The story 'Ratnamuni' by K.S.Maniam is my favourite in Llyod Fernando's edition of Malaysian short stories because it carries a lot of emotions and the twist in the plot is definitely unexpected. By far, 'Ratnamuni' is one of the best short story I've read.

These are the themes I found in the story:-

PLIGHT OF INDIANS is analysed based on the negligence of Indians' future , labour work, and education

1. The negligence of Indians' future
The people are going from one darkness to another darkness. The Indian community are abandoned in the rural areas (evidence: they have to cross the forest path to go into the small town). Indians shall be in the low class social status forever. They are treated as slaves in estates and work places.

2. Labour work
Muniandy claims that he has nothing when he was coming here. He works various jobs to earn a living by working as a boat rower. Muniandy also has to push work-cart everyday until he is exhausted. The dilapidated condition drives them to the edge. Ratnam succumbs to violence and abuses his wife to relieve his stress. Ratnam also shouts filth at father because he has not enough income to spend. (more evidence: "Ratnam wants to throw the swinging knife at me", Muniandy)

3. Education
Education is so important to them as it is considered as a way out from the oppression of the low class society. Muniandy wants Ratnam to be different from him, like Ratnam is not him at all(pg 14). Maniam himself affirms that the English education has given him a centre to life. The character Muthiah has proven so after hours of having his nose in a book, he has given himself a comfortable spot in the society by being a 'kerani' at the high tuan's place (evidence: He was reading for reading. I am ashamed). Uneducated people are looked down. When Ratnam was asked to sign his name with a pen, he shook his head and was laughed at. He instead put the mark of his thumb on the paper because he is illiterate.

PRE-INDEPENDENCE CULTURE speaks of the submission of Indian women towards men and practices of religious and Indian customs.

4. Submission of Indian women towards men
Women are the subjects of their husbands. Malini gave obeisance to Muniandy every morning and Muniandy claims that he is happy to see the practice of the Big Country in Malaya. Woman like Malini gave complete loyalty to her husband as she dare not look at other man. In other word, men tend to subjugate their wives. The act of obeisance is to show their loyalty and obedience. Malini took her life because she could not bear the shame of being raped and gave birth to a 'bastard', the child of the rapist, as she feels unworthy of her husband.

5. Practices of religious and Indian customs
(page 10) "I held my left ear with my right hand, my right ear with my left. To cross over the uncrossed. Making steps to God with bending knees", is a way of apologising to their God.
Malini also make yellow rice ball, a traditional Indian food, to all the children. Besides that, fathers are likely to find young brides for their sons (see page 22)


p/s;  Page reference is based on Llyod Fernando, Malaysian Short Stories book.

MALAYSIAN SHORT STORY Pictures in My Mind - Pretam Kaur

This is an analysis on the short story by Pretam Kaur, Pictures in My Mind. This story might be confusing for first time readers as it contains snapshots of memories of a girl named Sunita, which revolves mainly around the relationship with her father. Growing up as a Punjabi, "Pictures in My Mind" offers an insight on the culture and life of a Punjabi family in Malaysia back in the times

THEMES

Nostalgic Memories

Sub themes

-          Dramatic emotions

-          Realities in life

-          Sweet touching moments of narrator’s experience

SETTINGS

·         Place

1.      School

2.      Bridge [where the man hung himself]

3.      Drain [man fell down and died]

4.      Durian orchard [the uncle chased her]

5.      House on the hill

6.      The well [construction of well to get water]

7.      Temple [father sang in front of the crowd]

8.      Grave [the family pays respect to the dead Chinese man]

·         Time

1.      From young times till a while back

·         Community

1.      Multi ethnic cultural community

MAIN EVENTS

a.       Young Sunita’s curiosity to the surroundings

b.      Mischievousness at the durian orchard

c.       Recklessness at bridge

d.      Father singing at temple and short prayers during meals

e.       Death of Chinese man, then Indian man

f.       Death of Ram, her brother

g.      Price haggling of cow between father and butcher

h.      Construction of well to provide water supply for the family

i.        Advancement of technology.

j.        Divided community. Father got stuck to join any groups, so he got stuck in the middle

      CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERISTICS

On Growing Old - John Masefield

This is a personal review for the poem 'On Growing Old' by John Masefield. Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

Be with me, Beauty, for the fire is dying;
My dog and I are old, too old for roving.
Man, whose young passion sets the spindrift flying,
Is soon too lame to march, too cold for loving.
I take the book and gather to the fire,
Turning old yellow leaves; minute by minute
The clock ticks to my heart. A withered wire,
Moves a thin ghost of music in the spinet.
I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander
Your cornland, nor your hill-land, nor your valleys
Ever again, nor share the battle yonder
Where the young knight the broken squadron rallies.
Only stay quiet while my mind remembers
The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers.

