s eyes. Watching a movie can make him very restless.

In detailed..........

Cinema has become the most influential art form of 20th century from its margingal beginnings. India holds eminent position in film making in the world. It produces highest number of films every year. Whatever may be the quality of the film, they continue to be the popular mass media. Earlier, cinema was a simple means of mechenical recording,preserving and reproducing moving visual images. With the development of film technology, the art of cinema developed a language of its own. Kumar says,that cinema is called “the seventh art”, and its language has developed over the past 70-80 years to a speciliased and sophisticated level, opinion differ, however on whether cinema is a ‘pure’ art form or a ‘bastard’ art.

‘Cinema’ and ‘films’ are used interchangeably but there is a difference between these two terms. Cinema has specific means to create imaginary time and space, and utilization of these means defines how cinematic a film is. Imaginary time can be created through movement by means of montage, camera movements and movement within the frame and through sound of human voice, music and noise. Space can be created through image with the help of size of shoots, camera angle , deapth of field, montage and through sound ‘off screene’. Films are made of stories dance, music, drama, photography, painting, architecture and many other things that we call cinema. Filems mean the particular movies that we see with all the elements they contain and cinema means the sum of the means made possible only by film technology which distinguish cinema. 

A SHORT HISTORY OF INDIAN CINEMA 

Following the screening of the lumiere moving pictures in london(1895) cinema became a sensation across europe and by july 1896 the lumiere films had been in show in bombay.The full-length motion picture in india was produced by Dadasaheb Phalke, a scholar on india’s languages and culture, who brough together element form Sanskrit epics to produce his Raja Harish Chandra(1913), a silent film in Marathi. The female roles in the film were played by male actors. During the early twentieth century cinema as a medium gained popularity across india’s population and its many economic section. Tickets were made affordable to the common man at a low price and for the financially capable additional comforts meant additional admission ticket price. Audiences thronged to cinema halls as this affordable medium of entertainment was available for as low as an anna (4 paisa) in Bombay. The content of indian commercial cinema was increasingly tailored to appeal to these masses. Young indian producers began to incorporate elements of india’s social life and culture in to cinema. Others brought with them ideas from across the world.This was also the time when global audiences and markets become aware of india’s film industry. As sound technology advanced the 1930 saw the rise of music in indian cinema with musicals such as indra sabha and Devi Devyani marking the beginning of song-and-dance in india’s films. Studios emerged across major cities such as Chennai. Kolkata, and Mumbai as film making become an established craft by 1935, exemplified by the success of Devdas, which had managed to enthrall audiences nationwide.The Indian Masala film-a slang used for commercial film with songs, dance, romance etc.- came up following the second world war. The partition of india fillowing its independence divided the nation’s assets and a number of studios went to the newly formed Pakistan. The strife of partition would become an enduring subject for film making during the decades that followed. After Indian independence the cinema of indian was inquired by the S.K.Patil commission. S.K.Patil, head of the commission, viewed cinema in india as a ‘combination of art, industry, and showmanship while noting its commercial value. Patil further recommended setting up of a film Finance corporation under the Ministry of Finance. This advice was later taken up in 1960 and the institution came into being to provide financial support to talented filmmakers throughout india. The Indian government has established a films Division by 1949 which eventually become one of the largest documentary film producers in the world with an annual production of over 200 short documentaries, each released in 18 language with 9000 print for permanent film theaters across the country. Commercial Hindi cinema further grew throughout the 1980 and the 1990. 

There have generally been six many major influences that have shaped the conventions of Indian popular cinema. 

• The first influence was the ancient Indian epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana which have exerted a profound influence on the thought and imagination of Indian popular cinema, particularly in its narratives.
• The second influence was the impact of ancient Sanskrit drama, with its highly stylized nature and emphasis on spectacle, where music, dance and gesture combined “to create a vibrant artistic unit with dance and mime being central to the dramatic experience.
• The third influence was the traditional folk theatre of india, which became popular form around the 10th century with the decline of sanskrit theatre. These regional tradition include the yatra of Bengal, the Ramila of Uttar pradesh, and the Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu.
• The fourth influence was Parsi theatre, which “blended realism and fantacy, music and dance, narrative and spectacle, earthy dialogue and ingenuity of stage presentation, integrating them into dramatic discourse of melodrama.
• The fifth influence was Hollywood, where musicals were popular form the 1920 to the 1950, though indian filmmakers departed from their Hollywood counterparts in several ways.
• The final influence was Western musical telivision, particularly MTV, which has had an increasing influence since the 1990, as can be seen in the pace, camera angles, dance sequences and music of recent Indian films. An early example of this approach was in Mani Ratnam’s Bombay(1995). 

