B.A. (Hons.

) English Semester-III Paper-VI: Popular Literature

Study Material: Unit 1-5

Core Course Contents

Unit-1 : Literature for Children
Paper-VI : Popular Literature a. Lewis Carroll
b. Sukumar Ray
Study Material : Unit 1-5
Unit-2 : Detective Fiction
Agatha Christie
Unit-3 : Science Fiction
a. Isaac Asimov
b. Ursula le Guin
c. Philip K. Dick
d. Ray Bradbury
e. Jayant Narlikar
Unit-4 : Graphic Fiction
a. Durgabai Vyam and
Subhash Vyam, Bhimyana:
b. B.R. Ambedkar
Unit-5 : Readings
a. Christopher Pawling
b. Felicity Hughes
c. Darko Suvin
d. Izvetan Todorov
01
Through the Looking Glass
i) The Sons of Ramgaroo
ii) Stew Much
31
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
57
Night fall
The Ones who walk away from Omelas
Minority Report
A Sound of Thunder
The Ice Age Cometh
89
Experiences of Untouchability
Waiting for a Visa
105
Popular Fiction: Ideology or Utopia?
Children’s Literature: Theory and Practice
On Teaching SF Critically
The Typology of Detective Fiction

SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING

UNIVERSITY OF DELHI SCHOOL OF OPEN LEARNING
UNIVERSITY OF DELHI
5, Cavalry Lane, Delhi-110007

Department of English
 Paper-VI : Popular Literature
Unit-1 : Literature for Children

Contents
a. Lewis Carroll, ‘Through the Looking Glass’ Kokko Ringkangmai
b. Sukumar Ray Shruti Sareen
i) The Sons of Ramgaroo
ii) Stew Much

Edited by:
Dr. Neeta Gupta

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 Unit-1a
Through the Looking Glass
Lewis Carroll
Kokko Ringkangmai
1. About the Author
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson Caroll, also known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll was born on
January 27, 1832 in Daresbury, England. He was a logician, mathematician, photographer
and an Anglican clergyman besides being an author. He was a man of diverse interests,
known for his famous work Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking
Glass. Lewis Carroll was acutely aware of himself and his stammer, so much so that he
caricatured himself as Dodo in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. His stammer did trouble
him but it never prevented him from using his other skills in life. He could competently sing,
recite and was also well known for storytelling and mimicry. Some of his other works are
“Rhyme? And Reason?”, “A Tangled Tale “, “Sylvie and Bruno”, “The Nursery ‘Alice’”,
‘Sylvie and Bruno Concluded”, and “What the Tortoise said to Achilles”. He had a keen
interest in children and found himself vocally fluent when speaking with them even though
he stammered. This relationship with young people inspired his best known works. His
acquaintance with Alice Liddell the daughter of Henry George Liddell, later on became his
inspiration for the legendary character of Alice in his Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and
its sequel Through the Looking Glass.
2. Introduction
2.1 Children’s literature: Children’s literature are books, magazines, poems and stories
written for children. It can be traced to folklore genres such as fairy tales and songs as a part
of the oral tradition which were delivered to children before written works or publications
existed. Children’s Literature can also be traced as far back as the 16th century in Christopher
Ocland’s “Anglorum Praelia,” long narrative poem written in Latin which talks about the
glories of England’s victories and praises the monarch. The book however, was primarily
meant for instruction and was prescribed in schools. It was John Newbury, also known as the
‘Father of Children’s Literature’, who made Children’s Literature a profitable part of the
literary market. John Newbury emphasized on entertainment and pleasure, introducing
illustrations which later on became an intrinsic factor in Children’s Literature as in Carroll’s
writings too.
Like other genres of literature, Children’s Literature was also influenced by social factors
such as, religion, culture, ideologies, moral of the particular time, education etc. which made
it didactic and moralistic in nature. Taking an example of didactic Children’s Literature we
have, Sarah Fielding’s novel, The Governess; or Little Female Academy; the story of nine
female students who undergo a reformation of character in the novel.
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Children’s Literature flourished mainly in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth
century. Many classic children’s books were written and published during this time thereby
making the era “The Golden Age of Children’s Literature”. This ‘Golden Age’ was pioneered
by books like Tom Brown’s School days by Thomas Hughes, 1875, and Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 1865, that the latter came to be regarded as the first “ English
masterpiece written for Children” with its stress on entertainment and fantasy.
2.2 About the book: It was on the ‘golden afternoon’ when Carroll entertaining the three
young daughters of Henry George Liddell (Lorina, Edith and Alice) created a fictional land
for Alice. It is this imaginative creation that became the foundation for the famous adventures
of Alice down the rabbit hole in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Though published in
1865 and regarded as children’s fiction by many, it continues to enchant readers till today
regardless of their age. In 1871, Lewis Carroll published Through the Looking Glass as a
sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice again enters the world of adventure, this
time by climbing through a mirror into a world inside the mirror. There she finds that just like
in a reflection everything is reversed, including logic and time. The chessmen are alive and
nursery rhymes exist e.g. Tweedledee and Tweedledum and Humpty Dumpty. Through the
Looking Glass also includes Carroll’s famous poems such as “Jabberwocky” and “The
Walrus and the Carpenter”. The poem “Jabberwocky” and “The Hunting of the Snark” are
classified as nonsense literature. Literary nonsense or nonsense literature are called so not
because it has no meaning but rather because it has too many meanings. In nonsense literature
its humour is based on its nonsensical quality and not on its wit or the ‘joke’. Nonsense
literature is not simply putting together of ‘incongruities’ and ‘absurdities’ but it brings a
more harmonious way of life through its inconsistencies. Nonsense literature also allows
children to experience the association between sound and sense, challenge what is conceived
as normal by adults and question established social norms. It frees the concept of childhood
and ignites the children’s imagination to think vibrantly.
Alice Through the Looking Glass might seem like any other ordinary children’s
adventure story in the first read but with a little attention one finds that Carroll has
successfully satirized the Victorian society’s system of education. Carroll is deeply
influenced by the times he lived in. The Victorian culture as represented in the book is in the
form of a satire of the education system where learning is mainly by rote and where emphasis
is given to learning and writing and less importance to application and creativity. Throughout
the story Alice constantly struggles with the application of things learned in school or through
a governess. The inapplicability of things learned resembles Dicken’s Hard Times where
Victorian education has failed the three kids, Louisa, Tom and Sissy Jupe.
As Alice enters the Looking-Glass world she is often met with ideas and knowledge that
oppose her already existing knowledge and she is a little irked at the ideas that contradict her
established knowledge. Alice in the novel is not childlike as compared to the children in
Blake’s Songs of Innocence. Alice is still rigid and has a feeling of superiority like she had in
Wonderland, as Gwyenne (2005) puts it : “Alice falls into Wonderland, uses its resources and
is highly judgemental of the natives. She at only seven considers herself far above them and
considers them insane and disreputable”. In the Looking-Glass world too, Alice considers the
inhabitants of the Looking –Glass world as immature, unreasonable and nonsensical and she
avoids confrontation with them as she doesn’t want to be bothered with further
complications.
The lack of a rigid structure in the novel like the sudden movement of Alice from one
square to another wants refinement. The narrative shift in each encounter is weak, the use of
inversion throughout the text and the ‘nonsense’ elements in the book can also be read as a
critique of the rigid Victorian society.
3. Learning Objectives
This novel will enable you to learn about:
1. The Victorian concept of childhood
2. What is Children’s literature?
3. Satire on the Victorian education system
4. Experience of loneliness
4. Summary and Analysis
4.1.1 Chapter 1 and 2
The novel opens with Alice curled in a corner of the great arm chair drowsily mumbling to
herself watching her pet kitty, as she unravels a ball of string. She picks Kitty up and rebukes
her for being naughty and starts talking to her about the “Looking Glass House”, a fantasy
world on the other side of the mirror where everything is in reverse like when a book is held
up in front of a mirror and the words run backwards. Little Alice holding up Kitty to the
mirror imagines a world inside the mirror and in another moment she is already in the
Looking-Glass room. Inside the Looking-Glass house Alice finds a room similar to her own
but she realizes several strange differences like the pictures on the wall next to the fire seem
to be all alive and the chessmen are alive and walking about two and two. She comes to the
aid of the white queen’s daughter Lily but also realizes that she is invisible to the chess
pieces.
Alice then gets distracted by a book on the table which she finds difficult to read because
of the placement of the words, then an idea strikes her that she should read the book holding
it up in front of a mirror. The book contains the poem “Jabberwocky” which may seem
nonsensical and confusing at first but is a meaningful poem of the battle between good and
evil.
Intrigued by the strange poem which she cannot understand Alice sets off to explore the
rest of the house, spots a beautiful garden which she wants to explore but every time she goes
a few yards into the garden she finds herself straight back at the house. Perplexed she
wonders aloud to the Tiger-lily how to get to the garden and to her astonishment the tiger lily
responds. The flowers in the garden think Alice is a flower that can move and several flowers
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join in the conversation and begin insulting her. Alice comes to learn from the flowers that
the Red Queen is nearby and she is asking for her whereabouts. She sees the Red Queen
approaching and is surprised to find her grown a good deal than when she first saw her. Alice
then walks towards the Red Queen only to realize that every time she moves towards the Red
Queen, she goes further away from her. So, at the advice of Rose, to walk away from the
queen to reach the queen she realizes that she would have to walk in the opposite direction of
wherever she wants to go. Alice meets the Red Queen and they engage in a conversation,
however the Red queen is not impressed with the attitude of Alice and often interrupts to
correct her. As Alice looks over the field, she sees a huge game of chess being played all
around her and she tells the queen that she would like to join the game and she would like to
be a Queen herself. The Red Queen tells Alice that she can stand in as the White Queen’s
pawn since Lily, the daughter of the White Queen, is still too young to play and when she
gets to the eighth square she will be a queen. Later on, Alice never quite makes out how it all
began but she remembers running as fast as she could with the Red Queen hand in hand and
yet still remains at the same place just where they had started running. The Red Queen tells
Alice that they have to run as fast as they can to be at the same place. The queen gives Alice
instructions on how to cross the other squares and reach the last square and with that she
vanishes.
4.1.2 Analysis
Carroll who is known for his passion for Contrast introduces us to the use of Inversion from
the first two chapters of the text. The lonely seven and a half year old protagonist Alice is
often left by herself with no companion so she keeps herself entertained by ‘playing pretend’.
To escape from the lonesome reality, Alice slips into the world of ‘pretend’ where she
pretends to be the adult and would mother her kittens and discipline them like an adult
disciplines her. This vivid imagination of Alice helps her get away from a lonesome reality. It
is in one of these games of pretend that Alice falls into the Looking-Glass world where she
finds a Looking- Glass book with a poem titled “JABBERWOCKY” which can be read only
when held in front of a mirror. The poem contains a lot of portmanteau words such as ‘slithy’
and ‘mimsy’ and ‘chortle,’ Some have even found their way into the English language. The
poem may seem nonsensical at first but a close reading reveals it to be a tale of a hero
returning victorious after having slain the villain, the Jabberwock. The theme of the poem is
victory of good over evil. It is written in the form of a ballad and the rhythm appeals to the
ears.
The theme of inversion starting from the first two chapters runs extensively throughout
the novel. Carroll challenges the perception of reality through the use of inversion in the
looking glass world. The contrast in the reader’s own reality makes the readers question their
already established knowledge of the world and of what is accepted as normal.
Alice in these first two chapters is astounded by the beauty of the garden, she wanders
around speaking to the flowers not knowing that the flowers can talk and is taken aback when
the flowers respond to her questions and think her to be one of the them who can move .
Alice meets all the main characters in these two chapters as Chess pieces and also in their
human form. She joins the game of Chess from Chapter 2 and though new to the Looking-
Glass world she asserts that she wants to be queen and not just a pawn, hinting at some kind
of growth in her character. The game of Chess gives a structure for Alice in the Looking
Glass world. It is an irony that the game that is controlled by logic, calculations, strategy
serves as a backdrop in a world where living backward and inversions are considered normal.
Alice’s goal in the book is the attainment of queenhood and Alice like a strategic chess player
relies on rules and logic but is always confronted by the realities which do not agree to her
idea of reason. The movement of the individuals in the game are equivalent to the movement
of the respective chess pieces. The game of chess also suggests a preordained way of life
where all individuals are guided by an unseen force. like Alice’s destiny to being a queen is
already fated from the beginning of the story.
4.1.3 Check your progress:
a. What differences does Alice find in the Looking-Glass house?
b. What do the flowers think Alice is?
c. How does Alice manage to read the title of the poem “Jabberwocky”?
d. What are the elements of inversion in the two chapters?
4.2.1 Chapter 3 and 4
Inexplicably Alice finds herself on a train (as instructed by the Red Queen), with a goat, a
beetle, and a man dressed in white paper. They all nag Alice a little bit until the train
eventually comes to an abrupt stop and Alice while trying to grab something for support
manages to catch hold of the goat’s beard but the beard melts away and she finds herself
under a tree talking to a chicken sized Gnat who tells her about the interesting insects of the
Looking-Glass world like the ‘Rocking-horse-fly’, ‘The Snap-dragon-fly’, and ‘Bread-and-
butter-fly’. After learning about the names of different kinds of insects of the Looking-Glass
world she sets off again, determined to reach the eighth square and she discovers that she has
forgotten the names of things, even her own name. She comes across a fawn who has also
forgotten the names of things and the two walk on together. When Alice and the fawn emerge
from the forest, they walk through the forest with the fawn’s head lovingly clasped in Alice’s
arms. As memories return to the fawn, he suddenly realizes that Alice is a human child and
runs away in fear of her. Alice also remembers her name and walks on alone until she meets
Tweedledee and Tweedledum and sees the Red King sleeping nearby.
When Alice reaches Tweedledee and Tweedledum’s house she tries to ask them for
directions but they repeatedly ignore her questions and recite a poem instead. Alice hears a
strange noise coming from the woods to which Tweedledum and Tweedledee say it is only
the Red King snoring, and that she exists only as a figment of the Red King’s dream.
Annoyed at the remark, Alice begins to cry but decides to console herself saying that they are
only talking nonsense. A fight spontaneously erupts between the two of them as predicted in
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the nursery rhyme, over a broken rattle and a giant crow flies by and interrupts the fight
sending Tweedledum and Tweedledee running.
4.2.2 Analysis
After taking the two –square jumps allowed to a pawn Alice now starts from the second
square, but as she takes the leap, she finds herself in the train, which takes her to the fourth
square. In these chapters names play a very important role, Alice not only forgets her name in
the forest but she also makes a distinct observation about the character association of names
with the insects. She makes a more logical argument than the Gnat when she talks about how
names are not essential but are only needed as tags to refer to a particular person or thing.
Alice’s reasoning is rather very practical and logical which could have been moulded after
the character of Carroll himself. The issue of identity is also highlighted in these two
chapters; her sadness when she forgets her name. From the beginning of the book Alice’s
identity has been questioned by people in the Looking glass world over and again. The
flowers in the garden call her a flower like themselves but who can move like the red queen,
then she forgets her name in the forest and Tweedledee and Tweedledum question her
existence and tell her that she is not real but just a figment of the Red King’s dream. Apart
from the people questioning her identity Alice also seems to go through a change in her
development as she transitions from childhood to adulthood. Chapter two also introduces to
the readers an interesting poem titled “The Walrus and the Carpenter”. The poem is a
nonsense poem narrated by Tweedledee and Tweedledum to Alice, it is interpreted by many
as walrus to be the caricature of Buddha because of his size and the Carpenter to be of Jesus
Christ because Jesus followed the trade. The innocent oysters are lured from the bed of the
ocean by the Walrus and the Carpenter with a promise of a good time but the carpenter is
only interested in eating them. The poem is a comment on how unsuspecting and innocent
creatures can be beguiled by the crafty ones.
4.2.3 Check your progress:
a. Why does the fawn suddenly run away from Alice?
b. Why do you think Alice wants to be a Queen?
c. What are names according to Alice?
d. How does the question of identity come into play in these chapters?
4.3.1 .Chapter 5 and 6
In the meantime, Alice slips away and encounters the White Queen who tells her that time
moves backward in the Looking- Glass world and as she speaks, the queen plasters her
fingers, then screams in pain and finally pricks her finger on a brooch ( all of which actually
should happen in reverse when a person pricks her fingers) . After explaining to Alice that
she used to perform this impossible thing daily, she suddenly transforms into a Sheep in a
shop and asks a stupefied Alice what she would like to buy. Before Alice can gather her wit
and reply to her question the sheep asks Alice if she knows how to row and before Alice can
reply to the question, they are already on the boat with Alice rowing down a stream. Then the
boat crashes onto a hard surface and sends Alice falling and when she gathers herself up, she
finds herself standing inside the shop.
Alice now half frightened and half astonished, purchases an egg from the sheep, and
finds herself back in the forest where the egg has changed into Humpty Dumpty. Humpty
Dumpty is a proud character, he sits on a wall and criticizes Alice for having a name that has
no meaning. He explains that all names should have a meaning. He is arrogant and boasts to
Alice that he can explain the meanings of words. When Alice hears of this talent of his, she
asks him to explain the words of the poem “Jabberwocky” to her, he defines the words in the
first stanza but then recites a portion of his own poem. Alice’s intelligence is questioned by
Humpty Dumpty and that makes her a little angry. He is mean to Alice and then abruptly bids
her farewell and Alice storms off in anger. As she walks away mumbling to herself, she hears
a loud crash that shakes the forest and she watches the soldiers and the horsemen running to
Humpty Dumpty trying to put back the shattered Humpty Dumpty again just as it is in the
nursery rhyme.
4.3.2 Analysis
In Chapter 5 Alice meets the White Queen again who appears to her as a clumsy, frivolous
woman who has difficulty in cleaning herself up. Alice helps her out and in the meantime the
queen tells her about her ‘living backwards’. According to the White Queen one may have
jam ‘every other day’ but ‘never jam today’, the adults in the novel such as the White Queen
do not behave like adults, Looking Glass world is a bizarre world where things are reversed,
Alice, one of the youngest characters is the most logical character. She is the voice of reason,
the voice closest to the adult readers. For a child reader, the Looking Glass world would
spark its vivid imagination and allow him/her to escape from the adult world.
Although Alice feels offended when the White Queen calls her a ‘little goose’, Humpty
Dumpty continuously insults her for having a stupid name and everything around her seems
unreal and challenges her already established knowledge, Alice tries to amicably get along
with everyone, she does not throw a tantrum or run away like any seven year old kid would,
but rather tries to change the topic and get away with the awkwardness. Indeed Alice seems
to be far ahead of Humpty Dumpty in maturity and White Queen in being collected and
composed. Humpty Dumpty in spite of his mastery over language, its meanings and his
knowledge fails to foresee his own epic fall which Alice is able to anticipate.
4.3.3 Check you progress:
a. What are Tweedledee and Tweedledum Fighting for?
b. How does the duel between Tweedledee and Tweedledum end?
c. Why does Alice cry?
d. What does the author want to convey by challenging Alice’s established
knowledge?
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4.4.1 Chapter 7 and 8
As Alice walks on, she meets the White King who has sent his men to fix Humpty Dumpty
and as they are talking, the King’s messenger Haigha comes and informs the king of the
battle in the town. The battle is between the Unicorn and the Lion, so Alice sets off towards
the town with her new companion to watch the battle. The Lion and the Unicorn then stop
fighting after a while and the king calls for refreshments to be served. The King asks Alice to
cut the cake and serve it but Alice fails to do so because the pieces always fuse together when
cut, then, the Unicorn tells Alice that Looking glass cakes must be served first and sliced
later. Alice distributes the cake again and as they are about to eat the cake a loud noise of
drums begins and the deafening noise interrupts the feast and drives the Unicorn and the Lion
away. After a while when the noise dies, Alice gradually raises her head to see if the
commotion is over, then she finds everyone gone except for the setting of the place and the
plum cake that lay at her feet. Then suddenly, the Red Knight gallops up to her and takes her
as his prisoner. The White Knight then rescues her and promises to take her safely to the last
square to become a queen. As they walk to the destination they talk about all his inventions
and the Knight parts from her singing her a song called “Haddocks Eyes” but Alice
recognizes the song as “I give thee all, I can no more”.
4.4.2 Analysis
In this chapter, Alice meets Hatta and Haigha the two messengers of the White King who she
has already met in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland but she does not recognize them.
Another interesting thing in this Chapter is the emphasis on seeing ‘Nobody’. Through the
White King, Carroll plays with the meaning of ‘Nobody’, he tests the reader’s understanding
of the language. Chapter seven witnesses the epic battle of the lion and the unicorn another
addition from the nursery rhymes. The lion which stands for England and the unicorn for
Scotland are symbols in the Royal coat of arms of United Kingdom. These two magnificent
creatures are seen to be fighting for the crown which belongs to the White King.
In Chapter 8 Alice makes her final move to become the Queen helped by the White
Knight. The White knight at first seem like an evil character, who wants to make Alice his
prisoner, however later it turns out that he only wanted to help Alice cross the last brook. The
Red Knight in the book who fights the White knight stands for evil, in contrast with the
White Knight , he as a Chess piece of the Red Queen who wants to prevent Alice from
reaching her goal. Alice is unaffected by the fight and it amuses her to see the knights
fighting, which signifies the ignorance of a child. Although Alice has been portrayed to have
some maturity in the previous chapters this blissful ignorance here shows that after all, she is
still a little girl though mature sometimes and has childlike curiosity and ignorance at times.
4.4.3 Check your progress:
a. What sent away the Lion and the Unicorn?
b. Were the King’s soldiers and the King’s men able to fix Humpty Dumpty’s
broken head again?
c. Why do you think Alice is unaffected by the fight between the Knights?
4.4.1 Chapter 9, 10, 11 and 12
As she crosses the final brook, Alice finds herself sitting on the bank with the crown on her
head. Alice then finds herself in the company of the Red Queen and the White Queen who
pester her tirelessly criticizing her manners, and how she needs to be examined before
becoming a queen as they fall asleep in her lap. The sound of the party and the crashing of
plates, dishes, guests and candles on the floor create an uproar that distracts Alice so much so
that she does not realize that the two queens have vanished. Alice also discovers that the
castle door has a huge “Queen Alice” written on it, she goes through the door and finds a
huge banquet in her honour. Alice sits and begins but the party somehow devolves into chaos
with the utensils and the two queens shrinking in size and an overwhelmed Alice wakes up
from the dream holding Kitty who she believe is the Red Queen and wonders out aloud if her
adventures were her own dream or the Red King’s dream.
4.4.2 Analysis
In these Chapters, Alice’s desire to be a Queen is mocked, as everything becomes chaotic and
the two queens are hostile to her. However, the feast thrown in her honour can also be seen as
a metaphor for coming of age because in the feast she accidentally realizes that she can take
things under her control by asserting herself. The book ends with a poem which has no title
but is known as “A boat, beneath a sunny sky”. The acrostic in the poem forms the name of
the real Alice i.e. ALICE PLEASANCE LIDDELL. Reality intersects with fantasy in this
reminder of an actual person. It is a sad poem which laments the passing of childhood into
adulthood. The poet here consoles himself that he shall find other eager ears for his audience
but is also acutely aware that time and reality are irrepressible and they shall consume every
childhood like Alice who transitions into adolescence. The last verse of the poem also
imitates the nursery rhyme “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”.
However, it is also possible that Alice’s loneliness might have conjured up this entire
story in her dream. The line between fantasy and reality is blurred and she wakes up confused
like the readers. This loneliness can also be seen as a reflection of the Victorian society where
children are not treated as children but groomed to become adults with no recreation, and no
friends to play with. The little girl is often left to herself and her cats to whom she has
attributed human characters.
In Victorian society while the poorer children are hired for cheap labour and in mining,
factory work, sweeping the street, cloth and hat making, chimney sweeping, farming, textile
mills servants and even prostitution, the children in the richer household, as in the case of
Alice, are often left with a governess or a nanny who would teach them to be proper and
polite. This leaves them with an overwhelming sense of boredom and parents have very little
to do with parenting or communicating with the child.
4.4.3 Check your progress:
a. Who rescues Alice from the Red Knight?
b. Do you think Alice really had the adventure or is it all a dream?
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5. Themes
5.1 Loneliness: Loneliness runs deep through the story of Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Loneliness seems to be lingering whichever way she goes, from the beginning of the story,
Alice has nobody to talk to or play with, except her cats to whom she gives human attributes
so that they could play pretend. As the story progresses and she enters the Looking –Glass
house she looks for friendship and compassion but she is faced by hostility and contempt.
The flowers insult her, the Red Queen is abrasive, the fawn from whom she finds warmth
runs away the moment she realizes that she is a human child, and Humpty Dumpty is proud
and rude to her. She finds no warmth in the company of the people out of the Looking –Glass
and inside the looking glass. The only person who is nice to her also has to leave her when
she reaches the Eighth square. For Alice it was just herself all along the novel, looking for a
little warmth and companionship.
5.2 Identity and Growing Up: Alice Through the Looking Glass though published after a
gap of many years of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, picks up just six months after her
first experience in the dreamland world. This time Alice is more acutely aware of herself and
is more confident of what she wants, instead of simply being a pawn. Once Alice enters the
game of Chess with the goal of becoming a queen she has symbolically started to come of
age, Alice becoming queen can be read as a sign of maturity from childhood. It is apparent
that Alice’s journey through childhood to adulthood has been a lonely process and as much as
she would like to grow up and get out of loneliness, the idea of a more fulfilling adulthood
also is questionable. In this novel Alice is conscious of the importance of her identity, she
becomes sad when she cannot remember her name and who she is. Later on when she gets
out of the forest and remembers it again she is so grateful she decides she should never forget
it again. In the encounter with Humpty Dumpty when he insults her for having a meaningless
name, Alice becomes annoyed though she tries to avoid a confrontation. Looking-Glass
world is laid out much like a Chessboard, the characters in it are certainly different. But Alice
can still define herself, she no longer wonders who she is but instead she seeks to establish
herself in the world in relation to the other characters and therefore she aspires to be the
queen and becomes anxious when her identity is questioned.
5.3 Chess in The Looking-Glass World : Chess plays an important role in the Looking-
Glass world, Alice is a pawn in the beginning of the game. She has little or no power and a
limited perspective of the world around her. In a game of chess there are predetermined rules
that must be followed. Alice finds herself with little control over the trajectory of her life, she
finds that external factors influence the choices that she makes. She realizes that every step
she takes towards her goal occur because of external forces acting upon her. Her life seems
already pre-determined and though she might not want to follow the rules, there is nothing
she can do to stop the external forces acting upon her. Chess in Looking-Glass is not just a
game anymore but becomes a reality in Alice’s life as she comes across hurdles in every
square that is out of her control.
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5.4 Check Your Progress
 Why does Alice aspire to be the queen? Is her desire linked to her quest for
identity?
 What is the relevance of the songs in the novel?
 Do you agree with the view that in the Looking Glass world Alice is the only
character who seems to be mature?
 What is the significance of the chess game in the novel?
6. Character Sketch
6.1 Alice: Alice is a seven and a half year old fictional character, the protagonist of both
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. She is named after Alice
Liddell, the daughter of Henry Liddell, a colleague of Carroll. Alice is born and raised in a
wealthy Victorian family and demonstrates a typical Victorian child bound to be well
mannered and proper. Though only seven and half years old Alice can be seen as kind,
curious and she tries to get along with everyone she encounters even when she does not agree
with their ideas, as one can see in her conversation with Humpty Dumpty where Humpty
Dumpty criticizes her calling her name stupid with no meaning and explaining what his name
means “My name means the shape I am--- and a good and handsome shape it is, too. With a
name like yours you might be with any shape almost”
In reply to this, all that Alice says is “Why did you sit out here all alone?” trying to avoid
an argument. For these reasons, one can say that Alice is a helpful and compassionate child
who is amicable and is also lonely and who seeks the companionship of her cats for
friendship. Alice like any other children of her age has a very imaginative mind as it is also
possible that this whole story could have been all in her head. She is persistent and fearless,
even when she comes across realities and concepts that are in contrast to her already
established knowledge, she does not panic, but is rather calm and curious to explore the new
world.
6.2 Red Queen: The Red Queen is a fictional character in Through the Looking-Glass. She is
the first queen to meet Alice, and also one of the first characters to meet Alice besides the
flowers. The queen comes across as rude, aloof, and too practical towards Alice like a typical
Victorian governess. She is particular about manners as she reminds Alice to curtsy and
marks her territory well as she tells off Alice that all ways belong to her: “I don’t know what
you mean by your way…. All the ways about here belong to me”. She is the antagonist of the
novel because if Alice as the White Queen’s pawn, is the protagonist of the story, it naturally
makes the Red Queen the villain of the novel. The Red Queen also has exceptional powers as
a queen, she can run very fast and can go anywhere as she is the queen.
6.3 White Queen: The White Queen is seen early in the novel looking for her daughter Lily.
She is helped by Alice but does not realize it as she does not recognize her at that time. Alice
does not meet the White queen in human size until the Fifth Square. The White Queen comes
13
off as rather odd as she lives backwards. She screams before she is pricked and bleeds before
pricked. She offers Alice “jam to-morrow and jam yesterday” but never today. The White
Queen also transforms into a sheep as they are talking, and tells her to try and believe six
things difficult to believe before breakfast. Later on, at the end of the text when the Red
Queen is about to checkmate her she runs away but is saved by Alice who “captures” the Red
Queen and ends the game.
6.4 The Red King: The Red King does not take active part in the novel. He is only portrayed
as idle. The first time Alice meets him, he is seen sleeping near Tweedledee and
Tweedledum’s house. His snore is so loud that Alice thinks it must be the sound of “lions or
tigers”. Another reference to the Red King is made when Tweedledee and Tweedledum say
that she is not real and only a part of the Red King’s dream and she will “go out—bang! Like
a candle, when he wakes up.” It is only at this time and at the end that the Red King is
mentioned in the novel.
6.5 The White King: The White King in the novel is supposed to be the most powerful of the
chess pieces. He is also introduced quite early on in the novel. Although Alice is a pawn on
his side, the White King does not interact with Alice much. Later on the White King is seen
in his human size after the fall of Humpty Dumpty, he comes across as a man who takes
things literally, When Alice says “I see nobody on the road “the King thinks ‘nobody’ is a
person and says he wished he had an eyesight as sharp as Alice. Like a typical king, he is
surrounded by his men and his messengers, Hatta and Haigha. The King is a rather interesting
character, he is scared of the Unicorn and the Lion, two powerful characters and is amused
that they are fighting for the crown which is his crown. The King is also a little slow as he
admits himself that he cannot quite keep up with the movements of his wife because like all
chess queens she moves very fast.
6.6 Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Tweedledee and Tweedledum are two characters in an
English rhyme and also in Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Their
names mean a pair of people or things that are undistinguishable from one another. In the
book too, Alice is able to tell them apart only through names written on their shirts. When
Alice meets the twins they don’t respond to her, instead they go on reciting a poem called
“The Walrus and the Carpenter”. They are a comical pair of characters in the novel, silly and
superfluous even in their costume. They would fight silly for a broken rattle, as is written in
the rhyme and forget about it completely when they a see a huge black crow swooping near
them.
6.7 Humpty Dumpty: Humpty Dumpty a fictional character in nursery rhymes which came
alive in Through the Looking-Glass novel. As Alice remarks Humpty Dumpty “is exactly like
an egg” which Humpty Dumpty finds it provoking. Instead, he tells Alice that he is handsome
and she is the weird one who has nothing remarkable of her own but a same face, eyes, nose
and mouth in exactly the same place like everyone else. Humpty Dumpty comes across as
rude and proud, he claims that he knows the meaning of all the words but when asked to
explain the meaning of the poem “Jabberwocky” he begins explaining the first stanza but
14
after that adds his own poem to it. Humpty Dumpty also mocks Alice for having a name Gwynne, E. “The Victorian World and Underworld in Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in
without a meaning and like in the rhyme. As Alice walks away, he fell from the wall and all Wonderland’”. Yahoo! Voices, Jun 5, 2005.
the King’s men and horses went to fix him but could put him back again.
Knoepflmacher, Ulrich C. "The Balancing of Child and Adult: An Approach to Victorian
6.8 The White Knight: This is a character moulded after Carroll himself, he is Fantasies for Children." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 37, no. 4 (1983): 497-530.
compassionate to Alice and helps her cross to the eighth square. The White Knight’s feelings
Price, Paxton. “Victorian Children in Victorian Times and How They Lived.” Victorian
towards Alice have been said to demonstrate the author’s own feelings towards the real Alice
Children. The, December 11, 2012. https://victorianchildren.org/victorian-children-in-
Liddell.
victorian-times/.
7. Conclusion Shires, Linda M. "Fantasy, nonsense, parody, and the status of the real: The example of
Carroll." Victorian Poetry 26, no. 3 (1988): 267-283.
Some of the critics have considered Through the Looking-Glass as a less successful novel as
compared to its predecessor Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. They find the novel less
spontaneous and more rigid although some critics would disagree and praise Through the
Looking-Glass for its progressive approach towards the treatment of women in the novel. In
the novel the main characters are female characters, who are strong and make their own
decisions. Indeed they are also sometimes portrayed to be more powerful than the Kings.
Both the White Queen and the Red Queen do all the work in the game, and they are much
faster as the queen pieces and the Kings find it difficult to catch up with them.
Though the text has always been labelled as “Children literature” it can also be looked at
as a satire on the society’s education system, social conventions and a parody of authority.
The satirical portrayal of the age, social conventions, authority and education just as well
proves that the novel is not just a Children’s literature but also relevant to adult readers as
well.
Through the Looking-Glass is till date enjoyed both by children and adults as well. The
mirror which inspires the Looking-Glass in the story remains displayed in Charlton Kings,
Gloucestershire. Carroll’s appeal is not lost even now and has stood the test of time. Alice’s
adventures in both the books became so popular that it was adapted into many films and stage
productions. Though the book can also be seen as a satire on the Victorian society, Queen
Victoria herself was reputed to love the stories of Alice’s adventures. The story has a fairy
tale element, Carroll himself described Through the Looking-Glass as a fairy tale in the
epigraph of the book. The book can also be grouped as fantasy literature with the likes of
Chronicles of Narnia series, Harry Potter series, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz to name a few.

Bibliography
Carroll, L., 2019. Through The Looking Glass. New Delhi: Fingerprint Classics.
Grimsley, William F. ARMY TRANSFORMATION “A VIEW FROM THE U.S. ARMY
WAR COLLEGE”. Report. Edited by Murray Williamson. Strategic Studies Institute, US
Army War College, 2001. 91-128. Accessed October 6, 2020.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep11936.7.

