TRAILER OF "THE TRUMAN SHOW" (1998)

DIRECTED BY Peter Weir

WRITTEN BT Andrew Niccol

CAST: Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha Mcelhone

"Best Friend" by Vyasgowtham Prabhakar

A friend I miss having around me

The man, the reason for the good in me;

Though we had some interest in common

For the rest you were there, me being the reason;

The smile you give with the pain inside

Will always remind me of the love that you hide;

Though you stayed a distance away

The silence spoke more than the noise in the way;

Some say that we are oceans away,

They didn’t know you are nearest to stay;

Never use a word to express your love

I know that will be smaller than your love;

My friend is the best the world will have

Because it is my father forever I will have.

                             

"Choose the Right Path" By Vyasgowtham Prabhakar

Terrified, alone and panicked, I am the heart

Scared to go forward in darkness from the start;

The water around is frozen to the cold;

Of all the paths, the one I desire is darkest to be told.

Oh my poor heart, be brave; says the soul

Choose the path you crave

Like lightness and darkness of a day

Though dark, one day it will pay;

If not, paddle the earth to rotate

To scatter sun light for us to celebrate;

Wait for the frozen crystals to melt down

And spread the seeds all over the town;

For the flowers to bloom in the morning light

Watch out the west for the darkening sight.

                              

                                              

The Daily Show: Extended Interview: Malala Yousafzai

Post Modernism Piece- Interpreter of Maladies

                The short story Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri is a post modernism piece. The human relationships and human behavior are shown through the Das family and Mrs. Kapasi in the story. The author uses objects around them and external surrounding that they experience in their journey to express the mood of the characters and their complex relationship. Mr. Kapasi believes that his life is a failure. His career dreams are sacrificed for his family’s well being. His wife is grieving over their dead son and she does not support him in any way. Even though he is longing for companionship, he was able to accept his flaws in his career and married life. Even though he does not like his job he is sincere to his job and does it with perfection. Lahiri describes how he locks the door: “Reaches back to make sure the cranklike locks on the sides of each of the back doors were secured” (Lahiri 15).

                Mrs. Das does not seem to care about her surroundings. She does not care about her husband or her children. She is burdened with regret and a secret for eight years which she longs to share with someone. She seems more interested in external objects like nail polish, gum and puffed rice. She suddenly shows an interest in Mr. Das only because he is an interpreter. She assumes that he can help her with her issue. When Mrs. Das asks Mr. Das a question” what are you saving us, fifty cents?”(Lahiri 16) Mrs. Das ignores her and continues his conversation with Mr. Kapasi. Mr. Das appears more interested in his camera than his wife. When Mrs. Das refuses to come out of the car to visit the hills, he says “but we could use one of these pictures for our Christmas card this year.” He asks her to come not because he wants her to be there, but for a family photo. Mr. Das tries to cover up his problem with his wife and pretends to be normal and happy with his wife.

                The environment and setting helps the reader to understand the mood of the characters. It is a hot and sunny day, and Mrs. Das is unhappy about this. The sculptures in the sun temple create romantic and sexual tension between Mr. Kapasi and Mrs. Das. Though he had already been to the temple, he gazes at the topless female sculptures in the temple, because of the romance he feels with     

    Mrs. Das. The author briefly describes the costume of each character in the story to show their personality. “The family looked Indian but dressed as foreigners.” (Lahiri 13) This shows that they were more American in personality than Indian. Mr. Das is described to be wearing simple clothes so that the camera around the neck was the only complex thing he wore. This shows that Mr. Das is a normal family person. Mr. Kapasi wears a perfect uniform which he usually wears when going on a tour and even mentions cut and fabric to the tailor, so the uniform does not get crushed during travel. All this show that he is organized and truthful to his job even though he thinks his job is a failure. When Mr. Kapathi observes Mrs. Das, she is described wearing blouse with print of strawberry, which may symbolizes desire to Mr. Kapasi.

   The external objects around the story symbolize the mood and behavior of each character in the story. The puffed rice that Mrs. Das carries may represent the secret that Mrs. Das was carrying for eight years. She was not ready to share the puffed rice with anyone else except with Mr. Kapasi at the hills, and asks Mr. Kapasi, “Want some?” (Lahiri, 25) Just like her secret that she was unable to share with anyone else but with Mr. Kapasi as she believed he might suggest some remedy. The monkeys that were around through the story represents Mrs. Das’s emotions. At first the monkeys were calm but at the hills the strength of the monkeys grew. As Mrs. Das dropped some of her puffed rice, it causes the monkeys to become aggressive. This represents her secret causing her emotion to come out as anger, which affects her son, Bobby. The fluttering of the paper with Mr. Kapasi’s address represents the way Mr. Kapasi’s desire towards Mrs. Das gets lost. The author uses symbolism in the story to provide the reader with an understanding of the relationship issues, the complexions and individuals human behavior. Clearly this piece is a work of post modernism.

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
This is a motivational sentence by Martin Luther King to encourage black people fight for their rights during the Civil Rights era. Freedom of individuals will never be given by those in power until the oppressed voice for it. Their need for freedom must be proven in order to free themselves from the oppressor. 