Beauty, have pity! for the strong have power,
The rich their wealth, the beautiful their grace,
Summer of man its sunlight and its flower.
Spring-time of man, all April in a face.
Only, as in the jostling in the Strand,
Where the mob thrusts, or loiters, or is loud,
The beggar with the saucer in his hand
Asks only a penny from the passing crowd,
So, from this glittering world with all its fashion,
Its fire, and play of men, its stir, its march,
Let me have wisdom, Beauty, wisdom and passion,
Bread to the soul, rain when the summers parch.
Give me but these, and though the darkness close
Even the night will blossom as the rose.

MEANING OF DIFFICULT WORDS

1.      Roving – adj roaming or wandering

2.      spindrift  — sea spray.  Masefield did three years' training for the Merchant Navy in his teens, and at age sixteen was taken on for a three-month voyage via Cape Horn to Chile on a sailing ship, the Gilcruix. Other than routine transatlantic crossings as a passenger, that was his entire experience of the sea. Yet those experiences impressed him so much, he wrote numerous memorable sea poems — Stanford's selection includes sixteen — and is often thought of as a sea poet. Even when not writing about the sea, nautical terms crop up all over the place in his verse, as here.

3.      spinet  — a small harpsichord having a single keyboard

4.      yonder – adj being in that place or over there; being that or those over there

POETIC/LITERARY DEVICES

1.      Anaphora

·         “My dog and I are old, too old for roving.”[line 2]

·         “Is soon too lame to march, too cold for loving” [line 4]

·         “Turning old yellow leaves; minute by minute”[line 6]

·         “I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander” [line 9]

·         “The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers.” [line 14]

·         “Let me have wisdom, Beauty, wisdom and passion,” [line 25]

2.      Personification

·         Fire is dying

·         Withered wire

·         Thin ghost of music

·         Night will blossom as the rose

3.      Metaphors

·         “Be with me, Beauty, for the fire is dying; My dog and I are old, too old for roving” [line 1 and 2] Masefield is suggesting that the persona is getting older and closer to death. The ‘fire’ represents the life of the persona.

·         “Only stay quiet while my mind remembers The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers” [line 13 and 14] ‘fire’ here is referred to the youthful man and woman while ‘embers’ is referred to the elderly people. Fire is used to prove the strong and powerful young man and woman, igniting with the passion and will to live but ember is slowly dying.

STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS

Line 1 and 2 Be with me, Beauty, for the fire is dying; My dog and I are old, too old for roving.	The persona is asking Beauty to stay with him because he is aware of his decrepit years left and his worn and feeble physical body. We can see that appearances are important to the persona. He also states that he is physically weak and no longer has the strength to wander around.
Line 3 and 4 Man, whose young passion sets the spindrift flying, Is soon too lame to march, too cold for loving.	Masefield here talks about his early years from his experience at the sea. He was taken on for a voyage on a sailing ship and those experiences impressed him so much, he wrote memorable sea poem. He then says that soon he will be too frail to walk. Most elderly people also turn cold and find it hard to love others.
Line 5 to 7 I take the book and gather to the fire, Turning old yellow leaves; minute by minute The clock ticks to my heart	The persona still seeks for knowledge despite his old age or he is looking back to an old book (yellow leaves). Then, he says again about the clock is ticking. The time is moving and it waits for no one. His heart will stop when the time comes.
Line 7 and 8 A withered wire, Moves a thin ghost of music in the spinet.
Line 9 to 14 I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander Your cornland, nor your hill-land, nor your valleys Ever again, nor share the battle yonder Where the young knight the broken squadron rallies. Only stay quiet while my mind remembers The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers	The persona only can yearn for the youthful activities and years for he is incapable of doing so. He no longer can visit the beautiful places or take part in war where the brave soldiers fight. He feels that he can only reminisce about those wonderful blooming years from his dying body.
Line 15 to 18 Beauty, have pity! for the strong have power, The rich their wealth, the beautiful their grace, Summer of man its sunlight and its flower. Spring-time of man, all April in a face.	Again, the persona asks mercy from Beauty. Masefield stresses that everything comes with something. For the strong have power, the rich with their wealth and the beautiful with their grace. He wishes that with his ageing years, beauty will comes and save him from his wrinkled body.
Line 19 to 26 Only, as in the jostling in the Strand, Where the mob thrusts, or loiters, or is loud, The beggar with the saucer in his hand Asks only a penny from the passing crowd, So, from this glittering world with all its fashion, Its fire, and play of men, its stir, its march, Let me have wisdom, Beauty, wisdom and passion, Bread to the soul, rain when the summers parch.	The persona is describing the world he sees now as he grows older. The mob causing ruckus and the beggar asking for money from the crowd. The ‘glittering world with all its fashion’ can be implied as the intimidating world with all kinds of people and action, so different from what he used to thought it is. The persona wishes for wisdom at his age, to see the world with a new eye and beauty again, for appearance is important to him. He hopes to have the wisdom that will be needed to face the crucial and needing world.
Line 27 and 28 Give me but these, and though the darkness close Even the night will blossom as the rose.	He feels that the wisdom, beauty and passion are important to him that even when the darkness close, the rose will still blossom.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