15 16
 Unit-1(b)
Sukumar Ray
Shruti Sareen
1.1 About the author
Sukumar Ray (1887-1923) was the son of a well-known Bengali writer Upendrakishore Roy
Choudhary who was a writer and was also interested in the technological aspects of printing.
Sukumar Ray also became a famous writer and illustrator, as well as a photographer. While
studying at Presidency College he formed his club which he named the ‘Nonsense Club’ for
which he wrote two plays Jhalapala and Laksmaner Shaktishel both of which give a clear
idea of Ray’s ability to catch the incongruities and the ludicrousness of life and to present the
same with wit and good humoured fun. His book of nonsense-verse, Abol Tabol (Rhymes
without Reason), was published just nine days before he died. The two nonsense poems of
Sukumar Ray that we have in our syllabus are also from Abol Tabol. His father,
Upendrakishore brought out a popular Children’s magazine called Sandesh, and after his
death, Sukumar Ray took over the production of this magazine and remained its editor for
eight years.
Sukumar Ray actually wrote in Bengali. The poems in our syllabus have been translated
from the Bengali by his son, Satyajit Ray. Translating Sukumar’s poetry is difficult because it
is hard to make all the Bengali rhyming words rhyme in translation in English also.
Moreover, his verse employs a lot of nonsense words which cannot be directly translated.
There are other translations available of the same book, Abol Tabol, by Sukanta Chaudhuri
and Sampurna Chattarji.
1.2 Learning Objectives
 To read and interpret the two poems of Sukumar Ray, “The Sons of Ramgaroo” and
“Stew Much”
 To look at the genre of nonsense verse and to see some of the styles Ray employs in
his poetry.
 To be able to identify themes of hybridity and anti-colonialism in his work.
 To be able to link these themes to the colonial times in which Ray was living
1.3 Introduction
1.3.1 Children’s Literature
Until the time of Sukumar Ray, Bengali Children’s Literature was mostly didactic - the
stories always contained a moral. It was about teaching children what is right and wrong,
good and bad. It was not just humourous or funny. It tried to instil good values into children
17
through fables, folk tales, and moral stories and parables. Sukumar Ray changed this by
bringing in an element of fun, just for the sake of fun. His poems are funny, amusing and
fantastical. Fantasy always appeals to the imagination of children and Sukumar Ray used this
element liberally in his poems by creating incongruous creatures, merging different animals
together, or animals and humans and creating new creatures. He did the same with words too
coining unfamiliar, funny and interesting words that would fire up a child’s imagination
because they were multivalent presenting infinite possibilities of meaning. For such reasons
his poems are also known as nonsense verse, because at first it seems that they do not make
any sense. However, we realise that these nonsense poems actually do have a different kind
of sense behind them. Children or the ordinary reader may not understand all the different
meanings of the poems, but educated and discerning readers find that Ray is dealing with
socio-cultural and political themes such as colonialism and hybridity through his nonsense
verse. Thus, there are many different levels at which these poems can be read.
Sukumar Ray was also an illustrator and all his poems were accompanied by little
sketches and illustrations. It was not just because they were meant for children. These
illustrations become integral to our interpretation and understanding of these poems at a
deeper level. We see many texts of popular literature having visual art such as the graphic
novel Bhimayana s also prescribed in our syllabus. Visuals make the text more engaging and
interactive, especially in the new age when the emphasis is on visual and audio (sound)
aspects. Ray’s sketches too are an important part of the poem itself and are not subsidiary to
it. Rather, the poem is meant to be read in relation to these pictures as these pictures give us
an idea of how to interpret the poems.
1.3.2 Nonsense Verse
Sukumar Ray’s work was not unprecedented. He found inspiration in the works of British
writers of nonsense-verse such as Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. Lewis Carroll, the author
of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Edward Lear wrote a lot of nonsense rhymes. One
of Lear’s well known rhymes is ‘The Owl and the Pussy Cat’. He introduced the readers to
the five line limerick with the rhyme scheme as aabba. Though nonsense verse mainly began
as a tradition in England in the 19th century however, England had some examples of
nonsense verse seen in nursery rhymes, the “mad” fool portrayed by Shakespeare in the 16th
century and so on. Similarly, in India too, although the tradition of nonsense came in the 19th
century, some strains of nonsense existed earlier in the form of folktales, mythology,
children’s rhymes, magic tricks and so on.
Nonsense verse is funny, and not at all didactic or moralistic. It uses a lot of elements
from fantasy—make believe and imaginary things which are not realistic. It’s function is
generally only to amuse the reader. However, as we will see, Ray’s poems can be read both
by children as well as by more adult readers at very different levels. On the surface level, his
poems are simply funny poems meant to amuse and entertain. But there is actually a deeper
sense behind the nonsense. In fact, the nonsense verse is mostly used as a camouflage to
expose and criticize the inadequacies and downsides of the world around him.
18
 Sukumar Ray is also known for introducing the “kheyal rawsh” (the spirit of whimsy)
into Indian literature, which was not covered by the earlier nine rasas. Ray explained that
kheyal rawsh acually differs from hasya rasa in certain ways. Kheyal Rawsh can be
translated into English as wish, whims, freak, and fancy. This whimsy can be described as
something playful or humorous, just for fun, something done on an impulse. It is not
necessary to read a lot of meaning or something serious into it.
1.3.3 Main Themes
Sukumar Ray was writing during the time of the British, so his work has strong anti-colonial
themes which are not visible at first. He was actually using the British tradition of nonsense
verse very cleverly against the British themselves. In his work, he satirises the British who
came and imposed their superiority on the Indians and made Indians feel as if they were
inferior, and that they could never become better because their skin was dark. He also
satirises those Bengali babus who followed and slavishly imitated the British. Ray’s poetry,
although having Western influences, also has a strong local Bengali flavour and traces of
Bengali culture.
Sukumar Ray is also very concerned with hybridity. Hybridity means a mixture of many
things. Instead of viewing things as binary opposites in black and white, he actually views
them as a mixture of many things. We will discuss all these themes in greater detail when we
examine the poems in the syllabus.
1.4 To-Do Activities
 Edward Lear’s famous nonsense poem ‘The Owl and the Pussy Cat’ has been
converted into a song. Try to find this song on you-tube and listen to it.
 Google for Sukumar Ray’s Wikipedia page, and see some of the pictures and
illustrations that he has used along with his poems.
1.5 ‘The Sons of Ramgaroo’: Major Concepts
1.5.1 The Portmanteau Words: In the nonsense work of all these writers, Lear, Carroll, and
Sukumar Ray, a lot of animal figures are used. Sukumar Ray combines names of different
animals to produce new, compound words which appear meaningless. These compound
words are known as portmanteau words. Portmanteau is a kind of suitcase, so two different
words are packed and combined in one word known as portmanteau word. For example,
“Hinglish” is a portmanteau word made out of the words Hindi and English.
In our poem “The Sons of Ramgaroo” the title itself contains a portmanteau word –
Ramgaroo which is a combination of Ram + Garoo. Garoo/Garu means cow in Bengali. In
Bengali, the term “Ramgaroo” is used for a serious person who never smiles or laughs. In the
case of the poem, this refers to all Bengalis because this is the way the Bengalis were seen
and perceived, as opposed to the British. The poem in this sense is a socio-political satire.
19
Thus many meanings and interpretations attach themselves to the portmanteau word
“Ramgaroo”.
1.5.2. Hybridity and Anti-colonialism
Hybridity is the theme and content of Sukumar Ray’s funny poems / nonsense verse. We
realise however, that it is not only the content, but also the form of the poem. In this poem the
title itself is hybrid- Ramgaroo—Ram + garoo.
As mentioned earlier Sukumar Ray was living during colonial times, and he was very
concerned about the issue of hybridity. Now what is hybridity? Hybridity is something that is
formed by combining two or more things together. It could be two different castes, or
religions, or races, or two different words. Different elements combine to form a hybrid
compound or mixture which is neither one nor the other. It is a third, new thing, which has
been formed out of the two different things.
When the British came to India, they wanted to create, as Macaulay has written in his
famous Minute on Education, a category of people who were Indian in skin colour and
appearance, but British in mind, thought, taste, language, ways of speaking, actions, and so
on. The British basically taught the Indians to devalue their own culture. Indians could never
be good, because their skins could never become white. Racism is like casteism, it does not
and cannot go no matter what you do. So the British wanted the Indians to feel ashamed of
themselves and to look at the British as a superior power. As for the Indians, they became
colonised. This means to say that they became hybrid. They were not totally Indian nor
totally British anymore but somewhere in between. They became a mixture by trying to
imitate and mimic the British.
The famous theorist Homi Bhabha has called this mimicry or imitation as the “third
space”. It is neither Indian nor British, but is a mixture and is therefore in a third space.
Actually hybridity is that third space, as Homi Bhabha says, which goes beyond these binary
opposites of seeing Indian and British as black and white. It is hybrid. If a British marries an
Indian, a hybrid child will be produced. So Homi Bhabha sees this third space of mimicry /
imitation as very important. At one level, it is a copy, an imitation. It can be slavish. You
completely and totally want to copy the master. However it can also be like parody - making
fun of something. Parrots mimic humans. There is an element of laughter in that. Of course
parrots cannot speak exactly like humans, they can only mimic and imitate. As small
children, we sometimes mimic and copy each other to make fun of each other. Thus,
imitation and mimicry can also carry an element of laughter and subversion in it. Someone
might deliberately, on purpose, mimic the other in order to laugh at them, and also in order to
overthrow their power and authority. This is called subversion. For example, today we are
using the coloniser’s language, English, in order to talk about colonialism itself and to see
what they did to us. So mimicry can be both slavish and subversive.
Now the British made up stereotypical conceptions of what the British were like and
what the Indians were like. They tried to show that the British men are more masculine—they
20
love sports, hunting etc, they are chivalrous—they protect woman, and are polite to them. Their peace of mind
They tried to show that the English man is the best conception of man. On the other hand, forfeiting They sit
they tried to show Indian men as the binary opposite of the British. Bengali men were seen as and keep repeating:
being effeminate who were always reading books and were very serious and never laughed. 'We believe in only
These men were shown as being lazy, full of lust for women, and lacking any kind of self- grieving; Happiness
control. In the poem “The Sons of Ramgaroo”, Sukumar Ray is making fun of those Bengali is fleeting.'
babus who slavishly and unthinkingly imitate the British because they think the British are
truly superior. As they become more and more like the British, they start to look down on They shun the summer
their fellow-Indians and start considering themselves superior to their native countrymen. breeze That whispers
Sukumar Ray is laughing and poking fun at such Bengali babus. through the trees For
fear the stir of leaf and
The poem also mocks and satirises intellectuals who are always serious, with their nose
bur Their funny bones
buried in books, and who never find time or inclination to laugh or smile. These Bengali
should tease.
babus who never laugh or smile are seen as being the sons of Ramgaroo. In Bengal, any
person who never laughs or smiles is called a Ramgaroo.
They keep a
1.5.3. Irony: In this poem, the irony is that we are laughing at people who never laugh wary eye On
themselves. There is also satire working here because the poem makes fun of certain traits / the autumn
characteristics of the Bengali people who are being caricatured. We are laughing at sky
something, which actually in itself is not funny. Ironically, through his own laughter and
For signs of mirth above
nonsense verse, Sukumar Ray is also breaking the perception that Bengali men are overly-
the earth In foaming
serious and never laugh.
cumuli.
THE POEMS
The darkness of
I the night Brings
The Sons of Ramgaroo them no respite
As fireflies
To the sons of
extemporise
Ramgaroo
Their dances of
Laughter is taboo
delight.
A funny tale will make
them wail: “We're not Those of you who
amused, boo — hoo!” are jolly And feel
to woe is folly
They live in
Must not refuse the
constant fear Of
Ramgaroos Their right to
chuckles far and
melancholy.
near
And start and bound at The
every sound That brings a Ramgaroosian
breath of cheer. lair Bereft of sun
and air
21 22
 Is doomed to be a
monastery Of
permanent despair.
1.6 Analysis
Stanza 1 shows that laughter is taboo and moreover a forbidden thing for the Ramgaroos.
Even listening to a funny story makes them wail and cry “boo-Hoo”. This itself is ironical
that even a funny story makes them cry. Even though they are surrounded by funny and
amusing things, they still refuse to be happy. What is commonplace for others is not normal
for these people. Ray is also using exaggeration to caricature them. We see that line 1, 2 and
4 rhyme with each other. “Ramgaroo” “Taboo” and “boo-hoo”. Line 3 does not rhyme with
these lines. However we notice an internal rhyme in line 3. An internal rhyme is two rhyming
words within the same line: “Tale” and “wail”. We will see this same pattern repeated
throughout the poem.
Stanza 2 shows that they are even afraid of chuckles and are really startled and alarmed by
any kind of cheerfulness. Instead of being happy, they are in fact afraid of being cheerful, and
are determined to be sad. Here again, line 1, 2 and 4: “fear”, “near” and “cheer” rhyme with
each other, and the internal rhyme in line 3 is “bound” and “sound”.
Stanza 3 shows that these men do not even have any peace of mind. They just keep sitting
and repeating the words that happiness is temporary, it is fleeting, it comes and goes. Only
grieving is permanent. In fact, they are desperately trying to make grieving permanent by
refusing to be cheerful and happy, no matter what. Here we see that all 4 lines rhyme as the “-
ing” sound is repeated in forfeiting, repeating, grieving and fleeting. Here there is no internal
rhyme in line 3.
Stanza 4 shows that they do not even go out in the summer because of the wind in the trees.
They are afraid that the wind in the trees might make them smile or laugh. Despite the nice
and pleasant weather, they are determined to sit and be sad and gloomy. Ray is constantly
putting before his readers various things that would make a normal person happy.
Juxtaposing this with the Ramgaroo’s sulky mood only serves to highlight the absurdity of
their behaviour. Lines 1,2 and 4- “breeze”, “trees” and “tease rhyme with each other and the
internal rhyme in line 3 is “stir” and “bur”. A bur is a rough, prickly case with thorns around
the seeds or dry fruits of certain plants, like chestnut.
Stanza 5 shows that even in the autumn season, they keep a strict watch on the sky in case
the pattern of the clouds may make them smile or laugh. Again, even in pleasant and happy
weather, they are determined to be sad. ‘Cumuli’ are a certain type of clouds that look like
white or grey foam and can take different shapes depending on the air currents. In each stanza
Ray is giving us the possibilities that would make any normal person happy. But for the
Ramgaroos these possibilities are avoided or subverted to serve their purpose of being
melancholy. Lines 1,2 and 4 rhyme with “eye”, “sky” and “cumuli”, and the internal rhyme
in line 3 is “mirth” and “earth”.
23
Stanza 6 shows that in the night too, they are determined not to smile, even when they see
the fireflies dancing. Dancing fireflies delight us all, and yet these Ramgaroos still run away
from happiness. The reference to fireflies serves another purpose of locating the poem in a
physical landscape where they exist. “Night”, “respite” and “delight” rhyme with each other
in lines 1,2 and 4, and the internal rhyme in line 3 here is “fireflies” and extemporise”.
Stanza 7 says that those people who like to be jolly, laugh and smile, and who think it is
stupid to be sad, must not refuse the Ramgaroos their right to being sad. Whether others like
to be sad or not, they must let the Ramgaroos be sad as they want to be sad. In an oblique
manner Ray has brought in the question of rights. The right to melancholy may be a
ridiculous demand but it is pointing to the fact that in colonial times Indians were denied their
rights by the colonizers. Try and point out the rhymes and internal rhymes in this stanza.
Stanza 8 Here Sukumar Ray refers to the “lair” or the abode of the Ramgaroos as a
monastery where there is no sun or air, but only permanent despair. Monasteries are religious
places where monks (rishis, sadhus etc) stay. Sukumar Ray sees these places as having no joy
or pleasure as religious men are always serious, engaged in worship, meditation and so on.
You may have heard that monks in monasteries do not even stay with their families. They
never marry all their lives, and have no children. But unlike the monks in a monastery who
live a life of abstinence and meditation in order to connect spiritually with the supreme being,
the Ramgaroo’s only purpose in life is to aim for ‘permanent despair.’ The idea of a spiritual
intent is thus undermined. In this stanza, lines 1, 2, and 4 rhyme with each other. However,
there is no internal rhyme in line 3.
In the illustration that accompanies this poem the Ramgaroo seems to be a hybrid
between a man and some kind of animal. He has long ears and a tail, but facial expressions
are human and he definitely has a very cross, grumpy and morose look on his face. However
the clouds in the sky seem quite pleasant, and the trees surrounding him actually have smiley
faces drawn on them. There is no impact of his happy and pleasant surroundings on
Ramgaroo. The trees and clouds are made by lighter ink strokes, the Ramgaroo with darker
marks.. In the middle of the picture, there is a sign in Bengali near Ramgaroo’s cave. It says
“Laughter Not Allowed”. This shows us that Ramgaroo is a literate creature who knows how
to read and write. The sign is in Bengali which also places Ramgaroo as a creature of the
Bengali countryside, someone you may actually find in Bengal, not just an imaginary,
fantastical creature. Thus, although Sukumar Ray takes the nonsense verse form from the
British themselves like Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll (the poem itself becomes an act of
mimicry and imitation), he situates it and locates its roots within the actual Bengali
surroundings, not in some imaginary place. This is something which only the picture tells us.
The poem itself, does not have the sign in Bengali, and cannot actually show how the
Ramgaroo is seen as a fantastical and yet an ordinary being inhabiting the Bengali
countryside. The visual depiction of clouds and trees also shows us how these are actually
happy and cheerful and only the Ramgaroo is gloomy.
24
 The nice contented cow will doubtless get a
frightful shock On finding that its lower limbs
belong to a fighting cock.
It's obvious the Whalephant is not a happy notion :
The head goes for the jungle, while the tail turns to
the ocean, The lion's lack of horns distressed him
greatly, so
He teamed up with a dear - now watch his antlers grow !

1.8 Analysis
Sukumar Ray uses a lot of animals in his poems, just like Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll. In
this poem, he has created nonsense portmanteau words by joining the names of two animals
1.7 Self - Check exercises and forming one word out of them.

 What is the meaning of Ramgaroo and why do the sons of Ramgaroo never laugh? If we look at the form of the poem, we see that it is written in rhyming couplets. The first
 Who are the people actually being satirised or mocked at in this poem? and the second line rhyme together, the third with the fourth and so on. Thus, two lines form
 We talked about Sukumar Ray’s concern with hybridity. How does this poem address a couplet, and the poem consists of a series of rhyming couplets. Such a verse has an
issues of hybridity? immediate appeal to children.
 What is the rhyme and rhythm of the poem? How does it help to make it a funny Again, like the previous poem, this poem can be read by children at the surface level like
poem or nonsense verse? a nonsense, amusing verse, showing the tenth rasa, the kheyal rawsh (the whimsy). It is
 What is the relation between the picture accompanying the poem and the poem itself? whimsical, it is fantastical and the incongruous images and the portmanteau words would set
 How did the genre of nonsense verse start in India? any child’s imagination racing. However, at a deeper level Ray’s concern with hybridity can
be seen in this poem as well.
II
Stew Much
A duck once met a porcupine ; they formed a
corporation Which called itself a Porcuduck ( a
beastly conjugation ! ). A stork to a turtle said,
'Let's put my head upon your torso ; We who are so
pretty now, as Stortle would be more so !' The
lizard with the parrot's head thought : taking to the
chilli After years of eating worms is absolutely
silly.
A prancing goat - one wonders why - was driven
by a need To bequeath its upper portion to a
crawling centipede.
Now above we can see the figures of the a) porcuduck (couplet 1), b) goat and centipede
The giraffe with grasshopper's limbs reflected : Why
(couplet 4), c) giraffe and grasshopper (couplet 5), and d) cow and cock (couplet 6). One
should I Go for walks in grassy fields, now that I can
important thing to observe is that the drawings are very integral to the poem, they are not just
fly ?
25 26
a secondary accompaniment for the benefit of young readers. They are important because
they tell us in exactly what way the two creatures are combined to form a hybrid. This is
something that the poem itself does not tell us. They are not combined equally. For example,
if a giraffe was given a grasshopper’s wings, he would not be able to fly even though he
expresses a wish to do so. However, the creature in figure-c seems very well able to fly. This
is because the grasshopper’s wings’ size has been increased, and the giraffe’s head size has
been decreased to fit the new creature properly. Similarly, if we look at figure d, we realise
that a big cow has not been joined with a small cock. The size of the cock has been increased,
and the size of the cow has been proportionately decreased, in order to create a new creature
who is capable of talking, walking, running / flying etc. Similarly in figure b) we see with the
goat and the centipede that the centipede’s size has been greatly increased and the size of the
goat has been proportionately decreased to fit the new creature. And finally we come to
figure a) where the small prickly spikes of the porcupine have definitely been increased in
size so as to fit the duck. So the pictures tell us something which the poem does not---- the
fact that all the animals are not combined equally. Similarly, the British and Indians are not
combined EQUALLY even in hybrid human beings. This is a very important thing which we
get to know from the pictures and we can see how they serve to enhance the meaning of the
poem.
The fact that the mixed creature may have more of one animal than the other is meant to
show that some of the hybrid people in society may be more Indian and less British, others
may be more British and less Indian. As we saw, the previous poem “The Sons of Ramgaroo’
was written for those Indians who are increasingly becoming more and more like the British.
Similarly, some of the British also became Indianized. It was not just a one-way culture
transfer. Even today we see so many words from Indian languages like Hindi which have
now become a part of English. We see a British writer like Ruskin Bond who became so
Indianized that he never wanted to leave India. Ray is laughing at the British because the
British never expected this to happen. The British definitely wanted to colonise India, but
they never expected that they would also become Indianized in the process. And telling the
British that they also became hybrid creatures, is something which hurt and wounded the
British pride a lot. Thus the poem is a satire, which is meant to laugh at, and mock, both the
hybrid British as well as the Indians.
We need to look at the last two couplets a little more in detail. The Whalephant has its
head towards the forest and its tail towards the ocean. The tropical forest represents India,
and the ocean represents the British island. So these are what the hybrid creatures are like—a
part of them longing for India and a part for Britain. However, even here the two are not
combined in equal ways. For example, the Whalephant has the head of an elephant so the
elephant-head can say what it desires—the forest. The whale-tail cannot speak and thus the
elephant is dominating here. In the last couplet, we find a lion teaming up with a deer’s
antlers. Now, this should strike us as very funny because a lion and a deer are predator and
prey, they would never team up with each other! This also shows how the British and the
Indians, predator and prey, are teaming up together.
27
The rest of the couplets are relatively simple and perhaps do not need much explanation.
But we can see that the two animals combined are not equal in every case, the size is either
reduced or increased in order to make it proportionate to the new creature. Also, the one who
has the head always has the power of expression, so the power is not divided equally between
them. And this refers to the hybrid Indians and the Englishmen who were both influenced by
each other, as explained above.
Sukumar Ray has used these same creatures- stortle, whalephant, giraffe and
grasshopper, cock and cow etc in many poems. Another famous poem using these same
mixed up creatures is “Khichuri”, translated as “Hotch Potch”. It is easy to understand why
this poem in the syllabus is entitled “Stew Much”. A stew is a dish to be eaten which is made
up of multiple ingredients. Similarly the poem is a complete mixture of things. Same is the
case with Khichuri (Hotch Potch). As we have seen, many of Sukumar Ray’s poems can be
read as nonsense verse, but actually they have deeper meanings behind them, making a
comment on the colonial condition. However, many of his poems are also simple nonsense
poems, simply to be enjoyed, without any hidden interpretations behind them.
1.9 Self-Check Exercises
 Why is the poem called “Stew Much”?
 Are the animals combined in equal proportions or unequal? Why?
 How does the poem make a larger commentary on the colonial situation?
 What are the whalephant and the lion-deer in the last two couplets very strange
combinations? What do they show?
 What is the importance of the illustrations / drawings with the poem?
1.10 Summing Up
At the surface level, the two poems seem like funny children’s poems. Children would love
to laugh at such adults who cannot see the fun in life as in “Ramgaroo” where Ray uses a lot
of exaggeration to drive home the point . The exaggeration also makes us laugh. The poem
mocks and laughs at those who never laugh themselves thus becoming a funny, and a
nonsense poem for children. Similarly “Stew Much” with its world of fantastical creatures
resulting from the weird combinations of different animals and insects along with their highly
imaginative names such as ‘Porcuduck’ or ‘Stortle’ would immediately appeal to the
creativity of children. The rhyme and rhythm of both poems is simple and very similar to
nursery rhymes thus children would find them easy to recite and sing along. As nonsense
verse both poems have an enduring appeal for children.
From the perspective of the adult readers however, we have seen that there is an infinite
amount of sense in this nonsense. Sukumar Ray is using it as means to critique and satirize
the Bengali babus who have lost their individuality and slavishly imitate the British thus
becoming hybrids. The satire and the criticism is levelled at both the British and Indians
alike. Stereotypes of both are subverted. While using the concept of Children’s Literature,
28
Ray has been able to present a humorous critique of his society as it was in colonial times.
The socio-cultural and political theme thus makes a case for a serious reading of his nonsense
verse.

1.11 Bibliography
Banerjee, Ishita. ‘Hybridism, Humour and Alternative Possibility: Negotiating Identity in
Sukumar Ray’s Literary Nonsense’, Postcolonial Interventions Vol III Issue 2
Bhadury, Poushali. ‘Fantastic Beasts and How To Sketch Them: The Fabulous Bestiary of
Sukumar Ray’, Research Gate (Also University of Florida Digital Collections, and Taylor &
Francis)
Chakraborty, Rima. ‘Finding Sense Behind Nonsense in Select Poems of Sukumar Ray’,
Journal of the Department of English, Vidyasagar University Vol 12 (2014-15)

29 30
 Paper-VI : Popular Literature
Unit-2 : Detective Fiction
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Contents
Part 1
1. Introduction
2. Learning Objectives
3. Study Guide
Part 2
4. Characters in the Novel
5. Themes
6. The Detective Fiction Genre
7. Critical Analysis
Questions

Edited by: Written by:

