Preview

Nature as Creator and Destroyer in the Hungry Tide

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2395 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Nature as Creator and Destroyer in the Hungry Tide
N.Sukanya
PhD Research Scholar
Department of English
Periyar University
Salem-11

Nature as a Creator and Destroyer in The Hungry Tide Man, though wonders at the beauty of nature and its creations, fails to realize that they are also part of the web of life in the earth. Moreover, they adopt an anthropocentric attitude towards nature which, in fact, results in exploitation of it. This kind of attitude towards nature has urged several critics and writers to warn them of nature’s two-sided faces - its power and its rebellious nature. They create many nature-centred texts and bring in the importance of establishing a harmonious relationship with nature through their concepts and critical essays. This becomes evident when Serpil Oppermann in his article “Ecocriticism: Natural world in the Literary Viewfinder” says, “Ecocriticism does enable the critics to examine the texualizations of the physical environment in literary discourse itself and to develop an earth-centered approach to literary studies” (1). In this way, Amitav Ghosh has examined the physical environment in his novel The Hungry Tide. As an anthropologist, he finds it easy to locate the problems encountered by the people living in an immense archipelago of islands, the Sundarbans. The Hungry Tide, a complex novel revolves around the very little known but a beautiful part in the world, the Sundarbans stretching from India which is named after the Sundari tree, as the mangrove is locally called. The land often disappears and reappears due to heavy tides and the land has many survivors who battle against nature and its calamities. “There are no borders here to divide fresh water from salt, river from sea. The tides reach as far as three hundred kilometres inland and every day thousands of acres of forest disappear underwater only to re-emerge hours later.”(HT 7). They attempt to live amongst the man-eaters, crocodiles and mangroves that often submerge in the tide. Piyali Roy, Kanai, Fokir,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Childrens Lit

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Books explore the world of nature and creatures which gives reverence for life, and develops sensitivity to beauty and goodness and decency in human beings and animals.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout history, people have always been drawn to the natural world, but never truly questioned why. The connection between a person and nature is evident, and has been since the beginning of time. People are a major part of nature, being both influenced by it and the influencer. The natural world influences humans, whether it is known or not. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, symbols such as the ocean, Grand Isle Island, and the moon demonstrate ecocritical ideals by advancing plot and portraying Edna Pontellier’s character growth.…

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In this essay, we are told that the author alternates between thinking of the planet as home and as a hard land of exile. The thoughts of despair are introduced in this essay to contrast the beauty of the mangroves. However, ultimately the author has stated explicitly that she finds the possibilities for beauty our planet holds more interesting than the thoughts of despair, which clearly supports the thesis.…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Humans are born from and return to earth at death; human beings and nature are bound up each other. Yet, the technological modern world has shaped humans to be oblivious of nature and the ethnocentrism has positioned human beings above all other things. Nature has become resources for people and nothing more than that. David Abram, the author of the Ecology of magic, travels into the wild, traditional land in search of the relation between magic and nature; the meaning nature holds in the traditional cultures. Abram intends to communicate his realization of the magical awareness of the countless nonhuman entities and the necessity of the balance between the human communities and the nature to the readers, hoping the Western technologized people to regard nature with respect and wonder. The perceptional differences Westerners and the traditional people hold in regard of nature should be transcended to achieve equilibrium and consequently bring about a healthier society.…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Childrens Lit.

    • 1765 Words
    • 8 Pages

    * Books explore the world of nature and creatures which gives reverence for life, and develops sensitivity to beauty and goodness and decency in human beings and animals.…

    • 1765 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Continually throughout history humanity’s connection to the natural world has been probed, celebrated, mocked and forgotten in a haphazard cycle that has been classified as human nature. Through a comparison of Mary Shelley’s 19th Century didactic novel, ‘Frankenstein’ (the Modern Prometheus) and the director’s cut of Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’, a common conception of man’s place amongst nature is posed as being submissive to her dominance. Though each text shares the same values each represents its core concepts in a manner inimitable to its context, ultimately critiquing the respective society’s, bringing to light the fears that the majority of society refused to acknowledge at the time. These fears centre mainly around three broad concepts; scientific discovery, industrial development and religion, which collectively invite consideration of humanity’s unabridged connection with the natural world and how it has been altered over time.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Night Journey Analysis