Masefield captures the yearning and desperation of an old man to be young and passionate again. It is a beautiful poem narrated with such strong emotion emitting from the persona. The persona wishes that beauty will stay with him while he is getting older. We can see that outer look of a physical being is important to him as he keeps mentioning ‘beauty’. He hopes that he will remain as he was during his youthful years although he is dying. The persona also says that his decrepit body does not allow him to wander around anymore. His weak physical makes him yearn the youthful activities such as sailing and travelling or even taking part in the war. The sadness and desperation is shown with the anaphora used in a few lines, such as these, ‘I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander’ and ‘My dog and I are old, too old for roving’. He can only stand aside quietly while he remembers those delightful years that had passed from his dying body.

READING MATERIAL

It can be said that each poem may have its own psychological interpretation when dealing with its narrator whether it be from Maslow's, Freud's, or Erikson's perspective. In John Masefield's poem, "On Growing Old," this precept rings especially true. Masefield, throughout his poem, clearly allows the reader to see his narrator's ascendance throughout the tiers of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

A perfect example of one of Maslow's needs can be limned by the reader when Masefield's narrator says, "Be with me, Beauty, for the fire is dying/ My dog and I are old, too old for roving" (1-2). These first two lines clearly point to Maslow's fourth tier, which is his need for esteem. Maslow believes that each individual wants to feel good about himself and, in these two lines, the narrator is asking that his "Beauty" stay with him. He clearly is observant to the fact that he is aging and that, with his age, he is losing his Beauty. Like any person, he is trying to beseech his good looks into staying with him even as he ages. This is a very common human psychological attribute that Maslow believes is innate in all individuals.

Masefield's narrator continues throughout his poem to show how he bounces from one tier to the next in his wizened years. For example, when the narrator says, "I take the book and gather to the fire/ Turning old yellow leaves; minute by minute," he is clearly expressing Maslow's fifth tier need for knowledge (5-6). This is limned by the fact that the narrator is riffing through pages of a book. This act clearly represents the narrator's thirst for knowledge in his old age. The fact that these pages are yellow shows that the book is old and that it may possibly be some sort of encyclopedia or reference book. One might picture an erudite man who is flicking through scholarly journals and lucubrating about concepts of great importance by candlelight if he were to envisage this.

These two lines could also portray Maslow's second tier—the need for safety. In the first line, the narrator expresses, "I take the book and gather to the fire," which could limn to its reader that the narrator is most comfortable with a book in his hands near a fire (5). In line six, the turning of the yellow leaves "minute by minute" could represent that the narrator likes to spend a substantial amount of time in this place of comfort.

Masefield's narrator can be portrayed as having an aesthetic quality when he says, "The clock ticks to my heart; a withered wire/ Moves a thin ghost of music in the spinet" (7-8). Here, Maslow's sixth tier can be limned in line seven when a spinet is mentioned. A spinet is a type of piano, which is a musical instrument and the love of music can portray an aesthetic quality in a person. Since it appears that the narrator has a spinet in his home, he can possibly be described as cultural or aesthetic.

Maslow's sixth tier need for aesthetics can also be limned in this poem when the narrator says to his reader:

I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander

Your cornland nor your hill-land nor your valleys

Ever again, nor share the battle yonder

Where the young knight the broken squadron rallies;

Only stay quiet, while my mind remembers

The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers (9-14).

Here the narrator is expressing metaphorically that he is very old. The fact that he is using metaphors is an aesthetic quality. He says, "I cannot sail your seas, I cannot wander/ Your cornland nor you hill-land nor your valleys," which is his way of saying that his age has taken away his thirst for emprises (9-10). This lack of wanting to embark on emprises can also be limned when the narrator continues to say, "Ever again, nor share the battle yonder/ Where the young knight the broken squadron rallies" (11-12). Finally the narrator says, "Only stay quiet, while my mind remembers/ The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers" (13-14). This metaphor explains how, in the beginning, his life was tantamount to that of a raging fire, but now he is reduced to the beauty that embers imbue. An "ember" is what is seen when a fire dies out, which signifies the end of his life. All of these tropes ascribe an aesthetic quality to the narrator, which is significant to Maslow's sixth tier of needs.