Dr. Seema Suri Renu Koyu

31 32
 Detective Fiction Unit-2
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) by Agatha Christie
Renu Koyu
Part 1
1. Introduction
Agatha Christie was a prolific writer who wrote sixty-six novels, three non-fiction works,
fourteen collections of short stories and nineteen plays in her lifetime. She is the world’s
bestselling author of all times. Additionally, her play The Mouse Trap (1952) is the longest
running play in theatre history. Her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple are
two of the most popular and beloved in the detective fiction genre. She also wrote six
romance novels under the alias Mary Westmacott. Her first book The Mysterious Affair at
Styles (1920) introduced the dandy and eccentric Hercule Poirot to the world. The accuracy
of her knowledge of poisons was so profound that the Pharmaceutical Journal reviewed the
novel.
It was the success of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, published in 1926, that cemented
her reputation as one of the best detective fiction writers of all time. She is deservedly called
the Queen of Crime. Her work has been adapted and readapted for the radio, the stage and
television-both during and after her lifetime. She lived an eventful life writing mysteries,
travelling, having a mysterious disappearance of her own and working on archaeological sites
in the Middle East with her husband. Her official website www.agathachristie.com describes
her as writer, traveller, playwright, wife, mother, and surfer.
2. Learning Objectives
After going through this study material, the student will:
- become familiar with the detective fiction genre;
- appreciate the unique plot of the novel;
- gain a nuanced understanding of the characters in the novel;
- gain insight into the important themes of the novel; and
- get acquainted with the usual tropes of detective fiction.
3. Study Guide: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
This is the second book in Christie’s Hercule Poirot series. It was published in 1926 and
immediately gained popularity and notoriety with readers and critics alike for its unlikely plot
twist. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is Christie’s first book to be adapted for the stage in
1928. It was renamed Alibi and directed by the playwright Michael Morton. In 2013, the
British Crime Writers' Association voted it the best crime novel ever written.
Summary
Ch.1: Dr. Sheppard at the Breakfast Table
The story begins on a Friday morning, when the narrator Dr James Sheppard (Sheppard from
here on) tells us that Mrs Ferrars has committed suicide by overdosing on veronal, a sleeping
33
draught. Sheppard’s older sister Caroline is already aware of the news when he comes back
home. Caroline had always maintained, without any foundation for it, that Mrs Ferrars had
poisoned her husband, who died a year ago; refusing to believe Dr Sheppard’s diagnosis of
acute gastritis. She theorises that Mrs Ferrars probably committed suicide because she was
overcome with remorse after killing her husband. Sheppard suggests that a woman who can
kill her husband in cold blood probably isn’t capable of remorse. Caroline promptly replies
Mrs Ferrars wasn’t that kind and presumes that she probably killed her husband, Ashley
Ferrars because she simply couldn’t endure suffering and unpleasantness of any kind. And
since then she had been living with the guilt of the act. When Sheppard protests her
presumptions, Caroline shuts him up by saying that she is sure there is a letter somewhere
that confesses to the whole thing.
Ch. 2: Who’s Who in King’s Abbot
Sheppard acquaints the readers with the village of King’s Abbot before he proceeds with the
story. King’s Abbot is reportedly rich in unmarried ladies and retired military officers and
gossip is the only hobby and recreation for its inhabitants. There are two houses of
importance in the village; King’s Paddock, residence of the Ferrars, and Fernly Park,
belonging to Roger Ackroyd. Roger Ackroyd had married a much older woman, who drank
herself to death four years into the marriage. He never remarried and brought up his stepson
Ralph Paton, from his wife’s first marriage, as his own son. Ackroyd’s household comprises
his dead brother’s wife, Mrs Cecil Ackroyd and daughter Flora Ackroyd; the housekeeper
Miss Russell and a secretary named Geoffrey Raymond. The latest village gossip hints at a
possible engagement between Mrs Ferrars and Ackroyd.
While out on his afternoon patient visit, Sheppard wonders if Mrs Ferrars had indeed
committed suicide. He remembers seeing her the day before, deep in conversation with Ralph
Paton. This surprises him because Ralph has not visited King’s Abbot ever since he
quarrelled with his father six months ago. He finds the sight of the two in conversation
strange and premonitory. Just then, he runs into Ackroyd, who looks distressed, and wants to
speak to him. The doctor asks if it’s regarding Ralph. Ackroyd is confused and tells him that
Ralph hasn’t come down to the village from London for six months now. Since Sheppard is
busy with his professional obligations, Ackroyd invites him to dinner at 7.30 p.m. and slips
away on seeing Mrs Gannett approaching them. To Sheppard, she inquires if Mrs Ferrars
took drugs and whether the engagement between her and Mr Ackroyd was broken off. She
insists that there was an engagement. At his clinic, Miss Russell is his last patient. She tells
him that she came to get her knee inspected but Sheppard suspects she is there to enquire
about the suicide. However, she isn’t interested in the suicide. They talk about drugs, poison
and finally about detective stories.
Ch. 3: The Man Who Grew Vegetable Marrows
When Sheppard tells his sister about the dinner at Fernly Park, she is excited at the prospect.
From her, he finds out that Ralph is staying at the local inn, the Three Boars. The young man
had reportedly stayed the night yesterday and was seen going out with an unknown woman. It
doesn’t surprise Sheppard that he was out with a woman. Caroline thinks it was Flora
34
Ackroyd and presumes that they are secretly engaged and meet sub rosa to avoid Roger
Ackroyd’s disapproval.
They also talk about their new neighbour in the cottage next door, The Larches. So far,
Caroline has been unsuccessful in finding out much about him except that he is a foreigner
named Poirot. Sheppard suspects him to be a retired hairdresser. He meets Poirot while
working in his garden. Poirot tells him about his boring retired life and mentions missing his
friend Hastings, who has left for Argentina. Sheppard tells him that he has always wanted to
travel. He apparently had the opportunity to do so last year after inheriting a legacy, but he
gambled it away. Poirot sympathises and tells him that he does remind him of his dear friend
Hastings. Poirot is a friend of Ackroyd’s from London and has come to King’s Abbot after
retiring. He tells Sheppard about Ralph and Flora’s engagement and suspects Ackroyd
pressured the young man into it. Poirot opines that it is unwise to marry to please so, one else.
This makes Sheppard doubt that Poirot is a hairdresser because it is unlikely that Ackroyd
would trust a hairdresser with his family secrets.
During tea, Caroline tells Sheppard that she met Ackroyd during her walk and told him
about Ralph Paton’s whereabouts. He reproaches her for it. Unperturbed, she states it’s her
duty to tell because people ought to know. Ackroyd reportedly headed straight for the inn but
she doubts he met Ralph there. That’s because on her walk through the village wood, she
overheard Ralph talking to a woman. Afterwards, Sheppard goes to meet Ralph at the inn. He
claims to understand him better than anyone else in the village because he knew his mother
and knows he inherited her weakness of character. Ralph receives him warmly, offers him a
drink and tells him that he might be in trouble with his stepfather. When the doctor offers to
help, Ralph ominously replies that he has got to play a lone hand.
Ch 4: Dinner at Fernly
Sheppard arrives at Fernly Park before half past seven with his black bag. Parker, the butler
opens the door for him. Noticing the bag, Raymond, Ackroyd’s secretary, teasingly asks if he
has come to dine or on a professional call. Sheppard explains that it’s in case of an
emergency. As he turns the doorknob of the drawing room door, Sheppard hears the sound of
a window closing. He collides into Miss Russell on her way out of the room. She looks
displeased to see him and tells him she had no idea he was invited for dinner. She is out of
breath like she has been running and explains that she came to check the flowers and leaves
hurriedly. He wonders why she explains her presence in the room and immediately notices
that the French window is open. It occurs to him that the sound he heard was not of the
window closing and busies himself to determine the source of the sound. His eyes catch the
silver table filled with exotic curios. While examining the display, the lid slips from his hand
and shuts down. He recognises the sound he had heard. He repeats the action to make sure
and goes on inspecting the curios. Flora and her mother join him shortly, followed by
Ackroyd’s good friend Major Hector Blunt, an internationally famous hunter and Raymond.
After Ackroyd arrives, they all go into the dining room. Dinner is a quite one.
Immediately after dinner, Ackroyd, who is visibly agitated, takes Sheppard to his study.
He tells Parker to bring the doctor’s bag from the hall and asks Sheppard to latch the window.
When Parker comes with the bag, Ackroyd tells him that they are not to be disturbed by
35
anyone. He proceeds to tell Sheppard that he has been in a tortured state of mind since
yesterday. Ralph is mentioned but he is worried about an entirely different issue. He tells
Sheppard that Ashley Ferrars was actually poisoned to death a year ago by his wife, Mrs
Ferrars. She had confessed everything to him on the eve of her suicide. Since then, he has
been tormented and burdened by the terrible secret. Prompted by the doctor, he recounts the
events leading up to her death. He apparently got engaged to Mrs Ferrars after her husband’s
death. She had requested him to wait till the end of her mourning period before announcing it
to the public. Mrs Ferrars had been visibly upset for some time and yesterday, when he
reminded her about announcing the engagement, she broke down completely and confessed
her crime to him. Someone knew her terrible secret and was blackmailing her. Sheppard sees
the repulsion and the horror in Ackroyd’s face. He guesses that Mrs Ferrars probably saw it
too. Sheppard asks who it was and recalls the scene of Ralph and Mrs Ferrars talking.
From something Mrs Ferrars had said, Ackroyd got the impression that it was someone
from his household who was blackmailing her but admits that he could have misunderstood
her. He remembers with pain, how she saw the shock in his face and realised that, by
confiding in him, she had made him an “accessory after the fact.” However, she refused to
tell him the name of the blackmailer. She had asked for 24 hours, promising Ackroyd that he
would hear from her before the hours were up. It didn’t occur to him that she would commit
suicide and is racked with guilt. Sheppard assures him that he is not responsible for her death.
Ackroyd makes it clear that he doesn’t want to rake up past crimes and Sheppard agrees.
However, he wants to punish the blackmailer who drove her to her death. Sheppard asks if he
wants to hunt down the blackmailer even though it would mean a lot of publicity. Roger
wonders if they should leave the matter alone if no word comes from her because she might
have sent him a letter, with the blackmailer’s name, before killing herself. After all, it was the
only reason she chose death.
As if on cue, Parker comes to give him the evening mail. And lo and behold! There is a
letter from the dead woman. Ackroyd starts to read it aloud but stops midway. After all, it is
only his to read. Sheppard urges him to finish reading it. But the more he asks, the more
vehemently Ackroyd refuses.
Sheppard leaves him at ten minutes to nine, with the letter still unread. With his hand on
the door knob, he wonders if he has left anything undone. He is sure he has not. He meets
Parker just outside the door and informs him that Ackroyd doesn’t want to be disturbed for
the rest of the night. Sheppard passes through the lodge gate as the church chimes nine
o’clock. On the way home he walks into a man, who asks him the direction to Fernly Park.
Though the stranger has a rough, uneducated voice, Sheppard finds it familiar.
Ch.5: Murder
At home, Sheppard receives a phone call as he gets ready for bed. He hurriedly tells Caroline
that Parker called to inform that Ackroyd has been murdered and races there. However,
Parker is surprised to see him and denies having made any call. When Sheppard tells him
why he came back, Parker thinks he is joking. Parker tells him that the women have gone to
bed; Mr Raymond and Major Hector were in the billiard room and Ackroyd is still in his
study. However, Sheppard insists on making sure that everything is alright and Parker agrees.
36
They find the study locked from the inside and Sheppard calls out for Ackroyd but receives
no answer. Taking responsibility for the action, he breaks open the door.
Inside, they find Ackroyd just as Sheppard had left him, in the armchair before the fire.
But he is clearly dead; stabbed from behind with a dagger. Sheppard stops the shocked butler
from touching anything and sends him away to call the police and the men from the billiard
room. He stays behind. When the shocked men arrive, they wonder if it’s a murder or suicide.
Sheppard rules out suicide. He also notices the blue envelope, containing Mrs Ferrars’ letter,
is missing.
The police arrive and consult Sheppard, who recounts the events leading up to the
discovery of the murder. He tells them he latched the window himself on Ackroyd’s behest.
However, Inspector Davis finds the window wide open and footprints near it. The police
immediately work on the hypothesis of a robbery gone wrong. Davis asks if anyone had seen
any stranger about and Sheppard recalls meeting a stranger just outside the lodge gate. When
questioned, Parker says no one by that description came to the house at the time mentioned
by Sheppard
Next, Davis asks everyone about the last time they saw Ackroyd alive. Sheppard last saw
him at ten minutes to nine. Raymond mentions that he heard Ackroyd talking to someone at
nine thirty and had assumed that he was talking to Sheppard. Major Blunt did not speak to
Ackroyd post dinner. Raymond repeats what he had overheard Ackroyd say; “The calls on
my purse have been so frequent of late.” The inspector thinks this is an important clue and
wonders if, maybe, Roger himself let in the murderer. The time he was last alive is
determined by Davis to be around 9.30 p.m. Parker tells them that he met Flora outside the
library at 9:45 p.m., who told him that Ackroyd didn’t want to be disturbed. Flora is
summoned and questioned by the police. Flora confirms that she went in to say goodnight to
her uncle at 9:45 p.m. She faints when she finds out that Ackroyd is murdered.
Ch. 6: The Tunisian Dagger
Later when they are alone together, Davis tells Sheppard that Parker had overheard the word
‘blackmail.’ So, Sheppard recounts everything that happened that evening, including the
arrival of Mrs Ferrars’ letter. Inspector Davis immediately suspects Parker but Sheppard is
doubtful. The stranger Sheppard met is also a suspect. Meanwhile, Sheppard does a thorough
examination of the body and concludes that Ackroyd was attacked by a right-handed man, the
blow was unexpected. From the expression on his face, it looks like he died without knowing
who his assailant was. The murder weapon is suspected to be a beautiful Tunisian dagger
gifted to Ackroyd by Major Blunt and kept in the silver table. Surprised, Sheppard tells them
he heard the lid of the silver table close as he was entering the drawing room, giving a
detailed account of how he pinpointed the source of the sound. Miss Russell is questioned.
She replies that she had come to check the flowers, had noticed the lid of the silver table left
open, quickly shut it and left the room. Davis suspects Parker is the murderer. When he
returns home, Sheppard tells his sister everything, except about the blackmail. She is sure that
Davis is mistaken about Parker being the murderer.
37
Ch.7: I Learn My Neighbour’s Profession
Next day, Flora comes to the Sheppard’s cottage to request Sheppard to come up with her to
The Larches to see Poirot. She tells them that he is a renowned London detective and she
wants to take his help to prove Ralph’s innocence. Sheppard repeatedly tries to convince her
to leave it to the police, who suspect Parker and not Ralph. Flora asks him why he went to the
inn after the murder, if that is the case. Sheppard is taken aback because he didn’t want his
visit to be discovered. Flora had gone to the inn in the morning, after she found out Ralph
was staying there. There, she was informed that Inspector Raglan from Cranchester had also
come inquiring after Ralph. Flora insists on Ralph’s innocence even as he disappears without
a trace. Sheppard acquiesces when Flora tells him that she wants to find out the truth.
When Flora requests Poirot to help, he says he will agree only if she really wants the
entire truth because when he starts on a case, he doesn’t stop until he arrives at the whole
truth. Flora assures him she wants the whole truth and Poirot accepts. At Flora’s request,
Sheppard narrates everything to him, including the mystery of Ralph’s disappearance. When
questioned, Sheppard tells them that he went to the inn to let Ralph know that his stepfather
had been murdered.
Poirot goes to the police station with Sheppard to inform the police of his appointment as
investigator by Ackroyd’s niece, Flora. The police are not happy with the news and tell him
that the case is a simple one, with clear motives and suspects and there is no need for
amateurs to interfere. At Raglan’s insinuation, Poirot assures them that he doesn’t want any
publicity and will take no credit for his contribution to the case. This thaws the police
towards him. Accepting Poirot’s participation, Raglan tells him that the fingerprints on the
dagger do not match those of either Parker, Raymond, or even Sheppard. Poirot asks if they
are Ralph’s and this directness earns him the respect of both Sheppard and the inspector.
Though the police doubt Ralph is the murderer, they admit that the case against him is strong.
Ralph was seen in the neighbourhood of Fernly Park about nine thirty before he disappeared.
Also, he reportedly owns two pairs of shoes with rubber studs, matching the footprints found
outside the window.
The colonel invites Poirot and Sheppard to come with them to the lodge as Raglan wants
to check the footprints outside the study. At the lodge, the colonel takes Poirot to the library
where he assures him that nothing except the body has been removed. Poirot does a thorough
examination. He is methodical with his questions, asking the men only those questions that
they would be able to answer, explaining that, “To each man his own knowledge.” So, he
asks Parker about the fire and the chair. Sheppard is doubtful of the importance of the
position of the chair. Poirot tells him, “It is completely unimportant. That is why it is
interesting.”
When Sheppard asks Poirot if he thinks Parker is telling the truth; Poirot believes that in
this case he is. And goes on to inform Sheppard that in cases like these, everyone has
something to hide. Sheppard asks Poirot if he suspects even him of hiding something. To this,
Poirot replies that he thinks that Sheppard is not being completely honest about Ralph. This
leaves Sheppard flustered and to hide it, he asks Poirot about his method. Poirot explains how
he deduced that Ackroyd wouldn’t have opened the window to let in cool air because the fire
38
was already burning low and it was a cold night. So, he must have opened it to let in someone
he knew. All evidence points towards it. The person was with him at 9:30 p.m., as Raymond
had overheard them talking and left by 9:45 p.m., when Flora came to bid him goodnight.
Now the question remains whether the same person came back to kill him or someone else
did. Just then, the colonel enters and tells them that the phone call has been traced to a public
call office at King’s Abbot station, a busy commercial junction. He emphatically adds that the
night train leaves for Liverpool at 10.23 p.m.
Ch. 8: Inspector Raglan is Confident
Melrose is doubtful they will ever find the person who telephoned Sheppard from the station
at such a busy time. The discussion moves back to the stranger. Poirot asks who would be
able to tell him if any strange visitor came at the lodge last week. Raymond and Parker are
the two likely candidates. While Raymond answers no, Parker says he remembers a young
man from Curtis and Troute visiting on Wednesday. Raymond recalls it was a dictaphone
salesman. However, Ackroyd did not buy the dictaphone. Mr Hammond, Mr Ackroyd’s
lawyer arrives and Raymond leaves to meet him.
Poirot tells Sheppard that sometimes inanimate objects tell him everything there is to tell.
When Sheppard asks what they have said to him today, Poirot replies that an open window, a
closed door and a chair that moved itself begs the question why, without providing an
answer. Sheppard finds Poirot ridiculous, full of self-importance and wonders if his
reputation is built on a series of lucky chances. Raglan is already examining the silver table
when Poirot and Sheppard arrive. He is sure that the case is simple and suggests that Ralph is
the murderer. He states that he employs method and Poirot enthusiastically explains that in
addition to method and logic, he uses the grey cells and applies the psychology of crime.
Raglan scoffs at the psychoanalysis “stuff” and proceeds to show them a list of the household
and their alibis methodically written down on a sheet. He estimates the time of death is
between 9:45 to 10 p.m. Raglan still suspects Parker but Poirot maintains he is innocent.
Ralph was seen coming around the house at twenty-five minutes past 9, making him a likely
suspect. When Poirot asks why Ralph would call from the station, Raglan simply answers
that murderers do funny things. The footprints are the most damning evidence against him.
The inspector good heartedly laughs when Poirot points out other footprints around it that are
definitely a woman’s. Poirot spots a summerhouse and asks Sheppard to accompany him.
There, he finds a piece of white cambric and a goose quill.
Ch. 9: The Goldfish Pond
On their way back to the house, Poirot wonders who will inherit the estate. This question
takes Sheppard by surprise because he admits that it had not occurred to him before. Poirot
wishes that Sheppard would tell him his secret. Whatever the secret, Poirot assures him that
he will find out. During their walk, Poirot talks about the beauty of women and points out
Flora in the distance. Unaware of them, she is humming happily to herself and at one point
laughs outright. Just then, Major Blunt comes out from the trees. Conversationally, Blunt
says maybe it’s time for him to go away again. Flora asks him to stay for her sake and he
relents. She tells him that she is happy despite everything because her uncle has left her a
legacy of twenty thousand pounds. Surprised, Blunt asks if money really means so much to
39
her and she replies that it means everything to her; including freedom from pretending to be
grateful for the charities of rich relations.
Just then, something shiny in the pond catches their attention and Blunt tries to take it
out. Failing which, he resumes their conversation and reassures her that Ralph will be okay
and she coldly replies that she trusts Poirot to find out the truth. Taking it as a cue, Poirot
comes forward and introduces himself to Blunt. Upon interrogation, Blunt tells him that he
heard Ackroyd’s voice at 9:30 p.m. and assumed Raymond was with him due to his business-
like tone. Poirot tries to fish out something from the fish pond but seemingly without success.
Sheppard and Poirot are invited to lunch and they accept. Walking up to the house, Poirot
shows Sheppard what he had retrieved from the pond- a woman’s wedding ring with the
inscription: From R., March 13th.
Ch. 10: The Parlour Maid
Poirot and Sheppard join Mrs Ackroyd, her lawyer Mr Hammond, and the rest of the
household for lunch. After lunch, Poirot introduces himself to Hammond as acting on behalf
of Flora to find out who murdered Ackroyd. Mr Hammond doesn’t believe Ralph is the
murderer. When Poirot asks him about his money troubles, Hammond admits it to be a
recurring problem but he isn’t aware of any financial transaction that happened between
Roger and Ralph in the past one year. Poirot asks about Ackroyd’s will and finds out that
though legacies were left behind for charities, his employees, Mrs Ackroyd and Flora; the
vast majority of his property has been left to Ralph. On Poirot’s behest, Sheppard goes over
to Blunt and engages him in a conversation to gauge if he could be Mrs Ferrars’ blackmailer.
He finds out that Blunt came into a legacy last year which he lost after investing in a dubious
scheme. Sheppard sympathises and shares a similar experience with him. Later, he tells
Poirot that Blunt is innocent.
To Mr Hammond’s inquiry about money for household expenses, Raymond replies that
Mr Ackroyd had withdrawn a hundred pounds on the eve of his murder and had placed the
money in an unlocked drawer in his room. It is discovered that forty pounds are missing.
Upon inquiry, the police learn that the new parlour maid is leaving in a week’s time.
Reportedly, she was summoned by Ackroyd, who scolded her over some disarranged
documents and this prompted her dismissal. The parlour maid, Ursula Bourne, is interviewed
by the police. Afterwards, Sheppard wonders if she could be the blackmailer because Mrs
Ferrar’s letter to Ackroyd mentioned ‘person’ not ‘man’. So, Poirot asks him to go to her
former employer and find out more about her.
Ch. 11: Poirot Pays a Call
On Sunday, Dr Sheppard visits Bourne’s former employer Mrs Folliot and is confused by the
woman’s nervous hostility. When he returns, Caroline tells him that Poirot had come visiting.
It’s apparent that she is won over by Poirot’s prowess as a high-profile detective. Sheppard
irritably asks if they talked about the case at all. When Caroline tells him that she told Poirot
about the conversation she overheard in the woods; he tells her that she has made Ralph’s
case harder. Caroline disagrees and is actually surprised that he has not told Poirot himself.
She believes that Ralph’s innocence can be established as the young woman could be the
perfect alibi. Caroline also told Poirot that Miss Russell visited him the morning of the
40
murder. At this, Dr Sheppard recalls the conversation he had with Miss Russell that went
from drugs and poison to detective stories.
Ch 12: Round the Table
There is an inquest on Monday, after which Raglan tells Poirot and Dr Sheppard that he is
helpless in the face of evidence piling up against Ralph. The inspector is bewildered at his
continued disappearance. He informs them that the police are on the lookout for him. Later,
Poirot tells Sheppard that when the mystery of the phone call is solved, the murder will be
explained. Sheppard considers the call irrelevant. When Raglan informs Poirot that the
fingerprints don’t match anyone’s, Poirot suggests examining the dead man’s fingerprints for
a match.
At the lodge, Poirot assembles Mrs Ackroyd, Flora, Raymond and Hector and pleads
with everyone present to tell him Ralph’s whereabouts if they know it. Mrs Ackroyd declares
that she is grateful that the news of Flora and Ralph’s engagement wasn’t made public yet. In
indignant anger, Flora declares that she will publicly announce her engagement to Ralph, the
very next day. Her mother is horrified and though Raymond admires her loyalty he advises
against it. It is only when Poirot requests her to postpone the announcement by a day or two
that Flora reluctantly agrees. Then, Poirot makes a dramatic announcement; “Messieurs et
mesdames, I tell you, I mean to know. And I shall know- in spite of you all.” Raymond asks
what he means by that. Poirot replies that everyone present in the room is hiding something
from him. He challenges someone to deny this but no one does. Point proven, he leaves.
Ch. 13: The Goose Quill
Sheppard goes to Poirot’s house and expresses his displeasure with Poirot taking his sister’s
help with the investigation. Poirot good humouredly admits that he likes employing the
experts. Poirot replies that he has gathered a great deal of valuable information and confronts
Sheppard for hiding the fact that his sister overheard Ralph’s conversation with some woman.
Sheppard, in turn, confronts him for enquiring about his patients and Poirot evasively tells
him that he finds Miss Russell an interesting study. Dr Sheppard asks if he also finds her
suspicious, like Caroline and Mrs Ackroyd. At this, Poirot exclaims at the intuitive power of
women.
When Sheppard asks Poirot, what are his actual thoughts on the matter, the latter tells
him that his method requires him to view everyone as a suspect until proven innocent and not
to trust anyone, including Sheppard. Poirot tells him that he knows that Sheppard wasn’t
lying about the stranger because a neighbour’s maid had also been asked directions to Fernly
Park by a stranger. Poirot connects the stranger’s American accent to the quill he found at the
summerhouse, which is actually used to snort heroin in America and Canada. Sheppard tries
his hand at using logic to hypothesise who the murderer could be. He guesses that the
American stranger must have climbed in the open window and killed Ackroyd. He suspects
the stranger is Parker’s accomplice in the blackmailing of Mrs Ferrars. This would be why he
killed Ackroyd with the dagger provided by Parker.
Poirot replies that his theory leaves a great deal unaccounted for; the call, the chair, and
the missing money. Sheppard thinks the position of the chair is irrelevant and repeats that he
thinks it was Ralph who was with Ackroyd at 9.30 p.m. He suggests that Ackroyd might have
41
given him the forty pounds. When Sheppard comments on how strong the case is against
Ralph, Poirot disagrees. He declares Ralph innocent because there is too much evidence
against him for it to be true.
Ch 14: Mrs Ackroyd
The next day, Sheppard marvels at Poirot’s method that is deceptively irrelevant. Poirot’s
provocative announcement is effective because Mrs Ackroyd summons him. She is lying in
bed, looking sickly. In a roundabout way, she tells him that Ackroyd was miserly with the
household finances and rarely gave her or Flora any spending money. As a result, she had
incurred some debt from some moneylenders. Worried about her financial prospects, she
apparently got curious about what Ackroyd had bestowed her in his will. However, Ursula
walked in while she was searching for the will. Before leaving the study, she overheard
Ursula requesting to talk to Ackroyd in private. Mrs Ackroyd also tells him that she had read
about an old silver piece that was sold for a fortune at Christy’s. So, in the evening, she went
to check the silver table for a similar piece she wanted to get valued in London and surprise
Ackroyd. She ran away, leaving the lid of the silver table open because Miss Russell was
coming in from the French window. Sheppard doubts that she wanted it inspected for
Ackroyd’s sake but finds the bit about Miss Russell interesting. Mrs Ackroyd wants Dr
Sheppard to relay all this to Poirot.
Poirot meets Ursula Bourne in the hall, who helps him into his overcoat. Sheppard
notices that she has been crying. He asks her why she lied about being summoned by
Ackroyd when in fact it was she who asked to speak to him. She replies that she wanted to
leave in any case and asks him in a low voice if anyone knows where Ralph is. Next, she
surprises him by asking about the time of the murder. When Sheppard tells her that it was
between 9:45 to 10 p.m., she asks if there’s a possibility that it happened before that.
Sheppard tells her that it’s impossible since Flora had last seen him alive at 9:45 p.m. Later,
Caroline informs her brother that Poirot had asked her to find out the colour of Ralph’s boots.
Dr Sheppard is not happy with Poirot using his sister in his investigation. Caroline finds out
that the boots were black, not brown.
Ch. 15: Geoffrey Raymond
Sheppard relays Mrs Ackroyd’s message to Poirot, including Miss Russell’s lie. Poirot is not
surprised at Miss Russell’s lie. They both think she went out to meet someone. Sheppard also
gives him Caroline’s message that the boots were black, not brown. Poirot exclaims that it is
a pity they are black, not brown. He tells Poirot about the conversation he had with Miss
Russell at his clinic, which involved drugs. Poirot asks if it’s cocaine she spoke of, and
Sheppard asks him how he knows. Just then, Raymond enters and tells Poirot that he has a
confession to make. He assures him that it’s nothing but he wants to have a clear conscience
anyway. And proceeds to tell them that he had some money problems but Ackroyd’s legacy
of five hundred pounds took care of. After Raymond leaves, Poirot remarks that people have
murdered for less than that. He points out that everyone in the house benefited from
Ackroyd’s death except Blunt. Dr Sheppard suggests that the blackmailer and the murderer
might not be been two different persons and Poirot agrees. However, Poirot still suspects
Parker to be the blackmailer and the thief of the letter. He asks Sheppard to accompany him
42
to the lodge, where he recreates the scene between Flora and Parker on the night of
Ackroyd’s murder, and is satisfied with what he sees.
Ch. 16: An Evening at Mah Jong
At their weekly night of Mah Jong, the Sheppards and their two guests- Mrs Gannett and
Colonel Carter- discusses the murder during the game. Mrs Gannett informs them that Ursula
Bourne has reportedly been keeping to herself and crying for days now. Caroline tells them
that Poirot has been looking at a map of the area and she assumes that it means Ralph is in
Cranchester. This throws Sheppard off guard. After several reproaches from his sister for
being so discreet, in a moment of triumph, he tells them about the wedding ring. Everyone
offers a theory about who it might belong to. Before going up to bed, Caroline assures her
brother that Flora isn’t in love with Ralph Paton and never has been.
Ch. 17: Parker
On Tuesday morning, after the joint funeral of Mrs Ferrars and Ackroyd, Poirot asks
Sheppard to come back with him to interview Parker. Poirot confronts Parker about
blackmailing his former employer. Even as the butler is trying to regain his composure,
Poirot asks him if he tried to overhear the conversation between Sheppard and Ackroyd with
the intent to blackmail Ackroyd. Parker reluctantly admits that he did blackmail his former
employer, a Major Ellerby, but he insists that he didn’t blackmail Ackroyd. He merely
assumed Ackroyd was being blackmailed by someone and wanted a share of it.
Afterwards, Poirot takes Dr Sheppard to Hammond’s office to confirm Parker’s
innocence. After Poirot verifies that Hammond was Mrs Ferrars’ lawyer, he asks Sheppard to
recount the story of the blackmail. The lawyer is not surprised and says he had suspected it
for some time. Hammond tells them that Mrs Ferrars sold securities of around twenty
thousand pounds in just one year. After this, Poirot is convinced that Parker is not their man.
Poirot now suspects that either Blunt or Raymond is the blackmailer. He tells Sheppard that
he found out that the legacy Blunt inherited was close to twenty thousand pounds.
Dr Sheppard invites Poirot to have lunch with him and his sister. Talking of Ralph,
Sheppard admits he has a weak nature but not a vicious one. Poirot comments on the latent
potency of weaknesses. Caroline tells him that even her brother is weak as water and adds
that Ralph is innocent. In a strange voice, Poirot soliloquies how the weaknesses of good men
often lead them to do horrible things, whenever it’s required and go back to being good
people again. It leaves a strange impression on both his listeners. Just then, Sheppard receives
a call from the police station informing him that they have detained a man named Charles
Kent at Liverpool. He is believed to be the mysterious stranger Sheppard ran into and they
want him to come and identify him.
Ch. 18: Charles Kent
Poirot, Sheppard and Inspector Raglan take the train to Liverpool. Raglan comments that now
they will know about the blackmailing part of the business, if nothing else. They meet
Superintendent Hayes at the Liverpool police station. He welcomes Poirot warmly and
assures everyone that with Poirot around, the case will soon be solved. The stranger’s name is
Charles Kent. On interrogation, he tells them his whereabouts at the estimated time of the
43
crime but he refuses to tell them why he visited Fernly Park. Poirot asks him if was born in
Kent. The man ridicules him for assuming that he was born in Kent because his last name is
Kent. Poirot pointedly tells him that in certain cases, it is a possibility. It elicits a strange
reaction from the man. Poirot doesn’t explain what he meant to anyone, including Sheppard,
reiterating that it is just a small idea of his.
Ch. 19: Flora Ackroyd
The next morning, Raglan informs Sheppard that Kent’s alibi is rock solid but he still hasn’t
told them his reason for visiting Fernly Park. Raglan and Sheppard make fun of Poirot’s
outlandish theories. Raglan suggests that Poirot is crazy and it’s an inherent trait. In fact,
Caroline had told him that Poirot has a mad nephew. They go to Poirot’s to tell him Kent’s
alibi is fool-proof. Poirot advices Raglan not to release Kent just yet. When Raglan protests
and reminds him of the estimated time of the murder, Poirot claims he doesn’t take anyone’s
statements for a fact until it has been proven beyond doubt, and reveals that it was Flora who
stole the forty pounds and lied about seeing her uncle at 9:45 p.m. His reconstruction of the
crime (ch. 15) has made it clear that Flora hadn’t gone inside the study, as she said she did,
when Parker saw her. The inspector wants to go to the lodge immediately to verify this and
takes Poirot and Sheppard along with him. In Blunt’s presence, Flora admits to taking the
money. She is actually relieved that its out in the open. She doesn’t have to pretend to be
what she isn’t and storms out of the room. After Flora leaves, Blunt tries to cover for her by
saying that Ackroyd had given him the money. Poirot follows Blunt out and confronts him
about the secret he conceals; his love for Flora. Poirot advises him not to hide it and tells him
that Flora actually cares for him. He assures Blunt that her loyalty to Ralph is for the sake of
their friendship, not love. Blunt takes Poirot’s advice gratefully and goes after Flora into the
garden.
Ch.20: Miss Russell
Raglan is disappointed that he has to fix the time of Ackroyd’s murder all over again. Poirot
accompanies him to the station, leaving Sheppard to attend to his patients. Afterwards, Poirot
returns to the Sheppard’s’ cottage and is invited to talk in Sheppard’s workshop- where he
tinkers with small mechanisms like alarm clocks. Poirot informs him that, with help from the
police, he plans to publish a false report in the newspaper about Ralph’s arrest. He also
informs Sheppard that he has invited Miss Russell to his clinic for an interview.
When Miss Russell arrives, Poirot tells her that Charles Kent has been arrested in
Liverpool. She defiantly asks what of it. Sheppard suddenly realises why he thought the
stranger’s voice familiar- it resembles Miss Russell’s. At first, she acts uninterested and
detached until Poirot tells her that the estimated time of Ackroyd’s murder has been pushed
back to between 8:50 to 9:45 p.m. He tells her that this would mean that Charles Kent is the
murderer. She breaks down in terror and desperation and insists that Kent went nowhere near
the study, confessing that he came to meet her in the summerhouse. She had run to the
summerhouse earlier in the evening to leave him a note. This is why she was breathless when
Sheppard ran into her. She reluctantly tells them that Charles Kent is her son out of wedlock.
She had kept it a secret from the world and him, as well. He turned out badly, drinking and
taking drugs. He was sent to Canada some years back and she didn’t hear from him until he
44
found out she is his mother and wrote, asking for money. Once back in London, he decided to
come see her at Fernly. If her disgraceful past was discovered, she would lose her post as
housekeeper. So, she had left a note asking him to wait in the summerhouse to avoid
discovery. That’s why she had visited Sheppard in the morning to ask about drugs; in hope of
a solution. She briefly met him between 9:20-9:25 p.m. and gave him all the money she had.
She made sure that he left before she too went in; taking a detour because Major Blunt was
on the lawn. Poirot tells her she need not tell the police what she has told them, unless it is
rendered necessary in the future, which he deems unlikely. He assures her that her secret is
safe with them.
Ch.21: The Paragraph in the Paper
The next morning, Caroline talks about the report of Ralph’s arrest and tells Sheppard that
she saw someone arrive at Poirot’s cottage early in the morning. Later, when Poirot comes to
their house; despite all her ruses and tactics, she is unable to make him divulge who his
mysterious guest was. He asks Sheppard to accompany him on a walk and Sheppard soon
realises that they are walking towards the lodge. Poirot wants him to leave a message at the
lodge that he wants Flora, Colonel Blunt, Mrs Ackroyd and Raymond to come to his cottage
for a conference at nine p.m. Poirot doesn’t accompany Sheppard inside, deciding to walk
around the lawn instead. Sheppard meets Mrs Ackroyd from whom he learns that Flora and
Blunt are engaged. He is appalled when she makes excuses for Flora’s theft. Sheppard finally
manages to give her Poirot’s message and joins Poirot on the road and they walk back to the
house. When they enter, Caroline excitedly informs them that Ursula arrived at the house
soon after they left and is in a terrible state. When Poirot sees her, he greets her as Mrs Ralph
Paton.
Ch.22: Ursula’s Story
Ursula tells them she fell in love with Ralph while working at the lodge. Ralph had convinced
her to get married in secret. She reveals that she was the woman with Ralph in the woods.
Finding out that Ralph had got engaged to Flora, she called him down to the village. Since
Ralph showed fear and reluctance, she disclosed the marriage to Ackroyd on Friday. Ackroyd
said some unpleasant things to her and she retaliated by handing in her resignation. She met
Ralph later that night, at twenty-seven minutes to ten in the summerhouse. They had a huge
and ugly fight, and she left in anger. After she finishes her account, she realises that this
makes Ralph and herself very likely suspects. She tells them she has not heard from Ralph
since and asks Sheppard if he has any idea where Ralph is. He replies that he does not know
at the moment. Poirot assures her that he will take care of everything.
Ch.23: Poirot’s Little Reunion
Poirot tells Sheppard that he misses Hastings because he always kept a written record of their
adventures that he could peruse. Sheppard shyly tells him that he has a written record too.
Poirot asks to see it. Sheppard is reluctant because he hasn’t been too kind towards Poirot in
the account but Poirot says he does not care for such trifles. So he leaves Poirot to read it
while he goes to see a patient. When he returns at 8 p.m., Poirot congratulates him on his
precise writing. He remarks that Sheppard has kept himself very much in the background,
unlike Hastings.
45
They leave for The Larches with Ursula, leaving a very curious and disappointed
Caroline behind. When everyone arrives, he introduces them to Mrs Ralph Paton. Mrs
Ackroyd exclaims in disbelief. However, Flora welcomes her to the family with warmth,
apologizing for causing her unintentional pain by getting engaged to Ralph. Miss Russell and
Parker also arrive. Once everyone is seated, Poirot begins by telling them that they are all
suspects.
Then he describes the two meetings that took place in the summerhouse that night;
between Ralph and Ursula; and Miss Russell and Charles Kent. The first thing he clears is
that the voice heard at 9.30 p.m. by Raymond was the recorded voice of Roger on the
dictaphone. He had kept its purchase a secret to surprise Raymond. By this account, Ackroyd
was alive at 9.30 p.m. This clears almost all of suspicion, except Ralph. Ursula says that
Ralph wouldn’t have the courage to kill his stepfather. Raymond doesn’t doubt her claim but
asks where is Ralph. Poirot tells them that Ralph is right here with them
Ch. 24: Ralph Paton’s Story
When Poirot points out Ralph standing at the door, Sheppard gets uneasy. Poirot tells
Sheppard he shouldn’t have kept secrets from him. Sheppard admits that he had known about
Ralph’s secret marriage. After the murder was discovered, he realised that either Ralph or his
wife would be suspects, so he met Ralph and told him how things stood. Ralph picks up the
story here and tells everyone that he feared that his wife might have actually murdered his
father in a rage. The thought of having to give evidence that might incriminate his wife, made
Ralph disappear as Sheppard advised him. Continuing the account, Poirot says Sheppard had
hid him well. Poirot deduced that the best hiding place would be a home for the mentally
unfit. Hence, he cooked up the story of a mad nephew to ask Caroline for advice. She obliged
and told him about two such homes that Sheppard recommended to his patients. Ralph was
admitted to one of them under another name. Ralph had no idea how serious the case against
him was because the home didn’t allow news from the outside world.
Here, Poirot tells Sheppard that though he was truthful in his writing, his reticence meant
that he didn’t write the entire truth. When Raymond asks for Ralph’s account of what
happened that night; Ralph doesn’t say much. He has no alibi, but he gives his word that he
went nowhere near the study. Poirot announces that things are simple enough; to save Ralph
Paton, the real murderer should confess. He claims to know the murderer and will reveal the
name to Inspector Raglan in the morning. Just then, Poirot receives a telegram. When Blunt
asks him who the murderer is, Poirot tells them he knows for sure now. He tells them the
reunion has come to an end and reminds the murderer again that tomorrow the truth will go to
Inspector Raglan.
Ch.25: The Whole Truth
Poirot asks Sheppard to stay back. Sheppard still thinks Poirot is nowhere near solving the
murder and condescendingly asks him why act like he knows the murderer when he
apparently doesn’t. Poirot replies that there is always a reason and logic for what he does.
Sheppard tries to guess the reason. Either he wanted to scare the murderer into confessing or
he was using himself as bait to lure out the murderer. Poirot laughs that he is not so heroic as
to use himself as a bait. When Sheppard asks if he wants the murderer to get away Poirot
46
gravely answers that there is only one way out and it doesn’t lead to freedom. Sheppard asks
incredulously if he really believes that the murderer was one of the people gathered there
today. Poirot says yes and takes him through a detailed narration of his method, based on
impeccable logic and reason- the purpose of the call, the importance that the murder be
discovered at night instead of in the morning, the displaced chair hiding the dictaphone, the
footprints outside the window – all of which pointed to Dr Sheppard as the murderer.
Ch. 26: And Nothing But The Truth
After a dead silence of a minute or half, Sheppard laughs at the absurdity of it. Poirot
however tells him that he suspected him straight away because of the discrepancy in time.
Normally, it takes five minutes to reach from the lodge to the gate but it took him ten minutes
that night. Sheppard asks what he could gain from killing Ackroyd and Poirot answers safety;
because he was the blackmailer all along. He tells Sheppard that his repeated mention of a
legacy was untraceable. He had invented it to account for the money he extorted from Mrs
Ferrars; and which he had gambled away. He knew that if Ackroyd found out, he would be
ruined.
Sheppard asks him what explanation he has for the telephone call. Poirot confesses this
was the hardest puzzle. He had an idea about why he would want to go back later-to remove
the dictaphone but he didn’t know how it was accomplished. He found out Sheppard’s tactic
by looking at his list of patients on the day of the murder. Finding Miss Russell’s name on it
was a lucky coincidence. Sheppard had asked one of his patients, departing by the 10:23, the
favour to call at his number. The telegram he received had confirmed it. Sheppard
nonchalantly comments that it all sounds impractical. Poirot simply reminds him that he will
call Inspector Raglan in the morning. However, he offers him a way out for the sake of his
sister and suggests an overdose of a sleeping draught but insists that Ralph’s name must be
cleared. Poirot also suggests that Sheppard should finish the manuscript but without his
former reserve. Sheppard remarks at his prolific suggestions and asks if he is finished. Poirot
replies that there is just one more suggestion- it would be stupid to try and silence him like he
did Ackroyd. Sheppard agrees. And they take leave of each other.
Ch. 27: Apologia
In the last chapter, Sheppard confesses to his crimes. He had actually wanted the manuscript
to be published one day- as a testimony to Poirot’s failure. He worries about Caroline but is
reassured by Poirot’s promise to take care of things. He plans to mail the manuscript to Poirot
after he is done writing and then kill himself. In a self-conscious act of poetic justice, he
chooses veronal to end his life.
There is a dramatic shift in the narrator’s tone here. Sheppard gives his own version of
events, filling in with little details. He admits that Flora’s lie about seeing Ackroyd at 9.45
and Parker turning out to be a blackmailer like him, were unexpected. He shows no remorse
and the only saving grace seems to be his concern for his elder sister, Caroline.
47
Part 2
4. Characters in the novel
Hercule Poirot
The dandy little detective with the egg- shaped head, an immense moustache and a pair of
intelligent watchful eyes. He is a retired Belgian police officer with a growing reputation in
London as a detective. However, he is initially mistaken for a hairdresser by his neighbour,
Dr Sheppard. Owing to his foreign origin, he speaks in a distinctive franglaise which
sometimes produces a comic effect. He likes order in things and is obsessed with the minutest
details. People feel comfortable with him and trust him with their darkest secrets. Often, he
plays the matchmaker. He proudly describes his job as a study of human nature, claiming to
use his grey cells and psychoanalysis to deduce people’s lies and secrets and the events
leading to a crime. He is almost always considered snobbish, grandiose and strange by
anyone who meets him for the first time. However, this quickly turns into admiration. He has
a strong sense of truth and justice that doesn’t always correspond to the state’s definition of
the two. Though unsympathetic to the murderer, he has the sensitivity to mete out a
punishment that ensures justice is delivered without causing too much pain or embarrassment
to the surviving relative.
Dr James Sheppard
He is the narrator of the story and the village doctor. He lives with his sister and is trusted by
everyone. He acts as confidant to Ralph Paton and Ackroyd and is a replacement for Hastings
to Poirot. He accompanies Poirot during most of his investigations and enquiries; showing
amazement, curiosity and ridicule for his method in equal measure. After reading his notes on
the case, Poirot remarks that he is too reserved, keeping himself mostly in the background.
His reticence has a more sinister purpose than one suspects. When Poirot reveals Sheppard to
be the blackmailer and murderer, his reserve in the narration is no longer a sign of modesty. It
is a manipulative tactic to waylay readers while speaking (a part of) the truth.
This is a man who writes about a murder and participates in the investigation, without
giving himself away. He is a morally weak man who breaks his Hippocratic oath to hide the
true diagnosis of Mr Ferrars’ death for his own profit. Moreover, he simply gambles away the
twenty thousand pounds he extorted from Mrs Ferrars. Behind the façade of the friendly
neighbourhood doctor is a calculating murderer and an egomaniac who participates in the
investigation against himself, confident of getting away. In the end, his crimes and lies catch
up with him. Ironically, he ends his life in the same way as Mrs Ferrars, whom he drove to
suicide. He rejects a symbolic reading of his end, claiming he doesn’t pity either her or
himself to validate the idea of poetic justice. Till the end, there is no sign of repentance. His
only reason for choosing death as an alternative is to protect his sister from the shock and
disgrace of his actions.
Caroline Sheppard
She is Dr Sheppard’s elder sister and the biggest and most resourceful town gossip. No
secrets remain hidden from her keen ears and eyes for long. Poirot uses her to get information
for his investigation to solve the case. She has an amazing talent of scouring out information
48
and according to her brother, the servants constitute her “Intelligence Corps”. She is as much
of an expert in spreading information as gathering it. With a sharp mind and an equally sharp
tongue, she is Poirot’s character foil. Despite her intuition and guesses that turn out to be true,
she doesn’t rise to Poirot’s level because she is more interested in sensational gossip. Her
intuition and sense of truth are so strong that Sheppard lives in perpetual dread that she might
catch his bluffs. Despite her rumour- mongering, she has a kind heart and hates to see anyone
suffering. She is very protective of her younger brother. It is for her sake that Poirot doesn’t
publicly announce Sheppard as the murderer.
Roger Ackroyd
He is an immensely successful businessman who ironically looks like a country squire. The
life and soul of King’s Abbot, he is a charitable man who extends his patronage to the church
and society. However, he is extremely frugal in personal expenditure. Mrs Ackroyd
complains about it. This frugality extends to the relatives financially dependent on him.
Being a widower with no children of his own, he has brought up his stepson as his own. He is
fundamentally a good citizen who lives by the law, is hot-tempered and has a righteous
indignation against all kinds of wrong doing. He lacks the imagination and the flexibility to
forgive and forget all for the sake of love. He shrewdly uses Ralph’s perpetual money
troubles and financial dependence as a leverage to get him engaged to the girl he approves of
– his niece Flora.
Mrs Ferrars
The story begins on the day her suicide is discovered. She was the widow of Ashley Ferrars,
who died a year ago. She became secretly engaged to Ackroyd soon after her husband’s
death. Her love for him is her undoing. She tells him that she poisoned her husband because
she could no longer stand his behaviour and she was falling for Ackroyd. However, she has
not been at peace since the day of her husband’s death; ridden with guilt and tormented by a
blackmailer. Seeing the horror in Ackroyd’s eyes at the revelation, she realises that she has
made him an accessory to the crime. She kills herself so that Roger can tell the public the
truth and rid himself of the burden- moral and legal, and punish the blackmailer without fear
of consequences. Her attempt to find peace and love after poisoning her husband is thwarted
by a guilty conscience and a ruthless blackmailer.
Ralph Paton
He is Roger Ackroyd’s stepson. He is a good-looking young man with an easy smile and is
very popular with the residents of King’s Abbot. He is always in debt and has the reputation
of being a womanizer. Self-indulgent and extravagant, he does not take himself seriously.
Owing to his weak character, he often chooses convenience over doing the needful. This
results in an engagement with Flora to earn his stepfather’s approval, even though he is
secretly married to Ursula Bourne. Nonetheless, he inspires devotion in his friends.
Miss Russell
The housekeeper of Fernly Park since the last five years. Rumours floated about the
possibility of her being the future Mrs Ackroyd. Reportedly, Mrs Cecil Ackroyd put an end to
it. There is an affected dignity and integrity of character in the way she presents herself; a
49
countenance of purity in her still beautiful face that appears to be above the evils of
humanity. However, she is not as upright as she presents herself. Behind her mask of
respectability and “painfully” lady like voice is a disgraced woman who has a son, Charles
Kent, out of wedlock. Fear of judgement and unemployment makes her keep him a secret.
Mrs Cecil Ackroyd
She is the widow of Ackroyd’s younger brother who came back from Canada with her
daughter to stay with him in Fernly Park. She abhors unpleasantness to the extent that she
insists Ackroyd killed himself by accident. A consummate talker with “gushing” words, she
has a way of justifying situations and actions to suit her own convenience. She has an
ambiguous morality that serves only her own interests. A tiresome woman with a
hypochondriac tendency, she always accentuates her helplessness and dependency.
Flora Ackroyd
Ackroyd’s niece who, along with her mother, has come to stay with him from Canada, after
her father’s death. Initially engaged to Ralph Paton to please her uncle, she becomes engaged
to Major Blunt later. She is a well read and opinionated young woman who is aware of her
youth and beauty. She is admired by everyone for her beauty but is not very likeable because
of her frank nature which people mistake for insolence. Her uncle’s death is not as much a
shock to her as it is a cause of freedom from financial dependence. This also gives her the
freedom to marry according to her choice. She is tactful and has an admirable sense of loyalty
to her friends. When Poirot introduces Ursula Bourne as Mrs Ralph Paton, she happily
welcomes her to the family. In fact, she asks forgiveness for the unintended pain she caused
Ursula by getting engaged to Paton. Moreover, she shows no bitterness towards Paton for his
actions; admitting to understand his situation
Parker
He is the butler at Fernly Park. His efficiency at his job shows when he notices small details
like the low fire and the displaced chair in the study at the time of the murder . However,
though efficient and competent, he is a crook who does not shy away from using people’s
secrets to extort money from them. Poirot calls him a scoundrel on a mean scale.
Geoffrey Raymond
Ackroyd’s assistant of two years. He is a debonair young man with an agreeable disposition
and a wicked sense of humour. He is competent at his job and devoted to Ackroyd and his
family. He does not hesitate to show his indignation when Mrs Ackroyd badmouths Ralph.
He has a strong conscience with a sense of responsibility to his dead employer.
Major Hector Blunt
He is a great friend of Roger Ackroyd’s. They are polar opposites but still share a strong bond
of friendship. He comes once in every two years to spend a fortnight at Fernly Park. He is a
popular hunter with an international reputation and inspires awe in the men who meet him;
from the police inspector Raglan to Poirot. He is known as the big game man. Despite his
medium height, sturdy and stocky build, he is soft-footed and agile. His eyes are always
looking somewhere far away into the horizon, uninterested in the tame society of the civilised
50
world. This makes him a socially awkward person and a man of few words. He is secretly in
love with Flora and gallantly lies to save her when her theft is disclosed to the police. With
Poirot’s encouragement, he confesses his love and gets engaged to her.
Inspector Davis
He is the first inspector to arrive on the scene of the crime. He is prompt and methodical. He
is prompt and immediately sets to work with the footprints and the stranger. There is a
distinct difference in the way he treats the rich and the poor during the interrogation. He
shrewdly reveals the news of Ackroyd’s death only after Flora gives him her testimony. He
immediately makes up his mind about Parker as the main suspect for both the blackmail and
the murder.
Colonel Melrose
The Chief Constable of King’s Abbot. He is amiable to Poirot when the latter joins the
investigation as a private detective. He acknowledges Poirot’s reputation as an excellent
detective.
Inspector Raglan
He is a tiresome police inspector from Cranchester. He starts investigating Ralph’s
disappearance as soon as he arrives in King’s Abbot. When Poirot joins the investigation, he
is hostile and unwelcoming. He claims the case to be simple and suspects Ralph as the killer.
Raglan proudly states that he employs method in his investigation and has a neat list of the
household, along with their alibis. He scoffs at Poirot’s use of psychoanalysis and selectively
reviews evidences to suit his hypothesis. Though he accepts Poirot’s help, he is always
condescending to him. He even suggests that Poirot is “barmy”.
Ursula Bourne
She is the parlour maid who reportedly had a disagreement with Ackroyd over some
displaced paper on the afternoon of Roger Ackroyd’s murder. She gives notice to leave the
establishment soon after. Thus, the police suspect she is the thief and Sheppard suggests she
might be the blackmailer. She is efficient and competent in her work and unlike the other
maids, she is educated. She usually keeps to herself and carries herself with dignity. Later,
she is revealed to be the wife of Ralph Paton. Born into an impoverised Irish family of seven
children, she became a parlour maid for the good pay. She claims that she genuinely enjoys
the work.
Charles Kent
He is the mysterious stranger Dr Sheppard runs into, on his way back from Fernly Park the
night of the murder. Consequently, he is a suspect and is arrested at Liverpool. Though his
alibi checks out, he refuses to reveal his reason for being there. We find out that he is actually
Miss Russell’s illegitimate son.
5. Themes
Gossip and the English Village
In a tight-knit village like King’s Abbot, where everyone knows everyone, gossip is a major
means of transmitting information within the community. Nothing seems to remain hidden
for long. News of Mrs Ferrars’ suicide spreads like wild fire even before the doctor’s final
51
diagnosis. Though a vice in ordinary times, Poirot recognises the usefulness of gossip at a
time like this and uses it to serve his purpose; to extract the truth from rumours or to spread
rumours to suit his purposes. In fact, more information is sourced from Caroline’s gossip than
Sheppard’s selective (and manipulated) contribution of information. Poirot learns about
Ralph seen talking to a woman and a lot of other things from her.
Secrets can be dangerous
There is an abundance of secrets in the book. The story opens with a suicide committed in
order to disclose a secret that has taken its toll on its bearer. Sheppard knew that Mrs Ferrars
poisoned her husband. Instead of reporting it to the police, he chooses to blackmail her. Thus,
the doctor becomes complicit in the murder. He murders Ackroyd in cold blood to prevent his
disgraceful secret from being discovered. One secret breeds another, leads to a murder and a
horde of lies that ultimately lead to his ruin. All the characters have secrets- some big, some
small-that complicates the process of unearthing the identity of Ackroyd’s killer. These
secrets manifest themselves in the characters’ behaviour, muddling evidence. Naturally
everyone is a likely suspect. Secrets breed mistrust and misunderstandings that harm
relationships and future prospects. Miss Russell’s secret leads to a strained relationship with
her son. Secrets torture the soul and revelation sets it free. Flora feels relief and not shame
when her lie and consequently her theft is discovered. Blunt gains a fiancé when he confesses
his love to Flora. Ralph can finally be together with the one he truly loves- Ursula Bourne-
when the secret of his marriage is finally revealed. However, sometimes a well-intentioned
secret can save a person’s memory of someone. Poirot promises Sheppard that he will keep
his crimes a secret from his beloved sister to save her from disgrace and a lifetime of pain.
Nature vs. Nurture
Christie continues the age-old debate of what makes a criminal a criminal- an inherent
genetic flaw(nature) or the environment he grew up in (nurture)? Whodunnits usually prefer
the explanation that criminality is an individual trait, independent of the criminal’s life
experiences or influences while growing up. In the book, the inherent weakness of character
is a recurring theme. It doesn’t matter that Ralph Paton was provided a good education or a
good childhood, the doctor claims his weakness is a character flaw inherited from his
dipsomaniac mother. Talking about weaknesses, Caroline tells Poirot that Sheppard is weak
as water and it is her influence that keeps him out of harm’s way. It is apparent that her
nurture has failed to curb the excesses of his weak nature.
Hercule Poirot’s Method
The importance of employing a logical explanation of one’s ideas/intuition is emphasised in
the difference between Poirot and Caroline. Essentially, Caroline is a foil to Poirot’s
character. From the very beginning of the story, she intuitively guesses the truth of a matter.
For instance, she predicts the existence of Mrs Ferrars’ suicide letter. However, her “inspired
guesswork” never evolves into anything more. Where Poirot bases his deductions on
impeccable logic; she is satisfied with providing provocative suggestions. Her intuition tells
her Miss Russell is “fishy” but she doesn’t try to reason why. Poirot’s intuition leads to a
search for a logical explanation that reveals she is not as upright as she presents herself.
While Caroline simply opines her intuitive abstracts, Poirot employs method, logic, the grey
52
cells of his and psychoanalysis to substantiate his intuition. Poirot’s tactics to get at the truth
of the matter seem ridiculous to the other characters and the readers, at times. His insistence
on the position of the chair and his preoccupation with the colour of Ralph’s boots seems
irrelevant at first but reveals an inner logic at the end. For instance, the association of Charles
Kent’s last name to the city of Kent sounds like bad logic to both Sheppard and Inspector
Raglan. They think Poirot has simply lost his mind. But he is proved right at the end. Neither
the characters nor the readers fully know Poirot’s reason for doing something until he reveals
it to them at the end. Christie firmly builds Poirot’s character around his ‘method’- found in
every novel where Poirot appears. Unlike Caroline’s interest in scandal mongering and the
pleasure of the shock of a revelation, he is genuinely interested in the study of humanity.
Ultimately, what differentiates the two is Poirot’s superior intelligence and method.
Ethics vs State Sponsored Morality
Agatha Christie draws a sharp distinction between the motivations of Poirot and the police in
their courses of investigation. The police pursue the case of Ackroyd’s killer in order to
uphold the moral laws of the land. Poirot is more interested in the truth, follows his own path
and answers only to his own set of ethics. He will go to any length to uncover the truth. He
lies to unearth a truth when necessary. He doesn’t hesitate to publish an untruth in the
newspaper to smoke out Ralph Paton’s wife. Poirot invents a mentally unbalanced nephew to
locate the asylum where Sheppard could have hidden Ralph. It is this flexibility that makes
people share their secrets with him, as he is more humane compared to the cold, impersonal
dealings of the law. The truth is more important to him than the law, justice a greater priority
than meeting the moral standards of the land. This is evident in the end, when he gives
Sheppard the choice to kill himself to save his beloved sister from disgrace. Justice is meted
out without compromising the dignity of the surviving relative. There is emotional logic to
his justice that the state’s courthouses will never be able to replicate.
6. The Detective Fiction Genre
The first definitive detective story was Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murder in the Rue Morgue
published in 1841. Poe was inspired by the memoirs of Francois-Eugene Vidocq, the founder
of the first detective bureau. The genre gained prominence in the late 1800s with writers like
Emile Gaboriau, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, Chesterton et al producing compelling
mysteries. They gave us memorable characters like Sherlock Holmes and Father Brown. The
genre has evolved since then and has taken two very different directions- the British
whodunnit and the hardboiled American thriller. The genre reached a peak in the early 1900s,
with the 1920s and 1930s known as the Golden Age of detective fiction.
The golden age is believed to have started with Chesterton but did not gain momentum
until the end of World War I. The era produced some of the most prominent contributors to
the genre including the four queens of crime- Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham, Dorothy
L. Sayers and Dame Ngaio Marsh. The British whodunit is known for its pastoral settings,
colourful characters and a detective who inspires awe with his eccentric personality that is in
direct contrast to his rationality and accuracy of detection. Due to its growing popularity and
prominence, The Detection Club was formed in 1930 by a group of English mystery writers
that included Agatha Christie, Anthony Berkeley, G.K. Chesterton, Margaret Cole, Dorothy
53
Sayers, Ronald Knox among its members. The members met and held dinners where they
discussed their writings and all swore to Knox’s Ten Commandments of detective fiction (or
decalogue). The Decalogue was developed in 1929 by Richard Knox to ensure that the
readers have the opportunity, throughout the story, to use the clues presented and try to solve
it themselves.
This set formula has been a bone of contention for the genre’s detractors. The American
thriller writer Raymond Chandler famously wrote that, “There is nothing new about these
stories and nothing old . . . the classic detective story, has learned nothing and forgotten
nothing”. The genre is also accused of celebrating the status quo and endorsing the notion
that the criminal tendency is an individualistic trait independent of social conditions and
experiences. Thus, most whodunnits start with a ripple in the status quo of (usually high)
society due to a murder committed in a closed-off community-usually a picturesque little
village or vacation town-untouched by the cares and issues of the real world. The amateur
detective investigates the crime and everyone present at the time and place of the crime is a
suspect until proven innocent. Tropes of the genre include red herrings and double bluffs that
are masterfully incorporated into the plot to add to the mystery and confuse the readers until
‘the very end. Ultimately, the murderer is revealed and the status quo restored.
Despite its set formula, the detective fiction genre is highly popular and accommodates a
wide range of readers; from school children to intellectuals. The whodunnits are favoured for
the very reason they are critiqued. In fact, it is the diversity of plots despite the set formula
that appeal to the readers. The clear beginning and the closure at the end, unlike most modern
fiction, is part of its appeal. In these stories, order is restored by rooting out the cause of evil,
unlike the ambiguities and complexities of real life. And most importantly, justice always
prevails and the resounding moral of detective fiction is that crime never pays.
7. Critical Analysis
The detective fiction contains the story of the crime and the story of the investigation.
-Tzvetan Todorov, The Typology of Detective Fiction, 1966
Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, published in 1926 propelled her to
instant literary stardom. Here was a writer, writing in the golden age of detective fiction and
still managing to pull a rabbit out of the hat in terms of a plot twist. The continuing success of
the book is a testimony to its genre-defining legacy. The usual tropes of the British whodunit
include a pastoral setting- a small village or vacation house- where a murder is committed in
seemingly impossible circumstances. A group of people close to the victim are suspects of
the crime. They bear secrets that obstruct the path of justice and truth until they are revealed
one by one by the amateur detective. The horror of the murder is downplayed, the victim not
exactly missed by anyone or grieved. There is just the thrill of unearthing clues and unlikely
secrets and witty dialogue. It has all the intrigues, scandals and blood without the nasty bits or
even a nasty setting. The story essentially retraces its steps back to reconstruct how and why
a crime was committed and who committed it. It is usually told in first person by an associate
of the amateur detective - in whodunit terms a “Watson”.
54
 In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Christie doesn’t change the foundation of the tropes. In
fact, she does one better. She turns the trope of the genre on their head and reveals to the
shocked readers that ‘Watson’ is the murderer. Ackroyd’s murder inside a locked room with
an open window and a weapon from his own collection means that the household forms the
bulk of likely suspects. A stranger asking for directions to the house, at around the time of the
murder, adds to the intrigue. There are too many clues that instead of helping with the
investigation, delay the process. Each of the suspects, hides a secret, which Poirot must
uncover in order to straighten the tangled web of clues and use his intellect to deduce the
sequence of events and reveal the murderer. Along the way, he plays matchmaker to Flora
and Major Blunt.
Christie’s signature trope is the revelation of the murderer by the detective who gathers
all the likely suspects into a room together and narrates the complete picture of the events
leading up to the crime. This involves putting the secrets he uncovered from all the suspects
into their appropriate places like in a jigsaw puzzle or a game of clue. While Christie stays
true to her signature trope, there are slight changes in the execution. In The Murder of Roger
Ackroyd, Poirot gathers all the suspects together in his cottage and narrates the sequence of
events that led to the murder. He establishes the estimated time of the murder which makes
Ralph the only likely suspect. However, he announces that Ralph is innocent and the
murderer must come forward to save Ralph. After they leave, he narrates how he discovered
the murderer to a single audience, Dr Sheppard. Playing the role of Watson, Sheppard had
accompanied Poirot on most of his investigations and is privy to all the secrets of the
characters and is the narrator of the story.
In retrospect, one realises that the entire book is a red herring because naturally the
reader suspects everyone except the narrator. Once one reaches the end of the book and lets
the revelation of Sheppard as the blackmailer and murderer seep in; one is taken aback by the
games the writer and the narrator have played. Sentences start to reveal their double meaning.
When Sheppard writes, “Could I do anything with the boy? I thought I could” one realises it
is not helping Ralph that he is considering but effectively framing him as the murderer. As he
is leaving the study he wonders, “If there was anything I had left undone. I could think of
nothing”. One realises that he is not thinking about doing his best to comfort Ackroyd before
leaving but rather he is wondering if the murder has been well executed or not. Poirot too
plays a game of cat and mouse with Sheppard. While Sheppard's knowledge of the crime and
his control over the narrative gives him the upper hand in his choice of words, Poirot’s
suspicion of the doctor without his catching up, gives Poirot an edge. In fact, the infallible
Poirot is way ahead of the game. Sheppard simply follows the track of an outline he has
created without changing his tactics. The doctor uses white lies or a reserve in his narrative to
selectively portray a picture that benefits him. The reader keeps running after the red herrings
created by a misleading narrative, though Poirot repeatedly draws the reader’s attention to
Sheppard’s ‘reticence’ and warns him not to keep secrets from him. Thus, the revelation of
the murderer’s real identity is a genuine shock. Ironically, the narration of the investigation is
also the confession of a murderer.
Christie has been accused of breaking a major rule of Knox’s commandment by making
the narrator the murderer. However, one must consider that these commandments were not
55
set in stone. In fact, its members took the limitations as a challenge to find a loophole in them
and break them like an expert. She was a brilliant puzzle maker who kept the genre dynamic
by always changing her tactic. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a fine example.
Unlike popular judgement, the pastoral settings of whodunnits are not immune to the
changing times. They are a commentary on the rural English life of the inter-war years with
rapidly changing social dynamics. Ralph’s marriage to the handsome and dignified parlour
maid, Ursula Bourne, is indicative of the weakening barrier between the social classes. Ursula
is a woman of modern sensibilities. While Mrs Russell has the conspicuous bearing of a lady,
Ursula’s dignity and self-possession come from a genuine sense of independence and a good
education. Christie artfully mocks the frivolity of the gentile class when Caroline asks Ursula
if she became a maid to win a wager. The dignified and self-respecting girl replies “for a
living” without humour. The text also exposes the precarious position of dependents like Mrs
Ackroyd, Flora and Ralph who have the bearings and the lifestyle of the rich but are poorer
than the servants due to their total dependence on rich relatives. The pastoral of the whodunit
has been befittingly called a microcosm of British society, in a limited range.
Detective fiction has been critiqued time and again for endorsing the belief that
criminality is a genetic flaw, independent of social influence. Raymond Chandler comments
on the “depressing way [it minds] its own business, solving its own problems and answering
its own questions.” This text is no different. Sheppard’s crime is simply the crime of a weak
man. Locating criminality in a single individual offers a convenient solution to root out evil.
Because they are isolated cases of bad seeds which can be weeded out for the peace and
security of society to be restored. This escapism, however, has not reduced the popularity of
the genre; it remains the most popular genre, with a diverse readership. The popularity of
detective fiction grew after the first world war when Europe was coming to terms with the
trauma of war, the resulting economic decay, swift changing social dynamics and the modern
condition. The detective fiction genre offered them escape. The plot has a concrete
beginning- a murder is discovered- and a concrete end- the murderer is revealed and the
status quo is restored. There are none of the ambiguities and complexities of real life. It is
simply a clever puzzle with an interesting plot and a narrative set in a picturesque location.
No wonder Christie’s whodunnits are called cozy crime.
Questions
1. Almost all the characters in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd have something to hide. How
does the novel navigate the discourse of deceit by having so many “guilty" characters?
2. Write a short commentary on whodunnits with special reference to Agatha Christie's The
Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
3. How did Agatha Christie employ red herrings and double bluff to subvert the genre
conventions of whodunnits in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd?
4. Write a short note on Poirot's method of detection.
5. Poirot tells Dr Sheppard that his narrative is reticent. This proves to be an important point
when the truth of the blackmailer and the murderer is revealed. Discuss how this reticence
played its part in the plot.
6. Comment on the class consciousness in Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
56
 Paper-VI : Popular Literature
Unit-3 : Science Fiction

