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A Story of Journey and Search- The Circle of Reason by Amitava Ghosh

His first novel The Circle of Reason about rationality. Socialism , rootlessness,

multiculturalism, post-colonial diaspora and journey both spatial and temporal.

Journey is one of the dominatin themes one finds in !mitav "hosh. #t is just not shiftin

places in eoraphical dislocation but also journey of observation, absorbtion and e$periencin

life , diferent circumstances and learnin from them% shiftin places alon &ith contribution to

a meaninfulness to one's life.

!lu's move%. To Calcutta. The police are chasin for him there also so he aain move

for his life throuh (adurai Coimbatore and finally )erala and boards a ship ta*in him to the

&est ie !l-"ha+ira.

!lu is in a house as a payin uest and he &or*ed as a construction &or*er%one day as

he &as inside the structure, the &hole buildin collapsed &ith !lu cauht inside. He &as rescued

from the debris perfectly fine. hen he &as in the debris, he thouht of fihtin corruption. The

ans&er that struc* him is carbolic acid%&hich alaram used to clean the place aain the police

are after !lu and he runs a&ay to !lerian Sahara.

!lu % e$posed to different e$periences from &hich he athers important lessons. He

understands the real use of rationalism and he is pured of the dross that is in his psyche and

evolves out to be independent and useful #n all this !lu has been travelin% he starts journeyin

&hen the *no&lede da&ns upon him that action alone is not sufficient but it should be

complimented by ood motives also. The story is three parts as Sat&a, the reason Rajas- the

passion and Tamas- the death. eath is a necessary condition to transcend into a hiher level of

bein. %symbolic%. !lu comes to bein his journey. He ets rid of his physical deformities and

his head is clear of all the bumps% confidently marchin home&ards to #ndia.The journey

ta*es him for&ard to proressiveness of both mental and psycholoical realms.

"hosh &eaves ideas, characters and metaphors throuh maic and irony and develops his

fictional motifs. Characters are not far from metaphors/ they become metaphors. The characters

as &ell as different situations of the novel stand for root-less-ness%..

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