LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Sample Student Final Exam 2005

Samantha McDonald

8 December 2005

A Matter of Perception:
Different Views of Climate and Environment in Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature

            One of the most important ideas I will take from this course is the need to view texts from a variety of positions rather than being content with a single reading or interpretation.  At the beginning of the course, in fact until well past the midpoint of the course, I firmly believed that the only appropriate way to read these texts was from the viewpoint of the author.  For example, I found it very difficult to condemn Heart of Darkness for its content, as many of my classmates did, because of the British attitudes towards non-white cultures at that time.  While I still believe that an author’s social position, attitudes of the culture of the time, and general knowledge of the subject being discussed in the novel are factors that must be acknowledged when reading texts, they can be put aside and the text studied on its own merit.  When post-post-colonial texts were studied late in the course, it became obvious that no single interpretation could adequately address the points being made in the novels.  As Kristy Pawlak commented in a previous submission to this course, defining postcolonial texts is not simple or straightforward, so the study of these types of texts requires looking at them from a variety of perspectives in order to form a complete and accurate analysis.

            The techniques I have developed in order to study colonial and post-colonial literature from a variety of perspectives will continue to be invaluable in my future studies of literature.  Looking at a variety of texts to determine common elements and study how those elements either evolve over time or from genre to genre is a skill that can be applied to virtually any selection  of texts and relationships between seemingly unrelated topics will simply spawn more creative texts and literary criticism.

One common element in all of the texts studied in the second half of this course is the importance of the environment, including the landscape, climate, and the creatures that live there.  Distinctly different views of the “natural” environment exist in colonial and post-colonial literature.  A Passage to India, Train to Pakistan, Jasmine, and Lucy include direct references to the reaction of the colonized, generally third world, population and the colonizers.  Jasmine and Lucy do not provide as many references as A Passage to India and Train to Pakistan, but the post-post-colonial nature of these novels provides a colonized perspective of the colonizers.  Walcott often uses elements in nature to create the symbolism that is characteristic of his poetry.  Comparing the different perceptions of nature in these novels and some of the Walcott poetry will show that the colonized tend to view their environment as part of themselves that must be accepted and accommodated while the colonizers tend to see that same environment as hostile, sometimes mystical, and something that must be controlled.

            Of these novels, A Passage to India is the only novel that provides both the perspective of the colonized as well as the perspective of the colonizer.  The most striking example of this is the different reactions Dr. Aziz, Mrs. Fielding, and Ms. Quested have to the Marabar Caves.  Aziz believes the caves will be a distinctly Indian adventure for the ladies that will be both interesting and pleasurable.  The most disconcerting aspect of the caves for Mrs. Fielding is the echoes.  But “Professor Godbole had never mentioned an echo [to Mrs. Fielding]; it never impressed him” (163) because of its rather bland sound.  Other echoes could be heard in India that hinted at something secret or specially hidden while the Marabar Caves simply amplified a given sound.  The echo that unnerved Mrs. Fielding is simply a side note for the Indians; they are more interested in the reflective surface of the cave wall than the echo.

While Aziz and the other Indians at the caves delight in the echoes and are fascinated by the optical illusions created by the seemingly polished rock face, Mrs. Fielding becomes disoriented to the point of collapse.  Native Indian culture accepts the mystical elements of their environment, such as the unique sights and sounds of the caves, and sees these unexplainable events as something to be enjoyed as long as they are interesting, much as a child would be fascinated with a new puzzle.  Nothing sinister or evil is seen, just nature.  When Mrs. Fielding is exposed to the same experiences and sensations, the combination of the source of the unusual echoing being unexplained and the overwhelming fascination displayed by the natives is more than Mrs. Fielding’s logically British mind is able to comprehend. 

She tried to regain the entrance tunnel, but an influx of villagers swept her back.  She hit her head.  For an instant, she went mad, hitting and gasping like a fanatic.  For not only did the crush and stench alarm her; there was also a terrifying echo. (162)

She is quickly overwhelmed and that loss of control over the environment around her translates into a fear for her safety.  Ms. Quested experiences the same problem later in the visit to the caves.  Instead of simply removing herself from the situation as Mrs. Fielding did, Ms. Quested lashes out at those she fears and directs her fears at the one person she can name who symbolizes all of those fears, Aziz.

            While A Passage to India supplies both the colonized and colonizer views of the same environment, Train to Pakistan is unique in that it details how a society has adapted to a forced change in their environment, specifically the British introduction of the train.  Just as the position of the sun in the sky once indicated the proper time to perform certain tasks, the villagers in Mano Majra accept the introduction of the train into their environment and use it in their everyday lives, though many of them had little or nothing to do with the daily operations and work directly associated with the train.