Contents
a. Isaac Asimov, ‘Nightfall’ Piyush B. Chaudhary
b. Ursula le Guin, ‘The Ones who walk away from Omelas’ Nalini Prabhakar
c. Philip K. Dick, ‘Minority Report’ Piyush B. Chaudhary
d. Ray Bradbury, ‘A Sound of Thunder’ Rituraj Anand
e. Jayant Narlikar, ‘The Ice Age Cometh’ Rituraj Anand

Edited by:
Nalini Prabhakar

57 58
 Unit-3
Science Fiction
1. General Introduction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction where the subject matter is science and technology of the
future. It consists of the same elements as that of other fiction; namely plot, setting,
characters and their development, conflict, and conflict resolution. But unlike other fiction,
Science fiction is often set in the future, in space or in a different world/universe. The
narratives are based on partially true and partially fictitious theories of science. These
theories however are within believable parameters and not fantastical. The situations created
are different from the known present and past. Science fiction explores the positive and
adverse effects of these new scientific and technological discoveries on the physical world. It
explores worlds that are logically possible and thereby look into fundamental questions about
our place in the universe and the nature of reality. It allows us to portray alternatives as to
how society can function and what futures can be prevented. The definition as we can see is
very broad and science fiction has been used to address questions of politics, philosophy, and
sociology
Within this genre, a sub-genre “social science fiction” has gained much currency. The
term was coined by Ursula K. Le Guin to include fiction that is speculative in nature. It is in
effect a sub-genre without the mechanics of science and technology. This fiction is not
confined to merely the “science” of science fiction. In this sub-genre we can see a confluence
of two traditions:1. the utopian and dystopian tradition and 2. classic science fiction tradition.
Classic science fiction as we already noted, deals with the positive or adverse impact of
scientific and technological discoveries on the physical world. Social science fiction focuses
on the social consequences of such discoveries and innovations. Social science fiction
explores issues related to social evolution and change as also the impact of science on human
relationships within society. The acceptance speech that Le Guin gave in 2014 at National
Book Awards, best sums up the need for writers of social science fiction: “I think hard times
are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we
live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other
ways of being, and even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can
remember freedom. Poets, visionaries, the realists, of a larger reality.”
Unit-3 in your Popular Fiction paper is devoted to science fiction and you are expected to
study all the five short stories prescribed. Although four of the stories prescribed adhere to
the broad definition of science fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk
Away from Omelas” defies this definition because the ‘science’ of science fiction is
completely missing. We will deal with this issue separately while analyzing the story.
59
Unit-3a
Nightfall
Isaac Asimov
Piyush B. Chaudhary
1. Introduction
In the genre of Science Fiction, the name of Isaac Asimov finds a prominent place. His short
story Nightfall (1941) has garnered much critical acclaim and has been considered a classic
work of fiction in this genre. The story has proved instrumental in raising Isaac Asimov's
status as a science fiction writer of repute. Such was its importance in Asimov's career as a
professional writer of science fiction that he once wrote in his collection of short stories in
1969 that: “The writing of 'Nightfall' was a watershed in my professional career… I was
suddenly taken seriously and the world of science fiction became aware that I existed. As the
years passed, in fact, it became evident that I had written a 'classic'.” That also explains why
this short story is one of the most highly anthologised stories by Asimov.
The story was first published in September’ 1941 edition of Astounding Science Fiction,
and even further enlarged and carried forward by Robert Silverberg in 1990 in the form of a
full-length novel. The full-length novel differs in several aspects but takes forward the story.
Asimov was motivated to do this looking at the stellar success of Nightfall.
The story has for its genesis the famous beginning from the essay ‘Nature’ by Ralph
Waldo Emerson: “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men
believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God!”.
The editor of Astounding Science Fiction, John W. Campbell discussed this quotation with
Asimov and asked him to write a story about a civilisation which remains in perpetual
sunlight, with the arrival of night once in a thousand years, with nothing in sight except a
dozen stars in the sky. Emerson’s response to the night in the above quote is one of awe and
wonder; for him it is a revelation of the city of God. Campbell however thought that such a
night would simply “make everyone mad”. Asimov built his narrative upon this theme and
produced one of the most famous science fiction stories ever written by any science fiction
writer.
2. Learning Objectives
This lesson will enable you to:
● Understand the genesis of the narrative Nightfall
● Critically analyse the story.
● Identify the major themes in the story
● Identify the elements of science fiction, fantasy and spiritual myths in Nightfall.
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3. Detailed Summary
'Nightfall' tells the story of planet Lagash which remains in perpetual sunlight and is about to
experience its first night in 2,049 years. The story begins a few hours before pitch darkness
engulfs the entire planet. The story inter-twines scientific facts with myth and fantasy and
presents the terrifying prospect of the world coming to an end because of darkness. The time
frame of the story is four hours and has a single setting, which is the Observatory at Saro
University. Lagash is a distant civilisation which has six suns across its sky which constantly
spreads light to the planet. The world as Lagash knows will come to an end in four hours.
Five suns have already set and the sixth Beta is about to set in four hours. This event will
occur not because of any catastrophic event, but because the people will go mad and self-
destruct themselves. There is a scientific explanation, and also a mythological explanation
from the Cultists’ Book of Revelation offered in the narrative for this madness.
The scientific explanation – Aton and the group of scientists in the Observatory have, after
painstaking research found that nine previous civilizations of Lagash were destroyed by fire
at the height of their culture and no one could tell why. This destruction begins with an
eclipse, “The eclipse that results, with the moon seven times the apparent diameter of Beta,
covers all of Lagash and lasts well over half a day, so that no spot on the planet escapes the
effects” (p.7 ) Lagash will find itself in centre of a giant cluster of thirty thousand mighty
stars despite which there will be complete darkness. The human brain when faced with
something inconceivable will go mad, and cities will burn because people will light fires to
dispel the darkness. Sheerin, the psychologist raises fundamental questions and issues related
to conception of truth and the brain's capacity to understand it. When Sheerin says: “A
fraction of the reality upsets you, and when the real thing comes, your brain is going to be
presented with the phenomenon outside its limits of comprehension. You will go mad,
completely and permanently! There is no question of it!” (p.9), the statement holds a general
amount of philosophical truth and the author seems to understand the way human society
works and also seems to understand the limits of the brain.
The Cultists’ explanation – This is based on the myth of “Stars” in the Book of Revelation.
It states that in every 2,050 years Lagash enters a huge cave, then mysterious stars appear
which rob the people of their souls and leave them as brutes and a heavenly flame from the
Stars will destroy Lagash.
In the city of Saro itself which is representative of all other cities on the planet Lagash,
there are three groups- the ordinary citizens, scientists and cultists – all trying to come to
terms with this phenomena. The scientists and cultists are few in number. The voice of the
citizens who are in a majority is found in Theremon, the journalist. He, like the rest of the
citizens thinks that the scientists are crack-pots with bizarre theories; he does not believe in
the Book of Revelation either and dismisses it as mumbo-jumbo. He is like the proverbial
ostrich refusing to accept the truth facing him. After all five of the six suns have set! The
scientists in anticipation of the impending doom have put three hundred people (3/4 th of
which are women and children) with all the data collected in a hideout so that the next cycle
will “know” and the three hundred saved can repopulate the planet and start a new cycle.
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The Cultists are however waiting with elation for the end of the world. Of the three
groups only they are not interested in averting this occurrence. They believe that the ‘Stars’,
when they rob them of their souls, will provide them with immortality. The fifth chapter of
the Book of Revelation, which Latimer recites as the end nears, gives the reader an idea of
the terrifying things about to happen. The title of the Book, language and style of the fifth
chapter also makes the reader connect it to the Book of Revelation in the Bible, and the
Apocalypse.
“And it came to pass that in those days the sun, Beta, held lone vigil…it alone, shrunken
and cold, shone down upon Lagash… And men did assemble in the public squares and in the
highways, there to debate and to marvel at the sight, for a strange depression had seized them.
Their minds were troubled and their speech confused, for the souls of men awaited the
coming of the Stars…It came to pass that the Darkness of the Cave fell upon Lagash, and
there was no light on all the surface of Lagash. Men were even as blinded, nor could one man
see his neighbour, though he felt his breath upon his face…And in this blackness there
appeared the Stars, in countless numbers, and to the strains of music of such beauty that the
very leaves of the trees cried out in wonder. And in that moment the souls of men departed
from them, and their abandoned bodies became even as beasts… From the Stars there then
reached down the Heavenly Flame, and where it touched, the cities of Lagash flamed to utter
destruction, so that of man and of the works of man nought remained.” (p.13)
The Book of Revelation is in the language of the second cycle of civilisation and how the
Book survived despite seven more cycles being destroyed is in itself a mystery and lends
credence to the cultists’ belief in the miraculous power of God. The interesting part of the
narrative is that science is not being seen in opposition to the predictions in the Book of
Revelation. We find the scientists agreeing with them. Aton when he reaches a dead end in
the research approaches Sor, the head of the Cultists for the data only Sor could give. Aton, a
little later in the story tells Latimer that he had promised Sor that his intention was to prove
the “essential truth of the creed of the cult” (p.11). He claims to have found scientific backing
to the creed’s beliefs.
Despite the fact that the scientists are in agreement with the cultists, Latimer has come to
destroy the Observatory, because the Cultists believe that Aton has removed the spiritual
significance of the prediction and made ‘Darkness’ and ‘Stars’ a natural phenomenon. This is
the bone of contention between them. In this accusation, Latimer is only partially correct.
‘Darkness’ according to the scientists is created due to an eclipse and the duration of this
eclipse would be of half a day, whereas the Cultists believe that the darkness is caused when
Lagash will enter a huge cave of darkness, because this is preordained in the Book of
Revelation and is of divine dispensation.
‘Stars’ in the Lagash sky are not the stars we conceive them to be; for the Cultists the
stars are mysterious and do not provide any light, but appear in the sky with the sole purpose
of robbing people off their souls and turning them into beasts. The divine flame from the
Stars will burn down the civilization. The scientists have no explanation for the stars and are
inclined to accept their mystery. “Imagine Darkness - everywhere. No light, as far as you can
see. The houses, the trees, the fields, the earth, the sky – black! And Stars thrown in, for all I
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know – whatever they are. Can you conceive it?” (p.9) Shireen’s words indicate a fear of the
unknown, unknown because they do not know what these stars are. The two younger
scientists Yimot and Faro conduct an experiment to simulate the darkness and its appearance
before it could happen in reality. They simulate night and create complete darkness and make
holes in the roof to give the effect of the stars, but this experiment fails. Yimot reports to the
other scientists, “Well, nothing. That was the whacky part of it. Nothing happened. It was just
a roof with holes in it and that’s just what it looked like.” The narrative ends with the arrival
of Stars as predicted in the Book of Revelation: “the awful splendour of the indifferent Stars
leaped nearer to them. The long night had come again.” (p.19)
Check your progress
1. What is the context of the story Nightfall?
2. What explanation is offered by the scientists and the cultists for the phenomena that is
to occur?
4. Critical Analysis
4.1 Religion and Science
Nightfall is a complex thought provoking story where elements of SF, spiritual myth, mystery
and fantasy are all interwoven. The story does not set up a binary between science and
religion; instead tries to amalgamate scientific principles to the myths and prophecies made in
the religious texts. Aton accepts the truth of the prophecy/ prediction in the Book of
Revelation, and his entire mission is to find scientific explanation for the end of the world
prediction. To this end he is able to offer the theory of universal gravitation and the eclipse
caused by the moon, replacing the dark cave explanation in the Book of Revelation.
The eclipse however is only for half a day. Lagash would be enveloped in complete
darkness only for that duration. It is somehow inconceivable for the reader how darkness for
such a short period of time would make people mad enough to self-destruct the entire planet,
even if one allows for the fact that darkness as a concept and as an experience is unknown to
people of Lagash. Sheerin tells us that darkness even for duration of fifteen minutes as in the
tunnel ride, would bring on madness due to lack of light and claustrophobia. But we also
know that the people know how to light fires which can dispel darkness. Perhaps what
Sheerin is referring to is the way in which the human mind works, when it has to contend
with something which is inconceivable; the shock and the fear of the unknown, will rob it of
all rationality and make it irrational and mad. “First the eclipse …which will start in three
quarters of an hour …then universal Darkness, and maybe, these mysterious Stars -- then
madness, and end of the cycle.” (p.7) More than the darkness it is the Stars that the scientists
fear, probably because they know what causes the darkness but have no clue about the Stars.
The cultists also believe that the divine Stars will cause madness and subsequent destruction.
The narrative itself does not lead us to believe one way or the other. That the world will come
to an end in a huge fire is certain, but how this huge fire will happen and what causes it -
divine wrath or human madness - is ambiguous. This ambiguity is further reinforced by the
ending.
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The ending of the narrative is inconclusive and is deliberately so; we simply do not know
how events unfold once darkness takes over. The enigma regarding the cause of madness
which will ultimately destroy Lagash remains unresolved. Is it the mysterious Stars or the
limits of the human mind? The only conclusion that one can draw is that myths, which have
survived over thousands of years, and science ,both aim towards an understanding of the
universe we live in, but do it in different ways; myths are symbolic and poetic in nature
whereas science deals with facts and empirical evidence. For instance, the myth describes
Lagash as entering a giant cave. All of us who have at one time or another watched an eclipse
would wholeheartedly agree with this description, but we also know that science explains the
same thing differently. Both descriptions are valid, one poetic the other scientific.
4.2 Nightfall and the Bible
The crux of the story Nightfall is that of the world coming to an end. This idea is borrowed
from the Book of Revelation in the Bible, and the sacred book of Cultists in the story goes by
the same name. The Book of Revelation is the last book of the Bible and deals with the
Second Coming of Christ, also known as Apocalypse/ Doomsday/ Day of Judgement. It
reveals God’s plans for the righteous and the sinners. Chapter 6-16 of the Book in the Bible
consists of three cycles of seven judgements and has seven trumpets and seven bowls.
Chapter 6 deals with opening of the sixth seal and chapter 8 with opening of seventh seal.
The prophetic insert between the sixth and seven seals describes the sealing of 1,44,000
children of Israel. You will notice the similarity between this protective sealing and the three
hundred people in hideout in Saro. The Biblical prediction of apocalypse must have seemed
very real to Asimov’s readers in the 1940’s, experiencing the darkness, destruction and
brutality of the second world war. The images of the sun “black as a sackcloth of hair” and
Stars “falling from the heaven burning like a torch”, from chapter 6 and 8 of the Book of
Revelation in the Bible will make it clear that the prophecy in Nightfall has a direct relation
to the prophecy in the Bible.
Chapter-6
“Behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and
the moon became like blood.
And the stars of heaven fall to earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a
mighty wind.
Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island was
moved out of its place.
And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, every slave and every free man
hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.
And said to the mountains and rocks ‘fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who
sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
For the great day of this wrath has come and who is able to stand? ”
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Chapter-8
After the seventh seal is opened all the seven angels sound the trumpets one after the
other raining “fire and brimstone on earth, with stars falling from heaven burning like a
torch.”
4.3 Symbolism
The overall mood of the story is one of gloom and impending doom. The red room where
Shireen and Theremon talk acts as a symbol of blood and horror and death. The final sun in
the sky Beta with its bricky light, the maroon carpet and red curtains, and the red liquor
bottle–all represent a gloomy, scary atmosphere and hint at a mood of death and danger.
The red room very soon becomes the dark room with the curtains drawn by Theremon.
This episode allows the author to comment on what darkness does to humans. It makes them
aimless, mad brutes. The darkness without is also a symbol of the darkness within and is the
recurrent symbol which appears at multiple junctures in the story and represents the evil in
human actions.
Check your progress
1. Asimov presents us with two widely differing ways of looking at the universe we live
in– science and myth. Do you think Asimov takes a side or is his position ambivalent?
Comment with reference to the text.
2. What is the myth of the ‘Stars’ in Nightfall?
3. Do you think the second world war and the allusion to the Apocalypse in the Bible has a
significant bearing on our understanding of the story?
4. Comment on the ending of the story.
Bibliography
Asimov, Isaac. “A Conversation with Isaac Asimov.” Interview by Gregory Fitz Gerald, Jack
Wolf, Joshua Duberman and Robert Philmus. Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Mar.,
1987), pp. 68-77.
Asimov, I. Nightfall and Other Stories. Grafton Books. 1969. Edition 1991.
The Open Bible, New King James Version. New York: Thomas Nelson Publisher,1985.
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Unit-3b
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Ursula K. Le Guin
Nalini Prabhakar
1. Introduction
The short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” is taken from “The Wind’s
Twelve Quarters”, a collection of mostly science fiction and fantasy stories. This collection
also has the other kind of story. In the foreword to the book Ursula K. Le Guin writes that the
other kind of story is “Psycho-myths, more or less surrealistic tales, which share with fantasy
the quality of taking place outside any history, outside of time in that region of the living
mind which without invoking any consideration of immortality seems to be without spatial or
temporal limits at all.” In the preamble to the story, Le Guin calls it a psycho-myth, where the
central idea is of a “scapegoat” Although Le Guin acknowledges that the scapegoat as a
psycho-myth appears in Dostoevsky's “TheBrothers Karamazov”, she writes that she was
influenced by the use of this myth by William James in “The Moral Philosopher and the
Moral Life”.The following quotes will help you understand the concept of “Scapegoat” better
although the word per-se is not used.
Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
“Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men
happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to
torture to death only one tiny creature – that baby beating its breast with its fists, for instance
and to found that edifice on its un avenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on
those conditions”.
William James, “The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life”
“Or if the hypothesis were offer us of a world in which Messrs. Fourier’s and Bellamy’s and
Morris’s Utopia should all be out done, and millions kept permanently happy on the one
simple condition that a certain lost soul on the far-off edge of things should lead a life of
lonely torture, what except a sceptical and independent sort of emotion can it be which would
make us immediately feel, even though an impulse arose within us to clutch at the happiness
so offered, how hideous a thing would be its enjoyment when deliberately accepted as the
fruit of such a bargain?”
A psycho-myth simply put is a thought experiment; and in this case it is the suffering of a
child which generates happiness for an entire city. The child here is the scapegoat who is
tortured for ensuring happiness in Omelas. Our interest in this story is not merely the psycho-
myth, but the prevalence of this myth in different forms in the world in which we live, and
the serious moral and ethical issues that his myth raises.
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 As already mentioned in the introduction this story is not classic science fiction because
there is no explanation, however far-fetched, that is offered to connect the cause (suffering)
and effect (happiness), nor any solution offered to eliminate the suffering. We can however
read this story as an allegory, as the situation in the story has a direct relevance to the society
we live in, and the social and economic systems we have put in place which allows
scapegoats in the name of development and prosperity. It can also be read as a philosophical
narrative which raises fundamental questions about human conscience, human actions, and
justice. The story you will realize is not really about Omelas and its happy people but as the
title indicates, about the ones that leave Omelas.
Check your progress
1. Explain Psycho-myth.
2. Learning Objectives
This lesson will enable you to:
 Understand the concept of psycho-myth and how this myth operates in the story.
 Critically analyse the story as a rejection of Utilitarian morality.
 Read the story as an allegory.
 Identify the moral and ethical issues raised in the story.
3. Summary and Analysis
The narrative begins by describing the first day of summer in the city of Omelas. There is a
festive atmosphere, joy and happiness all around. This we are immediately told is not specific
to that particular day, but is a permanent state of being in Omelas. The people are “intelligent,
sophisticated and cultured” and also blissfully happy all the time. Here the narrator launches
into a passionate critique of the society we live in where happiness is considered “stupid”.
Although the people of Omelas are as “complex” as us, and not in any way “simple”, they
valued happiness whereas “we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of
considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil
interesting...we can no longer describe a happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.”
Before we can attribute this happy state of being to some benevolent king or oligarchs, the
narrator quickly dispels all such notions. We are told that Omelas does not have a figure of
authority. It does not have kings, soldiers, priests, slaves, and “got on without stock
exchange, the advertisement, the secret police and the bomb.” Beyond this statement, the
political, social and economic set up of Omelas is not referred to at all and the narrator simply
says she is not sure about it. The celebration of the first summer day is the only chronological
event mentioned in the entire narrative. Everything else is by way of conjecture and
speculation.
We realize early in the narrative, that the narrator does not intend to create a real city
with clearly defined geographical boundaries. Omelas is an amorphous, imaginary space and
this becomes abundantly clear when the narrator invites the reader to create Omelas.
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Anticipating the disbelief of the reader in the existence of such a perfect place, she writes, “I
wish I could convince you. Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago
and far away, once upon a time. Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own
fancy bids, assuming it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all.”
The narrator then lists some things the reader might want to include in Omelas; for
instance they could include fuel-less, light sourced central heating, subway trains, washing
machines, but certainly not cars or helicopters. And if the reader is inclined towards including
orgies and drooz (pleasure inducing, non-habit forming drugs) they are welcome to do so but
with conditions. “Let us not have temples from which issue beautiful nude priests and
priestesses already half in ecstasy and ready to copulate with any man or woman, lover or
stranger.... But really it would be better not to have any temples in Omelas at least not
manned temples. Religion yes, clergy no... . For those who like the faint insistent sweetness
of drooz... which first brings a great lightness and brilliance to the mind and limbs..., as well
as exciting the pleasure of sex beyond all belief; and it is not habit forming.” You will notice
that the reader is only being given some freedom to create Omelas, but the final contours of
what the reader includes is within the parameters set by the narrator. The narrative control
thus rests with the narrator.
At the summer festival celebration grounds, there is a child nine or ten sitting at the edge
of the crowd and playing on a flute. He is so immersed in creating the music that he is
oblivious to the crowd around him. “His dark eyes wholly rapt in the sweet, thin magic of the
tune”. This child in blissful harmony with his music is in complete contrast to the other child
of similar age that we get to meet soon after.
Just when the reader is becoming comfortable and setting into Omelas, after having co-
created it and its happy people with the narrator, the narrator abruptly changes the setting.
The reader is taken to a small closet in the basement of a grand building where a child is kept
in filth, hungry and miserable. That there is a child suffering excruciating pain and misery is
not a secret; everyone in Omelas when they are of an age, old enough to know, are made
aware of this child. “The room is about three paces long and two wide: a mere broom closet
or disused tool room. In the room is a child sitting. It could be a boy or a girl. It looks about
six, but actually is nearly ten. It is feeble minded. Perhaps it was born defective, or perhaps it
has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect... . It is so thin there are no
calves to its legs; its belly protrudes; it lives on a half-bowl of corn meal and grease a day. It
is naked. Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement
continually.” This suffering child is the edifice on which the happiness of Omelas rests.
Although most of them express horror, disgust and shock at the condition of the child, they
accept it as necessary to secure happiness of the entire community.
But there are some citizens whose conscience does not permit this atrocity and they walk
away from Omelas, from a happiness guaranteed for a lifetime. The narrator tells us that the
place where these citizens go is “less imaginable” than Omelas, and perhaps it does not even
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exist. But what is important is that “they know where they are going, the ones who walk before them two choices – 1. to walk away and like Pontius Pilate of yore, wash their hands
away from Omelas.” of any complicity in the child’s torture and 2. to stay and fight to eliminate this unjust,
immoral practice. By choosing the former, the status quo remains in Omelas and therefore
Check your progress
their “walking away” is a symbolic act at best; and at worst meaningless and futile.Walking
1. Describe the city of Omelas. away also reinforces the idea that somehow the myth of the suffering child is unalterable,
2. How does the narrator include the reader in the creation of Omelas? permanent and pre-ordained.
3. Explain the concept of scapegoat with reference to the child in the closet. 4.2 The Story as an Allegory
4. Why do some of the citizens walk away from Omelas? We have already noted that this story is not classic science fiction as it does not present a
4. Critical Issues probable catastrophic future which needs to be averted. It can however be read as an allegory
of the world in which we live, where for the happiness of a greater number of people, some
4.1 Utilitarian Morality and Omelas have to suffer. The happiness in our homes and cities rests on the exploitation of innocents
The city of Omelas seems to be organized upon morality that is closely aligned to Utilitarian somewhere else. In an interview in 2006, Le Guin told the critic Carl Freedman “I would not
philosophy. The main proponents of this philosophy were Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and deny that utopia may always be based on atrocity – since all privileged lives are based on
J.S. Mill (1806-1773). This philosophy has been very influential in the fields of economics, injustice, that would seem to indicate a possible rule.” The world we live in has deeply
politics, governance, and also morality. According to this philosophy, pleasure or happiness entrenched hierarchical structures of class, race, gender etc. The child in the closet living in
is the only thing that has intrinsic value (value in itself); nothing else has intrinsic value. The its own filth, emaciated, miserable is symbolic of the marginalized people who live in similar
morality of an action is based purely on its consequences. Any action that produces happiness conditions. Like the child they live in the underbelly of our bright, prosperous cities; and like
is right and any action that produces unhappiness is wrong. Any action that works towards the citizens of Omelas, we choose to pretend that they do not exist.
the “greatest good for the greatest number of people” is a right action. If in this process a few Check your progress
have to suffer, that suffering however unjust is necessary and of no serious consequence. If
all actions have only instrumental value (means to an end), it follows that most times one has 1. Explain Utilitarian morality.
to perform unjust actions in certain situations, without considering the moral and ethical 2. Do you find the ending satisfactory?
aspects of such actions.
For the citizens of Omelas the suffering of the child is of little consequence, because that
action of keeping the child in misery ensures the happiness of the entire city. The morality
here is clearly Utilitarian, as the citizens are looking at the instrumental value of keeping one
child in misery. This kind of morality does not take into consideration principles of justice
and compassion. But there are certain actions however, that can never be done, regardless of
how positive and far reaching the consequences are. The life and dignity of each individual
has intrinsic value and this cannot be compromised or sacrificed for the larger good. This is
the reason why some choose to walk away from Omelas, because they cannot accept a
happiness which is in exchange for a child’s misery. The ones who walk away “know where
they are going”, perhaps a place where there is no “scapegoat” to be bartered for their
happiness. This walking away in one sense can be seen as an affirmation of morality based on
justice and rejection of the dubious morality of Omelas. The story ends here; but there is a
fundamental question that needs to be asked. Does the walking away indeed resolve
anything? The individual conscience is most certainly assuaged but it does not in any way
alter the condition of the child or that of the many other children who will suffer the same
fate to keep the city happy. The ones that stay have made their choice – to ignore the question
of justice and morality and to live by killing their conscience; The ones that walk away, have

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 Unit-3c
The Minority Report
Philip K. Dick
Piyush B. Chaudhary
1. Learning Objectives
This unit will enable you to:
 Understand Philip Dick’s contribution to the Science Fiction genre.
 Situate the story The Minority Report within a historical context.
 Critically analyze the story.
 Engage with a few major issues raised in the story.
2. General Introduction
Philip Dick is the visionary science-fiction writer whose numerous works have firmly
established his place amongst the finest science-fiction authors. He has written numerous
novels and over a hundred short stories. Philip Dick’s works have been adapted to the movie
screen and have garnered much critical acclaim. The story, The Minority Report (1956) was
adapted into a Hollywood movie, starring Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell. The movie was
directed by Steven Spielberg as an American science-fiction film in 2002. The movie differed
in several aspects but the central theme of the Precrime system was intact. In any case his
stories and media adaptations of his works made him a highly popular science fiction writer.
As a soft science fiction writer, in contrast to the hard science fiction that Isaac Asimov
represents, Philip K Dick’s works often take up issues which most science fiction writers tend
to ignore. His engagements with political state of affairs and ideologies and his tendency to
take up ideological and existential subjects speaks volumes about his unique writing style.
The multi-layered plots, the frightened anticipation, elements of fantasy, the
unexpectedness of the plot, the mind-boggling scenarios, the wide range of interpretations,
and the highly political and existential nature of his works can now be adequately described
as Phildickian.
The Minority Report talks about a society where crime can be detected before it happens.
A group of three precog mutants foresee any criminal act that might happen in future.
Precrime is a police unit which stops the crime before it actually happens. Anderton is head
of the police unit and he is believed to murder an unknown man Kaplan as per the report of
the precog mutants. This makes him worry about a conspiracy behind it. What follows is how
Anderton tries hard to unravel the secrets behind the report, but ends up killing Kaplan and
thus proving the prophecy of the precogs as true.
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3. Detailed Summary and Analysis
The story begins with John Anderton, the Police Commissioner waiting for the arrival of Ed
Witwer, the second in command in the police agency, who will take the reins from Anderton
once he retires from the job. Witwer appears to be a man of business and Anderton is visibly
upset and anxious upon the arrival of the young Witwer and feels unsettled at the prospect of
him becoming the new commissioner sooner or later.
We are then introduced to the system of Precrime which is developed to stop criminal
acts from taking place and arresting potential would-be criminal from committing the act of
violence. The precog mutants, a set of three mutants work together to produce data from the
future which allows the police to arrest criminals before they actually commit the criminal
act. Anderton recognizes the problem of this system and his views give legitimacy to the fact
that the people they arrest are innocent. He agrees that since they have not yet committed any
crime, “in a sense they are innocent” (p.48). The author has straightway raised the central
concern of the story at the beginning itself.
The three precogs, the three mutant robots are described as babbling “idiots” whose
“minds were dull, confused, lost in shadows.” (p.49) The description adequately sets in an
inorganic and mechanized way of analyzing crimes. The mutants are said to be “vegetable-
like” (p.49), devoid of any true sense, emotions or critical thought. The machines merely pass
on the analyzed information and do not understand what they are analyzing. It is the humans
like Anderton who analyze those things and interpret and intercept any potential future crime.
The precogs give three different time paths which are nothing but three different reports, each
describing the future actions of the would-be criminals. This is explained by the “theory of
multiple-futures. If only one time-path existed, precognitive information would be of no
importance, since no possibility would exist, in possessing this information, of altering the
future.” (p.57)
At the end of section I, Anderton, the head of the Precrime system is himself accused of
a future murder that he will commit in a week’s time and Anderton “with absolute,
overwhelming conviction,” refuses to believe it. (p.50) This leads him to a state of paranoia
and Anderton believes that his wife could have implicated his name or that Witwer is plotting
against him to get his job.
Jerry, the middle mutant has given the minority report which has the proof of Anderton’s
innocence. This was outvoted by the report of the other two mutants which contained proof of
Anderton’s killing of Kaplan. The minority report contained the prediction that Anderton is
innocent as it gives an alternate version of the future event. The minority report differed from
the majority report which would prove that the murder could be averted. But Anderton gets
arrested and detained by Leopold Kaplan to prevent the predicted murder. The new
commissioner of precrime Ed Witwer has taken charge and a formal warrant of arrest has
been issued against Anderton. This makes him believe that this was a setup against him with
Witwer and Lisa as accomplices.
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 Fleming is the man who then appears and saves Anderton with a preset accident and situation which involves people of power, like the police commissioner himself. For the
helps him escape by giving him a new identity to escape the police and avoid arrest. Later ordinary people might not even get a chance to clear their names to prevent arrest.
Anderton and his wife Lisa escape in a ship. Anderton believes that since he saw the
Check your progress
precognitive data and the information from the precogs, he could hence avert the murder.
Hence, his seeing the card did the trick and solved the crime. But this also raises the other 1. What is the real reason behind the killing of Kaplan by Anderton?
significant issue that there could have been others too who could have changed their minds 2. Define majority report and minority report.
and averted the crimes, if only the precognitive information was allowed to reach them to
3. In the narrative the precogs have been defined as “vegetable-like”. What is the point
prevent the crime from happening. This lacuna points out to the grave injustice done to
that the author is trying to raise here in the way he has described the mutants?
several of the ‘would-be’ criminals who were imprisoned in detention camps before they
actually committed the act of violence. These powerless people of the state, without the state 4. Do you think Precrime is a good system for preventing crimes?
machinery and political or bureaucratic strength were not able to defend themselves and had
4. Critical Analysis
to be imprisoned in detention camps by the Police.
4.1 Historical Context
Anderton was in a position to change his mind and to avoid the act of violence because
he has the knowledge of the precognitive data with him. This is echoed in Kaplan’s public The historical context of any piece of literature cannot be ignored while engaging with the
speech where he tries to denounce and expose the illegitimacy of precrime system and refute text. Such a reading of the text provides an added dimension to the story. The Minority
its prediction of future crimes and criminals: Report highlights the anxieties and tensions of the 1950’s America. The widespread fear,
panic and propaganda during the cold-war is raised consciously in the story. The USA of the
But there can be no valid knowledge about the future. As soon as precognitive
1950’s saw the advent of the cold-war and proxy wars, and the seeds were sown for the Civil
information is obtained, it cancels itself out. The assertion that this man will commit a
Rights Movement of the 1960’s. Espionage, spying and constant surveillance were some of
future crime is paradoxical. The very act of possessing this data renders it spurious. In
the features of the political atmosphere of the day. Hence, the political and social mood of the
every case, without exception, the report of the three police precogs has invalidated
day is significant to understand if one wishes to situate The Minority Report in its immediate
their own data. If no arrests had been made, there would still have been no crimes
socio-cultural context.
committed. (p.66)
The precogs, which looks into the future to judge acts of violence by the citizens can be
At this point the story reaches the climax and we see that the focus of the story shifts to
said to work on the system of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a term used to describe “machines
power politics and struggle to gain power between the Police run by Witwer, Anderton, Lisa
(or computers) that mimic ‘cognitive’ functions that humans associate with the human mind,
and the Army, headed by General Kaplan. Kaplan has evolved this conspiracy to shift the
such as ‘learning’ and ‘problem solving’” (Wikipedia) The story gains an added historical
power from the Police to them. Kaplan, thinking that Anderton will not kill him shares the
and scientific significance owing to the fact that this concept of AI was also coined and
stage with him and publicly tries to expose the glitch in the minority report, which will lead
devised in the mid 1950’s, precisely the time when the story was first published.
to the entire police precrime system to be disbanded.
There are references to wars and the destruction caused by it. When Anderton takes up
In a sudden turn of events, a characteristic feature of Phildickian prose, Anderton kills
the garb of Ernest Temple, an unemployed electrician in New York to avoid arrest from the
Kaplan to maintain the status quo and to save Precrime system from being disbanded by the
police, one cannot ignore the references to the war-torn city: “The bus had entered the vast
senate and the army. This allows him to uphold the accuracy of the precrime system. The
slum region, the tumbled miles of cheap hotels and broken-down tenements that had sprung
story ends with Kaplan getting killed and the prediction of the precogs coming true. The
up after the mass destruction of the war.” (p.56) These can be taken up as references to the
precrime system was not incorrect, as it had predicted the victim and the perpetrator of the
nuclear war, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These are some clear indications to
crime correctly.
the 1950s discourse in USA. Hence, The Minority Report can be said to be Philip K. Dick’s
At the end we get to know that the three reports created by the three precog mutants all attempt to capture some of the immediate historical, social and political characteristics of the
differed significantly and hence there were no majority reports but three different minority day and this is one of the major reasons that the story became an instant success upon its
reports. Anderton also warns Witwer that such events might happen again, but “only to the publication in 1956.
next Police Commissioner…It might happen to you at any time” (68) – thereby hinting that
The principles of the precrime system trample upon the principles of natural justice. The
such turn of events and the confusion regarding the minority report would only occur in a
principle of natural justice states that any accused must be heard in a court of law, in an

73 74
unbiased manner and that the accused has the legal right to a free and fair trial. None of this is also raises another significant question – what if the perpetrator has a change of heart and he
guaranteed to the civilians in the short story. The Bill of Rights, as enshrined in the American refuses to commit the crime at the last moment? Will punishing him be morally correct?
Constitution were also put to trial in the 1950’s American civil society. The America of the
Philip K. Dick is raising a very political and ideological question in the last scene of the
1950’ was mired with political witch-hunting and an omnipresent state police force. Hence,
story. Anderton clearly belongs to the privileged class of people in the story – the ones who
in the backdrop of the cold-war era, Dick’s narrative gains an added political and historical
are politically strong and also bureaucratically well placed to find the loopholes in the system
authenticity. The American values of liberty and life were evidently at stake in that era.
and evade punishment. He has the privilege that he is the police commissioner and that he
Dick’s narrative is concerned with these basic rights getting curbed by the totalitarian forces
can access the data and hence evade arrest. But the other ordinary would-be criminals did not
of the era. Hence, it would be safe to assume that the story allows Dick to sketch several
get a fair chance to prevent the mishap from happening and were imprisoned in the detention
ethical, political, moral, historical and philosophical concerns in the narrative.
camps.
4.2 The Moral Question
4.3 State Sponsored Surveillance
Though precrime is successful in shaping up a crime-free state, but it nonetheless raises
Some of the other concerns that The Minority Report takes up are repression of individual
pressing questions when it comes to free will and justice. Shall a person be jailed just for the
freedom and individual liberty. State sponsored surveillance and issues related to free will are
fact that he has planned to kill another person but has not yet committed the crime? Shall not
also raised. In this way the story resonates with George Orwell’s 1984, a dystopic sci-fi
the person be given another chance to think about committing the murder? Is it justified to
novel, where state sponsored surveillance becomes a means for mass control and wrongful
put the future criminals in the detention camp merely on the suspicion that they will commit
imprisonment.
the crime in future? Is it morally correct to arrest and put them in the detention camp without
giving a proper trial to their future crime? Is a crime-free state so important that it can The story takes up the issue of state sponsored surveillance which ultimately leads to a
override personal liberty and principles of natural justice? These are some of the pressing curb on citizen rights. The surveillance that we see in the story is not just physical but also
questions that Dick’s story raises, with no clear answers in sight. mental. The police system is a totalitarian entity with an all-pervasive presence. State
sponsored surveillance and issues of privacy are of a vital concern to a free and just society.
One of the major issues that the narrative raises is that of morality and individual
Hence, the story becomes an important text and becomes acutely relevant for all the time to
freedom. The entire system runs on a misplaced assumption that if any person thinks of
come because it historicizes not just the American era of the 1950’s but also the current era in
committing a crime, s/he would commit it nonetheless. The three mutants calculate the
the 21st century.
thoughts of the perpetrators and judge the time, place and victim of the crime and provide the
information to the police who have devised this mechanism to ensure a crime free society. We are told that the precogs do not understand any data that they generate and that the
But this ultimately leads to dehumanization of liberty and free will. The would-be criminals police analyses the data. Similarly, the citizens and the larger public too cannot understand
are never provided with a fair trial to ascertain the objective of their killing. that their perception gets changed and can be easily swayed into believing what the men in
power like Anderton and Kaplan had to say. In the story we never once get to hear the public
The initial impression in the beginning of the story about the precrime is of a negative
perception of things. And when we get to hear what the public thinks it is expressed in
system which works much against the liberties of the citizen. Towards the end however, the
relation to the precrime setup. Witwer in the beginning of the story says that the public
fact that precrime has accurately predicted the death of Kaplan at the hands of Anderton,
opinion about the agency is positive. It is as if the public is fed whatever the men in power
shows the system to be fool proof. But it also raises another unanswered question. Will it
decide to feed them with. This reminds how popular public can be made to believe whatever
commit a mistake in future?
the state believes in and how the rights of the people are done away with, much to their
The precrime method has been put to trial by the ethical and political ramifications that ignorance and the repressive state apparatus. The story then raises vital concerns on how the
entails along with it. The ethical implications of such a system, no matter how beneficial it individuals are framed by those in power into a pre-fabricated society. This shows liberty is
might be, is questioned here by Philip K. Dick. The ethical and moral questions related to just a mirage and the individual a mere plaything.
free will, liberty and life are raised in the story.
4.4 Maintenance of Status Quo and Power Politics
Science fiction is issue based. The reader needs to be more concerned in explicating and
It is interesting to note that the society that the story presents us is the one where the new
analyzing the range of issues that the author takes up in the story. The central concern is
system of precrime is taken up naturally. Is Philip K. Dick showing how the society has in a
whether it is morally correct to punish someone who has not yet committed a crime? This
way turned a blind eye to the fundamental issues of liberty and justice? That is why Lisa says

