Saturday, May 23, 2009

Character analysis of Village by the sea

Here is a brief character analysis of the characters in 'Village by the sea'.

Hari:
1.Protagonist of story
2.Only son of his family
3.Assumes duty of taking care of mother and siblings
Lila:
1.Oldest in the family
2.Assumes duty of taking care of siblings and parents
Bela and Kamal:
1.Helped to pick shellfish as food for family
2.Younger sisters of the family
3.Only members of family who are currently studying
Mother:
1.Fell ill with anaemia(lack of iron)
2.Sick for most of the story
Father:
1.Irresponsible as a father
2.Perpetually drunk
3.Turned over a new leaf towards the end of the story
Ramu:
1.A friend of Hari's
2.Looking forward to new jobs after the factories have been built in Thul.
3.Quit school
Biju
1.A wealthy fisherman
2.First to own a diesel engine boat in Thul
Pinto
1.A dog living with the family
2.Later killed by the drunk Khanekar brothers
3.Devoted to the family, especially Lila
Hira-bai
1.Tried to help the mother by sending the medicine man to cure her
Khanekar brothers
1.Drunk, just like father
2.Wanted to collect debts from the family
The de Silvas
1.Owns a bungalow in Thul
2.Goes to Thul for holidays
3.Helped send mother to hospital
4.Gave jobs to Hari and Lila when they went to Thul
Jagu
1.Owns an eating house in Bombay
2.Lives in a slum
3. Gave Hari food, shelter and a jobs while Hari was at Bombay
Mr Panwallah
1.Repairs watches for living
2.taught Hari how to mend watches
3.A nice person
Mrs Jagu
1.Unhappy when Jagu brought Hari back home as they did not have enough food to go around in the family.
Adarkar
1.Led villagers to protest in Bombay as they were unhappy about the building of the factories
Watchman of factory
1.Hated Thul
2.Shunned the villagers, thinking that they were dumb and uncivilised
Policeman
1.Protected Hari while he was sleeping in the park during his trip to Bombay
Sayyid Ali Sahib
1.Came from Bombay to Thul to look research on the birds in Thul
2.Gave the sisters jobs when the de Silvas returned to Bombay

This is the end of the character analysis.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Book review on Village by the sea

I have recently read a novel for my literature class written by Anita Desai, entitled 'Village by the sea'.
The story is set in India, focusing on the ups and downs of a family in Thul, a fishing village.

Throughout the story, various themes are depicted such as family, the ability of the villagers to adapt to the changing environment, kindness in the city, poverty of the villagers and benefactors.

The main chracter, Hari, decides to run away to Bombay to look for jobs, leaving his sister to look after their two younger siblings, being frustrated by his dysfunctional family, with a mother who is severely ill, and the father being perpetually drunk.

Throughout his journey in Bombay, Hari is lost in the urban city, but gets help from some benefactors, who took care of him, gave him food and shelter and taught him new skills to help him survive when he goes back to Thul.

The book shows the harsh reality of the poorer families, but does not depict the comfort of the wealthier families. Nonetheless, it is a great book and I recommend it to anyone looking for a good read.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Interview with parents

Today, I will interview one of my parents on a book that has changed thier lives or inspired them greatly.
So, below are some of the findings that are translated from chinese, so bear with me if I get it wrong.

Me : So, can you give me a brief introduction on the book?

Mom: It is a book written by the founder of the Buddist Tzu Chi Foundation, Master Cheng Yen,
"Still Thoughts". It is a book listing down a hundred teachings of the Master.

Me : Could you tell me what was so inspiring about this book?

Mom: Some of the teachings in the book are very inspiring, for example, "Anger is taking another's mistake and using it to punish yourself." Now, whenever I get angry, I would think of this phrase and I would calm myself down. Another great example is, " A cup with a chip, when seen from a different angle, is still round." It basically means that people all have flaws, but in order for us to get along, we must learn to accept each others' imperfections.

Me: Ok, thank you for taking some time out of your schedule for this interview. Bye.

Mom: Bye.