ઈશ્વર પેટલીકર લિખિત 'લોહીની સગાઇ' એ અદભુત વાર્તા સંગ્રહ છે. આ સંગ્રહમાં કુલ ઓગણીસ (19) વાર્તાઓનો સમાવેશ થયેલ છે, જે અનુક્રમે,
1- લોહીની સગાઇ,
2- જાદુ મંત્ર
3- સ્વર્ગમાં,
4- કેસર
5- એક જ રઢ
6- સ્મૃતિચિન્હ
7- હાજરાહજૂર દેવ
8- બુટપોલીશવાળો
9- સાપવાળા સાહેબ
10- રોહિણી
11- હરામનું ખાનાર દેવ
12- રાજુ
13- મોટીબહેન
14- આસોપાલવ
15- કંકોત્રી
16- મંગળફેરા
17- દેવનો દીધેલ
18- દ્વદ્વયુદ્ધ
19- રુદિયાનું દર્દ
આ તમામ વાર્તાઓમાં લોહીના સંબંધોની એક બીજા પરત્વેની લાગણી, પ્રેમ, કરુણાનું ઉત્તમ વર્ણન કરાયેલું છે. જેમ કે સ્વર્ગ, રોહિણી, લોહીની સગાઇ, દેવનો દીધેલ વગેરે જેવી વાર્તાઓમાં માતા - સંતાનના પ્રેમ અને વિયોગનું કરુણતમ વર્ણન વાંચીને વાચકના રુંવાટા ઉભા થયાં વિના ન રહે.વળી જે વાર્તા પરથી પુસ્તકનું નામ પડ્યું છે તે 'લોહીની સગાઇ' વાર્તા તો બધાથી ઉચ્ચ સ્થાન પામીલે છે. એક ગાંડી દીકરી પ્રત્યે માનો પ્રેમ અને ચિંતા, અને અંતે દીકરીના વિયોગથી મા પણ ગાંડી થઇ જાય તે દરેક વાચકને ઊંડે સ્પર્શી જાય. વાર્તાનો છેલ્લુ વાક્ય,
'અમરતકાકી મંગુની નાતમાં વટલાઈ ગયા હતાં !'
આ વાક્ય માતૃત્વનું ઉચ્ચતમ શિખર કેવું હોઈ તેની જાંખી કરાવે છે. વળી આ વાર્તા લેખકના સ્વાનુભવ પરથી લખાય હોવાથી પણ બીજી વાર્તાઓ કરતા થોડી આગળ રહે છે. લેખકની ગાંડી બહેન અને માતાના જીવનથી પ્રેરિત થઈને આ વાર્તા લેખક ઈશ્વર પેટલીકર દ્વારા લખાઈ હતી.
લોહીની સગાઇ વાર્તા સંગ્રહ કુલ 232 પાનામા લખાયેલ છે. નવભારત સાહિત્ય મંદિર દ્વારા તેનું પ્રકાશન કરવામાં આવ્યું છે.
Hello, I am Himanshi Parmar, student of MK Bhavnagar University. This blog i have written in a response to Thinking Activity, Which is Part of my academic Work. Which we get after each unit. In this blog, i am going to discuss about well known novel 'Foe' by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. The point i am. Going to discuss here are, About the text 'Foe', About author (J. M. Coetzee), Important questions from Novel.
About 'Foe' :-
Foe is well known novel by J. M. Coetzee. The novel was written in 1986. The novel was Woven around Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe.Foe is written from the perspective of Susan Barton, who is in adventure and landed on a Island that inhabited by Cruso and Friday. The novel was written from Susan Barton's narrative point of view. She was in England and trying to convince the writer Daniel Foe to help transform her tale into popular fiction.
The novel is of 157 pages.main themes of the novel is power and language use, racism, industrialism etc.Coetzee was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature for Foe. Watch video to know more about the novel.
About J. M. Coetzee :-
Full name of J. M. Coetzee is John Maxwell Coetzee, he was born in 9 February 1940, in Cape Town, South Africa.he is well known novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wan many awards like Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Prize (thrice), the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and holds a number of other awards and honorary doctorates. He knows three languages English, Afrikaans,and Dutch. He have nationality of two nations South African and Australian (since 2006). Now he is l living in Adelaide.
Coetzee's first novel was Dusklands (1974) and he has continued to publish a novel about every three years. He has also written autobiographical novels, short fiction, translations from Dutch and Afrikaans, and numerous essays and works of criticism.He also wrote many novels, Autobiographical novels, and Short fiction. For example,
Novels
Dusklands (1974)
In the Heart of the Country (1977)
Waiting for the Barbarians (1980)
Life & Times of Michael K (1983)
Foe (1986)
Age of Iron (1990)
The Master of Petersburg (1994)
Autobiographical novels
Boyhood: Scenes from Provincial Life (1997)
Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II (2002)
Summertime (2009)
Scenes from Provincial Life (2011)
Short fiction
The Lives of Animals (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999)
Three Stories (Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2014)
Siete cuentos morales (Barcelona: El Hilo de Ariadna/Literatura Random House, 2018)
Q. 1 – How would you differentiate the character of Cruso and Crusoe?
In Denial Defoe's Novel Robin Crusoe, Crusoe is protagonist and the entire novel revolves around him. The title itself showing that. Where in J. M
Coetzee's novel 'Foe', Susan Barton is protagonist and the story revolves around her. Character of Crusoe in both the novel are portrayed quite differently. Let us discuss that.
Robinson Crusoe in Defoe's Novel (Robinson Crusoe) :-
Character of Crusoe in Defoe's novel is protagonist and the narrator of the novel. He is individualistic, self-reliant, and adventurous. He continually discounts the good advice and warnings of his parents and others, and boldly seeks to make his own life by going to sea.Defoe presents Robinson as the novel's intrepid hero, who draws on reserves of ingenuity and bravery to survive incredibly against the whims of nature and fate. This quote is showing his character,
"My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house-education and a country free school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall me."
Cruso in J. M Coetzee's novel 'Foe' :-
In Defoe's novel the name of protagonist is Robinson Crusoe but here in Coetzee's novel name of character is just 'Cruso'. Even he is not protagonist here. He is described as a weak, ill person who most of the time able to do nothing, Friday tack care of him. Robinson Cruso from the positive hero and master of even the most desperate situations in life, the former protagonist of Defoe's novel has turned into an anti-hero in Foe.
Cruso differs enormously from his literary predecessor.Cruso does not save anything from the wreck except for a knife. Moreover, he says that there is no need for tools, and the few tools he has made himself are a needle made of fishbone, a wooden spade, a "sharp stone lashed to a stick" as mattock, and carved blocks of wood as bowls.Those are only the most essential tools for survival, i.e. the tools to build a hut, sew clothes, and eat. Compared to the equipment of his 18th-century predecessor, Cruso's equipment is indeed relatively poor: Robinson Crusoe had gotten clothes, tools, and firearms from the wreck, also razors, scissors, knives, and forks. Later on, he manages to make baskets, earthenware, a mortar and pestle, candles, a canoe, a tobacco pipe, etc. While Robinson Crusoe puts a lot of effort into improving his equipment and is always eager to get new tools, Cruso is satisfied once he reaches the state when mere survival is guaranteed. In a way, both Crusoe and Cruso represent different 'stages' of civilisation: whereas Crusoe is constantly progressing to reach the state of an early agricultural society, Cruso does not intend to 'develop' or even change his lifestyle but stays 'hunter and collector'. He is in no way interested in progress, and he rationalises not making any candles in a rather philosophic way: "Which is easier: to learn to see in the dark, or to kill a whale and seeth it down for the sake of a candle?". His cryptic explanation is both a hint to human laziness and a critique of progress itself.
This how cruso is different than crusoe. Dafoe's Crusoe is protagonist while Coetzee's cruso is not. And the reason is given above.
Q.2 Friday’s characteristics and persona in Foe and in Robinson Crusoe.
Friday is one of the main characters of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe names the man Friday, with whom he cannot at first communicate, because they first meet on that day. The character is the source of the expression "Man Friday", used to describe a male personal assistant or servant, especially one who is particularly competent or loyal. Current usage also includes "Girl Friday".Crusoe describes Friday as being a Native American, though very unlike the Indians of Brazil and Virginia.His religion involves the worship of a mountain god named Benamuckee, officiated over by high priests called Oowokakee. Crusoe learned a few of his native words that have been found in a Spanish-Térraba (or Teribe) dictionary, so Friday may have belonged to that tribe, also called the Naso people. Friday is cannibalistic as well and suggests eating the men Crusoe has killed.
So by this we came to. Know. That Friday is described as a slave and pay no attention on him personally, excepting he is Caliban person and serves Robinson Crusoe. Crusoe taught him the word, "Master" first and then taught him English language. This behavior of crusoe is showing colonial concept and how White's are making slave to others like crusoe. In Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, Friday is treated as a object, that Crusoe, the Protagonist use for his own benefit.
While in Foe by Coetzee, more attention get paid on character of Friday. Susan treat him with compassion and living being even if he is black.His race in Foe is African, not native, and his hair is described as “A head of fuzzy wool”.and “like lambs wool,” opposed to in Robinson Crusoe, where is his hair is “long and black, not curl'd like wool”. The final difference is that fact that in Foe, he has no tongue.which is showing that black has no right to raise voice even if they have chance. This how character of Crusoe and Cruso portrayed in both the novel.
Q.3 Is Susan reflecting the white mentality of Crusoe (Robinson Crusoe)?
Susan Barton, the narrator in Foe, finds herself shipwrecked on a desolate island with a man named Robinson Cruso. It does not take long for Barton to recognize her status on the island after she tells Cruso her story of being washed ashore. She says, “I presented myself to Cruso, in the days when he still ruled over the island, and became his second subject, the first being his manservant Friday” (Coetzee 11). Throughout the novel, even long after Cruso’s death, she describes the island as “Cruso’s island.” She finds herself as the mere female companion to the king and his manservant, Friday.
Susan sometimes reflect white mentality of Robinson crusoe. the major point here is their different way to treat Friday.Robinson Crusoe is treating Friday as a servant or slave. Where susan treat him like friend. The major example of it is Crusoe taught Friday "Master" word in English language that itself reflecting colonial mindset or white mentality. White people used to believe that they are superior and they have right to enslaved all black and brown skinned people. God given them work to civilize them. And under this superstition they used to enslaved black people, treat them as they are inferior and like a salve.Crusoe also part of this white mentality, he is on a island that is belong to Friday, overpowered that island and made Friday slave. As white people used to colonized the world.
If readers read Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, character of crusoe portrayed as a protagonist and suffering of Friday paid no attention. But in Foe, Susan treat Friday as her friend, try to teach him various skills, and language, writing. And if one can compare both the novel, immediately one can find that Robinson Crusoe is reflecting white mentality. Sometimes we find that Susan also has White mentality in her mind. For example she also enjoying her domination over Friday, as she thinking to teach him, trying to make him civilize. That is also showing that she is feeling proud for Friday's inferiority, she is not pretending but in her behavior we find it at many place and in many ways.
For more information of Foe by J. M. Coetzee watch this video.
I hope my blog will be helpful to you. Thanks for visit!