Types of Cinema:

Hindi Cinema:- 

The Hindi language film industry of Mumbai- also known as Bollywood- is the largest and most popular branch of indian cinema. Hindi cinema initially explored issues of caste and culture in films such as Achhut Kanya(1936) and Sujata(1959). International visibility came to the industry with Raj Kapoor’s Awara. Hindi cinema grew during the 1990 with the release of as many as 215 films. With Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Hindi cinema registered its commercial presence in the Western world. In 1995 the Indian economy began showing sustainable annual growth, and Hindi cinema, as a commercial enterprise. The salary of lead stars increased greatly. Many actors signed contracts for simultaneous work in 3-4 films. Institutions such as the industrial development Bank of India also came forward to finance Hindi films. A number of magazines such as Filmfare, Stardust, cineblits, etc..., became popular.

Gujarati Cinema:-

The film industry of Gujarat started its journey in 1932. Since then Gujarati films immensely contributed to Indian cinema. Gujarati cinema has gained popularity among the regional film industry in India. Gujarati cinema is always based on scripts from mythology to history and social to political. Since its origin Gujarati cinema has experimented with stories and issues from the Indian Society. The scripts and stories delt in the Gujarati films are intrinsically humane. The include relationship- and family-oriented subjects with human aspirations and deal with Indian family culture. Thus, there can be no turning away from the essential humanity of these Gujarati cinema. The first Gujarati movie, Narasinh Mehta, was released in the year 1932 and was directed by Nanubhai Vakil.

Bhojpuri cinema:-

Bhojpuri language films predominantly cater to people who live in the regions of western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. These films also have a large audience in the cities of Delhi and Mumbai due to migration to these metros from the Bhojpuri speaking region. Besides India, there is a large market for these films in other Bhojpuri speaking countries of the west Indies, Oceania, and South America. Bhojpuri language film’s history begins in 1962. Although a smaller industry compared to other Indian film industries, the extremely rapid success of their films has led to dramatic increases in Bhojpuri cinema’s visibility, and the industry now supports an awards show and a trade magazine Bhojpuri City.

Bengali cinema:-

The Bangali language cinematic tradition has had reputable filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen among its most acclaimed. Recent Bengali films that have captured national attention include Rituparno Ghosh's Choker Bali, starring Aishwarya Rai. Bangali filmmaking also includes Bangla science fiction films and films that focus on social issues. In 1993, the Bengali industry’s net output was 57 films. The history of cinema in Bengal dates back to the 1890, when the first “bioscopes” were shown in theatres in kolkata. The ‘parallel cinema movement began in the Bengali film industry in the 1950. A long history has been traversed since then, with stalwarts such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak and others having earned international acclaim and securing their place in the history of film.

Theme and Myth of The waste Land

About the theme of The Waste Land, Various interpretation have been given. Here i have given 5 theme of the poem The Waste land....

The theme of the waste land:-

About the theme of the waste land, various interpretations have been given. Those interpretations are often conflicting and contradictory. Critics like F.R.Leavis feel that the theme of the poem is ‘ the disillusionment of a generation’. It merely presence “a vision of dissolution and spiritual drought”. But it is very doubtful whether te public fully realized the significance of the poem.