Before daybreak, [ . . . ] the driver invariably blows two long blasts of the whistle.  [ . . . ] The mullah at the mosque knows that it is time for the morning prayer.  [ . . .]  The priest at the Sikh temple lies in bed till the mullah has called.  [ . . . ] As the midday express goes by, Mano Majra stops to rest.  [ . . . ]  When the evening passenger from Lahore comes in, everyone gets to work again.  [ . . . ] When the goods train steams in, they say to each other, “There is the goods train.”  It is like saying goodnight.  (4-5)

Just as the rainy season in some parts of the world brings both life and death to a village, the train ultimately brought both life and death to Mano Majra.  Unlike Mrs. Fielding and Ms. Quested in A Passage to India, no one sought to control the passage of the train or alter what was being transported on the train, even after it arrived full of dead bodies.  Instead the villagers found a way to deal with the problems now associated with the arrival of the train, just as they would deal with a drought or famine.

Jasmine and Lucy provide limited insight into the view of the colonized but instead act as a commentary on the environmental attitudes of those who once colonized and how those attitudes change when moving from a Third World country to a First World country.  Jasmine is similar to A Passage to India because Jasmine does describe the river where the women of her village met and worked.  This is a large part of Jasmine’s life while in India.  That river gave her life with its waters and fish.  It was her relaxation to swim in it.  But the river also showed Jasmine two things:  death in the form of a small dog whose “body was rotten, the eyes had been eaten away” and showed her what she never wanted to become (5).  Once Jasmine comes to America, the only reference she makes to the environment around her is to comment on the fireflies and frogs she noticed as was leaving the hotel after killing Half-Face (121).  When living in India, Jasmine lived in a single village the entire time as was customary.  Once in America, Jasmine lived in a variety of locations, each with a different environment.  The stabilizing factor in her life was no longer where she lived, but rather that she retained the freedom to dictate how she lived.  Both A Passage to India and Train to Pakistan represented native populations that did not have the freedom to move from location to location without repercussions.

The differences in climate are the most frequent environmental comments made in Lucy.  The shock of the cold of winter compared to the warm waters of the West Indies.  Lucy found that she

couldn’t blame them for not really remembering each year how unpleasant, how unfriendly winter weather could be.  The trees with their bare, still limbs looked dead, and as if someone had just placed them there and planned to come back and get them later (10)

Comments about winter and missing the warmth of the West Indies are more like a modified memory.  Lucy definitely does not see winter as a reason to return to the West Indies, but her longings for that climate do show that the environment of her homeland left a definite impression on her. 

While comments about the climate are numerous in Lucy, most memorable comment made about the environment is spoken by Louisa, though the same thought occurred to Lucy.  When Mariah “moaned against this vanishing idyll” (72), Louisa asks “Well, what used to be her before this house we are living in was built?” (72).  “All of the members of this organization were well off but they made no connection between their comforts and the decline of the world that lay before them.  [Lucy] could have told them a thing or two about it” (72).  The loss that Lucy has seen in the West Indies was forced upon her culture and they reaped only the most basic benefits from being colonized, at least from Lucy’s perspective.  When Lucy comes to America and sees those that benefit from the modification of their environment bemoaning that very same modification, the sense of disgust with Mariah for her blindness is palatable.  Lucy is also very clear that she does not see Mariah as an exception but rather a prime example of the distorted, First World way of thinking.

            Walcott consistently uses the environment as a basis of the imagery in many of his poems, in many cases to a great extent than any of the novels do.  He intentionally uses animals and descriptions of the landscape that are representative of the untouched, un-colonized environment when describing the strengths of the native people and uses stark images when describing the losses that have experienced by those who were colonized.  “The Season of Phantasmal Peace” uses a variety of birds in various types of flight to symbolize the quiet, unnoticed strength and beauty of the people who have become silent with colonization.  In contrast, “The Gulf” uses industrial images to covey a sense of grim and dirt associated with the modern aspects of First World countries that sicken that environment.

            Why do colonizers colonize the countries they do?  For the most part, colonized countries have a resource, whether it is riches, labor, or land, that the colonizers wish to possess.  For that reason, colonizers tend to see the environment as a possession.  Natives, the colonized, see the land as a part of themselves.  Generations have lived and died on that land, surrounded by all of the creatures and experiencing all of the natural disasters and blessings associated with it.  Rather than being a possession to be controlled and exploited, natives see the environment as something they must exist in harmony with in order to survive.  After the colonizers leave, the colonizers are often left with a devastated environment that they may or may not be able to reclaim.  Since the land is part of who they are and it was taken and ravished, the bitterness and despair heard in postcolonial texts is understandable.  In literature, this particular attitude is very clear when studying colonial and post-colonial texts side-by-side and is even more powerful when post-post-colonial texts are included in this mix.