In the final stanza, the reader can picture a transcendence of the narrator when he avers, "Beauty, have pity, for the strong have power/ The rich their wealth, the beautiful their grace" (15-16). It is here wherein the reader can ascribe Maslow's final tier of self-transcendence to the narrator because he has borne witness to other people's potential. The narrator has finally come to realize that this is how life works. There are the strong who have their power, there are the rich who have their wealth, and there are the beautiful people who have their grace.

Also, in the final stanza, the reader can notice the narrator's self-actualization, which is Maslow's seventh tier of needs. This can be portrayed to the reader when the narrator says:

Let me have wisdom, Beauty, wisdom and passion,

Bread to the soul, rain where the summers parch.

Give me but these, and though the darkness close

Even the night will blossom as the rose (25-28).

When the narrator expresses, "Let me have wisdom...wisdom and passion," he has actualized his potential in life (25). The narrator also knows that his life is ending when he states, "Give me but these, and though the darkness close," but it is here wherein he is asking to receive wisdom and passion for the remainder of his life (27). It is also in these last two lines that he explains to the reader that his life can still have meaning when he says, "Even the night will blossom as the rose" (28). Here the "rose" in line twenty-eight signifies the continuation of life whereas "night" signifies the ending of life.

In the end, one can conclude that, in every piece of poetry, some psychological argument can be made. Although whether that argument be the correct one is entirely subjective, a reader can infer whatever he may want because the true meaning of anything is always found somewhere in the psyche of its own reader.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://sciolistgrammar.blogspot.com/2009/05/on-growing-old.html

Aunt Jennifer's Tiger - Adrienne Rich

Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,

Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie

Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.

The tigers in the panel that she made

Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

MEANING OF DIFFICULT WORDS

1.      Prance – to spring from the hind legs; to move by springing, as a horse.

2.      Denizens – a) anything adapted to a new place, condition, etc., as an animal or plant   not indigenous to a place but successfully naturalized.

      b) an inhabitant; resident.

      c) a person who regularly frequents a place

3.      Sleek – smooth or glossy, as hair, an animal / well-fed or well-groomed.

4.      Chivalric - the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, includingcourtesy, 

generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms / gallant warriors or gentlemen

5.      Ivory – the hard white substance, a variety of dentin, composing the main part of the tusks of the elephant, walrus, etc.

6.      Ordeals – any extremely severe or trying test, experience, or trial.

7.      Panel – a distinct portion, section, or division of a wall, wainscot, ceiling, door, shutter, fence, etc., especially of any surface sunk below or raised above the general level or enclosed by a frame or border.

POETIC / LITERARY DEVICES

1.      Form  This poem is a formal, structured lyric.

2.      Structure  It contains three stanzas of four lines each

3.      Language Most of the words are short and simple everyday words. The sentences are simple in structure and all take two lines.

4.      Diction The unusual word ‘denizens’ stands out and it shows how special the tigers are, unlike how Aunt Jennifer feels about herself. The word ‘chivalric’ shows that the tigers are proud and charming. It means they treat women with respect. The repetition of ‘prance’ [parade] is interesting and emphasises the happy, confident life of the tigers.

5.      Full Stops and Commas Full stops are placed regularly at the end of every second line. The poem is controlled, just like its subject, Aunt Jennifer.

6.      Comparison The tigers are compared to knights from the time of chivalry in the middle ages.

7.      Imagery The main images are of Aunt Jennifer as a fearful wife and, secondly, the magnificent tigers she creates in her panel. Images of precious substances run through the poem: ‘topaz’, ‘ivory’ and the gold of ‘wedding band’.

8.      Metaphor The poet compares the yellow stripes of the tigers to a precious stone, topaz.

9.      Contrast [difference] The main contrasts are between nervous Aunt Jennifer and her confident tigers. Another contrast is between the strong yellow and green colours. The words ‘prancing’ and ‘fluttering’ contrast as well.

10.  Mood/Atmosphere Fear is the main atmosphere in Aunt Jennifer’s life of ‘ordeals’ where her fingers tremble and show terror.  An air of freedom and confidence dominates the atmosphere in her artistic creations. The men beneath the tree create an atmosphere of mystery.  The image of Aunt Jennifer’s corpse from the future is a bit eerie or creepy.

11.  Hyperbole [Exaggeration]  The poet exaggerates the weight of her husband’s wedding ring to make a point about how dominating he is. 

12.  Paradox [apparent contradiction]   Here a trembling and ‘mastered’ woman creates free and confident creatures in her artistic endeavours. ‘Fluttering’ fingers produce something that has ‘certainty’.

13.  Tone The tone appears to be positive and cheerful when the poet describes the tigers. See the comment on sibilance below. The tone becomes sad and even creepy at times in describing the life of Aunt Jennifer.

14.  Repetition The word ‘prance’ is repeated to emphasise the pride and freedom of the tigers. ‘Ringed’ echoes ‘wedding band’. There is repetition of various sounds as indicated in the next few bullet points.

15.  Rhyme Every pair of lines rhyme, like the ‘een’ sound in ‘screen’ and ‘green’ at the end of the first two lines. The rhyme pattern for the poem is: aabb ccdd  eeff. This rigid pattern mirrors the rigid life of Aunt Jennifer.

16.  Assonance [similar vowel sound repetition] Note the long ‘i’ sound in ‘find’ the ivory’. This creates a sad or mournful effect.

17.  Consonance [similar consonant sound repetition] Note the repeated ‘n’ sound in the first line and the  ‘f’ sound in the first line of the second stanza.

18.  Alliteration [repetition of consonant sounds at the start of nearby words] e.g ‘p’ in ‘prancing proud’ emphasises the feeling of confidence expressed in the tigers’ movements.

19.  Sibilance [repetition of ‘s’ sound] Note how the five ‘s’ sounds in the first line create a smooth opening, suggesting an air of confidence within the artificial world of the panel.

STANZA BY STANZA ANALYSIS

Stanza 1: The relative, Aunt Jennifer, makes a panel with images of tigers parading proudly across it.  The tigers are free, unlike their maker. Her panel contains animals that are happier and more confident than she is. There is a ‘certainty’ about them that their maker lacks in herself. Aunt Jennifer paints confident, proud tigers. They are assured and confident dwellers, ‘denizens’, of their green world. ‘Denizen’ suggests independent citizen. It would seem that Jennifer is not an independent citizen of her own world. She is instead a wife, weighed down by duties as we learn in the second stanza. Jennifer uses sharp and contrasting colours, sharp yellow against a green background. Her tigers are as bright as topaz, a yellow gem. Her picture contains an image of men under a tree, though the proud tigers show no fear of the men. This is mentioned to show that they differ from Jennifer, who lives in fear of her husband to some extent. The tigers remind the poet of knights, full of courtesy and style. Chivalric men respected their women and acted kindly towards them. Again, this seems to contrast with how ‘Uncle’ behaved towards Aunt Jennifer according to the second stanza.

Stanza 2: The poet describes Aunt Jennifer’s nervous hands struggling to pull the wool with her ivory needle. The word ‘fluttering’ suggests trembling. We get the impression of a frail woman who finds it hard to pull the needle. It is interesting that if her needle is made of ivory it may have come from an elephant’s tusk. Ivory is a bit like topaz, a precious material. As ivory involves the killing of elephants for their valuable tusks, it would seem that Jennifer may not care much for tigers in the wild or know much about their reality. Thus, her artwork is unrealistic. Perhaps the poet feels it is a pointless and empty type of art. The poet humorously suggests that Aunt Jennifer’s fingers find it hard to hold the weight of her wedding ring and then pull the needle at the same time. The wedding band is another reference to a precious substance, probably gold. By mentioning that it is ‘Uncle’s wedding band’, the poet suggests that Uncle owns Jennifer too and that as a female she is the property of her husband. The words ‘massive’ and ‘heavily’ suggest Aunt Jennifer lives a demanding sort of life in which she has to attend to her husband’s needs and fulfill his commands. As a result she is somewhat worn out in her old age.

Stanza 3: The poet predicts that, when Aunt Jennifer dies, her hands will look worn from all her needlework as well as the hard time she has trying to please her husband. Aunt Jennifer is ‘ringed’, trapped in her marriage and controlled like an animal. Her husband is her master. Her artwork will live on after her as a reminder of the dreams she never fulfilled.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION

Adrienne Rich's "Aunt Jennifer Tigers" is a poem that concerns itself mainly with a woman struggling to accept the indignities of her daily life while being insatiably focused on attaining some sense of immortality once that life ends. Aunt Jennifer must find a way to deal with her unhappy and submissive station in life, and she does so by sewing exciting and memorable works of art. Sewing is her escape and in this case she's escaping to a jungle where wild animals rule the land and never show fear. The tigers created by Aunt Jennifer are beasts demanding respect from even their predators. This demand for respect is something that Aunt Jennifer is incapable of doing for herself. In the meantime, she will deal with her problems by escaping from them.

This escape into her art is shown vividly in the opening stanza of the poem where the imagery is vibrant and alive and shows what Aunt Jennifer is capable of doing; it also provides a glimpse into Aunt Jennifer's subconscious in its portrayal of animals who don't allow themselves to be victimized by anyone. The tigers are literally prancing across the screen. The image of something prancing immediately brings to mind a being that is confident and self-assured and happy; all things that Aunt Jennifer is not. The tigers are not just simply tigers, of course. They are "Bright topaz denizens of a world of green" (2). The use of colors implies that Aunt Jennifer's tigers and their land are more vital and enjoy a sense of freedom far greater than she. Yellow connotes the sun and fierce energy, while green reminds one of spring and rebirth. Aunt Jennifer is longing for both energy and rebirth. She cannot find it at home so she goes on journeys into her sewing. The tigers are foreign and that also brings speculation that Aunt Jennifer would like to travel, which is just another form escape. That the tigers sense no fear of the predatory hunters is key. The assumption here is that Aunt Jennifer is afraid of her own predator: her husband. He has hunted her and captured her and keeps her in a cage from which her only escape is her sewing. The tigers, on the other hand, do not live in fear. No, rather they pace about as if they were kings of their domain. They are certain of their place in the world and will allow no one or nothing to interfere. The tigers are to Aunt Jennifer the ultimate creatures of self-actualization. They are exactly what she wishes she could be herself. And in creating them so resplendently, they will live on long after their creator has passed on.

Aunt Jennifer is doing what she can to cope with an unhappy lifestyle and this melancholy is made apparent in the second stanza of the poem, which deals in ambiguous images of rapidity and heaviness to symbolize the need to escape from the stagnancy of her marriage. Aunt Jennifer's fingers are "fluttering through her wool" (5) in the first line of the stanza and this suggests that Aunt Jennifer is trying to sew as fast as her fingers will allow. Complex questions arise from this simple description of Aunt Jennifer sewing. Why does she need to create something so fast? Exactly what is she afraid of that would spur her on so? Perhaps her fear is that she will not live long enough to finish the creation. Perhaps she fears she will be interrupted in the middle of her work. She is trying to do it as fast as she can, but then begin the images of weight, of carrying a burden. The fact that the "ivory needle is hard to pull" (6) insinuates that she's been sewing for a long time. In fact, sewing is probably what she does most of the day when she's not caring for her husband. The marriage to the speaker's Uncle is perhaps Aunt Jennifer's greatest weight. After all, "The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band / Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand" (7-8). This bulk is probably more emotional and mental than physical. It is doubtful that Aunt Jennifer's wedding band itself weighs down her hand so much that she can't sew as fast as she'd like. The weight is probably one in which her marriage didn't turn out as she planned. Perhaps she wanted children and never had any. Certainly no mention is made in the poem of the speaker having cousins. Aunt Jennifer's marriage has most likely turned out to be her biggest disappointment and one that she would probably even like to escape. And for at least a little while escape she does, right into her sewing.

The final stanza argues for the successful grasping of a sense of immortality so eagerly sought by Aunt Jennifer. This final portion of the poem contains imagery that reflects back on the first two stanzas and completes the three-tiered approach to the poem as a consideration of the life-spirit of someone who has not led the life they wanted contrasted with the bid for a satisfactory afterlife. The stanza begins with a look forward to when Aunt Jennifer will no longer be alive and creating her artistic sewing pieces. The first line pointedly shows that Aunt Jennifer had terrified hands which "will lie / Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by" (9-10). The line clearly harkens back to the second stanza and its dealings with the burdens Aunt Jennifer lives under. What could possibly have terrified her hands? And what ordeals was she mastered by? The most obvious answer is made by connecting the ordeals back with the heavy weight of her wedding band spoken of in the second stanza. Aunt Jennifer is more than likely abused-at least emotionally-by her husband. She is quite literally mastered by her husband. Such is the need for escape into her art. The final two lines of the stanza-and the poem-reflect back on the very opening line. The tigers are still in the panel that she made and they continue to prance, "proud and unafraid (12). The tigers that she fought so hard to create despite the overwhelming burden of her life will, indeed, continue to prance forever. By the end of the poem, Aunt Jennifer has fulfilled her need and achieved her own little sense of immortality. Her life was not in vain, she created something out of nothing, something that will live on well after she is dead and buried.

The structure of the play "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" is built upon the give and take of showing a woman's ability to create an everlasting work of art while dealing with the abject humiliation of a living a life that is built on worries and woe. In three small stanzas of just four lines each, the poem craftily builds toward the welcome conclusion that no matter how much life has to dish out to a person and bring a person down, each of us can still achieve some small measure of respect and immortality if we just have the discipline to do what we know we can do well. If a person can find out what it is that he does well, he can achieve it and create for himself something that will last long after he have created it. Aunt Jennifer successfully beat back the load that she was forced to carry and created a small wedge of life everlasting for herself.

READING MATERIAL

Themes

1. Marriage is unequal due to male domination/Inequality

The woman at the centre of the poem, Aunt Jennifer, is a nervous and fearful wife. She lacks inner conviction or ‘certainty’, unlike the tigers she portrays. Aunt Jennifer is ‘mastered’ in her life. She lives a life of inequality. She is so nervous that her fingers ‘flutter’ through the wool she is using in her tapestry or panel. The poet portrays the marriage of Jennifer as an unhappy one for her. Aunt Jennifer feels the burden of duty and obedience. This is shown by the symbol of the wedding ring that she wears. It is described as her husband’s property: ‘Uncle’s wedding band’. It ‘sits heavily’ on her hand because he dominates her life. Her life with her husband is desctibed as a life of ‘ordeals’.  It is shown that Jennifer is terrified in her marriage. Her husband may be fiercer to her than the tigers she produces in her artwork.  The poem therefore provides a negative picture of marriage. The poem is probably saying that the ‘Uncle’ or husband is behaving like a tiger, and the tigers are ‘chivalric’ like the husband should be. Each world is the reverse of what it should be.

2. The world of art is happier than the real world/Dream versus Reality

Aunt Jennifer’s hobby is making designs and pictures from wool. Jennifer produces wool tapestries that she places on panels. The creatures she places there are free and proud, the opposite to herself. She is ‘ringed’ or mastered in marriage and therefore she is not free, but controlled.  It seems that she creates a happier looking world than the one she lives in. She makes precise and brightly coloured pictures like the sharp yellow tigers of the poem, pictured against a green background. These bright contrasting colours are probably much more vivid than Jennifer’s everyday world. Her artistic work will live on after she dies, as, according to the poet, her tigers will ‘go on prancing’. The figures she creates are stronger and happier than she is. They are proud and ‘prance’ about, unlike their creator, who is nervous and fears her husband. The word ‘prance’ or parade contrasts sharply with ‘fluttering’, meaning trembling. The tigers do not fear the men the aunt places under some trees in her tapestry. Therefore, the imaginary tigers produced by Aunt Jennifer live a type of proud and free life that she can only dream about. It is a ‘chivalric’ world, one where gentlemen treat women with great respect. Yet this is also a false world, as real tigers live out a battle for survival of the fittest, where the strongest dominate. Perhaps Aunt Jennifer uses art as an escape from her troubles. In her artwork Jennifer imagines the kind of life she would have liked.

*** 

The tigers display in art the values that Aunt Jennifer must repress or displace in life: strength, assertion, fearlessness, fluidity of motion. And the poem's conclusion celebrates the animal images as a kind of triumph, transcending the limited conditions of their maker's life. Accepting the doctrine of "ars longa, vita brevis," Rich finds in her character's art both persistence and compensation; she sees the creations as immortalizing the hand that made them, despite the contrary force of the oppressive structure of Aunt Jennifer's conventional marriage, as signified by the ring that binds her to her husband. This doctrine is utterly consonant with what was, according to Rich, "a recurrent theme in much poetry I read [in those days]. . . the indestructibility of poetry, the poem as vehicle for personal immortality" (Blood 168). And this more or less explicit connection helps show how deeply implicated Rich herself was in Aunt Jennifer's situation and her achievement, despite the "asbestos gloves" of a distancing formalism that "allowed me to handle materials I couldn't pick up barehanded" (Lies 40-41).

The problem, however, is that the tigers are clearly masculine figures--and not only masculine, but heroic figures of one of the most role-bound of all the substructures of patriarchy: chivalry. Their "chivalric certainty" is a representation by Aunt Jennifer of her own envisioned power, but it is essentially a suturing image, at once stitching up and reasserting the rift between her actual social status an her vision. Aunt’s name, after all, echoes with the sound of Queen Guinevere's; her place in chivalry is clear. Her tigers are only Lancelots, attractive because illicit, but finally seducing her to another submission to the male. So long as power can be envisioned only in terms that are culturally determined as masculine, the revolutionary content of the vision, which was all confined to a highly mediated and symbolic plane in any case, will remain insufficient. Indeed, the fact that assertion against the patriarchy is here imagined only in terms set by the patriarchs may be seen as this poem's version of the tigers' "fearful symmetry." And the "Immortal hand or eye" that framed their symmetry is not Aunt Jennifer's framing her needlework, but patriarchy's, framing Aunt Jennifer.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/adrienne-rich

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/rich/tigers.htm

http://www.skoool.ie/examcentre_sc.asp?id=4734

http://voices.yahoo.com/aunt-jennifers-tigers-analysis-adrienne-richs-752159.html?cat=38

Discuss the role of the uduku in the story ‘RATNAMUNI’ by K. S. Maniam

            The importance of the uduku in the story ‘RATNAMUNI’ is shown at the beginning when the author tells that Muniandy travels to Malaya, brings nothing but only a beggar’s bundle that carries uduku. It proves that the uduku is a very important belonging to Muniandy for he believes that he can survive with only the uduku in his possession. Muniandy says to the man in uniform that the Indian God, Lord Siva only danced to the music and made the world when he belittles him. It is believed that music brings an important value in their lives as the world is created from it. Muniandy also plays the uduku to pass his free time on the boat all night. Furthermore, the author is also trying to imply that the uduku is a reminder to Muniandy that he comes from the Big Land, as his identity in a stranger’s country, a keepsake to honor the Indian tradition in an unknown land.

            Muniandy is a medium. The uduku acts as a connector to the spiritual world. It allows Muniandy to go into trance and connects with the spirit of the uduku when he drummed it. To go into trance, Muniandy will first have to perform a spiritual act like covering his ears and scenting the drum with incense smoke. As a form of respect to the spirit in the special drum, Muniandy then uses the uduku and the spirit’s guidance to help the people to chase away evil spirits from their home. The uduku player soon becomes famous around the town for casting away evils. People start coming to seek for numbers and help to heal diseases from the uduku. The uduku brings out the greediness in certain people to win a fortune by misusing the purpose of the drum. The uduku’s ability to sense evil is proven when the spirit tells Muniandy about the whereabouts of a tar doll with needles is hidden. The dhobi with shoulder pain later was cured when he removed the cursed doll from his home. Muniandy is able to heal the dhobi twice with the healing power of the uduku.

            The uduku is also able to tell the truth and reveal the secrets in the houses they live. The power of the drum shows that Kali (Muniandy’s neighbor) has been raped and the daughter does not belong to Chevudon. The uduku’s tongue also reveals that Govindan’s son had been a thief and steals from people. The revelation of the secrets had made Muniandy earns people’s trust. The uduku is so powerful that men can die slowly from learning what she knows. The knowledge of the drum contains the dark secrets of people around. Muniandy claims that the uduku can take away the soul and break families into pieces. It proves that the spiritual drum is a dangerous thing to be involved with. After his wife’s death, the power of the uduku became so strong that Muniandy himself is unable to withstand it because his spirit is weak and wounded from the impact of Malini’s sudden death. He had to put away the uduku in dhobi’s house.

The uduku also plays as a sort of income for Muniandy. He was paid to perform spiritual and healing acts for other people. Muniandy clearly earns a lot as a medium because he lives in comfort after he married Malini by buying her a new cupboard and clothes, as well as rattan chairs, glass tables, tea sets and a bed of rubber. Besides that, they give out food as a form of charity. He says, ‘we take care of people we can’. He is also able to buy Ratnam a Ja-pan motorcycle. He saves the money to give to his son to achieve his dream, which is to fit in the modern society. His salary as a cart pusher cannot make him a lot of money as well as his previous job as a boat-rower. The uduku helps Muniandy financially by giving him an extra income.

The role of the uduku is proven vital as the story unravels. We learned that Malini’s soul is trapped in the uduku after her suicide when Muniandy confesses to ayah that ‘he must dispossess his heart to rid the uduku’s dispossession by his wife’s spirit’. The climax of the story revolves around the truth behind Malini’s death which was revealed by the uduku’s spirit herself. When Muniandy enters into trance, Malini showed him the true cause for her dying. She took her own life because of the shame she felt, raped by Muthiah and gave birth to his son, Ratnam.  Besides that, the dhobi also claimed that he heard Muniandy’s dead wife’s voice was in the room. The uduku became a host for Malini’s vengeful spirit, waiting for the time to confess to her husband, for Muniandy to gather his strength to touch the uduku again for the right cause. Finally, Muniandy kills Muthiah in revenge for his wife’s death and humiliation. After he was killed, Muniandy tried playing the uduku again. The uduku is very light in his hands, in other words, her spirit has left the drum. No sound comes from the uduku anymore. In the end, the revelation of the cause of Malini’s death leads to Muthiah being killed and Muniandy surrenders himself to the authority.