Debbie Sasser

Essay 2

Millennialism in Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature

Colonial and post-colonial literature addresses all the various aspects of life that concern human existence. A novel includes politics, history, human relationships, sociology, science, anthropological concepts, culture, and religion within the context of dialogue and narrative. Ideas that are common to people from all over the world find their way into post-colonial literature. One such idea, millennialism and the idea of apocalypse, have been major themes in the four novels we have read during the last half of the semester. Millennialism and apocalyptic reasoning are concepts that suggest the end of the world is imminent. There are a variety of different beliefs about how the end of the world will come or what the end of the world will mean. The beliefs are contrasted by the idea of dread or hope. Some believe the end of the world will be a good thing, because a new, fresh start will be the result. Others dread the end of the world, because they believe it will be a time of mass destruction and that everything will end. The idea of millennialism also is visible in the experience of normal life destabilizing and then declining catastrophically.

In  the novel Train to Pakistan, life seems to be running normal by the rhythms of the train. The train in this novel can be viewed as a symbol of normalcy. As the book progresses, crime takes place, the town gets stirred up over the death of the banker, there is mass destruction of life, bodies are dumped in the river or burned in the streets, and  yet the train still comes and goes in a fairly familiar pattern—with a few inconsistencies. The train seems to be a symbolic illustration of millennialism and apocalypse, because everything is normal, then trouble is forecasted, people live in dread and fear, and then the end does come eventually. Iqbal is a harbinger of the news that the "end" is coming, but he seems to think it will bring hope and is not something to be dreaded. He asks, "Why don't you want to be free" (Singh, 62)? Soon we see the rhythms of the train change at the same time as the villagers lives are forced to change. When the lambardar tells the people of Mano Majra that they have to leave, Imam Baksh speaks up, "It will take us more than one night to clear out of houses our father and grandfathers took hundreds of years to make" (Singh, 148). For the village of Mano Majra the apocalypse idea has come to fruition, because everyone has had to leave and many lives have been lost in the process. Just like the biblical idea of apocalypse forecasts that there will be an increase in problems in the world and then the end of the world will come, likewise that is what these villagers have experienced. Train to Pakistan is a novel that offers a historical viewpoint through a relevant, interpersonal story. It effectively illustrates the ideas of millennialism and apocalypse that are relevant to a variety of readers throughout the various educational disciplines.

The novels Jasmine and Things Fall Apart, also give more credit to the use of novels for teaching the ideas of millennialism and apocalypse in relevant, meaningful prose that effectively conveys information to a wide spectrum of academic fields. For Jasmine the idea of apocalypse is not the end, but offers a new beginning. Her experience with millennialism begins as a young girl, "Lifetimes ago, under a banyan tree in the village of Hasnapur, an astrologer cupped his ears—his satellite dish to the stars—and foretold my widowhood and exile...Bad times were on their way. I was helpless, doomed" (Mukherjee, 3). For, the village of Umuofia in Things Fall Apart their millennialism is foreshadowed by the arrival of locusts. "And then quite suddenly a shadow fell on the world, and the sun seemed hidden behind a thick cloud...'Locusts are descending,' was joyfully chanted everywhere, and men, women, and children left their work or their play and ran into the open to see the unfamiliar sight" (Achebe, 55). In this context, the locusts serve as an effective symbol of the colonizers descending on the village.

Both Jasmine and the village of Umuofia experience a variety of tragedies that form their unique apocalyptic experiences. In the story, Jasmine left India to  get her own fresh start—her own end of the world happened when her husband was killed tragically. In the book, Jasmine says, "Crying is selfish...The Lord lends us a body, gives us an assignment, and send us down. When we get the job done, the Lord calls us home again for the next assignment" (Mukherjee, 58). Her story illustrates this concept as she seems to experience rebirth herself throughout the story. The apocalyptic outcome is not as positive for the main character, Okonkwo, in Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo goes into exile after the colonizers begin to remake his village. Achebe describes his return years later, "Okonkwo's return to his native land was not as memorable as he had wished. Umuofia did not appear have taken any special notice of the warrior's return. The clan had undergone such profound change during his exile that it was barely recognizable" (182).  Finally, the story ends with Okonkwo committing suicide. His apocalypse came, but there was not any revelation of a fresh, new start for him. "Obierika, who had been gazing steadily at his friend's dangling body, turned suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: 'That man was one of the greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself, and now he will be buried like a dog...'" (Achebe, 208).

The novel, Heart of Darkness, ends in a similarly hopeless way. The "hero" of the story, Kurtz, dies without very little honor and leaves his betrothed to suffer from being unhappy for the rest of her life. When Marlow visits her to tell of Kurtz death, she says, 'I have been very happy—very happy—very proud', she went on. 'Too fortunate. Too happy for a little while. And now I am unhappy for—for life'" (Conrad, 70). Kurtz death is symbolic of the end of the world, because for many people he was place high on a pedestal, and everything revolved around him, but with him gone it would mean the end of life worth living—particularly for his betrothed. Kurtz death was the end of the world for her—her world was made happy knowing she was loved. Sadly, the love she though Kurtz had for her wasn't even true in the deepest sense of the idea of love. Kurtz was not as devoted to her as she was to him, considering he had a lover in Africa, and his final words were not her name.

Millennialism is a powerful force in colonial and post-colonial literature, because it illustrates effectively the experience of the colonizer who comes in to the foreign land and the colonized people who are affected by their presence. In the novel Heart of Darkness Marlow discusses the idea of colonialism, "They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force—nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others...The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much" (Conrad, 4). Marlow's next statement seems to imply that  the only thing that redeems the idea of colonialism is perhaps having a cause that is justifiable—maybe religious, humanitarian, or otherwise "beneficial" to the native people. During this semester, our course discovered a variety of concepts within the stories from the colonial countries of Africa, India, and the Caribbean. Movies, novels, poetry, websites, maps, and discussion effectively revealed issues that I have not studied  through sociology, history, English literature, or religious classes. Millennialism and the idea of the apocalypse are effective illustrations of the use of colonial and post-colonial literature for conveying ideas the transcend between a variety of academic disciplines.   

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Anchor Books. New York, 1959.

Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. Dover Publications, Inc. New York, 1990.

Mukherjee, Bharati. Jasmine. Grove Weidenfeld. New York, 1989.

Singh, Khushwant. Train to Pakistan. Orient Longman Pvt. Ltd. Chennai, India, 1988.