75 76
that Ed Witwer is “motivated by the same desire that has always dominated you. He believes
in Precrime. He wants the system to continue.” (p.60)
There is an inherent tendency in several characters like Lisa, Anderton and Witwer to
save the precrime system and to maintain the status quo. The system is more important than
the freedom of any one individual being. It is only Kaplan who wishes to change the political
order and pull power away from the police and Anderton by the revelation of the truth of the
reports, an event which ultimately lead to his death and reinstatement of the same status quo
and future prediction which he tried to disband and contest.
Lisa too wants the status quo to be maintained and that is why she points a gun at
Anderton when she learns that Anderton is thinking only of his own safety and not the system
of precrime. For Lisa, the system of precrime is of more importance to her than her husband’s
innocence.
The plot ultimately becomes a means to play power politics and becomes a tug of war
between the police led by Anderton and Witwer on one hand, and the army led by General
Kaplan on the other hand. Kaplan is in possession of the minority report which he plans to
make public so that he can shift the balance of power in favor of the army with support from
the higher senate. He would have been successful in doing so and would have shifted the
power back to the hands of army and senate, but for the final climax of the story. The climax
made the system of precogs fool proof as its legitimacy stood doubly assured at the end. Any
doubts on the authenticity of the precrime system has finally been laid to rest. Not just Lisa or
Witwer, but even Anderton appears to put himself at risk for the larger good of maintaining
the status quo. At the end the individual falls, but the system survives.
Check your progress
1. Philip K. Dick raises certain moral, political and ideological concerns in the story.
Discuss.
2. The Minority Report is deeply rooted in the immediate context of the historical
discourses in USA. How?
3. Comment on the ending of the story. What is the major concern that Dick has put
forth at the end of the story?
4. The precrime system and the precog mutants have correctly interpreted the climax of
the story. They appear to be infallible. What are your views on this?
Bibliography
Dick, Philip K. The Minority Report and Other Classic Stories. Vol. 4, Citadel Press.
Kensington. 2016. PDF.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence
77
Unit-3d
A Sound of Thunder
Ray Bradbury
Rituraj Anand
1. About the Author
Ray Bradbury (1920 – 2012) is a celebrated American author offantasy, horror and science
fiction, and also a screenwriter. He is well-known for his short stories, poems and novels that
are an amalgamation of childhood’s fantasy, social criticism and an awareness of the hazards
of runaway technology. He won the Pulitzer in 2007, for his prolific work as a short story
writer.
Some of his acclaimed works are ‘Fahrenheit 451’, ‘The Martian Chronicles’ and ‘The
Illustrated Man’. ‘Fahrenheit 451’ was adapted into a film in 1966, and was nominated for
several awards. Around twenty of his short stories have been adapted to films. “A Sound of
Thunder” is a science fiction short story which was first published in Collier's magazine in
the June 28, 1952 issue and later in Bradbury's collection The Golden Apples of the Sun in
1953.
2. Learning Objectives
This lesson will enable you to:
 Analyze the story with reference to the various elements of Science Fiction.
 Understand the importance of preserving and maintaining ecological balance.
 Understand the far-reaching consequences of human actions which otherwise may
seem unimportant and inconsequential.
3. Detailed Summary
‘A Sound of Thunder’ is set in the year 2055 when timetravel has become a practical reality
and the company Time Safari Inc. offers wealthy hunters, a chance to go back in time where
they can hunt any species including the extinct dinosaurs. A hunter named Eckels pays
$10,000 to be taken back to 66 million years ago on a guided safari to hunt a Tyrannosaurus
Rex. Although he is excited about the whole adventure, he is also concerned about his own
safety. The company official warns Eckels and gives him a few instructions on how to carry
himself throughout the adventure into the past. The company official tells him that they
guarantee neither the safety nor the return of the passengers. This is in a way foreshadows the
predicament that Eckels finds himself in at the end of the story. The official also tells Eckels
and the other two hunters to follow the instructions of Mr. Travis strictly throughout their
expedition and not shoot without his nod. While waiting for the departure, Eckels takes an
opportunity to discuss the recent presidential elections with the man behind the desk. In the
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small talk with him, he is very happy with the victory of Keith and defeat of Deutscher, who
is a fascist and a potential dictator.Bradbury’s choice of the name for the dictator, Deutscher
befits the plot to invoke the fear of Nazi Germany taking over most of the western world, as
this name is stereotypical German and the story was written just after World War II.
The story is concerned with the fears of 1950’s that lurked at the beginning of cold war
and the end of World War II. Bradbury is successfully able to create a futuristic and new
America which is far removed from the colonial past, but is still threatened by fascists like
the presidential candidate, Deutscher. The time travel in the story is not simply about the act
of visiting and exploring the past, it is also about how an apparently inconsequential act of
killing an innocent butterfly tilts the balance millions of years later, in favour of that which is
evil.
The citizens of America in the story time(1955) are concerned with the political
upheavals; the characters of the story are filled with anxiety as they await election results,
along with the contrasting scope of exploration, exploitation and a thrilling adventure that lies
ahead in their travel into the past. The whole narrative is based on the presidential elections
and the two choices that are in front of nation- democracy or dictatorship. The conflict
between American democracy and totalitarian regime is of utmost importance in the
story.The main character Mr. Eckels feels relieved on knowing that democratic Keith has
been elected and not Deutscher who is an “anti-everything man”. Eckels even jokes that had
Deutscher been chosen, then the safari would serve as a great medium of escape and that he
“might be here now running away from results”.The agent comments, “Of course it’s not our
business to conduct escapes.” This also foreshadows the terrible political reversal that takes
place at the end of the story.
There are four people on board with Eckels; Travis- the Safari leader, his assistant-
Lesperance, and two other hunters-Billings and Kramer. Eckels excitedly remarks, “Every
hunter that ever lived would envy us today. This makes Africa seem like Illinois.” Just before
they step out of the Time Machine, Travis indicates towards a levitating path which has been
especially designed for this adventure, so as to not touch anything of past world and disrupt
the environment. Failing to fulfill these obligations will lead to punishment and hefty fine. He
explains that these precautionary measures are in place to minimize the events before they
return, as even the slightest of alterations can cause catastrophic changes in history. He
elucidates this further by giving an example of how the killing of even a small living
organism might disrupt the food chain, further hindering the procreation of different species
and even the conception of whole human kind. “The stomp of your foot, on one mouse, could
start an earthquake, the effects of which could shake our earth and destinies down through
Time, to their very foundation.” He also informs the hunters that his assistant has already
marked their prey with red; those beasts who would have died within minutes anyway, and
whose death would cause minimal effect on future. It is obvious that the company has
complete control over the conditions of safari, which in fact, is their hubris. He instructs the
hunters not to touch anything there and that they will be fined if they fail to do so. The
79
stillness of the moment when they wait for the kill builds up tension and suspense.As they
venture out on the levitating path in search of the Tyrannosaurus, Eckels loses his nerve and
gets scared. Travis and the other hunters brace up for the encounter. Suddenly, the beast
appears and the encounter is described as ‘A Sound of Thunder’. This is used twice in the
narrative which is indicative of mortality and death. A series of metaphors are used to
describe the prey. As Eckels gets frightened, Travis tells him to go to the time machine and
wait for them. Travis is furious with him as he is the first one who is supposed to shoot; the
delay might cost them their lives. Eckels runs blindly towards the time machine, and steps off
the levitating path, sinking his feet into green moss.He makes the fatal mistake of intervening
with the wilderness of pre-historic times. Meanwhile, the other two hunters and Travis
manage to kill the Tyrannosaurus. As it falls down, ‘Like a stone idol, like a mountain
avalanche,’the whole picture looks gruesome.The hunters cannot even take any souvenir of
the hunt with them, and after this terrifying encounter, they decide not to takeeven a
photograph. Soon after that, the tree falls on the dinosaur,which is actually how it had died all
those years ago. Travis is utterly furious with Eckels when he sees mud on his boots and
threatens to leave him in the past, and as a punishment orders him to remove the bullets from
the body of the dinosaur. They have no clue as yet about the extent of harm Eckels’ reckless
action has caused to thefuture, i.e. the ‘present’ where they are from. Eckels returns after
removing the bullets with great difficulty and faints.
As they return to the present (2055), they immediately feel the change.Travis notices
some change and checks with the man behind the desk if everything is alright. There is a
strange smell filling their nostrils. Eckels senses the minute and intangible changes around
him. The sign upon the wall has changed and the words are speltdifferently as in Old English.
It scares him a little, so he sits to inspect himself and he finds a dead butterfly embedded in
the mud under his boots, ‘...green and gold and black, was a butterfly, very beautiful and very
dead.’ Its colors are symbolic of past, present and the huge change that the killing of the
butterfly in the past has brought. Green symbolizes pre-historic times when all the living
beings were in harmony with each other; gold symbolizes present (2055) when the
civilization has developed and America’s president is Keith; and black is symbolic of the
dark time that present has mutated into with the onset of fascism. This sudden revelation
panics him and on asking the man behind the desk about the election result, he gets to know
that Deutscher has won it and everyone is happy about it. The victory of democracy over
fascism is imperiled when Eckels steps off the path. The event that Eckels joked about
escaping, i.e. an “anti-everything man”– Deutscher as a president, has now become a reality.
The killing of the butterfly is also a reference to how if innocents like the butterfly are
crushed in a country and their voices are suppressed, the whole nation might be doomed with
dictatorship. The idea is to also learn from the history and not repeat the mistakes of the past,
as it will always result indisastrous consequences. Democracy might offer us the power to
exercise our will and raise our voice, but if either the will is misused or the voice of the
commons is subdued, then the consequences will be catastrophic, just the way it happens in
the story.
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 When Eckels realizes that his grave mistake has changed the whole course of the present,
he pleads with Travis to take him back into the past and enable him to undo everything. But
what is done is irreversible. He sits down and senses Travis entering the room. Travis takes
off the safety of his rifle and Eckels hears ‘a sound of thunder’
Self check Questions
1. Why is there a stiff penalty for disobeying the instructions?
2. How can the mere stomping over a mouse unbalance the future?
3. Why does the present change when the Safari returns from the time travel?
4. Critical Analysis
The strength of Bradbury’s writings lies in his effective and gripping narrative. He brilliantly
describes each and everything in the story as if painting a picture on the canvas and making it
come to life through his usage of words. This is quite evident in the way he describes
Tyrannosaurus Rex, with metaphors which create a surreal effect in the reader’s mind.
“Each lower leg was a piston, a thousand pounds of white bone, sunk in thick ropes of
muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin […] eyes rolled, ostrich eggs, empty of all
the expressions save hunger.”
It is interesting how he connects and interweaves present, past and future.It is visible in
the way Travis describes how even a minute change in the past could alter everything in the
future. The story is created around the death of a single butterfly and how this alters the
course of history.The shift to Old English shows a regression:
“TYME SAFARI INC.
SEFARIS TU ANY YEER EN THE PAST.
YU NAIM THE ANIMALL.
WEE TAEK YU YHAIR.
YU SHOOT ITT.”
These inter-connections show how delicate is the existence of all living beings and we live in
ignorance of all this and forget about any potential impact our small decisions or actions may
have on earth and all its beings. A small butterfly could make such a drastic change. This, in
itself, is a strong cautionary evidence for us to mind our ways and gives a great lesson to us
that our today’s actions can affect the future without us even realizing it while being in the
act. This makes us also realize the harm that we unknowingly do to nature and the severe
repercussions all our actions might have. It also tells us that all the living beings, regardless
of its forms are inter-connected. That makes it an ‘Environmentalist story’, too.
The story is an endeavor by Ray Bradbury to create ecological consciousness among its
readers. It attempts to make us sensitive towards the environment. The trope of time-travel
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successfully brings forth the consequences of a heedless consumerist culture and a warning
along with it. The living forms, irrespective of magnitude, be it Tyrannosaurus Rex or the
butterfly, both are subjected to disposal as long as they cater to the hunger for adventure and
make the whole business profitable. Such consumerist tendencies in a capitalist society are
full of greed which more than often compromises with the environment. This commodifies
the nature where humans are at the center as the consumers. It just views environment as a
source of consumption of resources and thrill. The ecological sustainability is downplayed
and the economic growth has a cost which only nature has to pay. The story also highlights
the attitude of people, who think of themselves as above the nature. The humans are ready to
do anything to satiate their desire for thrills.
The word Anthropocene was coined by the Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen “to suggest that
the biosphere and geological time has been fundamentally transformed by human activity.
The Anthropocene discourse focuses on how human history and natural history are enmeshed
in each other.” The anthropocentric worldview that Bradbury has highlighted, questions the
disregard of human beings towards all other living forms. It lays stress on the need for
humans to be answerable for their actions and mindful of not just other human beings but also
the non-human forms.
The nonhuman factors play an important role in the science fictions which concern with
environment and such stories mostly lead to utopia or dystopia by the end. It is also visible in
the other forms of science fictions such as films or comics. “A Sound of Thunder” is set in
2055 andbegins with the exciting idea of traveling into the past with the help of time machine
and the thrill associated with hunting dinosaurs. The act of unknowingly killing a butterfly
replaces the democratic government with a fascist government whose leader is “a militarist,
anti-Christ, anti-human and anti-intellectual.” All the struggles of centuries for civil liberty
and democracy seem to be futile in this new setup. It has also resulted in the change of human
perception as everybody prefers a dictator by the end. Industrialization and war seems to be at
the fore as Eckels and the other hunters could smell chemicals and change in color around
them when they come back from the past.
The term ‘butterfly effect’ is credited to this story, a concept of Chaos Theory,
introduced by the meteorologist and mathematician Edward Norton Lorenz in the 1960’s.
The concept is similar to the link between ‘cause and effect’ as explored by Bradbury in this
story. It says that the flapping of wings of a butterfly in one world leads to hurricane in some
other world.
Self check Questions
1. How is the consumerist culture criticized in “A Sound of Thunder”?
2. Is time travel always a fascinating adventure or does it have some ripple effects,
too? Discuss with reference to the story.
82
Bibliography
RayBradbury(n.d.).Acsschoolshttps://www.acschools.org/cms/lib07/PA01916405/Centricity/
Domain/399/A%20Sound%20of%20Thunder.pdf
A Sound of Thunder Summary & Analysis. (n.d.). Lit Charts. https://www.litcharts.com/lit/a-
sound-of-thunder/summary-and-analysis
Bradbury, B. R. (2020, November 4). Buy Study Guide. Copyright Grade Saver, 1999 - 2020.
https://www.gradesaver.com/ray-bradbury-short-stories
Dogra, S., & Khilnani, S. (2021). IMAGINING WORLDS, MAPPING IMPOSSIBILITIES.
Worldview Publication.
Ray Bradbury. (n.d.). Fantastic Fiction. https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/ray-bradbury/
Ray Bradbury. (2020, July 10). Biography. https://www.biography.com/writer/ray-bradbury
Ray Bradbury / Biography, Books, & Facts. (n.d.). Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ray-Bradbury
Wikipedia contributors. (2020a, September 8). A Sound of Thunder (film). Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sound_of_Thunder_(film)
Wikipedia contributors. (2020b, October 30). A Sound of Thunder. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sound_of_Thunder
83
Unit-3e
The Ice Age Cometh
Jayant Narlikar
Rituraj Anand
1. About the Author
Jayant Vishnu Narlikar was born in Kolhapur (Maharashtra) on 19 July 1938, in a family of
scholars. He is an astrophysicist from Cambridge and the Founder-Director of Inter
University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. He is known internationally for his work
in the field of Cosmology. He was the president of the Cosmology Commission of the
International Astronomical Union, during 1995-97. Jayant Narlikar has created a place for
himself as a Science Fiction Writer in his mother tongue, Marathi. ‘The Ice Age Cometh’ is
an extract from It Happened Tomorrow, published by The National Book Trust. It Happened
Tomorrow is a collection of nineteen select science fiction stories written in various Indian
Languages.
2. Learning Objectives
This lesson will enable you to:
 Critically analyze the story, The Ice Age Cometh
 Identify the various elements of Science Fiction in the story
3. Summary
The Ice Age Cometh is about an eco-catastrophe which has befallen the earth, and how this
catastrophe is contained by an Indian scientist Vasant Chitnis. This story has all the elements
of a pot boiler- the doomsday syndrome, and a lone hero rescuing the world. The story is set
over a period of two years. The immediate setting is Bombay, along with a few instances
from other parts of the world. The Ice age of Paleolithic times becomes a reality in the
present world, and in keeping with the science fiction tradition there is a plausible scientific
explanation offered for the unexpected occurrence. Nowhere is it implied that the disaster is
caused by the humans; in fact it is the unity among humans that contains it. But the damage
caused in the course of containing it must also be fought collectively in the spirit of
brotherhood. The end of the story is a lesson for everyone, that there’s no other solution to
ecological crisis, except coming together and taking action before it is too late.
Mumbai receives unprecedented snowfall which makes Rajiv Shah, one of the two
protagonists of the story, remember a bet that he had placed some five years previously
against Vasant’s claim that there would be snowfall in Bombay within the next ten years.
Rajiv Shah is a journalist and an inquisitive person, living in the city of Bombay. He had met
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Professor Vasant Chitnis at a party hosted by the Indian ambassador in Washington. It was at
this party that Vasant on hearing the news of the Volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (the
fourth activity in the previous three months), had predicted that the eruption would lead to the
spread of some particulate matters in atmosphere causing a minor Ice Age. He had also
predicted that it would lead to the evacuation of northern cities like New York, Chicago and
Washington, too. Rajiv, who hadlike the others at the party dismissed the prediction as
simply a tall claim of a scientist, after the snowfall in Mumbai, approaches Vasant Chitnis to
learn more about the phenomena , and also to bring the same into the public domain through
the newspapers.
Vasant Chitnis explains to Rajiv how the oceans play a crucial role in controlling the
earth’s climate. He informs him that the lowering of the temperature of sea water below the
surface, leads to the thinning of upper surface. With Volcanic eruptions and the temperature
drop to forty degrees below zero near the extremities of earth, “diamond dust” is formed,
which shields the earth from sunlight. This diamond screen prevents the sunlight from
reaching the earth surface. As a consequence, the earth is unable to warm itself. The
increasing number of Volcanic eruptions pose serious danger to the safety margins of the
earth, making it narrow with time. Rajiv is amazed with this piece of information and realizes
that this might spiral the earth towards the Ice Age. Rajiv publishes an article highlighting the
prediction of climatic catastrophe by Chitnis. After this publication, Chitnis earns much
respect and credibility amongst his peers.
Despite the warning sounded by Chitnis, the world considers the temporary thaw in the
summer as the end of the Ice Age and reverts to the old order of things. One day, Vasant
visits Rajiv and hands him a short message about the drop in the water temperature of
Antarctica by two degrees. He advises Rajiv to shift to a place closer to the equator, which
would save him from the long winter ahead. He, himself, books a one-way ticket to Bandung.
In the first week of that November, there is a mass migration of birds towards the
equatorial regions; the birds instinctively knew of the coming ice spell and were moving
closer to the equator. The satellites predict heavy snowfall in several parts of earth in the
coming days. Even the most technologically advanced countries like Japan, Canada and the
USA were not prepared to face a second onslaught of snow and ice. The whole world
surrenders to the impending doom. Rajiv receives a call from Richard Holmes, a member of
the US Energy Board who wishes to get in touch with Vasant Chitnis, so that a solution can
be found to fight the disaster. Vasant Chitnis devises a method and the same is implemented
under the code name ‘Invasion of Indra’.
With only a ten- degree belt, north and south of the equator still retaining the blue-green
color, all the nations leaving behind their rivalries finally come together. Rockets, satellites,
hot-air balloons and high flying aircraft are pressed into the attack. The idea is to bombard
the atmosphere with tiny metallic particles, which would absorb the sun’s heat and convey it
to the earth. To reduce the diamond dust, explosive heating of the atmosphere is done with
the utilization of weapon technology. After six months the earth slowly begins to resume its
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natural processes. The snow starts melting and diamond crust starts disappearing rapidly.
Vasant Chitnis the main architect of this project breathed a sigh of relief .That relief however,
is short lived because he is acutely aware that to counter one disaster, he seemed to have
created another one-‘Global Warming’. The Ice Age had already reduced the human
population to a great extentand now with the ice melting at a good pace, heavy floods would
again cause severe casualties. The question towards the end of the story is whether mankind
would learn from this experience and continue to live in a spirit of unity and cooperation or
revert back to the old order of strife and rivalry.
Self check Questions
1. What according to Chitnis are the causes of the minor Ice Age?
2. How is the catastrophe reversed?
3. What elements of Science Fiction do you find in this story?
4. Critical Analysis
Jayant V Narlikar’s ‘The Ice Age Cometh’ is a narrative that revolves around the prediction
of a catastrophe and the prediction turning into reality. All the people around the world, who
are usually divided and ignorant on the issues related to environment, come together and
make an all out effort to prevent the impending doom.
The story explores how at times, a genius is crushed by the well-established scientific
minds. Vasant’s discoveries initially were not taken seriously and rejected. Later, when the
reality hit the world, the same sceptics not only come to believe in him but also approach him
for a solution to fight back against the disaster. Vasant as a scientist makes a mockery of the
peer review system, which coheres to the scientific doctrine of principles. Narlikar explicitly
criticizes the biases and prejudices of the scientific “establishment”:
“Vasant’s face carried fleeting shades of sarcasm and frustration before it became
featureless again as he continued, “You people think of us as perfect scholars in search of
knowledge for knowledge’s sake, undeterred by jealousies and temptations. It’s all bunkum!
We scientists are human. We possess all the weaknesses of the human mind. If the
establishment finds new discoveries unpalatable, those belonging to it will do everything to
suppress them. I had to water down my hypotheses, blur predictions in order to get some of
my ideas in print. The rest—those in manuscript form—were considered too crazy or
outlandish to be published.”
In the story, Narlikar also adds some elements of Hindu mythology. The project is
named as ‘The Invasion of Indra’ because Indra is the Vedic deity of the heavens, lightning,
thunder, rains and wars. Indra is also mankind’s friend because he brings sunshine and rains
to the earth by killing the Asura Vritra who prevents prosperity on earth. Vasant uses modern
weapons , the equivalent to Indra’s weapons to bring sunshine and to fight the diamond dust
which had led to Ice Age all around the world. The geo-stationary satellites are called the
Sanjayas of Mahabharata. In Mahabharata, Sanjaya was the person blessed with the ability to
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see into all things. So, during the Mahabharata war, with this special sight he recited all
events happening on the battle ground to King Dhritrashtra. The geo-stationary satellites are
similarly responsible to inform the world whether their endeavors bear any fruit. These
satellites are used to deliver knowledge about the weather and the atmospheric changes
across the globe.
There is usage of certain Indian words like ‘Papadam’ in the narrative. Such words and
the Indian cultural and geographical setting give a sense of belongingness to the readers of
this narrative. The story is also a lesson to the readers that this fictional event might be a
reality someday. The lesson that one should learn through this story is that the earth is going
through a lot of changes primarily because of man’s greed, and the “delicate balance of the
eco-system” is constantly under threat. The whole world needs to come together to fight
unitedly against the uncertain and unknown doom by first identifying and eliminating
thecauses, otherwise it might be too late. By the end of the story, we also realize that
everything comes at a cost; the Ice Age for the time being is stopped but the next big problem
is the fear of floods and other such disasters due to Global Warming and melting of ice
everywhere.
Self check questions
1. What is the criticism levelled by Chitnis against the scientific establishment?
2. Do you think the code name ‘Invasion of Indra’ is appropriate?

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 Paper-VI : Popular Literature
Unit-4 : Graphic Fiction

Contents
a. Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam, Bhimyana: Experiences of Untouchability
b. B.R. Ambedkar, Waiting for a Visa

Edited by: Written by:

