Big Match,1983

Yasmine Gooneratne
Yasmine Gooneratne
• Information,images of the event,or Internet downloads are solely for
you to get to know the background.
• Not to create an environment of conflict.
• Memory is strictly for critical evaluation,not for rousing emotions.
• The poem is set in the backgroundof the social unrest of 1983.
• The poem presents a clinical and critical perspective of the violence
and analyzes the political-social factors behind it.
• The poetess brings out powerfully, the strife in civilian life and
fracturing of human relationships.
• To read the poem,it is necessary to reflect on the following:
*The title
* structure—7 stanzas are there
*The ‘nuancing’ of the word “match”
• One meaning is based on a very ordinary and very familiar event in Sri
Lanka-a big match( cricket) played between prestigious schools.
• But the writer nuances the term.She exploits two meanings springing
from the term.
• *match as a game-an encounter between two groups of players.
• * as a stick,topped with sulpher which is used to ignite a fire.
Background to 1983 riots
Themes
• *Violent communal calamity that shattered a multi-racial,multi-
cultural,multi-religious country.
• The lack of humanism andviolation of human rights.
Techniques
• 01. Irony
• Irony plays a major role in and throughout the poem mainly to criticize the
sequence of events and their root causes. Irony is three fold- as verbal,
dramatic and situational. We commonly find situational and verbal irony in
the poem.
•
• Big match
• The title of the poem itself verbal irony as the reader expects the poem to
be about a sports match. In contrary, the poet introduces a huge match
stick which is used to light fire. This word play is called as word pun in
literature.
• 02. Metaphors
• Metaphors are direct comparison of something to something else. For example: to attribute bravery to one,
he can be addressed like: ‘you are a lion.’ At the beginning of the poem we can find two important
metaphors.
• Racial pot (boils over)
• This is comparing the racial conflict to a pot which is boiling and spilling over at the moment of speaking.
Racial pot coming to a boiling point means the gradual development of ethnic crisis between majority of
Sinhala community verses Tamil minority in the country due to various reasons. After a few plunges, in 1983,
the culmination out broke. This is how the newspapers announced the event at that time.
• Sacrificial fire
• We are reminded of ‘Sathi Pooja’, a ritual in ancient India, where the wife walks into the funeral pyre of her
husband sacrificing her life after the departure of her husband. In the poem, it means the communal riots
and its devastating ill-effects on the common masses. According to historical records, the riots out broke
island wide making the whole country itself a sacrificial fire for a nation.
•
• 03. Allusions
• There are some geographical and time allusions found in the poem which means, to understand the poem better, the reader has
to have an idea why the places and years mentioned in the poem are important.
• Time allusions
• There are some years mentioned in the poem: first one is 1983 that is the year which the communal violence out broke. There are
other years like: 1948, 1956 and 1958. Sri Lanka got liberated from British rule in 1945. However, after the liberation most of the
fields in Sri Lankan economy and lucrative jobs were chaired by Tamil minority in the country. This created a spark of hurt to the
majority of the country which created the small matchstick which fanned into the climax in 1983.
• In 1956, as the poem says the ‘treacherous politics of language’ came into the scene. According to Wikipedia, 1956 is the year
when ‘the Sinhala only act’ was established. This political move created Sinhala to be the official language. This deepened the
dispute that was sparked in 1948. As a result of these gradual unrest, the first outburst was plunged in 1958. You can read about
this further here.
•
• Geographical allusions
• There are two places mentioned in the poem that might be puzzling. One is ‘Toronto’ a city in Canada, as history reveals many
people who were affected by riots migrated to Canada and settled there. ‘Oval’ is one of the famous cricket ground in England
which is famous for high scores. It is a paradise for batsmen and they score big runs there.
•
• 04. Imagery
• The poem is like a movie with full of heart touching imagery. It has visual,
kinaesthetic and auditory imagery creating the poem more of a complete
experience of a documentary regarding the communal riots outburst in Sri
Lanka.
• There are visual imagery like ‘smashed bicycle’ and kinaesthetic imagery
like ‘Sri Lanka burns alive’, ‘stout man sweating with fear/falls to his knees…
in a shower of sticks and stones’ as well as auditory imagery like
‘clamouring telephone’, ‘bristle hundred guns.’ With the language rich in
imagery, Gooneratne lets the reader to experience the poem while reading
it.
•
• 05. Symbols
• Symbols are secret messengers of poems, in the poem there some symbols which
indirectly refer to things and people in the society.
•
• Old books
• In the fourth stanza reader can find ‘old books’ which are the symbol of ancient
wisdom and knowledge. There are people and libraries that preserve the ancient
knowledge for future generations. Here, in the poem, the person mentioned in
the poem is ready to sacrifice his life to safeguard his intellectual treasure. The
sad reality is, amid of a communal riot which is heated with hatred, there is only a
narrow space for thoughts for these kind of valuable things. According to
historical records, the largest South Asian library which was in Jaffna was burnt
into ashes by the mobs.
•
• Kakhi uniforms
• Kakhi uniforms symbolize the law and enforcement in the country. ‘Blood
on their kakhi uniform’ is a strong critical statement made about the role of
law during the riots in 1983.
•
• ‘Bo’-Tree
• As mentioned before, Bo-tree is a sacred tree for Buddhists. It had given
the support and shelter to Lord Buddha to attain supreme nibbana. People
consider the tree possesses holy powers which help them to be safe from
unknown spiritual forces. Therefore, the tree is in a way symbolic to the
Buddhist community. Violating Buddhist principles under a symbol of
Buddhism creates a critical statement about the role of religion at that
period of time.