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The Grass-Eaters
438
THE GRASS-EATERS
By Krishnan Varma
ANALYSIS
TIME
• Story starts when narrator is living in pipe, not present tense (“several years ago”)
• Jumps back to when he first came to Calcutta from war-torn East Bengal and is a refugee looking for a home with wife
• Most of the story is flashbacks of each home
• Ends with present tense, living on roof of an old building
• Goes from about to have baby and needing a stationary home to talking about already-born son who is part of Naxalite now
• All in all, time relies heavily on setting and helps to enforce passive voice
TIME
Questions
1) Was it effective for the story to begin with their second to last home?
2) How did the unfolding of events contribute to establishing the situation the narrator and his wife was in?
SETTING
-Atmosphere
SETTING
Atmosphere
Atmosphere
2.
"Refugees like us and locals,"
"Hindus and Muslims were killing one another."
1.
"we did nothing but open and shut them for a full hour... no fear of waking up with a complete stranger in your arms... it was heaven. I felt I was God.
"if you got up at night to relieve yourself you could not be sure of finding your place again."
"Then one night we woke to find that the world was running away from us.."
3.
"Denounce British imperialism, American neo-colonialism, capitalism and socialism"
Connecting
"Then one night we woke to find that the world was running away from us.."
"we did nothing but open and shut them for a full hour... no fear of waking up with a complete stranger in your arms... it was heaven. I felt I was God.
"if you got up at night to relieve yourself you could not be sure of finding your place again."
Your home is stripped away from you. You found another "home", but the next day its gone. What would go through your head?
We live in three to four stories high houses and apartments, but they lived in an abandonded train for a night, just happy they found a small place with doors.
What would hapen to you mentally, to wake up one night and not being able to find your home?
"we came upon a cement concrete pipe left oer from long-ago repairs to underground mains... that was how we came to live in a pipe"
What would hapen to you mentally, to wake up one night and not being able to find your home?
VOICE
- Passive voice
- Very calm despite the poor situtaion they live in
- Accepted that he can not do anything about their poverty
- Very matter-of-fact, does not seem alarmed by the things around him
Ajit Babu
Ajit Babu
"It was true: at that time I was living in a pipe with my wife Swapna. It was long and three feet across. With a piece of sack cloth hung at either end, we had found it more comfortable thank any of our previous homes.
How living in a pipe does not matter much to him, in fact, he felt confortable living inside.
Swapna
" I lost no time in looking for a suitable place for her confinement. She firmly rejected all my suggestions: the railway station platform (too many residents); a little-used overbridge (she was not a kite to live so high above the ground); a water tank that had fallen down and empty (Did I think that she was a frog?).
Swapna did care about the poverty they are in. She wanted a stable home and she is constently worried about their kids dying.
THEME
Happiness can be found in even the worst situations if you have the right attitude.
DEMONSTRATED...
THEME
He accepts his life as it is, and does not let it affect him (possibly an excessive amount)
"We live very quietly, content to look at the passing scene: a tram burning, a man stabbing another man, a woman dropping her baby in a garbage bin."
Despite his handicap, he finds a way to spin it into a positive situation.
"I don't mind my handicap at all; I need wear only one sandal and thereby save on footwear."
Questions
1) What literary devices did the author use to portray this theme?
2) What is another possible theme of this story?