Nalini Prabhakar Shruti Sareen

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 Unit-4
1. Waiting for a Visa
B.R.Ambedkar
2. Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability
S.Anand, S.Natarajan, Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam
Shruti Sareen
1. Introduction
Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the principal architect of the Indian Constitution, the biggest
advocate and human rights activist for Dalits, and the first Law minister of India, has left
behind more than twenty volumes of writings on various social and political issues. One of
these is a very slim volume of hardly twenty pages, Waiting for a Visa, prescribed in your
syllabus for visually challenged students. This slim volume / essay narrates a few incidents
from Ambedkar’s own life, as well as some incidents which he observed in the lives of other
Dalits, which left a deep impact and impression on Dr Ambedkar’s mind. The second text
prescribed in your syllabus is Bhimayana, a graphic novel, which is based on Ambedkar’s
text, Waiting for a Visa. The written part of Bhimayana is by S. Anand and Srividya
Natarajan and the graphics are by the Vyam artists—Subhash and Durgabai Vyam.
2. The Graphic Novel and Bhimayana
The form of the graphic novel basically arose from the genre of the comic which combines
the text narrative with pictures and is usually funny and humourous. However, the graphic
novel differs from the comic in some important ways. Firstly a graphic novel is usually a
longer narrative than a comic, and is the length of a full book in itself. It is usually one long
narrative, although it may also be split into several sections as we see in Bhimayana.
Secondly, a graphic novel combines text and visual in a way similar to the comic, but the
narrative is more serious. It is not funny and humorous like a comic. Thirdly, the protagonists
or the main characters of comics are generally cartoons or superheroes. The main characters
in graphic novels are usually the underprivileged or people marginalised in some way or the
other. A better precursor of the graphic novel than the comic is perhaps the Amar Chitra
Katha in India. However, the heroes of Amar Chitra Katha are usually kings or gods and are
from the majority community, whereas the graphic novel tries to focus on the marginalised
and to narrate their story.
Many graphic novels, both Indian and international, have tried to create social awareness
about downtrodden communities through a popular medium in order to engage a wider
audience. Some of the most famous international ones are Art Spiegelman’s Maus which
focuses on the Holocaust (World War II). This book also shows symbolic animal imagery
like Bhimayana as Spiegelman has portrayed Nazis as cats and the Jews as mice. Joe Sacco
has a graphic novel, Palestine, about how the Palestine region is being wrecked and exploited
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by Israel. Marjane Satrapi has a graphic novel, Persepolis, about her years of growing up in
Iran during the Islamic revolution. In India too, we fine some examples. Malik Sajad has has
a graphic novel Munnu: A Boy From Kashmir which depict the reality of Kashmir. Amruta
Patil’sKari focuses on lesbian experience. There are other feminist graphic novels also. In
fact, Navayana publishing house has published a graphic novel on caste before Bhimayana. It
is called A Gardener in the Wasteland and is based on the life of Dalit activist and
educationist Jyotiba Phule, and his wife, Savitribai Phule. It is authored by Srividya
Natarajan, who has also co-authored the narrative of Bhimayana.
Bhimayana as a graphic novel is quite different from some of the other graphic novels
that use cinematic photographs, or very realistic mimetic sketches by artists professionally
trained in academies. This is mainly because of the tribal Gond art that has been used by the
Vyams. We will discuss more about this in the next section. The main difference between this
and other graphic novels is that the Gond art is symbolic, and not always realistic. It is
suggestive and metaphorical. The animal imagery plays a very big role here and is often
allegorical and suggestive. The other way in which Bhimayana is different from other graphic
novels is that it does not follow a sytem of rectangular boxes separated by thin gutters, as is
the system in other comics and graphic novels. This is because the Vyams did not want their
characters to be boxed in. They said that it stifles them and they wanted their art to be
“khulla”. So they came up with an alternative system of signals which we will learn about in
the next section. Most graphic novels are in black and white, but Bhimayana employs four
colours. This is also because of the traditional colours that the Vyams used in their tribal art.
Using various colours also makes the art more symbolic and suggestive.
Self Check Questions
 How are graphic novels different from comics?
 How is Bhimayana different from other graphic novels?
3. Pardhan Gond Art, The Vyams, and Bhimayana
Pardhan Gond art dates back centuries and is commonly found around the regions of Madhya
Pradesh,Chhatisgarh and central India. The Gonds, in fact, are the largest tribe in India, of
which the Pardhan Gonds are a sub-tribe.The word Gond actually comes from the Dravidian
word Kond which means green mountain. They used to draw auspicious designs on the walls
of their houses and on the floor for various events and ceremonies. Symbolic animals were
common in these drawings and wall murals, and the defining feature was often lines or dots
made as the covering design, also seen a lot in Bhimayana. They used certain line patterns
called dignas to separate these drawing from each other. These dignas are used in Bhimayana
to separate panels from each other. They traditionally used mud for these designs. The mud
was of various colours. As also described in the last section of Bhimayana, the Gonds
collected this mud of different colours from different regions near their village in different
seasons. The Vyams come from a village near the Dhooti jungle in Eastern Madhya Pradesh.
They collected the white choohimatti in January and February in the Barenda jungle, the
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yellow ramrajmatti from the Amarkantak hill, which is where the river Narmada originates.
In February- march (Phagun), they would collect the black soil.. Red soil is also perennially
available in the Dhooti jungle.
However, about 30 years ago, around 1980s-1990s, artist J. Swaminathan brought one of
these PardhanGonds, Jangarh Singh Shyam to Bhopal where he set up the Bharat Bhavan.
Jangarh Singh Shyam became the face of modern Pardhan Gond art. Staying in the city, he
started painting on paper with paints and brushes instead of with the traditional materials and
colours used by the villagers. Some of his extended family members and others like the
Vyams also came and settled with him. Thus, the centuries old Pardhan Gond art became
modernised and urbanised and even acquired an international market.
4. Multiple Registers Used in Bhimayana
Bhimayana uses many different registers, or ways of communication, to convey its meaning.
Firstly we see that it is framed narrative, that is, it is a story within a story. This is also called
metafiction. One upper caste person who is anti-reservation is talking to a so-called “lower
caste” person. The pictures show us a lower caste woman informing an upper caste man. This
overturns power politics not only of caste but also of gender. But here it shows that the lower
caste woman has an entire experience and perspective of her own, and much more
knowledge, and she is the one informing and teaching the upper caste man. The lower-caste
woman tries to tell him about Ambedkar’s life, and that such atrocities continue against
Dalits till the present day. The graphic novel gives us newspaper clippings from
contemporary times to show us that caste atrocities against Dalits still continue. Speeches of
Ambedkar, and Gandhi are also included in the book, as well as excerpts from the
constitution. At certain times, little rhyming couplets are also used in the book, this also helps
us to see how it is “popular literature”. Then, the artwork of Bhimayana through its symbolic
suggestiveness and colour symbolism also speaks volumes. For example, three kinds of
speech bubbles are used throughout the text. The victims of caste are shown to speak through
bubbles that are shaped like birds, while the caste perpetrators are shown to speak through
venomous bubbles with stings that can belong to a snake or scorpion. Towards the end of the
book, we see the casteist person say that he doesn’t agree with the other person’s narrative,
but he can’t help respecting Ambedkar. Then he says “Jai Bhim”. As this character undergoes
a change, the scorpion bubble changes to a bird bubble, representing the change. The third
kind of bubble found in the book is the thought bubble. This is represented through a series of
eyes, showing that thought is nothing but the mind’s eye, it is a point of view. Instead of
compartmentalising the different panels with rectangular boxes and gutters, the Vyams have
used the digna to show the different panels. The dignas are the drawing they would make in
their houses on wall murals and on floors. The Vyams were clear from the beginning that
they wanted their art to be khulla and that they would not box in their characters into
rectangular boxes. DurgabaiVyam also suggests that the dignas are like the fences between
their fields. This is important as it shows that boundaries are man-made and are not natural.
In a sense, it is fitting that this narrative about annihilating caste boundaries does not use rigid
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boundaries in the very form of creating the text. This use of dignas also suggests that there is
no chronology in the text, that is, the events are not really sequential, happening one after the
other. They are all happening at once. The newspaper clippings in the text also serve to show
that the atrocities against the Dalits are still happening so there is little difference between
past and present. The art of the Vyams is in a sense centuries old, and yet in a sense its
modern and urban form is new. This equates with caste, which is also centuries old, and yet is
still continuing in the present day and age. The book is a tribute to Jangarh Singh Shyam, the
Gond artist who died by suicide in Japan. Patterns of rice, mustard seeds and moa grass are
used to fill in the blank spaces. Chapter numbers become rats and snakes. There is also a lot
of animal imagery such as fish, snakes and lions. We will talk more about the imagery as we
discuss the three sections of the book, namely Water, Shelter and Travel. Water, Shelter and
Travel are all integral and necessary parts of our lives, and is in all these areas that the
discrimination against the Dalits happens. I will also point out which six incidents are given
in Ambedkar’s Waiting for a Visa.
Self Check Questions
> What are the salient features about Gond art?
> What is a digna? How and why is it used in Bhimayana?
> What are the different speech bubbles used in Bhimayana and why?
5. The Personal is Political
In the story, the personal is political, and the political is personal. Ambedkar’s personal life
story resonates with millions of Dalits because this is how they were all treated. It is their
common struggle. Infact, they are still victimised and discriminated against today, as shown
by the multiple news clippings which show that not much has changed. The personal is
political because millions can identify with the personal story because they all face the same
challenges and discrimination. This makes it political. This is why the political is also deeply
personal for them because it makes a difference in each and every aspect of their lives—
water, shelter and travel, as described in the book. These are all essential parts of our life.
Here, the icon Ambedkar is humanised, brought down to the level of the human, by telling us
about his personal trials and tribulations. We see him as we would see any common man, any
Dalit. And yet, he is still an icon, the hero whose story is being told by Bhimayana. Thus, the
icon is humanised, and the human is also iconised.
Self Check Question
 How and why does the personal also become the political?
6. Detailed Analysis
6.1 PART ONE: WATER
The first story about Ambedkar that the narrator tells in the book relates to water. It begins
with a small ten year old Ambedkar in a corner of the village school. He is not allowed to
play with the other children because he is an untouchable. So he is shown in the picture in a
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corner by himself. He cannot even drink water from the water pump by himself because his
touch would pollute the water. So he needs the peon to give him water, and the peon leaves
after the bell rings. So Ambedkar asks the teacher if he can drink water and gets scolded by
the teacher. Ambedkar explains his predicament to the teacher. After the bell rings, the other
children drink water and the peon leaves. The peon does not wait to give water to Ambedkar.
The thirsty Ambedkar is portrayed as if there is a fish within him. He is a fish out of water.
The symbol of fish is continuously used throughout the text for showing thirst, water, and
peace. The teacher tells Ambedkar that if he cut his hair regularly then he would not feel so
thirsty. Ambedkar thinks to himself that no barber in the village would cut the hair of an
untouchable. A lot of disembodied hands with pointing fingers are shown in the graphics.
These may belong to the upper castes or to the untouchables, according to interpretation. But
they seem to belong to the upper castes because these pointing fingers are shown when
Ambedkar is told to go away from the water pump. All throughout the book, casteist remarks
have a trail of hands pointing to the oppressed. Whereas, the Mahars (untouchables) leave a
trail of footsteps wherever they go. The fist is a symbol of strength. The art of the Vyams is
symbolic and suggestive because the head of the water pump is initially shown as a woman’s
head. This shows that water—collecting water, washing, cleaning—is mainly women’s work.
In between, the head of the water pump becomes that of an elephant, and is shown to shed
tears. This shows us how the Vyams bring in animal imagery. It also shows us that the water
pump itself, a machine, is shedding tears at Ambedkar’s predicament, but the unfeeling hearts
of the upper castes do not yield or melt. Then there is a picture of animals drinking water in
greens and blues, and an opposite image of Ambedkar in dull yellows and orange because the
village turns into a desert when Ambedkar tries to quench his thirst. Thus, even animals can
drink water, and get their hair trimmed, but the Dalits cannot. Ambedkar is described as an ox
in the oil press, going round and round in circles. Again, animal imagery is sued for the
Dalits. In fact, there is a news clipping about Dalit being killed for harvesting grain . The
harvesting machine is shown to be crying at the treatment meted out to the Dalits by the
upper castes.
Ambedkar has no mother. He and his brothers and sisters are looked after by his aunt.
The aunt however is not much use because she is herself ill most of the time. Thus Ambedkar
and his siblings have to cook for themselves and they usually cook pulao because that is the
easiest. Now it is shown that Ambedkar’s family is not in as bad a condition as some of the
other Dalits because his grandfather had joined the British army, which gave him a better
status. His father had also joined the service of the British. This again shows that the British
helped the cause of the Dalits as also discussed above. Ambedkar’s father was working in a
dry area where the British wanted to dig a deep well to help with the water problem. So it is
all the more ironical that Ambedkar himself is not allowed to drink water when his father
works for making water available to other people. Now Ambedkar’s father cannot come
home to visit them, so one day it is decided that Ambedkar with his brothers will go to the
place where their father works. They all get ready in new clothes and even gold chains, so
that everybody thinks they are Brahmins because they are so well dressed. Their aunt is going
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to stay back home and the neighbours are going to look after her. It is the first time that they
are going to travel in a train so they are very excited and greatly looking forward to it. So
their time on the train passes happily by, but more troubles greet them at the other end. Their
father’s peon has not come, so the children are in a quandary as to how to go to their father’s
village that is several miles away. The stationmaster comes and says that they must be
Brahmins, they are so well dressed. He shows some concern for them. But this concern
vanishes when Ambedkar blurts out that they are untouchables (Mahars). Thus, the train is
symbolised as a snake. It is poisonous, as even here they experience caste. None of the tong
wallahs are ready to take them because they are untouchables. Finally it is decided that they
will pay double the fare, and will themselves drive the tonga while the tongawallah walks
besides them. They continue this way till midnight. At night, they stop to eat the food that
their aunt has packed for them. But the food is spicy. They need water. The tongawallah has
disappeared to a nearby village to get some food and water for themselves. Ambedkar and his
siblings have a problem finding water as they are untouchables. The tongawallah comes back
and suggests that they pretend to be Muslims and ask for water at the toll booth. Muslims are
also considered low, but untouchables are even lower than Muslims. However, the man at the
toll booth sees through their ploy and refuses to give them water. Somehow they spend the
night without food or water. The next morning they resume their journey to their father’s
village. Now suddenly, the tongawallah jumps on the tonga and drives it himself, which
seems strange because earlier he refused to do so because of their untouchable status. Finally
the mistake is realised that they had written a letter to their father about their plans to visit,
but the father’s peon forgot to give the letter to their father, so he had no idea that the children
would be coming. This is one incident of his lifetime that Ambedkar never forgot. The night
of their travel is represented in foreboding greys and dark shades. [THIS IS INCIDENT ONE
IN WAITING FOR A VISA: A CHILDHOOD JOURNEY TO KOREGAON BECOMES A
NIGHTMARE]
The two incidents described above are also given in Ambedkar’s account of Waiting for
a Visa. But S. Anand and Srividya Natarajan have added a third episode in the graphic novel
Bhimayana to the water section as it is thematically related. This is the episode of the famous
Mahad satyagraha. In this, Ambedkar decided that one day all the Dalits will go and drink
water from the Chevadar water tank. They could not just decide and do this. This was an
unheard of thing in that day and age for untouchables to drink from an upper caste water tank.
It took four years for Ambedkar to prepare the society for this overtaking of the water tank.
Even after that, as he led the march to the Chevadar water tank, he said to his fellow
untouchable brethren that they were not going their just to slake their thirst. They had
managed for hundreds and thousands of years without using the tank. But they were going
there to claim equality and dignity. He said theirs was a spiritual battle, not a materialistic
one. After they did this, the upper castes reacted violently. Several people were hurt in this
clash. Then the upper caste people threw lots of cow dung and cow urine in the tank to
cleanse it and purify it from the dirty polluted touch of the untouchables. This may strike us
as an ironical thing to do. Not content with this, Ambedkar then led a much greater march
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with many more thousands of people to burn the casteist text, Manusmriti. The page
depicting the Mahad struggle shows a big lake in the form of a big fish dividing the page. On
one half are the upper castes, on the other side are the untouchables. As shown earlier also,
water is symbolised by a fish. The lake is what is dividing the two groups of people.
However, at the end of the page we see that the Vyams have drawn a series of smaller fish
connecting the untouchables to the lake, and also on the other side connecting the upper
castes to the lake. This shows that the water is unfettered and free and cannot be bound in
chains by human beings. Ambedkar is giving a speech at the Mahar gathering at the Chevadar
tank. His words are shown to fall on the rest of the untouchables through water sprinklers,
nourishing them, giving them enlightenment. It also again shows the importance of the issue
of water. This shows the image of the fish also symbolises peace. We also find here a news
clipping about contemporary times. This shows that a few years ago, some Dalits in
Rajasthan had tried to drink water from a water tank belonging to upper castes, and the
treatment meted out to them was very similar to the treatment given to Ambedkar and others.
This shows that little has changed, and the same issues face the Dalits today as they did
earlier.
Self check Questions
 How is water used as a tool for discrimination? Describe with reference to the story.
 What are some of the symbols and motifs in the artwork used in this section?
 Why is the Mahar gathering at the Chevadar important and significant?
 “Ours is a battle for the reclamation of human personality and dignity.” What do these
words of Ambedkar signify?
6.2. Part Two: Shelter [This is Incident Two in Waiting for a Visa: Back from the
West—and Unable to Find Lodging in Baroda]
Part two is based on a later incident in Ambedkar’s life when he returned from USA and his
abroad travels where he had gone to study. His study had been financed by the Maharaja
Sayaji Rao of Baroda and now he was committed to work for him in return. For this, he had
left many other better jobs that he could have got abroad. This section is again framed by a
conversation that Ambedkar has with another person. He tells the other man about his
predicament that he now needs a place where he can stay in Baroda. The other man presumes
that he will stay in a hotel or with some friends. But he does not realise Ambedkar’s
predicament. No Hindu hotel would let an untouchable stay there, and he did not have any
untouchable friends in Baroda. He asked the tongawallahs nearby and found out that there
was a Parsi inn nearby. He was happy as he thought that Parsis are Zoarastrians and that they
don’t believe in untouchability. But he was soon to be proved wrong.
At the Parsi inn, when they realised he did not have a Parsi name and that he did not
have the traditional garments and thread that they wear, they told Ambedkar that he couldn’t
stay there. Ambedkar said he could write a hindu name in the register. After all, they would
lose nothing if he stayed there. They would only earn some money. The caretaker agreed. But
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he tried to steer clear of Ambedkar’s way. He avoided all contact with him and would only
come twice a day to give lunch and dinner. The place was dirty and dingy and almost
inhabitable, but at least he had a place to stay. Eleven days passed by like this. In the
meantime, Ambedkar was trying to find some accomodation which could be given to him by
the Maharaja or the government. On the eleventh day, Ambedkar heard a big crowd gathered
outside the inn. He thought maybe some tourists had come. He found a group of angry Parsis
outside, who were almost ready to kill him. It was only because Ambedkar apologised and
begged mercy that they spared him. However, they demanded that he should leave
immediately. They would not allow him to stay even for a day more. Thorns are shown on
Ambedkar’s untouchable body as he has to leave the hotel. This is symbolic art as opposed to
realistic “ditto” art.
Ambedkar had still not got any accommodation from the maharaja or the government.
He asked a Christian friend of his to help him out. The Christian friend said that he was open
minded but his wife was not, so he could not allow Ambedkar to stay. Ambedkar realised that
this was just an excuse. He remembered that his friend and his wife had been Brahmins
before they converted to Christianity. Thus he realised that a person who was an untouchable
to a Hindu was also an untouchable to a Parsi and a Christian. He asked another friend of his
for help. The friend said he had no problem but that his servant would leave if an untouchable
came and stayed in his house. Taking the hint and not wanting to cause additional discomfort,
Ambedkar took his leave.
Then he realised that he had absolutely no place to go to and the only option was to
return to Bombay by the night train. He even had no place to spend the remaining hours until
night, so he went to the kamathibaagh garden to spend the time. As Ambedkar lies in the
Kamathibaagh garden in a pensive and contemplative state, the Vyams have shown
Ambedkar himself as being the whole Kamathibaagh garden. This is accompanied by
newsclippings that show us that even today, upper castes don’t want Dalits as tenants, and
they are often thrown out of accommodation, and sometimes, even killed.
Self Check Questions
 Why does shelter become such a big problem for Ambedkar? What are the symbolic
animals and colours used to signify this?
6.3 Part Three: Travel
Here we see Ambedkar and a team of his fellowmates going in a bus to visit Daulatabad. On
the way, first they have to stop at Chalisgaon as the untouchables there have invited
Ambedkar. When they arrive there at the station, the untouchables of Chalisgaon have come
there to welcome Ambedkar. They have arranged a tonga for him, while they are all
themselves going to walk back to the village. Ambedkat starts out on his tonga ride. The
tongawallah narrowly escapes a car that is coming, and Ambedkar feels weird. He wonders
why the tongawallah is driving in this awkward way. A little later, as they have to cross the
culvert over the river, the tonga takes a sharp turn, and Ambedkar falls down into the water.
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After they reach the village, Ambedkar asks the villagers how could they have done this to
him and why the tongawallah couldn’t drive properly. Now they come to know that he was
not a tongawallah at all and that he was driving a tonga for the first time in his life. He was
actually just a villager who had been given the task of escorting Ambedkar to the village
because none of the tongawallahs would agree to give a ride to an untouchable. The tonga
driver himself had suffered severe injuries in his arms and legs and had several broken bones
due to his own fall. Thus, Ambedkar realised that the villagers had, in order to save his
dignity, risked his very life. At the point where the untouchables of Chalisgaon are
welcoming Ambedkar, the Vyams have symbolically represented this by showing a dancing
peacock. This is meant to show the villagers’ welcome to Ambedkar. There are bats shown in
the scene where Ambedkar falls from the bullock cart because bats are seen as bad omens.
[THIS IS INCIDENT THREE IN WAITING FOR A VISA: PRIDE, AWKWARDNESS,
AND A DANGEROUS ACCIDENT IN CHALISGAON]
Next is their trip to the Daulatabad fort. As soon as they reach there, they are eager to go
straight to the famous fort and don’t even wait for tea, although they are thirsty. They want to
see the fort before sunset. Daulatabad is a Muslim area. Along their journey, they had told
nobody that they were coming because, being untouchables, they wanted to travel
anonymously, without drawing attention to themselves. They had only informed their hosts in
Daulatabad that they would be coming. As they travel in the bus, the bus has Ambedkar’s
face at its front showing his leadership. Now as they went to the fort, there was a large pond
in front of it, and some of the tired and hungry untouchables started to wash in it.
Immediately there was a big uproar. The Muslims came and said untouchables were not
allowed to touch the water in the pond. Ambedkar and others said that they were travellers
and did not know the local rules of this place. They did not know that Muslims too practised
untouchability. So then the Muslims called the untouchables of Daulatabad and shouted at
them as to why they had let their guests wash in the pond. But these untouchables of
Daulatabad were actually a little way behind and they did not know that their fellow mates
had washed in the pond. Thus, there was a big face-off, and many abuses hurled. Ambedkar
tried to stand up for the dignity of the Dalits, and asked whether the Muslims of Daulatabad
would still have a problem if they converted to Islam and then touched the water. He asked
them if this is what their religion teaches them. Islam teaches equality, but still the Muslims
practise casteism. Finally they were allowed to enter the fort only on the condition that they
would not touch water anywhere within the fort. A group of people were going to accompany
them to see that they did not touch any water. Thus, Ambedkar came to know that Hindus,
Parsis, Christians, and even Muslims practise untouchability. In their drawings, the Vyams
have showed the fort as a lion, a predatory animal because here too the untouchables face
casteism. [THIS IS INCIDENT FOUR IN WAITING FOR A VISA: POLLUTING THE
WATER IN THE FORT OF DAULATABAD]
So we must not forget that all these stories about Ambedkar’s life are actually being told
by the low-caste woman to the upper-caste man. So at this point, the upper caste man says
that soon the woman will say that Ambedkar was even greater than Gandhi. Then the woman
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says that of course he was, and she proceeds to explain why this is so. Then she tells him
about the famous Poona Pact. Ambedkar wanted a separate electorate for Dalits. This would
basically mean that Dalits would elect their own leaders to the parliament. Only the Dalits
would vote for the Dalit leaders. The main exclaims that that would be a bit like reservations
in education and jobs. However, Gandhi felt that it would not be good for the untouchables
themselves as they were not politically conscious and they would not know who to vote for
and that they would only be used by others for political gains, being illiterate and uneducated.
Gandhi also claimed that this would not be beneficial for Hinduism. So Gandhi started a fast
unto death against the issue of separate electorates for Dalits. Ambedkar knew that if Gandhi
died, there would be a huge backlash against the Dalits which would be disastrous for them.
Thus, he had to yield to Gandhi’s demands to stop his fast unto death. This resulted in the
Poona pact. In the Poona pact, Ambedkar agreed to Gandhi’s demand that there would be no
separate electorates for Dalits, that is, everyone would vote for all the parliament members
and the electorates would not be separate, even though Ambedkar was sure that the Dalits
would have unanimously elected him as their leader to represent them, if they had the choice.
However, Ambedkar had certain conditions of his own. He said that he would agree only if
more than double the number of seats in the Parliament would be given to Dalits, than the
number of seats they would have had with separate electorates.
At this point, the text shows us different clippings from Ambedkar’s speeches, and also
from Gandhi’s. These are in different colours to showcase their difference. There are also
sections quoted from the Constitution such as the Preamble, of which Ambedkar was the
main architect. So Ambedkar formed liberty, equality and fraternity as the basis of the
constitution and freedom of thought, speech and expression and religion that we have all read
about, and special provisions for Dalits, tribals, women and children. Ambedkar was the first
law minister of India. He tried to introduce progressive changes such as making provisions
for divorce, and betterment for widows and young girls. However, his first proposal, and even
his second more watered down proposal were rejected by Nehru’s cabinet. Ambedkar was far
too ahead of his time. Finally Ambedkar resigned from the post of Law minister in Nehru’s
cabinet. Thus, we see multiple registers in the graphic novel. There are also news clippings to
show treatment meted out to Dalits in this present day and age when Dalit women during
childbirth are kicked out of hospitals, or are denied shelter. A lot of these news clippings
show how much the discrimination of Dalits persists to this day. Yellow textboxes are used
for excerpts from Ambedkar’s speeches and letters, while Gandhi’s opinions are in bright
green. The cool mint green used for the constitution boxes shows that conflicts can be
resolved through proper laws.
At the end of all this, the man says that he doesn’t agree with the woman or with
Ambedkar, but he can’t help respecting the man. This shows how deeply casteism is
entrenched within us and that the upper castes are not going to change quickly or easily. Then
the man says Jai Bhim, and for the first time, his speech bubble changes from a scorpion like
bubble with a sting, into a bird-like bubble.
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 Bhimayana chooses a dialectical style like Plato’s Republic and Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj as
it gives both the points of view of the upper caste man, and the Dalit woman, of the upper
castes as well as the Dalits, of Ambedkar and also of Gandhi. Towards the end of the book,
we see a lot of the colour blue. Blue is the colour of positivity of the Dalits and shows a large,
homogenous mass of population. Blue is the colour showing the joining of Dalits hands,
showing solidarity between them. Blue is the symbol of water, freshness and energy.
Self Check Questions
> Describe the events that happen at Chalisgaon and at the Daulatabad fort. What
similarities do you see between these incidents and the incidents discussed in earlier
sections?
> Briefly talk about some of the imagery and symbolism in the art used to bring out the
main themes.
> What were the different opinions of Gandhi and Ambedkar on the Dalit issue? What
is known as the Poona Pact?
6.4 Waiting for a Visa
There are two more incidents in Waiting for a Visa which have not been covered in
Bhimayana. These are not autobiographical incidents of Ambedkar’s life, but incidents in the
life of other untouchables which he observed. I will briefly describe the incidents below:
FIVE: A doctor refuses to give proper care, and a young woman dies
The incident is shown to be narrated by the husband of the young untouchable woman who
had just given birth to a child. The narrator is a school teacher in the village of Kathiawar.
His wife gave birth to a child, and then feel ill. She suffered from loose stools and her chest
became inflamed. She had difficulty in breathing and there was acute pain in the ribs. When a
doctor was asked to see her, he said that he would not step inside the Harijan (untouchable)
colony, so the woman had to be brought out of the colony so that he could examine her. Then
the doctor gave the thermometer to a Muslim, who gave it to the husband, who gave it to his
wife, because the doctor refused to give the thermometer directly to the untouchable woman.
The thermometer was returned the same way. It was confirmed that she had pneumonia. The
doctor sent some medicine but refused to see her again, although the full payment had been
made to him. The young woman died. Thus we see that the doctor, despite being educated,
believed in casteism and untouchability. The moral law of his profession that he should serve
a patient in need was not enough for him. Upper caste people would prefer to be inhuman
than to break the laws of untouchability. The news clippings in Bhimayana tell us that things
like this still happen.
SIX: A Young clerk is abused and threatened until he gives up his job
This incident is narrated by another young man, also an untouchable. He had studied upto
class Xth, and had studied English also till class 4. He was looking for a job of a teacher but
there was no vacancy so he could not get it. Then he wrote to the Backward Classes Officer
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for the job of a clerk, which he got. As he had clearly mentioned on the application that he
was a harijan (untouchable), he thought the people at the office would already be knowing
this. Therefore, he was surprised when they asked him who he was. He said he was a Harijan.
Thereupon he was greatly abused for applying for a job of a clerk, a position above his
station, and was asked to stand away and maintain a distance from the other man. He also
found it difficult to get water in the office. As had happened with Ambedkar, he was not
allowed to take the water himself as his touch would pollute the water. A small rustic cup was
kept aside for him in which only he, and nobody else would drink water. But he could only
drink water when the waterman was there and the waterman was not very keen to give the
water to him. He tried to find some shelter but no Hindu household would give him a place to
stay. They would not give him any food either. We see this as a reflection of what had
happened to Ambedkar. Thus he was forced to live in an ancestral village and he had to walk
eleven miles to work everyday. This he did for one and a half months. Then the officer
decided to transfer him to some other village for two months where he could learn the work
from a Talati. When he entered, the Talati and headman took absolutely no notice of him. He
kept standing there for fifteen minutes. As he was already irritated, he sat down on a chair.
The Talati and headman immediately went away without saying anything. Soon a big, angry
crowd came with the Librarian heading it. He was extremely angry because the chair on
which the man had sat had been actually the librarian’s. The crowd abused him for a long
time and asked him how he could dare to apply for the office of a clerk, being a Harijan, and
how he could possibly think that he could order the upper castes in his work? He crowd kept
standing there till 7pm and did not let him go. Eventually he had to resign from the job,
without even being allowed to do any work.
Self Check Questions
 Describe the incidents of discrimination, narrated by Ambedkar on the basis of
other people’s experiences of untouchability?
 Why does “touch” become such an important issue?
7. Bibliography
Anand, S, and VivekVellanki. ‘Bhimayana: Caste, Ambedkar, Art and Pedagogy’,
Contemporary Education Dialogue, SAGE publications, 2015
Anushmita, ‘Colour in Graphic Novels—Bhimayana’, Indian Folk
Chakraborty, Suryendu. ‘Unpacking caste politics through the multimodal communicative
landscape of Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability, Rupkatha Journal on
Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, Vol 12 No. 4, July-September 2020
Hyland, Katie. ‘New and Old Twists on Old and New Forms: Bhimayana and the People’s
Archive of Rural India’, Bioethics Reserch Showcase, Georgetown University, 2018
Khilnani, Shweta. ‘The Case of Bhimayanaand the Search for a New Dalit Aesthetic’, Lapis
Lazuli, Vol 5 No.2, Autumn 2015
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Kothari, Rita. ‘Caste in a Casteless Language? English as a Language of ‘Dalit’ Expression’,
Economic and Political Weekly, September 28, 2013, Vol 48 No. 39
Lakshmi, Rama. ‘Indian graphic artists draw outside the box for nonfiction Bhimayana’,
Washington Post, August 19, 2010
Nayar, Pramod. ‘Towards a postcolonial critical literacy: Bhimayana and the Indian graphic
novel’, Studies in South Asian Film and Media, Vol3 No.1, March 2012
…. Radical Graphics: Martin Luther King Jr, BR Ambedkar, and Comics Auto/ Biography’,
University of Hawaii Press, Vol 39 No.2, Spring 2016
Sankar, Nandini Ramesh, and DeepsikhaChangmai. ‘Between Solidarity and Complicity: The
Politics of Representation in Bhimayana’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 2020
Sinha, Ruma. ‘Aesthetics, Gender, and Canon in Anti-Caste Graphic Narratives, A Gardener
in the Wasteland, and Bhimayana, South Asian Review, 2018
Varughese, E. Dawson. ‘Inequality and Adversity in Content and Form: The Indian Graphic
Novel Bhimayana’, www.comicsforum.org
Review of Bhimayana by Graphic Shelf
Routrey, Sailen. ‘Epic Graphic’, Hard News Media, 5th June 2012

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 Paper-VI : Popular Literature
Unit-5 : Readings

Contents
a. Christopher Pawling, Popular Fiction: Ideology or Utopia?
b. Felicity Hughes, Children’s Literature: Theory and Practice
c. Darko Suvin, On Teaching SF Critically
d. Izvetan Todorov, The Typology of Detective Fiction

Edited by: Written by:

P.K. Satapathy Deb Dulal Halder

105 106
 Unit-5
Readings
Section -1
Popular Fiction: Ideology or Utopia?
Christopher Pawling
Deb Dulal Halder
1.1 Introduction
After reading the previous four units in this paper, you must have arrived at an understanding
of what constitutes Popular Fiction and why the writings of Lewis Carroll, Sukumar Roy,
Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Durgabai Vyam, and Agatha Christie have been bracketed together
as popular fiction. You have so far explored the realm and contours of Popular Fiction
through the reading of the texts by the above mentioned authors. This unit will make you
explore the idea of popular fiction further. Christopher Pawling’s essay “Popular Fiction:
Ideology or Utopia” will help you cohesively understand the idea of Popular Fiction and
Culture. It is advised at this juncture to read the original essay “Popular Fiction: Ideology or
Utopia” by Christopher Pawling as that will make you understand the essay and the related
concepts in a better fashion.
1.2 Learning Objectives
In this Unit, we will learn about –
 What is Popular Fiction?
 The way Christopher Pawling defines the contours of Popular Fiction
 Whether Popular Fiction simply deals with utopian things or it has ideological
manifestations?
 The relationship between Popular Fiction and Ideology
 Cawelti and Lowenthal’s discourse on Popular fiction
 Antonio Gramsci and Popular culture/ fiction
1.3 Pawling’s Essay “Popular Fiction Ideology or Utopia?”
Christopher Pawling’s essay “Popular Fiction Ideology or Utopia?” is taken from Popular
Fiction and Social Change edited by Christopher Pawling himself and published from
London by Macmillan in 1984. The essay deals with divergent issues of popular fiction but
the primary objective of Pawling is to establish the premise of Popular fiction as a serious
branch of study and not just a “significant other” on which the identity of English literature as
an intellectual discipline is dependent. As the essay is an introduction to an edited book by
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Pawling therefore the divergent issues that are taken up by Pawling are not being elaborated
in detail, but are merely put in brief terms so as to introduce the subject matter, which is
being discussed by the essayists in the book.
It needs to be elaborated here before one undertakes a further study of popular fiction,
that it is a branch of Cultural Studies which also emphasizes on the studying culture from the
point of view of it being a “way of life” (Raymond Williams), rather than it being thought as
the ideal. Before progressing further let us delve a bit deeper into the understanding of culture
and its modern manifestations.
A Note on Culture
Culture is usually thought to be a dubious word and one of the most complex
words to define in as it has multiple meanings and has been changing its
connotations and significations with each age and with each scholar. Each
person seems to be defining the term in their own way and this adding to its
multiple layers of meanings. Raymond Williams, the famous Marxist critic, a
Cultural Materialist, thought that it is the most difficult word that he had come
across as he states in his famous book Keywords.
When Raymond Williams came back to Cambridge after the war, he was
preoccupied with one single word and its different manifestations – the word
was “culture.” Raymond Williams comments – “I had heard it previously in two
senses: one at the fringes, in teashops and places like that, where it seemed the
preferred word for a kind of social superiority, not in ideas or learning, and not
only in money or position, but in a more intangible area, relating to behavior;
yet also, secondly, among my own friends, where it was an active word for
writing poems and novels, making films and paintings, working in theatres.
What I was now hearing were two different senses, which I could not really get
clear: first, in the study of literature, a use of the word to indicate, powerfully
but not explicitly, some central formation of values (and literature itself had
the same kind of emphasis); secondly, in more general discussion, but with
what seemed to me very different implications, a use which made it almost
equivalent to society: a particular way of life” – “American culture,”
“Japanese culture.”
The emphasis on this word by Williams makes it evident that it is one of the
words in the vocabulary and parlance of English language which needs to be
probed time and again to manifest its different facets and dimensions. Culture
can be defined in multiple ways depending on from which position one is trying
to define culture. Culture may mean the ideal, the best that is thought and
written by the humankind which is a very narrow view about culture or Culture
may mean a “way of life” which gives a much broader definition of culture and
there has been accepted in today’s world as the definition of culture. In defining
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culture, the Marxist critic Raymond Williams has a great role to perform as
according to him, there are at least three important ways of defining Culture –
“Culture as the Ideal – that is, when culture is “an embodiment of perfect and
universal values” (“the best that has been thought and written”). In this kind of
a view of culture, the notion and analysis of culture is limited to the rummage
around and detection of such “timeless values” which are represented in the
lives of the artists and writers or their works. In this definition of culture, which
was prevalent before the 1960s, Culture meant the culture of the “ruling class”
and all other ways of life was thought to be sub-cultured or uncultured.”
For example, in the colonial context, the European superiority complex led
them to think as elite European male culture to be the only culture and whatever
did not confirm to the culture of Elite European male was thought to be
uncultured. When the Europeans visited Africa, they thought Africa did not
have a civilization of their own and are uncultured beings as African way of life
did not confirm to the European standards. In this context, it is to be
remembered that Africans had a culture of their own, a civilization as rich as the
European one; it is just that the Euro-centric ways could not see any culture in
African ways of life. Same is not only true about Africa, but also about India,
Latin America and host of other colonized countries.
Culture as Documentary means that all kinds of human thoughts, their
language and linguistics activities, different forms of representations as well as
conventions and experiences are represented and recorded. But even in this kind
of a view of culture the descriptive act is done from the perspective of a
comparison with the ideal – that is, Culture as an Ideal.
Culture as social - as “a way of life” which means that culture is expressed as
the structure of feeling/ consciousness/ sensibilities/ sensibilities of a social
group. In this kind of a view of culture, Culture is “analyzed, clarified and
valued” in terms of meanings and values of ordinary behaviour and social
institutions as well as in terms of their place in art and learning. As stated
earlier, if we take this definition of culture as “a way of life” then it seems
pretty clear that anyone’s way of life can be termed as culture. So according to
this definition of Culture, Women have women’s culture, working class have
working class culture, colonized have a culture of their own, students have a
culture of their own and so on and so forth.
From these three definitions of culture it can be made out that when I. A.
Richards and the New Critics are trying to define culture in their critical writing
they have a very limited view of Culture as they think of Culture only from the
point of view of Culture as the Ideal, in the sense of what is best written and
thought about human beings and their civilization. This view of culture is not
only biased but also at the same time has a very narrow scope as it talks about
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the elitist notion of culture.
Culture is not merely the ideal, as the ideal is something that is decided by the
ruling class. And anything that does not bear resemblance to the culture of the
ruling class is thought to be no culture at all. Here it is important to understand
the Marxist concept of Base and Super structure to some extent as without
doing so it is difficult to understand the modern notion of culture. The culture is
also a construct of the ruling class and they tend to decide what “culture” would
signify at a given point of time. For them it was very significant to define and
mark what “culture” meant at a particular point of time as based on what is
decided to be culture, they rule over the supposed semi-cultured and the
uncultured masses.
From this Marxist presumption, there has been a lot of development in the
Cultural Studies in the twentieth century where cultural production of texts and
other narratives are seen from a particular point of view. It is significant to
understand here that the Marxists critics had problems with this definition of
Culture as the culture of the mass (the popular culture) is being denied any
space in the definition of ‘culture as an ideal.’ Therefore people by Terry
Eagleton and Raymond Williams hit back such definitions of Culture made of
the Leavisites (F. R. Leavis and his followers) and I. A. Richards also criticized
the notion of Canon-formation, as “the canonicity of the canon has become a
yardstick to slot literary works as mainstream or otherwise.”
For Raymond Williams, Cultural materialism, a kind of theory that he proposes,
is based on Marxism which is based on “the elaboration of historical
materialism” – “Latent within historical materialism is ... a way of
understanding the diverse social and material production ... of works to which
the connected but also changing categories of art have been historically applied.
I call this position cultural materialism.” Williams counter-posed to “high
culture” – “This extraordinary decision to call certain things culture and then
separate them, as with a park wall, from ordinary people and ordinary work.”
Similarly, Eagleton similarly bounced back on the Leavisites, as well as that of
the critical writings of I. A. Richards by saying that with the coming up of the
new classes into the scene, the notion of culture changed as the new group tried
to reformulate things to make spaces for themselves. Eagleton says – “literature
did more than ‘embody’ certain social values: it was a vital instrument for their
deeper entrenchment and wider dissemination. Literature interacts with social
forces and creates another set of values altering the existing system.” Or “With
the need to incorporate the increasingly powerful but spiritually rather raw
middle classes into unity with the ruling aristocracy, to diffuse polite social
manners, habits of ‘correct’ taste and common cultural standards, literature
gained a new importance.”
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 In the essay, Pawling heavily denounces the Puritan academic world for undermining
Popular Fiction (PF) and term it as “Para literature”. When the academicians feel that PF
cannot be academically studied; and even if studied, then it can only be limited to “empirical
surveys of the production, marketing and consumption of popular fiction” it fails “to make
connections between the literary artifact and the social context in which it moves and has its
being.” Any literary text or any kind of representation is produced within a particular context,
the socio-political, cultural and economic context of the production of that text necessarily
finds manifestation within the text.
For example, can we think of James Bond movies or the genre of thrillers without the
bifurcation of the world into capitalist and communist blocks post World War II which led to
the Cold War. In James Bond texts (written by Ian Fleming) finds manifestation the politics
of the Cold War. One may read a Fleming novel or watch a James Bond movie and comment
that ‘it is for pleasure of the male audience that the Bond movies are made in a particular way
which appeals to the male audience.’ But a closer critical look at any Ian Fleming text or
Bond movie will tell us that they are inherently racial, deeply patriarchal and championing
Capitalism. When one reads a Bond text, one may not notice all these as the text is made in
such a manner where the pleasure of the readers is much greater than merely telling the
readers to look at the ideologies in the text which are represented. The immediate thrill of the
text or the narrative of the film makes the readers/ audience forget about the ideological
manifestations in the text, but that does not mean that ideologies are not there in a Bond text
or movie.
Thus, while studying Bond texts, merely accounting the number of copies of the book
sold or a statistical data of the popularity of the text should not be the domain of academic
study as far as literary studies is concerned. Probably a marketing study can focus on these
elements where the ambit of the study is sales of a particular narrative; but when it comes to
the domain of literary studies or cultural studies, the study of the ideologies represented in the
text is of paramount significance.
It is with these terms that Christopher Pawling made a critique of the general tendency of
the academicians in his essay to give Popular Fiction (PF) its due – to place PF in the same
parameter as that of any other literature.
Thus popular fiction has been studied, but merely to the extent of it being a product of
mass consumption, but the study of the relationship between the product and the social and
cultural milieu that produces the product is deliberately being evaded as that is the domain of
the elite fiction. That ideology is manifest in each cultural production and reproduction is
deliberately being eschewed so that popular fiction, along with other marginal cultural
artifacts, can be seen as objects having no aesthetic value and no ideological significance as it
is merely utopian in character.
Scholars like Lowenthal have gone a step further to think in terms of popular fiction
being “purveyor of false consciousness.” Thinking along the Marxist terminology, Lowenthal
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argues that “ruling class ideas are the ruling ideas” of the society, then the dominant ideology
that popular fiction reinscribes in it has to be the ideology of the ruling class which it uses so
as to achieve hegemony. Leo Lowenthal condemns Popular Fiction as ‘purveyor of false
consciousness’ primarily because he thinks that the role of popular fiction is limited to the
reproduction of ‘false consciousness’ as men, because of their limited mode of activity, are
unable to comprehend the real social contradictions and consequently tend to find solutions in
discursive level/ mental level which conceal/ misrepresent the contradictions, in the process
serving the interests of the ruling class. Lowenthal assumes Popular Fiction as such a literary
artifact which seeks to find solutions to the social contradictions in wishful utopian
reproduction. As Popular Fiction fails to bring forth the social contradictions and merely
reproduces them, serving the interests of the ruling class, therefore Popular Fiction has no
other function, according to Lowenthal, but to serve the interests of the ruling class.
Lowenthal in his book Literature, Popular Culture and Society claims that since the
separation of literature into two distinct fields – Art and Commodity; commodity or popular
literary artifact cannot be taken seriously to study society as the real social contradictions are
concealed in the process of constructing these texts as the purpose of Popular Fiction is to
eschew/ evade the social contradictions. Moreover, he thinks that Popular Fiction is
significant to the extent of understanding the social change that leads to the separation of
literature into art and commodity. Pawling finds Lowenthal’s approach ‘reductionist’ as
Lowenthal simply thinks that capitalistic mode of economy or market economy has adverse
impact on this form of literary reproduction. According to Pawling, the emergence of market
economy has significant results in the relationship between the author and the readers but that
does not signify that it has simpler implications for the ‘mass’ fiction.
For John Cawelti, Popular Fiction is “intrinsically more ideological” than elite fiction as
it serves the function of reproducing ‘cultural consensus’ as opposed to the mimetic (elite)
fiction whose supposed role is to make the readers confront the problematic and contradictory
reality of the world. According to Cawelti, “the tensions, ambiguities and frustrations of
ordinary experience” are glossed over by Popular Fiction in such a manner by “magic
pigments of adventure, romance and mystery” that the problematic reality is not confronted
by the readers (the mass). Thus, the social tension is managed by popular fiction in a way so
as to promote cultural stability “by assimilating new interests into the conventional
imaginative structures.”
But such a ‘functionalist’ reading of popular fiction extolling the consensual function is
too simplistic and uncritical as culture is not such a homogenous entity as Cawelti thinks it to
be. Moreover, the readers are not passive recipients of the culture, but have a definite role to
play. Cawelti’s approach of Popular fiction being formulaic is similarly problematic as
Pawling points out by quoting Patrick Parrinder who argued that there is no place in
Cawelti’s scheme for “a literature of genuine innovation.” Using Theodor Adorno’s argument
“no art can entirely dispense with them” (stereotypes/ formula), Pawling points out how if
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popular fiction is formulaic then elite fiction cannot claim that it is beyond the stereotype or
formula.
Pawling then goes on to discuss how Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s
notion of “common sense ideology” as central to the understanding of PF. By this time, you
must have realized that PF is ideological in every sense of the term as any literary text
necessarily will be an ideological manifestation of the society which it is portraying. But in
case of Popular Fiction, which is written with the objective of salability in mind the dominant
ideology of the society is represented in a fashion which makes it easily acceptable to the
people, and yet at the same time, it needs to deal with utopian elements for the sake of wish
fulfilment of the readers.
Gramsci therefore believes that it is the commonsense ideology which is often
represented in PF. The ideology thus represented is so common sensical that often the readers
are unable to notice it even as an ideology as they live by it in their everyday life. It can also
be termed as “lived ideology.” Earlier, we have discussed how the genre of thrillers,
especially James Bond books and movies represent racism, patriarchy and champions
capitalism. But when one read a Bond book or watches a Bond movie, one does not even
look at these as ideologies as one lives by them in everyday life. They are so common
sensical to our everyday existence for the majority of the people in the society that we do not
even see them as ideological.
Self-Check Questions
1. Who defines Culture as “a way of life”?
(a) Christopher Pawling
(b) Raymond Williams
(c) F. R. Leavis
(d) Matthew Arnold
2. Who states that PF is “a purveyor of false consciousness”?
(a) Cawelti
(b) Lowenthal
(c) Gramsci
(d) Raymond Williams
3. What is lived ideology, according to Gramsci?
4. In what ways do you think PF is ideological?
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1.4 Review: Popular Fiction: Literature or Commodity
“… Para literature occupies the space outside the literary enclosure, as a
forbidden, taboo and perhaps degraded product against which the ‘self’ of
literature proper is forged.” – Mark Angenot
“… a discipline which refuses to take into account ninety percent or more of
what constitutes its domain seems to me not only to have large zones of
blindness but also to run serious risks of distorted vision in the small zone it
focuses on (so called high literature).” – Darko Suvin
Such is the instability of the premises on which stands the study of popular fiction. Or to
probe the issue further, it is the same premise on which the so-called elite literature is
constructed with it having supposed academic value as against the negligible status of
Popular fiction. The very epithet employed in the perusal of this expressive manifestation of
popular culture is more often than not, the vortex of a dialectic contention. To an adherent of
the old (and conventional) school of literariness, Popular Fiction (PF) is a problematic issue,
considered more as a banal scar on the face of real literature. PF is relegated to the status of
‘Para literature’ and perceived as a minor field of study. It encounters this kind of entrenched
resistance chiefly on account of the fact that literary theorists ‘play it safe’ constrained within
the gridlines of the established and consolidated intellectual paradigms – an act of adherence
that leaves little room for much innovation, modulation or even exploration.
The American Journal of Popular Culture brands most of the work on popular literature
(a major chunk of which is fiction) as ‘secondary untheorized and eclectic’. A surmise such
as this almost bordering on offensiveness, definitely circumscribes ‘second rate’ exhortations
endorsing the primary objective of ‘salability’; discourses that leave scant space for ‘serious
socio-historic’ or literary exegesis. An instance that so denigrates the literary worth of
popular literature would be the authoring of ‘pulp fiction’. If one treads the footprints of
literature back into the past in the quest for it origin, one would certainly discover that
literature has had its roots in the evolution of language – serving the function of satiating
mankind’s elementary necessity of intercommunication. The function of communication
having been successfully fructified after a time, language bred literature as an indulged
offspring, to take on the role of a vehicle for the exposition of human glory. Soon, literature
was conferred upon with an additional and more arduous responsibility of channelising and
directing the episodes of human cultural finesse. It was at this juncture that literature
diversified into other modes of aesthetic assertions such as art and cinema. Literature now
coupled with its cousins became the altar of communicative practice, with social and
historical roots. This is the very reason on account of which, alluding to Suvin’s belief,
literature of the masses, namely popular literature/fiction, cannot be ignored and be deprived
of a pedestal in the hallowed institution of (contemporary) literature.
From one standpoint, it would not be purportedly blasphemous to opine that in a way, PF
has started digging its own grave. In its effort to intervene into an existing social set up –
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rather than assume the stance of a chronicling observer – with a self-sanctioned authority to
modify and realign the system, all it has managed to accomplish is to circumnavigate around
a rather turbidly problematic core of direct didacticism and sermonization, concealed behind
a dangerously fallacious cloak of unwarranted fantasy and piquancy. Thereby, PF glances off
the gloves of traditional concerns of both sociology and literary criticism. Thus, though PF
seeks to excavate and then renovate social structure, this honest intention gets misdirected in
the haze of misassumption to finally follow a diversion. The net result is an uncomfortable
dichotomy between ‘external portrayal’ and the ‘motif embedded in the text.’ Thus, popular
literature gets split into ‘a socio-historical external context’ and the pure and still undefiled
centre of the literary text …” (Suvin)
Interestingly, the narrative structure of PF commendably alleviates to an extent the
inherent crisis of this dichotomy. The ideological undercurrent that flows in the narrative
technique of PF often ‘provides a crucial link between the external reality of social
experience and the internal meaning which is derived there from. The design the PF author
employs through his narrative technique to conciliate the two extremities of the dichotomy is
to text out certain ideological propositions which forms the basis of literary ‘discourse’
(Pierre Macharey). Such ideological trials are carried out very intentionally, on the actions
and motives of the characters. This in turn reveals either the contradictions or the acceptance
of these imposed ideological dictates, by the characters constituting the production. These
outcomes then enunciate themselves in an often abrupt ‘magical resolution’ or some kind of
uncalled for tragedy.
Another quandary that PF finds itself stranded in – and one that possibly possesses a
more serious character than the friction between ‘external context’ and ‘internal worth; -- is
the denial of a classification, technically a ‘canonization’ to be conferred upon PF, by the
supercilious guardians of ‘high’ literature. As referred to earlier in the essay, Pf is often
perceived as some ‘low brow’ fabrication with the cardinal aspiration to excite and maze its
readership using superfluous contrivances of characterization, imagery and plot. Cawelti
terms this kind of literature as ‘formulaic’ as opposed to ‘mimetic’ literature. He views
formulaic literature as an ‘artistry of escape’ from a mundane everyday existence to create
another ‘ideally unreal space which realist elements of disorder, ambiguity and uncertainty
(hallmarks of mimetic literature) have been deleted. The unanimous consensus among the
literary theorists is that PF is unwaveringly directed at the sole intention of ‘selling the stuff.’
According to them, what PF eventually seeks to achieve is to promulgate and subsequently
propagate and consolidate among its readers a false consciousness. They uphold the opinion
that PF is principally an eminently strategized endeavour to market literature (as an art form)
as commodity. Leo Lowenthal says – “… since the separation of literature into two distinct
fields of art and commodity in the course of the eighteenth century, the popular literary
products can make no claim to insight and truth …” (Leo Lowenthal, “Literature Popular
Culture and Society”). Hence the denial of a category, a canon, a genre, to popular fiction.
Frederic Jameson has noted – “Genres are essentially contracts between a writer and his (sic)
readers …”
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On similar lines Claudio Guillen calls genres as ‘literary institutions’ which like other
institutions of social life are based on tacit agreements or contracts. In accordance with these
views, one notes with disdain that such a contract between a PF author and his readers has
been hurriedly vested into redundancy by the proponents of the already exiting canons on the
grounds already discussed. What has been very surreptitiously yet methodically overlooked is
the fact that PF is the literature of the masses; that it is the upholder of contemporary
consciousness. A case in point would be the amazing success of the ‘Shaft’ series in the
1970s – an era that witnessed a resurgence of black (Afro-American) consciousness. Another
instance would be based somewhere around the timeframe of the mind 1960s which
witnessed the rising of the counterculture that sought to transform existing social
relationships looking at a goal of political change. This social emergence found expression in
the unparalleled popularity of writers of fantasy, notably Tolkien, Peake, Burroughs and
others who acquired cult status among the followers of this counterculture. The amazing
success of these anti-realists may be perceived in literary equivalence, as an alteration of
consciousness. We may, therefore, safely conclude that what may today be held in contempt
viewed through condescending eyes, may tomorrow become the a la mode against which the
credibility of literary configurations will be ascertained. How true this conjecture is, can be
attested in the words of Lowenthal himself – “ … yet, since they (popular Literature) have
become a powerful force in the life of modern man, their symbols cannot be over-estimated
as diagnostic tools for studying man in contemporary society.”
Zeroing in on the question of whether PF (Formulaic Fiction) being a generic form of
production, is imperatively cast in a definite, stereotypical model in contrast to the originality
of ‘elite’ (mimetic) literature, one may argue that the most avant-garde form of literary
subversion inevitably sets up generic pattern after a while (Patrick Parrinder). genres (or
Canons) are not unimpeachable. When Macharey began his work on Jules Verne the later
was not even recognized as being an author worth a literary analysis. In the wake of
Macharey’s monumental research, this misconstrued notion was wholly discarded. A canon is
a historically evolving edifice and consequently opens to revision. Literary history
corroborates this fact. More than anything else PF being a better chronicle of human
progression than any other canonized form of literature, it deserved a better ratification than
what is presently accorded to it.
1.5 Let’s Sum Up
In this unit, we have learnt that –
 Christopher Pawling’s essay “Popular Fiction Ideology or Utopia?” deals with
divergent issues of popular fiction but the primary objective of Pawling is to establish
the premise of Popular fiction as a serious branch of study and not just a “significant
other” on which the identity of English literature as an intellectual discipline is
dependent.
 Lowenthal assumes Popular Fiction as such a literary artifact which seeks to find
solutions to the social contradictions in wishful utopian reproduction. As Popular
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 Fiction fails to bring forth the social contradictions and merely reproduces them,  Williams, Raymond (1983) Keywords, London: Fontana.
serving the interests of the ruling class, therefore Popular Fiction has no other
 Christopher Pawling, ‘Popular Fiction: Ideology or Utopia?’, in Popular Fiction and
function, according to Lowenthal, but to serve the interests of the ruling class.
Social Change, ed. Christopher Pawling. London: Macmillan, 1984.
 For John Cawelti, Popular Fiction is “intrinsically more ideological” than elite fiction
as it serves the function of reproducing ‘cultural consensus’ as opposed to the mimetic  Cawelti, John G (1976) Adventure, Mystery, Romance: Formula Stories as Art and
(elite) fiction whose supposed role is to make the readers confront the problematic Popular Culture, University of Chicago press, Chicago.
and contradictory reality of the world.  Ashley, Bob (1989) Edited, The Study of Popular Fiction: A Source Book, London,
 Gramsci believes that it is the common sense ideology which is often represented in Pinter Publishers.
PF. The ideology thus represented is so common sensical that often the readers are
unable to notice it even as an ideology as they live by it in their everyday life. It can
also be termed as “lived ideology.”
1.6 University Questions
1. How does Christopher Pawling defend Popular Fiction in his essay “Popular Fiction:
Ideology or Utopia”?
2. Do you feel Popular Fiction can be studied academically? Give reasons why academic
study of popular fiction is a necessary step for cultural studies.
3. In what ways the dichotomy of utopia and ideology are being dealt with in the realm
of popular fiction? Discuss with reference to Christopher Pawling’s essay “Popular
Fiction: Ideology or Utopia”.
4. Write short notes on –
(a) Popular Fiction as formulaic
(b) Popular Fiction as purveyor of false consciousness
(c) Popular Fiction as Para literature
(d) Popular vs. Elite debate
(e) Popular Fiction as the “other” to Elite fiction
(f) Popular Fiction and common-sense Ideology
(g) Popular Culture and Bestsellers
(h) Study of Popular Fiction and Sales of Books
5. What is the contribution of Antonio Gramsci in the study of Popular Fiction? How
does Christopher Pawling use Gramsci in his essay “Popular Fiction: Ideology or
Utopia”?
1.7 Recommended Readings
 Storey, John (2001) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction, Prentice
Hall, England.

