presentation lit
TRANSCRIPT
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 1/16
PRESENTED BY: | NOOR AMIRAH BT MEOR JAMALUDDIN|
NUR JANNAH BT AZIZI|
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 3/16
Mr. Basu has been suffering for a number of years with a multitude of
physical and emotional problems that often plague the asthma,
depression, and failing eyesight. His wife, Otima, is the loving,
understanding, but totally exhausted caregiver. As the story proceeds,
Otima reads aloud from the newspaper that there will be a planned power
outage that night. Basu responds with an asthmatic attack, fearing the hot
night to come with no electric fan to move the air. Otima decides they will
sleep outside, up on the terrace.
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 4/16
Basu is no more comfortable on the roof and the night is
spent in agony. At one point, he remembers bringing his
grandson up to see the collectors pigeons on the
neighbor's rooftops . This memory fills him with emotion.
Remembering the sense of wonder that the boy had is a
wonderful feeling but Basu is also saddened by the
passage of time.
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 5/16
•Still unable to sleep, his discomfort too much, Basu says his grandson's name
over and over to himself, like a prayer or mantra. At daybreak, Otima goes
downstairs to get Basu some iced water and discovers the electricity is back
on. She runs back up to the terrace to help him down so he can sleep in his
own bed for a while. He refuses saying it is cooler up there now and tells her
to leave him alone.
•The story ends with him laying "flat and still, gazing up, his mouth hanging
open" and the pigeons hurtling upwards against the "dome of the sky,
opalescent, sunlit, like small pearls". They turn into crystals, then prisms of
light, then disappear into "the soft, deep blue of the morning."
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 8/16
Refers to those practices, institutions and systems of
classification through which there are inculcated in a
population particular values, beliefs, competencies, routines
of life and habitual forms of conduct. (Bennet, 1998)
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 9/16
The clothing that they always practice
In this story, Otima Basu is wearing sari which is long piece of cloth that is wrapped around the body and worn as the mainpiece of clothing by women in India.
EVIDENCE: “…giving everything that came her way a little
loving polish with the end of her sari for it was something she
loved to do, but she did not stay very long.
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 10/16
The practice of eating fish jhol (Bengali-East Indian food)
In this story it was served for the ill Mr.Basu because
such material production of food is part and parcel of
the Indian community.
EVIDENCE: “.. after that, to make him eat a little rice
and fish jhol, very lightly prepared, just as the doctor
prescribed.
Fish jhol is a traditional Oriya and Bengali spicy fishstew. It is in the form of a very spicy stew that is served
with rice. It is liberally seasoned with turmeric, garlic,
onions, and grated ginger.
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 11/16
In India, the man appears to be the one who holds the most power. Man is
assumed as the powerful where as woman is the symbol weakness. As a
result, the man is dominating the woman. In Indian culture, woman has to
give a dowry to man before her marriage. There was no question of the
dowry in the marriages.So here, we can see that in this story that this system is one of the
highlighted issues among the Indian when Otima Basu read up the
headlines of the newspaper.
Evidence: „Husband and mother -in-law have been arrested on charge of
pouring kerosene on Kantibai‟s clothes and setting her on fire while she
slept. „Yes, that it is how they always do it. Why? Probably the dowry didn’t
satisfy them, they must have hoped to get one more… (Pg.222)
The system of dowry
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 12/16
Significance of the title chosen by the author
In Indian culture, pigeons is considered sacred as it is believed by most religious
groups in India that when a person died, his or her soul is assumed as a form of a
bird especially pigeon.
EVIDENCE: “Pigeons hurtled upwards and spread against the dome of the sky(pg.228)
The story ends with him lying “flat and still, gazing up, his mouth hanging open
followed by pigeons hurtling upwards against the “the dome of the sky, opalescent,
sunlit, like small pearls. They turned at last into crystals, into prism of light, thendisappear into “the soft, deep blue of the morning”
PIGEONS AT DAYBREAK
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 14/16
STEREOTYPES
1) The wife serves for the husband and family
• Reads newspaper for his husband
• One of his worst afflictions, Mr Basu thought, was not to be able to read thenewspaper himself. To have them read to him by his wife.
(Page 220, line 1-3)
2)Responsibility to do the house chores.
• This reminded her to see to the fish before it was overdone. “You don‟t want charred fish for your lunch, do you?” she shouted back when he called.
(Page 220, line 11-14)
3) Take care for the husband.
• All through the night her husband moaned and gasped for air. Toward dawn it was so bad thatshe had to get up and massage his chest.
(Page 227, line 21-25)
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 15/16
SUBALTERN
1) Male(husband) dominated the family organization without appreciating the wife effort.
“What else? What else?” Mr Basu snapped at her.“Nothing else in the papers?”
(Page 221, line 20-21)
2) As a woman(wife), she cannot complain any wrongdoings and burden that she holds
because of man.
When she brought him his afternoon tea, she asked “Had a good sleep?”
“Never slept at all,” he snapped, taking the cup from her hands and spilling some tea. “How
can one sleep if one can’t breathe?” he growled, and she turned away with a little smile at his
stubbornness.
(Page 225, line 5-9)
7/29/2019 Presentation Lit
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 16/16
• “Husband held for murder of his wife.” “See?” she cried excitedly. “Once more. How
often does this happen? “Husband and mother-in-law have been arrested arrested
on charge of pouring kerosene on Kantibai’s clothes and setting her on fire while sheslept. Yes, that is how they always do it. Why? Probably the dowry didn’t satisfy
them, they must have hoped to get more…”
(Page 222, line 23-29 )
16
WOMEN ABUSE
Violence perpetrated whether it is physically, emotionally and sexually assault like
battery,ignorance , and/or other abusive / behavior towards women.
1) Women always being the victim and been oppressed easily.