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Martha Graham’s production of Night Journey is a unique and symbolic contemporary dance work. Graham bases many of her dance pieces on Greek myths and this is seen in her work Night Journey. Graham has manipulated elements of contemporary dance to communicate the emotion of the main character, Jocasta. Graham’s previous work focuses on depicting both the power and struggle of female idols in history. Graham has choreographed Night Journey to explore the perspective of Queen Jocasta, the main protagonist in the piece rather than the story of Oedipus. (Mueller, 2007) Graham has skilfully choreographed significant symbols and motifs to convey Jocasta’s emotions of grief, pain confusion and love through the manipulation of motifs and non-movement components.…

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The relationship between humans and their environment is a topic that engenders much debate. Humans are intellectual. They can think, reason, feel and make deductions or hypothesis and seek to solve or prove their deductions or theories. The environment on the other hand is inanimate and exists by means of natural laws and principles that govern the universe. It cannot prevent man’s exploitations; it cannot take up arms and fight. However, in its own way, by natural laws, it makes efforts to purge and renew itself from the effects of man’s endeavors. Mangor (2002) argues that like the ocean that shapes coastal landforms, the coasts are dynamic aspects of the environment that are in constant change. Thus, by means of its natural processes such as sea level rise, waves and various phenomenon, erosion, accretion and reshaping of coasts, flooding and the creation of continental shelves it defends itself against man. A specific aspect of the environment that engenders conversation is the coastal landscape: its beauty, its purpose, its abuse, and its future.…

    • 3592 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jurassic Park

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In-Gen has created for the world to see at a price. Malcolm always had doubts…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Pablo Neruda's Use of Nature

    • 1541 Words
    • 45 Pages

    The natural world is one that exists outside of all human constructs and limitations, and illuminates a valuable reality in the world. When considering Pablo Neruda’s body of work, a clear thematic focus on nature is visible. Many of his poems reference the natural, untouched world. This is a thematic juxtaposition to the over-structured, artificial nature of human culture. Using nature symbolically within these poems allows for a clear distinction to be drawn between the real and the artificial, and speaks to the flaws that Neruda sees within society. He brings to the reader’s attention the value of instinctual behavior and emotion, as well as the natural qualities of humans, women in particular, and the social constraints by which all people are bound. His disapproval and call for change is apparent. Neruda's use of natural symbolism within Walking Around and I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair illustrates several separate issues of superficiality versus reality,…

    • 1541 Words
    • 45 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The history of mankind has always been that of the constant struggle between man and nature; mankind seeks control and order while nature is constantly creating disorder. Our perception of our relationship with nature, however, is something that has shifted over the years—especially from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century. This can clearly be seen in a comparison between Poussin’s Burial of Phocion and Turner’s The Slave Ship. Despite both having the same subject of death and injustice, differences in formal qualities reveal a shift from thinking man dominates nature to nature dominates man, which makes sense given the contexts surrounding each work.…

    • 1406 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Our attachment to nature is represented in significant interactions that occur through events and situations . An individual’s value of nature may be challenged through their experience and the obstacles they have encountered throughout their lives. Alain De Botton’s philosophical novel The Art of Travel explores our attraction to nature and how it affects our inner being. This is also highlighted in Albert Namatjira’s painting Ljalkaindirma which conveys the artist’s links between his Aboriginal heritage and its culture. Both these texts explore humanity’s connection to landscapes and our own lives through their unique methods of representation.…

    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Nature Concealed - An Ecocentric Approach to Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” Submitted by M. Rajalakshmi Asst. Professor Department of English Sri Sairam Engineering College ABSTRACT Nature and literature have always been inseparable. Nature in a world of hyper-technologism, Transcendentalism, Ecofeminism, dystopia and apocalypse are some of the key areas that the American nature writers of today deal with. This paper aims at rendering an ecocentric reading of Cormac McCarthy’s post- apocalyptic novel, The Road.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Human experience within nature is a broad, ever-expanding subject of study, wherein one is limited to either divulging personal experience or interpreting the validity of the experiences of others in order to gain insight. As such, nature writing takes innumerable forms, with each approaching the task of describing experience within nature in a unique way and each emphasizing a different intent. As a result, there exists a tendency to denote nature writing to an all-encompassing category and furthermore, to neglect the subtleties that serve to differentiate one nature essay from another. These…

    • 1917 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Satiric Essay

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The satirical lens of the literary work cannot be over looked. The sarcastic and critical diction emphasizes on the opposing attitudes about environmentalism. Additionally, the ridiculing natures of these passages are illustrative of how the opposing sides will never agree. “We call them greens, enviros…or environmental wackos,” shows the critical perspective of the environmentalist critics. “But we know them more accurately as…brown lashers, wise users…,” makes the distinction that neither side of the argument will ever agree. The idea is stated that they will not agree, and a discussion of the matter is unnecessary and will not make any progress in the world.…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays