Analysis of The Courter by Salman Rushdie - Essay Example

Essay, English Literature ic and Modern) Topic: Analysis Paper-The Courter Introduction The issue with an immigrant is to live in harmony with the mainstream society. “The Courter” by Salman Rushdie has the theme of segregation and the difficulties experienced by non-native individuals to discover their real identity. They have to fight constantly to secure the position in the society that is predominantly native dominated. Either the immigrant quietly succumbs to the pressures and procedures related to immigration or rebels against them as they threaten the growth of his personality. Besides the racial and ethnic issues, language is another serious problem as the communication skills is the measuring rod of the personality of an individual. So the unending, struggle for existence goes on, and the life turns controversial that defies settlement for an immigrant. The problem of segregation and communication (language) of the immigrants Philosophically speaking, the world is one family and East and West are the alternative beats of the same heart. But in secular terms taking the ground realities into consideration, the actual position is much different. This short story is about the adventures of an Indian immigrant adolescent whose family settles in London for some time. The break from the home-country is a painful experience, and its severity is all the more, if the individual is sensitive. And if one has settled for good with no chance of returning back, the pain and anguish are all the more. The unassuming title of the story goes to highlight an important issue with the immigrants relating to proper understanding of the language. Finding words and constructing sentences for communication is the major issue with the immigrant. The story is the outcome of a letter received by the author from an old contact of him that explains an anecdote relating to a governess who used to look after him and his brothers and sisters. The old Indian lady is involved in a strange romance with the house porter and with the problems she is having with the English language she says, “courter” instead of “porter”. With this apparently looking small problem of addressing an individual, the author highlights the gigantic, multifarious issues concerning the immigrants. He brings in the theme of adaptation, how people from outside impact the native culture, language, racial segregation and the related stereotypes. Especially the unskilled people (like the old Indian lady) have to put up with such problems in their daily interactions. The stereotypes practicing racial bias generally aim at victimizing the marginalized communities and instill a sense of inferiority complex in them. Nevertheless, in most cases, the victimized parties find a way to deal through the trying circumstances that confront them. This is the case especially with the ESL students who make efforts to fit into the social and cultural environment around them. Majority of them also make intense efforts to look like international students. The thematic issues of identity and adaptability are like alternative beats of the same heart. Most of them try to identify with the mainstream society, challenging the prevailing circumstances. They invent their own methods to fight racial segregation and employ the survival tactics. The tone of the story is humorous but the anguish of the characters is deep and indicates their helplessness and they carry on with life, because it has to carry on. At some stage of the story the governess exclaims, “God knows for what-all we came over to this country". Language and communication problems are the main topics in the story and the consequences of poor vocabulary results in messy situations are highlighted well. Salman Rushdie—tells the immigrant’s story), through practical experiences: Salman Rushdie has intensive experience of the immigrants and that is reflected in the story. He is caught between more than two worlds. He is born in India and moves to England as in the case of the old lady. The plot of the story looks simple but it is evocative. He has undergone unique experiences in his early childhood. He is born in Bombay (now Mumbai), a cosmopolitan city in the state of Maharashtra, India, in a prosperous middle class family. Though born in the Islamic family, he grew up in cosmopolitan ambience. To Rushdie Islam does not impact much, but he is interested in the subject of religion, as it is normally with someone born and brought up in India. The theme of secularism and western culture make strong impact on his impressionable mind at the young age as he is brought up in a secular environment, and the themes of the western culture and immigration originate in his stories like “The Courter” because of his early education at the Cathedral School in Mumbai, which is school run by the management of Anglo-Scottish Educational Society, where students from various nationalities like American and Japanese study. He is impacted by the diverse cultural traditions thus. He is exposed to some of the bitter experiences of the immigrant students at the Rugby, one of the England’s finest boys’ schools where he continues his studies from 1961 to 1964. He is ragged by his peers with unfriendly names like “wog”, “snotnose”, “sniffer” etc. This is his first-hand experience with racial slurs, and the author in him must have nurtured these inner wounds which later transform into imaginative short stories and novels. He attends King’s College at Cambridge from 1964 to 1968 to continue his studies. Thus the real-life experiences become his literary creations that depict the interconnection of eastern and western cultures, transnational identities, cultural hybridization and the problems of the migrants. Three of his four wives belong to the white race and he is habituated to divorce. His fourth wife Padma Lakshmi (married in 2004) also divorced him later. Her personal life is part of his immigrant experiences. “The Courter” and most of his short stories are similar in characterization, theme and symbolism. This is a story totally dedicated to immigrant experience. The unnamed young boy is the protagonist in the story and he undergoes such horrible experiences about immigration and the western environment proves a nightmare for him. His family becomes the laughing stock for their eastern dispositions, use of wrong vocabulary, irregular pronunciation of words etc. They face violent racial attacks. Symbolism in the story—the game of Chess: The game of chess has been introduced in the story, and this is a highly imaginative symbol that reveals the hidden similarities and differences amongst the eastern and western cultures and the author has used it with telling effect. This game requires thinking and skill and each move has far reaching consequences and it can make or mar the winning situation. This game is played in both East and West, which indicates how two cultures join for a common cause and enjoy the common interest. Games and sports activities have always united different nations, and rarely antagonism between the cultures has been caused due to sports related activities. Rushdie wants to prove that just as the game of chess