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Section-2
Darko Suvin, TzvetanTodorov and Felicity Hughes
2.1 Introduction
Living in the twenty first century, many of us are fond of Sci-Fi movies and tend to believe
that they are part of our culture, though when it comes to the study of Science Fiction (Sci-Fi
or SF) in academic terms it is often thought that there is nothing much to study there as it
deals with a fantastic realm of existence and is not true in any way and therefore cannot be
studied critically with the aim of understanding the world and its ways. This kind of a belief
that SF cannot be studied and taught in a critical fashion is what made scholars like Darko
Suvin state the ideological manifestation within the SF texts which makes them potent for
academic and critical involvement and thinking. The essay “On Teaching Science Fiction
Critically” is an attempt by Darko Suvin to look at the core issues dealing with science fiction
which makes it so popular. He emphasizes on the ways in which SF texts should be studied
with the same academic rigour as that of an elite fiction text. The reasons for the same is
explored in the essay “On Teaching Science Fiction Critically” and will be discussed in the
course of this unit. Apart from Suvin, Todorov’s essay “The Typology of Detective Fiction”
and Felicity Hughes’s essay “Children Literature: Theory and Practice” are also being dealt
in this Unit which deals with Detective Fiction and Children’s literature respectively. At this
juncture, it is advised that you read the original essays to familiarize yourself with the ideas
that the essayists discussed in the essay.
2.2 Learning Objectives
In this Unit, we will learn about –
 Science Fiction and Darko Suvin’s essay “On Teaching Science Fiction Critically”
 Todorov’s essay “The Typology of Detective Fiction”
 The Genre of Detective Fiction and its typical characteristics
 Felicity Hughes Essay “Children Literature: Theory and Practice”
2.3 Darko Suvin: “On Teaching Science Fiction Critically”
In Third Section of the paper Popular Fiction, you have come across five short stories which
are all SF. The study of the same has already made you realize that SF is not just about
fantasy along with science but has a bigger manifestation in our understanding of the world.
The stories as well as the Sci-Fi movies that you watch often makes this genre a very
common topic for most of you and probably also is something that you are able to relate to
quite easily. Apparently, it seems that the term “Science Fiction” is an oxymoron as science
is supposedly dealing with the real things, with the interpretations of the real world in an
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objective manner and in understanding the ways in which the world can be advanced through
a scientific temper and technological advancements; whereas fiction deals with the
imaginative, fantastical elements of our mind with the primary objective of providing us
pleasure of reading (novels, etc.) or watching movies or the likes.
The first section of the essay “On Teaching Science Fiction Critically” is named as “A
Right to Daydream: A Duty to Daydream Critically” which suggest that SF is basically a
“narrative fiction” which represents “an articulated and collective daydream” as reading SF
critically means “to show realistically both the now-possible (believable and existing)and the
now-impossible but forever-not-impossible (believable though not existing here and now)
relations between people in a material world.” Thus, Suvin starts from the basic premise of
SF which is to understand that SF deals with a certain kind of fantastical extension of science
which borders on the realm of impossible or nearly impossible. But for that matter, all
literature deals not with the realm of the supposed real; but with “what should be” (Aristotle,
Poetics) and if literature pursues “the ideal” or the impossible and if poetic truth cannot be
related to the truth of this reality then what is the point of studying literature. To answer this
question, Suvin states – “Looked at as a whole … the basic purpose of fiction is to make
human life more manageable, more meaningful and more pleasant, by means of selecting
some believable human relationships for playful consideration and understanding …”
The Second Section of the essay “On Teaching Science Fiction Critically” is named as
“On Para literature as an Open Tension between Ideology and Utopia”. Probably the name
rings in your ears the name of the essay by Christopher Pawling which we have dealt with in
Unit I, where the same words “Ideology” and “Utopia” are being used, suggesting to us the
fact that in the study of popular fiction or SF, these words and the “tension” between these
concepts have far reaching consequences. Suvin is of the opinion that “As a rule, utopian
presentation has to be explicit since it presents an alternative, while ideological presentation
will best be served by remaining implicit, as an unargued premise that this is how things are,
were and will be. Both the cognitively utopian and the mystifying horizons are intimately
interwoven in most stories, often in the same paragraph or indeed the same sentence.” Thus,
the tension between ideology and utopia is manifest in all literatures and in case of Popular
fiction or SF it is not reduced in any manner, leading to it being the battleground of
“understanding and mystification.”
To understand this further, Suvin then goes on to discuss how writers from being a
patronized lot and talking to a small group of homogenized audience/readers became subject
to the market forces when in the nineteenth century, there started a popularity of supposedly
cheap “reading materials” which were mass produced for an impersonal heterogenous mass
market. Writers became subject to commerce and economic gatekeepers (promoter,
publisher, agent) and started getting pittance for their writings. These writings were then
derogated by the cultural elites starting from Matthew Arnold by stating that “real literature
was not accessible to all” leading to the binaries of literature and para literature, elite versus
popular, came into being. In that sense “Culture became quite openly a mode of domination”
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when it was assumed that a certain degree of education, erudition as well as social and
economic status are prerequisite for assessing what constitutes literature. (In Unit 1, we have
discussed how the growth of the discipline of English literature as an academic discipline also
let to the derogatory state of Popular fiction and thus denigration of whatever is read by the
mass, working class, women and children as not fit for academic exercise and thus paving the
path for elite vs. popular and also an understanding of culture as whatever is best written and
thought about).
Another aspect that Darko Suvin states in this section is that when this kind of dichotomy
between the elite and the popular was in the process of being constructed, there evolved a
kind of writing which primarily dealt with fantasy “which allowed the readers to express their
hopes, dreams, aggressions and lusts in symbolic terms.” And within this realm Popular
Fiction as well as SF belongs. SF is a genre which manifests in itself use on scientific
premises often in a fantastical manner in a narrative which is highly seeped into the reality
(read ideological structures) of this world and therefore it is often suggested that “cognitive
estrangement” is a necessary means through which the SF is usually understood. We cognize
some aspects of a SF narrative with the realities of this world and some elements (especially
the scientific pretensions and fantasy) is estranged from the reality so take us to a world
which seems too far away from us. This contrapuntal amalgamation of both these opposing
things make SF so appealing, similar to what we have discussed in Popular Fiction when we
discussed following Antonio Gramsci that it is the most advanced technological innovations
(often yet to come) are being put together with the core traditional values that a narrative/ a
text/ a film becomes a best-seller as it appeals to the popular sensibilities.
Review any text of popular culture and you will notice that somewhere the text is highly
grounded in the ideological structures of this world which makes the readers/ viewers identify
with the narrative. SF similarly is structured in a similar manner where behind the scientific
fantasy, there is a connection with the everyday reality of our world. As students of literature
engaging ourselves critically with the texts/ narratives/ films, we need to look both at the
fantastical science and the ideological aspects to make sense of how SF narrative appeals to
the public.
Only when we will be able to critically engage ourselves with the SF texts and look
beyond the apparent and see how they are potent ideologically that we will be truly engage
with them academically. Our critical gaze towards these texts need to unearth the ideologies
manifest and make us relate it to the popularity of these texts. These days, the popularity of
SF has reached to such a level that many of the children’s literature also deals with SF.
Self-Check Questions
(A) SF, according to Suvin, is an open tension between
i. Utopia and Ideology
ii. Science and fiction
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iii. Literature and science
iv. Ideology and Literature
(B) What is the basic purpose of SF, according to Darko Suvin?
(C) Darko Suvin calls fiction as “articulated and __________daydream.”
(a) Automated
(b) Magical
(c) Collective
(d) Individual
(D) The term Science Fiction is a ____________
(a) Simile
(b) Oxymoron
(c) Metaphor
(d) All of above
2.4 Tzvetan Todorov “The Typology of Detective Fiction”
Tzvetan Todorov is a central figure of French structuralism, who advocated the scientific
study of narrative, which is modeled on linguistics, for which he coined the term narratology.
He developed the narrative theory of the twentieth century Russian formalists, to establish a
universal "grammar" of narrative. In "Structural Analysis of Narrative" (1969), Todorov
presents a manifesto for the narratological approach. In the essay we have in our course “The
Typology of Detective Fiction”, Todorov deals with the way the genre of detective fiction
works within the parameters of certain rules. Knowing a genre is often one of the best means
to understand a piece of work, but often great works of literature surpasses the genre and
achieves greater heights. The essay “The Typology of Detective Fiction” will make us
understand the genre of detective fiction in a much more coherent way.
Your reading of “The Typology of Detective Fiction” probably has made you realize that
the essay deals with figuring out the structure of the genre of detective fiction. It gives us a
set of rules that the detective novel usually deals with and when one knows these set of rules
often it helps in critically analyzing the novel in a much better fashion. Often knowing the
rules makes us also understand the way a narrative of a detective novel progresses and why it
does what it does.
Todorov starts the essay by defining the contours of what it means to study a genre and
how and why often study of genre is avoided by scholars and critics. It is found that when
one knows a genre and its structure and rules, it may often not make us enjoy a piece of
literary work in the same manner as one usually does. But at the same time, this is also true
that when one reads few works of the same genre, one naturally comes to know a rough
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structure of that genre leading to a different kind of approach to understanding literature. For
example, we have all read tragedies and know the basic rules of tragedy – that a tragedy
should deal with the rise and fall of a character which usually is caused by the tragic flaw
(hamartia) or the fate. Apart from these, Aristotle had given few more norms of tragedy such
as it should have catharsis (purgation of the feelings of pity and fear); that the protagonist of a
tragedy should be a noble character; that the plot of the novel should have three unities (time,
place and action) and that it should be accompanied by music and rhetoric and that the comic
and tragic elements should not be mixed with each other. Knowing these norms of tragedy
often is helpful for us as students of literature to categorize a piece of work as a tragedy and
often we also tend to say how a play has followed the norms or have broken them. For
example, William Shakespeare in all his great tragedies have broken the Aristotelian norms
and have created masterpieces.
This makes Todorov state that “the literary masterpiece does not enter any genre save
perhaps its own.” What he means is that each literary masterpiece is a genre on its own; as it
does not follow the norms of the genre, but moreover creates norms of its own which is
difficult to imitate and create another one. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a revenge tragedy, is a
play about revenge; but more than that it is Hamlet. A second Hamlet is not possible and
when an indecisive character similar to Hamlet is being constructed in T. S. Eliot’s Prufrock,
he had to say “I am not Hamlet, nor I am meant to be” as a second Hamlet is not possible. So,
in case of literary masterpieces, according to Todorov what is created is unique in such a
manner that it does not fit a formula.
But when we come to Popular Fiction, we have already seen in the Unit on Christopher
Pawling that it is formulaic in nature and Popular narratives usually tend to follow the norms
and structure of the genre. Todorov goes to the extent of saying that “the masterpiece of
popular literature is precisely the book which best fits its genre.” What he means is that in
case of popular literature, a masterpiece is one which follows the norms of the genre closely
and does not deviate much from its structure or pattern that is so typical of the genre.
A Detective Fiction usually has two stories –
(a) The story of the crime
(b) The story of detection
These two stories are merged to form the plot of a detective novel. As we progress with the
story of the detection which usually a friend or an acquaintance of the detective usually
narrates, we are gives clues (often false clues) about the criminal and thus the tussle/ tension/
suspense between the narrative and the reader continues. The essence of the suspense is
whether the reader will be able to gauge the criminal before the detective tells who s/he is.
Based on these parameters most Detective Fiction, Todorov proposes the following structure
of a Detective Fiction –
1. “The novel must have at most one detective and one criminal, and at least one victim (a
corpse).
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2. The culprit must not be a professional criminal, must not be the detective, must kill for
personal reasons.
3. Love has no place in detective fiction.
4. The culprit must have a certain importance (a) in life: not be a butler or a chambermaid and
(b) in the book: must be one of the main characters.
5. Everything must be explained rationally; the fantastic is not admitted.
6. There is no place for descriptions nor for psychological analyses.
7. With regard to information about the story, the following homology must be observed:
“author : reader : criminal : detective.”
8. Banal situations and solutions must be avoided.” (Source: Todorov “The Typology of
Detective Fiction”)
Self-Check Questions
a. How many stories and how many plots are there in a Detective Fiction?
b. What according to Todorov is the criteria of masterpiece of Popular Literature?
2.5 Felicity A. Hughes: “Children’s Literature: Theory and Practice”
The units on Sukumar’s Roy’s poems and Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass
probably has given you a fair notion of what children’s literature is all about and probably
you must also have read few novels and other works as a child and your acquaintance with
what is generally described and categorized as Children’s Literature has been fairly good.
Still when we are dealing with Children’s Literature as a genre within the realm of Popular
fiction paper, we need to understand the politics inclusion of Children’s literature in the
category of Popular Fiction. The essay by Felicity Hughes, “Children Literature: Theory and
Practice” deals with this and more issues and is a must reading for getting a great
understanding of the Children’s Literature.
If you have acquainted yourself with the essay “Children Literature: Theory and
Practice” by now then, you probably have realized that the essay deals with the way
canonization of Children’s Literature is being done within the academic and publishing
circles and how it came into being as a significant ‘other’ to the elite literature, as being
discussed in the essay by Christopher Pawling too. The arguments that led to the evolution of
the popular fiction as “para literature” or as ‘the other’ is more or less similar to that of
bracketing children’s Literature too as the other.
A child is usually seen as an innocent creature and in the early nineteenth century there
was a general tendency among the Romantic Poets in England, especially, William
Wordsworth, William Blake and others celebrating the child-like innocence. But at the same
time, it was seen as a kind of innocence which can be corrupted by the “experiences” of these
world and therefore the need to gain “supreme innocence” by going through the phase of
“experience” (William Blake, “Songs of Innocence and Experience”). But as we move further
in the Victorian Age (you probably has come across some idea of the Victorian Age in your
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units on Lewis Carroll), the colonial-industrial-capitalist society of the West started viewing The common conjecture in aesthetic theory is that children cannot have aesthetic
child to be “inferior versions of the adult” who needs to be taught the values and norms of the pleasure as it requires some the degree of intelligence and discrimination to be experienced,
civilization and “Culture” to incorporate him into the folds of civilization. and children are thought to lacking in them. Thus, the arbitrary exclusion of children’s
literature from the class of serious literature was a deliberate attempt to construct the domain
This kind of notion of a child obviously tends to believe that a child cannot thus have a
of elite fiction, leading to children’s literature being classed as a branch of popular fiction.
“taste” which makes him or her be competent enough to decide what is good or bad for him.
Thus, the binary opposition of detachment – involvement as the proper attitude of the reader
Therefore, what a child enjoys in a literary book (usually “fantasy”) is not what should be
in reading a novel became a criterion? Whereas Henry James in his The Art of Fiction
considered erudite and thus supposedly cannot be part of the so called “elite” literature which
emphasized on “Realism” from the writers and detachment from the readers; R. L Stevenson
is usually considered to be taken for academic engagement. This kind of a belief is what
admired novels which made demands of ‘sympathy’ or ‘involvement.’ Moore, Booth and
made the canonizers of literature take a position of stamping Children’s Literature as “the
others of the twentieth century even emphasized on the importance of the objectivity both on
other” as opposed to Elite.
the part of the novelist and the reader as a principle as that would help establish novel as a
This does not mean that there are not enough Children’s Literature existing and that what serious genre. In the process of doing so, “class, sex and age were conflated as causes of a
is considered to be “the other” is but a negligent aspect which can be marginalized. On the supposed inability to appreciate the best in art and literature, those millions to whom taste is
other hand, this supposed “other” is vast enough as Children are one of the greatest but an obscure, confused, immediate instinct.”
consumers of books produced by the publishing industry. This vast area of literary production
One of the effects of acceptance of realism as a standard was that Fantasy was
cannot be overlooked in anyway and thus there is a need not only to accept the genre of
immediately déclassé. E M Forster emphasizes in his Aspects of the Novel and in his lectures
“Children’s Literature”, not just as an “other”, but as an equally significant part of the
how “fantasy is so ephemeral that critical inspection would destroy it.” This prejudice against
literature. It is with this ambition of establishing Children’s Literature in its proper pedestal
fantasy in the early twentieth century made it a point that any writer of fantasy is forced into
that writers like Felicity Hughes have made attempts to argue and fight for the case of
writing for children. Another inevitable consequence of the way the category of Children’s
Children’s literature as well as theorize to a certain extent to provide a solid base on which
literature came into being was that certain restraint has been imposed on children’s writers in
and from which literature usually read by children can be defended and acknowledged as
the realist tradition when it comes to topics such as terror, politics and sex. Political topics of
rightfully academic too.
class and race have been recently been self-consciously injected into children’s realist fiction.
In other words, it can be said that even though writers of Children’s literature have
Your reading of Children’s literature in this course – Lewis Carroll or/and Sukumar Ray,
considerable achievements in spite of a lack of critical and theoretical support only goes on to
as well as Felicity Hughes’ essay “Children’s Literature: Theory and Practice” probably has
prove that children’s literature has a considerable space in the history of literature even if the
put you in some kind of firm standing in your understanding of the premise on which
theory of children’s literature is “in a state of confusion.” Felicity A. Hughes in her essay
Children’s literature can be justified to be good enough for academic and critical
“Children’s Literature: Theory and Practice” poses the challenge to the critics by pointing out
engagements. You probably have realized that children too live within a socio-political and
how children’s literature is relegated to the realm of popular fiction, as a ‘significant other’ so
cultural world and their minds also are in some ways receptive of the ideas and ideologies
as to constitute novel as a serious form of art, as an artifact which is not merely for “family
prevalent in the times in which they are living. So, not only do their minds receive those ideas
reading,” but an intellectual discipline.
from the society as well as the caretakers (read parents), but at the same time their minds are
To establish the argument, Hughes points out how the crisis of the novel in 1880’s led formed in the process to process information and ideas in a similar process.
scholars to ponder over the rapid rise of the readership of the novel, which failed to provide
For example, while reading Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and What Alice
accolade to the novel as a serious genre. Compared to poetry and drama, novel having no
Saw There, you have seen that Alice’s looking glass world is but a manifestation of the
“distinguished classical ancestry” was stigmatized as a “low” form of art leading critics to
Victorian society – the capitalist venture of moving up the social ladder (Alice’s journey from
promote “a heightened, more serious conception of novel as art” (Walter Allen). Henry James
a pawn to a queen) the money-minded society (where everything is equated in monetary
in The Art of Fiction “tried to dissociate novel from its family readership and redirect it
terms when Alice is in train), the calculative and manipulative society (the chess game), the
toward what was seen as art’s traditional elite audience of educated adult males outside the
competitive individualism (Lion and Unicorn episode as well as Tweedledum and
home, at court, the coffee house or the club.” In other words, if novel had to gain some status
Tweedledee episode) – all point to the fact that Alice’s mind cannot but avoid the Victorian
as a serious art then it had to be “at the cost of being unsuitable for women and children.,” as
upbringing as she manifests all those aspects of the Victorian society; and yet at the same
it would feared that popularity of the novel will weaken the chances of finding the elite
time, Alice’s mind makes a critique of them by questioning some of these parameters of the
readership.

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Victorian society. The “questioning” mind of a child does not accept the society and its
norms as it is, as an adult does; and therefore s/he usually questions the very parameter of the
Self-Check Questions
society as well as the adult world.
A. What, according to Felicity Hughes, failed to provide accolade to the novel as a
It is this “questioning” aspect of the children which is being employed by various writers
serious genre?
to question the validity, logic as well as existence those aspects of society which are never
being questioned by the adult world. This aspect of children’s literature is usually being B. What according to Felicity Hughes are the reasons of prejudice against fantasy?
overlooked by critics as they do not want to accept the fact that their world and its premises
can be questioned. To justify that children’s literature is not a valid means to look at and to
understand reality, the element of “fantasy” in children’s literature is usually highlighted and 2.6 Let’s Sum Up
it is being said that fantasy cannot but be a valid means to gaining knowledge as well as In this Unit, we have learnt that –
questioning the society and the adult order.
 SF is a genre which uses scientific premises often in a fantastical manner in a
Julia Briggs comments that “Children’s books are written for a special readership but not
narrative which is highly seeped into the reality (read ideological structures) of this
normally for members of that readership; both the writing and quite often the buying of them,
world and therefore it is often suggested that “cognitive estrangement” is a necessary
is carried out by adult non-members on behalf of child members” (1989: 4). Therefore, to
means through which the SF is usually understood.
define children’s literature is one of the most difficult tasks as what children read is often
 Only when we will be able to critically engage ourselves with the SF texts and look
determined and decided by adult members taking care of children. Mostly children do not
beyond the apparent and see how they are potent ideologically that we will truly
pick up a book by themselves; their choice is governed by what adult think to be justified for
engage with them academically.
them. In other words, the adults decide which books the child should read and why?
 “The Typology of Detective Fiction” gives us a set of rules that the detective novel
Moreover, often the adult decision is not based on what is there inside the book, but on the
usually deals with and when one knows these set of rules often it helps in critically
information that the adult has received about the book from various sources, mostly from the
analyzing the novel in a much better fashion.
publisher who has categorized the book under the section of Children’s literature probably
 Todorov goes to the extent of saying that “the masterpiece of popular literature is
with a particular motive. Therefore, what comes under children literature is also tricky as
precisely the book which best fits its genre.” What he means is that in case of popular
John Rowe Townsend says that what is considered as a children’s book is decided by the
literature, a masterpiece is one which follows the norms of the genre closely and does
publisher – “In the short run it appears that, for better or worse, the publisher decides. If he
not deviate much from its structure or pattern that is so typical of the genre.
puts a book on the children’s list, it will be reviewed as a children’s book and will be read by
 Felicity A. Hughes in her essay “Children’s Literature: Theory and Practice”
children (or young people), if it is read at all. If he puts it on the adult list, it will not – or at
challenges the critics by pointing out that children’s literature which is relegated to
least not immediately.” (1980: 197)
the realm of popular fiction, is the ‘significant other’ and must be viewed as a serious
Moreover as there is a want of theoretical paradigm on Children’s fiction, as pointed out form of art, as an artifact which is not merely for “family reading,” but an intellectual
by Felicity Hughes in the essay “Children’s Literature: Theory and Practice” it becomes discipline.
easier for people to categorize under children’s literature whatever their whims and fancies  There is a want of theoretical paradigm in Children’s fiction (Felicity Hughes in the
decide Children’s literature to be. It is not that Children’s books are few; on the contrary essay “Children’s Literature: Theory and Practice”) which makes it easier for people
there are many but what is lacking is a theoretical and critical paradigm which would provide to categorize it under children’s literature based on their whims and fancies of what
Children’s literature the place in literary world as it should be. Children’s literature should be.

2.7 University Questions

1. Do you agree with Todorov’s views in “The Typology of Detective Fiction”? Give
reasons for your answer.
2. Fantasy has a great role to play in Children’s literature. Do you agree? Critically
comment on fantasy with reference to Felicity Hughes essay “Children’s Literature:

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 Theory and Practice.”
3. In what ways do you think SF can be beneficial in our academic study?
4. Teaching SF is significant as it is ideologically very challenging. Do you agree with
the statement? Give reasons based on Darko Suvin’s essay “On Teaching Science
Fiction Critically”

2.8 Recommended Readings

 Felicity Hughes, ‘Children’s Literature: Theory and Practice’, ELH 45. 1978, pp. 542-
62.
 Darko Suvin, ‘On Teaching SF Critically’, in Positions and Presuppositions in
Science Fiction. London: Macmillan, pp. 86-96.
 Tzvetan Todorov. ‘The Typology of Detective Fiction’, trans. Richard Howard, in
The Poetics of Prose. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977.

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