Theme of criticism of life:-

The waste land, like Matthew Arnold’s scholor gipsy, offers a criticism of life in the sence often interpretation of its problames. In both there is a painful consciousness of the sickness and the fever and the fret of contemparory civilisation but the wasteland goes beyond a mere diagnosis of the spiritual distempers of the age ; it is a lament over man’s fallen nature, a prophecy and promise. Unlike arnold, who suggest a cure of escape form the feverish contact Eliot vaguely hints at the possibility of rebarth oviously there is no assurances of this redemption, but there is atleast te awareness that it is the only way out the conclusion of the poem give no assurence of any sort but the basic symbol used in the poem is one of restoration in to life through after hazardous quests. The legend of holygril which organized in fertility cult tales how a questioning knight saved the wasteland from drought and barrenness. Occasioned by the old age of the ruler, known as the fisher king. The knight must restore the latter’s youth by riding to the chapel perilous and there questioning the Lance and the Grail, symbols of the male and female principles. Eliot’s poem is an allegorical application of this story to modern society and religion. Our civilization is the waste land; we can obtain condition and learning a hard lesson. To enforce his premise, eliot uses symbols drawn from kindred myths and religions. In the process what iroinic pictures of modern manneres, wat superb mingling of satiric vulgarity and sensuous delicacy what prophetic earnestness, and what variety of imagery and rhythm are revealed. 

Theme of contemporary disintegration :-

One of the important themes of the waste land is ‘a vision of dissolution and spiritual drought’. This spiritual drought arises from te degeneration, vulgarisation, and commercialisation of sex. Eliot’s study of te fertility myths of different people had convinced him that sex-act is the source of life and vitality, when it is exercised for te sake of the fertility myths of different people had convinced him that sex-act is the source of life and vitality, when it is exercised for te sake of procreation and when it is an expression of love. But when it is severed from its primary function, and is exercised for the sake of momentary pleasure or momentary benefit, it becomes a source of degeneration and corruption. It then represents the primacy of the flesh over the spirit and this results in spiritual decay and death. It was a women, and Adam’s concupiscence or obedience to the flesh, that led to the original sin and the Fall of Man, and it is this very obedience to the flesh which accounts for the spiritual and emotional barrenness of the modern age.

The poem, in its spirit, reflects te anxiety, despair, neurosis, boredom, and mental vacuity of the modern age. In the contemporary waste land there is corruption and sexual degeneration at all levels. The title, a game of chess suggest that sex has become a matter of intrigue, a matter of moves and countermoves, a source of momentary pleasure, a sordid game of seduction and exploitation of the innocent. There is the fashionable society women who, despite all her pomp and show, despite all the luxury with which she surrounded, is bored and fed up with the meaningless routine of her life, and is neurotic and hysterical as a consequence. Her love, too, suffers from mental vacuity and is unable to keep up even small conversation.

Theme of Sexual perversion:-

Another important theme of the waste land is sexual perversion among the middle-class people. This is seen in the mechanical relationship of the typist and clerk. The typist gives herself to the Clark with a sense of total indifference and apathy. There is neither repulsion nor any pleasure, and this absence of feeling is a measure of the sterility of the age. It is just animal-like copulation. As soon as the young man has departed, te typist rearranges her hair, and puts a record on the gramophone, “ with automatic hands”. This perversion of sex is also to be seen in the lower classes of society. The songs of three themes daughters clearly show that they have been sexually exploited, but they can do nothing about it. They and their people are too poor and too apathetic to make any effort for the betterment of their lot. Man has grown inhuman; humanity has lost its humanity. That sex is a matter of momentary pleasure or a business proposition is also suggested by the image of the deserted Thames, which in the summer was a favourite picnic spot for the nymphs and their rich friends. Further, the conversation of the ladies in some London pub also brings out the sordid nature of sex relationship in the contemporary waste land. Not only has sex been vulgarize and commercialism, there also prevail abnormal sex-practices of various kinds. Thus Mr. Eugenides is a homo-sexual and Hotel Metro pole is a hot-bed of homosexuality, a relationship which is essentially sterile. All Europe is burning with lust and sexuality. Eliot suggests that there is an emphasis on the sanctity of sex. There is decay and spiritual degeneracy whenever the sexual function is perverted. The purpose of the sexual function is procreation and it is sanctified only in marriage. When the sexual act is separated from procreation there is spiritual degeneracy. In modern society there is perversion of sex, hence its degeneracy. Sex has been separated from love, marriage and procreation; the sex-act has become beastly or mere animal copulation, and hence there is decay and spiritual barrenness.