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story about how the writer is trapped within her family border and is unable to break her restrictions. She remains mostly silent to her husband about her feeling victimize because John’s treatment is not helping. She says “but what is one to do?” this shows her dependency on her husband and helplessness. The way in which the author makes the readers to visualize the house shows that the author feels lonely and locked up in the house. The author has recently moved to the house and feels that the house is depressing. She feels that it would be better if there were people in the path way and arbors of the house. She says that the house is quite, back from the road, far from village and used words like walls, gates that lock, all of which explains trapped nature of the author. The house they were living in before must have been surrounded by people and noise. Everything around her makes her depressed which ultimately leads her to fantasize about things that she liked to see. Even that was forbidden by her husband. She is moved by the wallpaper in her room. At first, she sees a boy in the paper. Each day the wallpaper gets clearer to her and later she starts seeing a woman. Soon she sees that the women is moving and is trying to get out. The woman tries to break through the front patterns in the wallpaper. This front pattern can be compared to the walls and gates that the author mentions in her house, and the woman trying to come out of the pattern can reflect the author. The woman in the wallpaper is trapped inside a cage which represents family, marriage and responsibilities inside which women are trapped. It is clear from the climax that the story is about women’s dependency on their husband and how their life continues inside their houses in name of responsibility. In the story the author did not give “voice” to her need to be free. But what would have changed if she did?

                An example of freedom fighter who demanded for freedom from the oppressor is Nelson Mandela. He was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician and philanthropist. He experienced brutal reality of the racially divided South Africa. He began attending meeting with national congress organization in creating a democratic nation. It was in this period that Nelson and other young members at the ANC formed a youth league with the organization to force more different approach up on the government. Mandela’s voice became a problem to the government side because he motivated people to strive for their equality. So he was silenced by restricting his freedom of speech in the public. But this did not silence Mandela from striving for freedom. He became a public figure of freedom to young black South Africans. Later, he was sentenced to life in prison for his actions. In the long run, things started to change, the whole world took notice. The voice against the government inside and outside the country grew. By the middle of 1980, Nelson Mandela became a symbol for change in the country. The call for his release became a rally around the world. On February 11, 1989 after 27 years in prison he was a free man. He was fighting racism for nearly his whole life and succeeded in gaining freedom for South Africa.
               

               In the yellow wallpaper the author fails to demand her freedom from her husband like how Martin Luther says. She was forced to be silent and was locked up in her house in name of medicine and family. Her burden was too heavy to carry inside her that she had to write it down into a closed book. Similarly Mandela was forced to remain silent by banding orders and imprisonment. But that did not control his voice. Unlike Perkin-Gillman’s closed book, Mandela performed public speeches for the need of freedom. His approach towards the government forced the government to give the black people freedom and equality that they deserved.

Gender Inequality In Antigone

Antigone by Sophocles is a play about the struggle for family, power in politics, power between men and women. In this play, the conflict between Creon and Antigone has several dimensions to it. Creon argues with Antigone as a ruler, as a future father in law and as a man in the male dominated society. In the lines (Creon 528-529) Creon says, “I am no man and she the man” if he does not punish her. When Sentry tells Creon that someone buried Polyneices, he describes the person as a man. Sentry considers the person to have buried Polyneices to be a man because he considers that these women in their society are not bold enough to go against the law (sentry 668-671). The significance in these two conversations is that in both these sentences Sophocles describes the society as a male dominated society. From these sentences both Creon and Sentry consider women to be weaker and men to be braver and stronger in nature.

There are several clear evidences that the conflict between Creon and Antigone is related to their gender. In the play (Creon 577), Creon states that he will not allow a women to rule him. Similarly when Creon defines a women in their society to explain how Antigone must be treated, he says that she should not be free to roam (Creon 634). This shows that Greek women were limited on their political freedom. Creon compares women to a field to be ploughed by men (Creon 626). Creon conveys that women are objects for men to breed children just like ploughing a land for crops. Creon reveals his strength as a ruler (Creon 195-210). He is not meant to be a king. Circumstances made him the king, hence he expects everyone to obey his orders (Creon 790). When Antigone, a women criticizes Creon in public, it makes him more agitated. Creon’s rage made him punish Antigone even though she is his future daughter in law. On the other hand, Antigone stands separate from all the women in her society including her sister Ismene, who refused to go against men, who she feels are stronger (Ismene 70-72). In the conflict between Creon and Antigone, the male and king Creon is supposed to think straight and Antigone, a women in a male dominating society is supposed to be emotional. But in this play Creon is emotional and Antigone is brave and logical.

Creon feels defeated when Antigone bravely buries her brother and boldly accepts it. He believes that if he does not punish Antigone, she will win. It bothers Creon to be defeated by a women who he considers as a weaker sex (Creon 729-731). Creon’s thoughts made him reject his son Haemon’s proposal of freeing Antigone. Creon himself mentioned in the play that the need to defeat her is all the more pressing because she is a women. Hence at last Creon faces the consequence for the mistakes he has made. He lost all that he considered crucial for a man. His wife, son, pride, and his power.