is a long and tiresome process, the cultural hybridization takes time to shape and integrate. Salman Rushdie builds, does not break! In “The Courter”, he does not allow an ending of inner divisions to take place. A feeling of contentment sweeps the emotional world of the characters where the diverse cultures come to interact with each other. Nor do the characters deeply regret about their decision to migrate notwithstanding the prejudices they face. The character, “Mixed-Up”, bear with the attack from the Western society and Rushdie provides the examples of Post-colonialism highlighting discrimination with the eastern people by the West, and their pre-colonial habits seem to die hard. Some attention-demanding points can be listed about the formation of characters by Rushdie, as highlighted in the short story, “The Courter”. a) His upbringing and his receiving education though English medium in India b) His association with different cultural groups at the school level in India. c) He challenges fanaticism in his own religion, Islam, and this brings him world-wide popularity/notoriety. d) He has perfected the art of fictionalizing history in his short stories. “The Courter” is one of them. e) He is ever ready to hit back at his critics and he often makes political statements which is the hall-mark of his post-colonial themes. f) He is not willing to check the thought processes of his political mind in his short stories. World in Transition—Mary and Courter: Mary and Courter are like study-buddies. Though at the moment it is not necessary for Courter to know anything about the Eastern language, customs and traditions, he loves to interact with Mary, and gets the bossy satisfaction. Through this relationship Rushdie develops perpetual contacts between the East and West. Mary is making desperate attempts to adapt culturally to England. But she is not a young immigrant, her age is her drawback, she has not traveled and her Indian roots are strong and remain immersed in deep traditional beliefs. If Mary is compared to the rudderless boat, the Courter does the function of the oar to provide her the direction through the ocean of West. The game of chess is just the symbol. Rushdie tries to establish cross-cultural integration between the two individuals. Mary is seized of the ground realities that she is placed in and is intent upon building a sense of companionship in her foreign home. She is now in a land of inestimable cultural differences, and she does not wish to get lost or create situations leading to misunderstanding. Through the “transformation of chess into a private language”, Mary finds a sense of “adventure,” in adapting to new surroundings (Rushdie, 195). Rushdie uses the chess game within “The Courter,” as a metaphor to depict the constant battle of balance that a character of two sides, or two cultures, must maintain. Courter’s stabbing is the end of the world for Mary. When the master link to her bicultural world is lost, she is unable to negotiate the two cultures anymore. She decides to go home, though the decision is painful. Salman Rushdie and deconstruction: Salman Rushdie has adopted deconstruction as his writing style and true to that he is inventive. He is rebel against the procedures, where it holds up literary style and progress. Instead of following the British novelists, instead of being satisfied with the methodological procedures, he opens up a new pathway of post-colonial literature, and he performs, by blazing a new model for his literary creations. He invents and in the process evolves an affirmation. He reiterates that the West has to come to terms with the East and the East cannot afford to ignore the West. He has made it clear through his writings that the political and ethical are not sidestepped by deconstruction, but are taken note off at every step. Chang-Rae Lee, in his book “A Gesture Life”, raises somewhat similar issues relating to the cultural conflicts, as visualized by Salman Rushdie. Lee’s character is Doc Hata. Hata is a Korean by birth but taken care of by a Japanese family and he is interested in his Japanese identity, due to some circumstances. He lives with two parts of his life-- the life he is living for public scrutiny and the life that remains hidden for his private consumption. He settles down in America, after the War, and faces the three-cornered identity test, Korean, Japanese and then American. He wants to hide one identity at the cost of the other, to rebuild the third and the process is to live through the conflicted identities. This traumatic experience is part of his life. The story depicts how a character makes a valiant effort to move towards a perfect understanding of identity from disjointed existence, constantly making revisions about various facets of the personality. Any non-native American can relate to the theme of living one's life as a mere "gesture" as opposed to living it fully and more meaningfully, as depicted in the life of Hata in the novel. In the novel “American Born Chinese” by Gene Luen Yang graphically describes the difficult assimilation process of a Chinese student in the mainstream American society, in similar manner as articulated by Salman Rushdie. Jin Wang is the only Chinese-American student in his school and as such he faces day to day challenges. He gets some relief when a Taiwanese boy joins his class. Yang throws light on the theme of segregation and the problems involved in the process of assimilation for non-native individuals. The focus of the story is racial struggles and stereotypes associated with the struggle for transformation of their identities. Especially the unskilled Chinese workers residing in America have to put up with racial segregation from the locals. These workers are comparable to the character of the old lady in Rushdie’s “The Courter”. The author elaborates how people try to get into different cultures that they are not acquainted with. Conclusion Salman Rushdie holds the scale of justice and makes the balanced walk in this story through the Eastern and Western world though his characters. He depicts some of the faults of the eastern characters, for which they are not responsible and over which they have no control. He takes the readers through the walk of the boundaries of the East and West and indicates how intermix is feasible. His distinct ethnic background goes to his advantage in the creation of the characters and the character of the protagonist and the old lady prove the point. The one who has turned the pages of history of India and Great Britain, a galaxy of themes are available and Rushdie, the well-read author has made good use of them. He creates a distinct Postmodernist and Post-colonist style of his own and sets a new trend in the literature of this genre. Though modern in his outlook, he knows the virtues of not breaking away from traditions, and his literary creations, including “The Courter”, joins the different traditions of different cultures. Works Cited Lee, Chang-Rae. A Gesture Life. New York: Riverhead Books, 1999. Print Rushdie, Salman. East, West: Stories. New York: Vintage International, 1996. Print. Yang, Gene Luen and Lark Pien. American Born Chinese. New York: First Second, 2006. Print. Read More