Theme of Life-in-death:-

According to cleanth Brooks, the theme of The Waste Land is life-in-death. It suggests the living death of the inhabitants of The Waste Land. Throughout the poem, it is evident that man is shown to have lost his passion, i.e. His faith in god and religion,- his passional participation in religion- and this decay of faith has resulted in the loss of vitality, both spiritual and emotional. Consequently, the life in the modern waste land is a life-in-death, a living death, like that of the sibyl at cumse. According to Eliot’s philosophy, insofar as we are human beings we must act and do either evil or good, and it is better to do evil then to do nothing. Modern man has lost his sese of good and evil, and this keeps him from being alive, from acting. In the modern desolate land the people are dead, they merely exist like dead things. As Stephen spender has pointed out, they are to be compared to such dead things as a stick, a gutter, a pipe at the most, theirs is a life-in-death, a life of complete inactivity, listlessness and apathy. That is why winter is welcome to them, and April is the cruellest of momths, for it reminds them of the stirrings of life and, “they dislike to be roused from their death-in-life”.

Theme exemplified in various parts of the poem:- 

Part 1, entitled, ‘The Burial of the dead’, emphasizes the inevitable dissolution which must precede new life, and begins with a lament over the loss of fertility in what should be a spring season and illustrate this by reproducing typical chatter of cosmopolitan idlers, passing thence to symbols of our barrenness. The decay of love in the modern world is then suggested. The section ends with a vision of London as an unreal city, in a nightmare of memories. In the lines,

                “That corpse you planted last year in your garden

                 Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?”

The connection with the fertility cult is establish.

In Part 2, ‘A Game of Chess’,the title of which recalls the dramatic irony of Binaca and the fatal power of woman, he cleverly draws us to two types of modern women in contrasted literary styles. After picture of a luxurious boudoir which rivals Keats, he gives the petulant conversation of its occupant and her eternal question:

                 “What shall we do tomorrow?

                  What shall we ever do!”

In the next quest the tone of disgust deepens. The sordidness of urban pleasure suggests the flames of the poet has introduced into the boudior, touches of cleopatra and Dido, so now he recalls the rives of spenser’s prothalamion and with equally devastating irony, goes on to contrast the cynicism of the modern girl with the eighteenth century sentimental ideal. Similarly, He uses Wagner’s “Rhein-gold” melodies and a picture of Queen Elizabeth flirting with Leicester in her barge , to emphasize the permanence of human sensuality and the degradation to which it has now fallen. With intense agony of soul, he finally alludes to the repentance of saint Augustine and to the teaching of the Buddha.

After a short section, emphasizing the brevity of sensual life, the several themes are recapitulated in Part 5, and the way of escape vaguely hinted at. Our sterility is again asserted:

                   “Here os no water but only rock

                    Rock and no water and the sandy rode

                    The road winding above among the mountains

                    Which are mountains of rock without water.”

In this desert, we suffer illusion; where two walk there goes a shadowy third. There are murmurs and lamentation. When we reach the chapel perilous, it seems empty but as we doubt betraying rain. Self-surrender, Sympathy, Self-control-these three are the ways to salvation.

The poet speaks of setting his own house in order though London Bridge is falling down. He must pass through the fire of purification. He is hunted by images of desolation and a shower of literary allusion shows him slipping into frenzy. But like a charm of healing rain, he repeats the message of the thunder and ends with the blessing “Shantih, Shantih”.

What is Myth:-

Myths were the symbolic Presentation of primitive man’s instinct that his work-a-day world was interpenetrated with a super-rational or extra-rational activity. They were fabulous fictions which revealed physic facts. Modern anthropology sees all religion and all art springing and growing from this primitive root of symbolic transformation. By his symbol-making instinct man’s knowledge and experience of outer and inner world were projected into direct sensuous embodiment, giving them life and outline and meaning. In the juxtaposition of the ‘shape and significance’ of life, given expression in these symbolic terms with “the immense panorama of futility and anarchy” which is contemporary history, Eliot saw a hope for a new advance towards order and form.

.

II. USE OF MYTH IN 'THE WASTE LAND'

T.S.Eliot's “The Waste Land” is the most sustained and complex use of the mythical method.Taking as its underlying pattern the great myth as interpreted by Jessie Weston,Sir James Frazer,and others, and weaving the theme of barrenness,decay and death, and the quest for life and ressurection which he found in these anthropological sources with the Christian story and with Buddhist and other oriental analogies,and incorporating into the poem both examples and symbols of the failure of modern civilization ,moral squalor and social vaccuam - which are inturn mythically and symbolically related to the anthropological and religious themes,Eliot endeavoured to project a complete view of civilization , of human history and human failure and of perennial quest for salvation . That the modern poet concerned with the complexities of his civilization can no longer count on any common body of knowledge in the light of which he can confidently use myth and symbol, is forced by the condition of his time to create or re-create his own myths and to draw on his own perhaps highly unusual reading for reference and allusion

is a commonplace.It is the comprehensive aim of “The Waste Land”to make necessary dependence on a synthetic myth.

In a review of James Joyce's Ulysses in 'The Dial ‘1923 , Eliot wrote -'' I hold this book to be the most important expression which the present age has found . ...In using myth , in manipulating a continuous parallel between contemporaneity and antiquity , Mr . Joyce is pursuing a method which others must pursue after him ... it is simply a way of controlling , of ordering , of giving a shape and a significance to the immense penorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history ... instead of narrative method , we may now use the mythical method ''. The mythical method of Eliot, however, is different that of Joyce in Ulysses.Joyce follows the technic of elaboration and expansion, but Eliot has adapted the technic of compression and telescoping, with a poetic shorthand. He has frankly acknowledged his debt to Jessie Weston's “From Ritual to Romance” and Frazer's “The Golden Bough”, specially the portion dealing with the fertility rituals.Frazer's work was significant for Eliot because it demonstrates the continuity between the primitive and the civilized and revealed the substratum of savagery and violence beneath the surface of civilization.When in 1921,Eliot saw a performance of Igor Stravinsky”s Le Sacre du

Printemps,in which the ballet was based upon vegetation rites,he missed 'the sense of present' in everything except in the music.In his music there was a continuity between the the primitive past and the civilized present which was later on reflection in “The Waste Land”too(That corpse you planted last yearin your garden) and the barbaric cries of modern life are heard in the 'sound of horns and motors which shall bring /Sweeny to Mrs porterin the spring. Eliot has used both Pagan and Christian myths. From Egypt, he borrowed of the fertility ritual myth. The effigy

English Skills

English Skills

When we think of English skills, the 'four skills' of listening, speaking, reading, and writing readily come to mind. Of course other skills such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling all play a role in effective English communication. The amount of attention you give to each skill area will depend both the level of your learners as well as their situational needs. Generally beginners, especially those who are nonliterate, benefit most from listening and speaking instruction with relatively little work on reading and writing. As fluency increases, the amount of reading and writing in your lessons may also increase. With advanced learners, up to half of your lesson time can be spent on written skills, although your learners may wish to keep their focus weighted toward oral communication if that is a greater need.

Teaching Listening

Listening skills are vital for your learners. Of the 'four skills,' listening is by far the most frequently used. Listening and speaking are often taught together, but beginners, especially non-literate ones, should be given more listening than speaking practice. It's important to speak as close to natural speed as possible, although with beginners some slowing is usually necessary. Without reducing your speaking speed, you can make your language easier to comprehend by simplifying your vocabulary, using shorter sentences, and increasing the number and length of pauses in your speech.

There are many types of listening activities. Those that don't require learners to produce language in response are easier than those that do. Learners can be asked to physically respond to a command (for example, "please open the door"), select an appropriate picture or object, circle the correct letter or word on a worksheet, draw a route on a map, or fill in a chart as they listen. It's more difficult to repeat back what was heard, translate into the native language, take notes, make an outline, or answer comprehension questions. To add more challenge, learners can continue a story text, solve a problem, perform a similar task with a classmate after listening to a model (for example, order a cake from a bakery), or participate in real-time conversation.

Good listening lessons go beyond the listening task itself with related activities before and after the listening. Here is the basic structure:

Before Listening
Prepare your learners by introducing the topic and finding out what they already know about it. A good way to do this is to have a brainstorming session and some discussion questions related to the topic. Then provide any necessary background information and new vocabulary they will need for the listening activity.

During Listening
Be specific about what students need to listen for. They can listen for selective details or general content, or for an emotional tone such as happy, surprised, or angry. If they are not marking answers or otherwise responding while listening, tell them ahead of time what will be required afterward.

After Listening
Finish with an activity to extend the topic and help students remember new vocabulary. This could be a discussion group, craft project, writing task, game, etc.

The following ideas will help make your listening activities successful.

Noise
Reduce distractions and noise during the listening segment. You may need to close doors or windows or ask children in the room to be quiet for a few minutes.

Equipment
If you are using a cassette player, make sure it produces acceptable sound quality. A counter on the machine will aid tremendously in cueing up tapes. Bring extra batteries or an extension cord with you.

Repetition
Read or play the text a total of 2-3 times. Tell students in advance you will repeat it. This will reduce their anxiety about not catching it all the first time. You can also ask them to listen for different information each time through.

Content
Unless your text is merely a list of items, talk about the content as well as specific language used. The material should be interesting and appropriate for your class level in topic, speed, and vocabulary. You may need to explain reductions (like 'gonna' for 'going to') and fillers (like 'um' or 'uh-huh').

Recording Your Own Tape
Write appropriate text (or use something from your textbook) and have another English speaker read it onto tape. Copy the recording three times so you don't need to rewind. The reader should not simply read three times, because students want to hear exact repetition of the pronunciation, intonation, and pace, not just the words.

Video
You can play a video clip with the sound off and ask students to make predictions about what dialog is taking place. Then play it again with sound and discuss why they were right or wrong in their predictions. You can also play the sound without the video first, and show the video after students have guessed what is going on.

Homework
Give students a listening task to do between classes. Encourage them to listen to public announcements in airports, bus stations, supermarkets, etc. and try to write down what they heard. Tell them the telephone number of a cinema and ask them to write down the playing times of a specific movie. Give them a tape recording of yourself with questions, dictation, or a worksheet to complete.

Look for listening activities in the Activities and Lesson Materials sections of this guide. If your learners can use a computer with internet access and headphones or speakers, you may direct them toward the following listening practice sites. You could also assign specific activities from these sites as homework. Teach new vocabulary ahead of time if necessary.

Teaching Reading

We encounter a great variety of written language day to day -- articles, stories, poems, announcements, letters, labels, signs, bills, recipes, schedules, questionnaires, cartoons, the list is endless. Literate adults easily recognize the distinctions of various types of texts. This guide will not cover instruction for learners with little or no literacy in their native language; you will need to work intensively with them at the most basic level of letter recognition and phonics.

Finding authentic reading material may not be difficult, but finding materials appropriate for the level of your learners can be a challenge. Especially with beginners, you may need to significantly modify texts to simplify grammar and vocabulary. When choosing texts, consider what background knowledge may be necessary for full comprehension. Will students need to "read between the lines" for implied information? Are there cultural nuances you may need to explain? Does the text have any meaningful connection to the lives of your learners? Consider letting your students bring in their choice of texts they would like to study. This could be a telephone bill, letter, job memo, want ads, or the back of a cereal box. Motivation will be higher if you use materials of personal interest to your learners.

Your lesson should begin with a pre-reading activity to introduce the topic and make sure students have enough vocabulary, grammar, and background information to understand the text. Be careful not to introduce a lot of new vocabulary or grammar because you want your students to be able to respond to the content of the text and not expend too much effort analyzing the language. If you don't want to explain all of the potentially new material ahead of time, you can allow your learners to discuss the text with a partner and let them try to figure it out together with the help of a dictionary. After the reading activity, check comprehension and engage the learners with the text, soliciting their opinions and further ideas orally or with a writing task.

Consider the following when designing your reading lessons.

Purpose
Your students need to understand ahead of time why they are reading the material you have chosen.

Reading Strategies
When we read, our minds do more than recognize words on the page. For faster and better comprehension, choose activities before and during your reading task that practice the following strategies.

Prediction: This is perhaps the most important strategy. Give your students hints by asking them questions about the cover, pictures, headlines, or format of the text to help them predict what they will find when they read it.

Guessing From Context: Guide your students to look at contextual information outside or within the text. Outside context includes the source of the text, its format, and how old it is; inside context refers to topical information and the language used (vocabulary, grammar, tone, etc.) as well as illustrations. If students have trouble understanding a particular word or sentence, encourage them to look at the context to try to figure it out. Advanced students may also be able to guess cultural references and implied meanings by considering context.

Skimming: This will improve comprehension speed and is useful at the intermediate level and above. The idea of skimming is to look over the entire text quickly to get the basic idea. For example, you can give your students 30 seconds to skim the text and tell you the main topic, purpose, or idea. Then they will have a framework to understand the reading when they work through it more carefully.

Scanning: This is another speed strategy to use with intermediate level and above. Students must look through a text quickly, searching for specific information. This is often easier with non-continuous texts such as recipes, forms, or bills (look for an ingredient amount, account number, date of service, etc.) but scanning can also be used with continuous texts like newspaper articles, letters, or stories. Ask your students for a very specific piece of information and give them just enough time to find it without allowing so much time that they will simply read through the entire text.

Silent Reading vs. Reading Aloud
Reading aloud and reading silently are really two separate skills. Reading aloud may be useful for reporting information or improving pronunciation, but a reading lesson should focus on silent reading. When students read silently, they can vary their pace and concentrate on understanding more difficult portions of the text. They will generally think more deeply about the content and have greater comprehension when reading silently. Try extended silent reading (a few pages instead of a few paragraphs, or a short chapter or book for advanced students) and you may be surprised at how much your learners can absorb when they study the text uninterrupted at their own pace. When introducing extended texts, work with materials at or slightly below your students' level; a long text filled with new vocabulary or complex grammar is too cumbersome to understand globally and the students will get caught up in language details rather than comprehending the text as a whole.

Teaching Speaking

Speaking English is the main goal of many adult learners. Their personalities play a large role in determining how quickly and how correctly they will accomplish this goal. Those who are risk-takers unafraid of making mistakes will generally be more talkative, but with many errors that could become hard-to-break habits. Conservative, shy students may take a long time to speak confidently, but when they do, their English often contains fewer errors and they will be proud of their English ability. It's a matter of quantity vs. quality, and neither approach is wrong. However, if the aim of speaking is communication and that does not require perfect English, then it makes sense to encourage quantity in your classroom. Break the silence and get students communicating with whatever English they can use, correct or not, and selectively address errors that block communication.

Speaking lessons often tie in pronunciation and grammar (discussed elsewhere in this guide), which are necessary for effective oral communication. Or a grammar or reading lesson may incorporate a speaking activity. Either way, your students will need some preparation before the speaking task. This includes introducing the topic and providing a model of the speech they are to produce. A model may not apply to discussion-type activities, in which case students will need clear and specific instructions about the task to be accomplished. Then the students will practice with the actual speaking activity.

These activities may include imitating (repeating), answering verbal cues, interactive conversation, or an oral presentation. Most speaking activities inherently practice listening skills as well, such as when one student is given a simple drawing and sits behind another student, facing away. The first must give instructions to the second to reproduce the drawing. The second student asks questions to clarify unclear instructions, and neither can look at each other's page during the activity. Information gaps are also commonly used for speaking practice, as are surveys, discussions, and role-plays. Speaking activities abound; see the Activities and Further Resources sections of this guide for ideas.

Here are some ideas to keep in mind as you plan your speaking activities.

Content
As much as possible, the content should be practical and usable in real-life situations. Avoid too much new vocabulary or grammar, and focus on speaking with the language the students have.

Correcting Errors
You need to provide appropriate feedback and correction, but don't interrupt the flow of communication. Take notes while pairs or groups are talking and address problems to the class after the activity without embarrassing the student who made the error. You can write the error on the board and ask who can correct it.

Quantity vs. Quality
Address both interactive fluency and accuracy, striving foremost for communication. Get to know each learner's personality and encourage the quieter ones to take more risks.

Conversation Strategies
Encourage strategies like asking for clarification, paraphrasing, gestures, and initiating ('hey,' 'so,' 'by the way').

Teacher Intervention
If a speaking activity loses steam, you may need to jump into a role-play, ask more discussion questions, clarify your instructions, or stop an activity that is too difficult or boring.

Teaching Writing

Good writing conveys a meaningful message and uses English well, but the message is more important than correct presentation. If you can understand the message or even part of it, your student has succeeded in communicating on paper and should be praised for that. For many adult ESL learners, writing skills will not be used much outside your class. This doesn't mean that they shouldn't be challenged to write, but you should consider their needs and balance your class time appropriately. Many adults who do not need to write will enjoy it for the purpose of sharing their thoughts and personal stories, and they appreciate a format where they can revise their work into better English than if they shared the same information orally.

Two writing strategies you may want to use in your lessons are free writing and revised writing. Free writing directs students to simply get their ideas onto paper without worrying much about grammar, spelling, or other English mechanics. In fact, the teacher can choose not to even look at free writing pieces. To practice free writing, give students 5 minutes in class to write about a certain topic, or ask them to write weekly in a journal. You can try a dialog journal where students write a journal entry and then give the journal to a partner or the teacher, who writes another entry in response. The journals may be exchanged during class, but journal writing usually is done at home. The main characteristic of free writing is that few (if any) errors are corrected by the teacher, which relieves students of the pressure to perform and allows them to express themselves more freely.

Revised writing, also called extended or process writing, is a more formal activity in which students must write a first draft, then revise and edit it to a final polished version, and often the finished product is shared publicly. You may need several class sessions to accomplish this. Begin with a pre-writing task such as free writing, brainstorming, listing, discussion of a topic, making a timeline, or making an outline. Pairs or small groups often work well for pre-writing tasks. Then give the students clear instructions and ample time to write the assignment. In a class, you can circulate from person to person asking, "Do you have any questions?" Many students will ask a question when approached but otherwise would not have raised a hand to call your attention. Make yourself available during the writing activity; don't sit at a desk working on your next lesson plan. Once a rough draft is completed, the students can hand in their papers for written comment, discuss them with you face to face, or share them with a partner, all for the purpose of receiving constructive feedback. Make sure ideas and content are addressed first; correcting the English should be secondary. Finally, ask students to rewrite the piece. They should use the feedback they received to revise and edit it into a piece they feel good about. Such finished pieces are often shared with the class or posted publicly, and depending on the assignment, you may even choose to 'publish' everyone's writing into a class booklet.

Tactful correction of student writing is essential. Written correction is potentially damaging to confidence because it's very visible and permanent on the page. Always make positive comments and respond to the content, not just the language. Focus on helping the student clarify the meaning of the writing. Especially at lower levels, choose selectively what to correct and what to ignore. Spelling should be a low priority as long as words are recognizable. To reduce ink on the page, don't correct all errors or rewrite sentences for the student. Make a mark where the error is and let the student figure out what's wrong and how to fix it. At higher levels you can tell students ahead of time exactly what kinds of errors (verbs, punctuation, spelling, word choice) you will correct and ignore other errors. If possible, in addition to any written feedback you provide, try to respond orally to your student's writing, making comments on the introduction, overall clarity, organization, and any unnecessary information.

Consider the following ideas for your writing lessons.

Types of Tasks
Here are some ideas for the types of writing you can ask your students to do.

Copying text word for word

Writing what you dictate

Imitating a model

Filling in blanks in sentences or paragraphs

Taking a paragraph and transforming certain language, for example changing all verbs and time references to past tense

Summarizing a story text, video, or listening clip (you can guide with questions or keywords)

Making lists of items, ideas, reasons, etc. (words or sentences depending on level)

Writing what your students want to learn in English and why

Writing letters (complaint, friend, advice) - give blank post cards or note cards or stationery to add interest; you can also use this to teach how to address an envelope

Organizing information, for example making a grid of survey results or writing directions to a location using a map

Reacting to a text, object, picture, etc. - can be a word or whole written piece

Format
Clarify the format. For an essay, you may specify that you want an introduction, main ideas, support, and a conclusion. For a poem, story, list, etc., the format will vary accordingly, but make sure your students know what you expect.

Model
Provide a model of the type of writing you want your students to do, especially for beginners.

Editing
Consider giving students a checklist of points to look for when editing their own work. Include such things as clear topic sentences, introduction and conclusion, verb tenses, spelling, capitalization, etc.

Correction
Minimize the threatening appearance of correction. Instead of a red pen, use green or blue or even pencil, as long as it's different from what the student used. Explain to the students that you will use certain symbols such as VT for verb tense or WO for word order, and be very clear whether a mark (check mark, X, star, circle) means correct or incorrect as this varies among cultures.