THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS BY KIRAN DESAI

THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS BY KIRAN DESAI

Paper assignment as UTS & UAS on General Outlook of Literature

lectured by Prof. Budi Darma, Ph.D

Eka Sugeng Ariadi

Kemenag Class 2015 – NIM. 157835408 – Hp. 0857 9127 8918

The State University of Surabaya

1.    Kiran Desai’s psychology based on her work, The Inheritance of Loss

Kiran Desai (henceforth KD) is an immigrant writer who tried hard to reinforce the aspects of “human psychology and immortalize” (Chandramani & Reddy, 2013) in her novel, The Inheritance of Loss (Desai, 2006). She is one of an Indian writer as a product of colonialism age, when Salman Rushdie and friends emerging a school of Cosmopolitan Indian Literature (henceforth CIL). CIL then being recognized as a part of middle class of Indian society who lived for several years abroad (as legal/illegal immigrant). Accordingly, this class takes a significant role as a mediator between the Western colonialism discourse (in this novel represented by England and America) and the Eastern discourse (represented by India). Therefore, their novels were written in English language to against Western colonialism and struggling for the sustainable Indian tradition and nationalism (Gandhi, 1997). KD herself has not given priority to any specific issue yet we find in her novels the issues of globalism and American dreams most prominently (Chandramani & Reddy, 2013).

As a part of CIL, KD was becoming a succeed writer with two great novels, Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard and The Inheritance of Loss. The latter novel was much inspired by Salman Rusdhie who have struggled in fostering Indian nationalism and attacking England through the usage of English language as the main language in his literary works (Rocester, 2009). In her writing style, KD imitated another CIL writer, called by Naipaul, by describing the marginalized Indian people as the negative effect of Western colonialism. 

In general, her life experiences affected her psychology in viewing the badness of Western ideology about multiculturalism and globalization. She stands against these views, skeptically (Mishra, 2006) and likely has different opinion with another CIL writers. According to her, multiculturalism in fact has become the seeds of conflict of interest among big nations and likewise, globalization make a deeper economic gap among social classes in India (Bilwakesh, 2009).

KD’s psychological condition in her novel depicts a cross-section of Indian society in characters such as Jemubhai Popatlal Patel, Panna Lal, Gyan, Biju, Saeed-Saeed, Sai Mistry, Haresh-Harry and the two sisters, Lolita and Nonita, to highlight how the simultaneous experience of the colonial, the global the local, creates “ambivalence” in the individual’s perception of his/her identity and imparts behaviour in the local institutions of Kalimpong (Chandramani & Reddy, 2013). Therefore, KD focused on almost binary characters, to exhibit how the West presented opportunities to Indians, but also to emphasize how those opportunities come at a cost (Hooda, 2014).

Finally, the above paragraphs briefly may draw KD’s psychological condition when she started writing The Inheritance of Loss. As Mondal (2014 p. 306) asserts that “… second generation immigrants like Kiran Desai, incorporated a psychological journey to selfhood, towards a critical understanding of feminine aesthetics and about  their  situation  in  cross-cultural contexts ----states of “in-betweenness‟ and “border-crossing‟.

2.    Contrasting and comparing Biju and Sai characters from the perspective of feminist

The main characters in The Inheritance of Loss, are Balwinder Singh (Biju) and Jemubhai Patel. Biju characterizes Indian society who live in 1980s (after two decades of the colonialism), while another society who live in 1960s is characterized by Jemubhai (days after the end of colonialism) (Hussein, 2009). Yet, based on the question in this number, the characters’ exploration is focused on Biju and Sai instead of Biju and Jemubhai.

Sai is the jugde’s granddaughter who unconsciously has similar characters as her grandfather. She is an Indian yet growing adult in England from early childhood. Due to her parents died in an accident, Sai was taken care and well educated by Catholic nuns in St. Augustine. Thus, an unexpectedly identity as a Western girl is internalized to Sai. The Catholic nuns had succeeded in shaping Sai’s personalities as the prototype of Western girl. In this novel, it shows that Sai like to read a certain article about a giant squid in National Geographic (Desai, 2006, p. part 1). National Geographic symbolizes the reading stuff of Western scholars.

“Sai, sitting on the veranda, was reading an article about giant squid in an old National Geographic.  Every now and then she looked up at Kanchenjunga, observed its wizard phosphorescence with a shiver.”

On the other hand, the giant squid living in the dark of the ocean herein represents Sai’s condition who live alone in colonial country and never know about her own homeland. Chandramani and Reddy (2013) note that the judge convent educated granddaughter, Sai Mistry, is his true heir in that she is a misfit in both the East and the West, and life at Kalimpong fills her with the fear of being left on the shelf. In a nutshell, she has binary characters representing two different countries; as an Indian and an England. Likewise, her grandfather who suffers from the same identity crisis, Sai finally is trapped at the same condition. Her double identities are just the same with the symbol of Cho Oyu (Desai, 2006, p. part 2), as a place where the judge spend his old time with Sai, located at a border line country between Nepal and India.

In feminist point of view, Sai is not the timid, easily subjugated woman, superior to Gyan as she defies the norms of a docile of a docile Indian woman and makes Gyan feel inferior. Sai, with her free self-expression and unrestrained enjoyment, is a temptation, an unattainable and mysterious empress, a forbidden fruit to be enjoyed. By resolving to her own mistress, free to adopt and regulate her own life, she typifies the new woman.  But  KD also  projects  the  traditional  long  suffering  Indian woman who seeks to conform to the norms as she has limited alternative options (Mondal, 2014 ).

In the eye of critical theory, Tyson (2006) defines that feminist  criticism  examines  the  ways  in  which  literature  (and  other cultural productions) reinforces or undermines the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women (p. 83). In this novel, Sai’s story represents the condition of oppression Indian’s girl who has been forced to receive Western values and to loss her inheritance.

Another character is Balwinder Singh or called by Biju. This novel tells that Biju plays the main character, the same as the judge, since he also goes abroad as illegal immigrant in America in order to get work, and pursue better life condition there. But the significant different among them is the judge goes to Western to dismiss his Indian identity, nevertheless Biju goes to Western to strengthen his identity as an Indian person. Hence, since in America, Biju worked hard from one place to another places as an illegal immigrant worker to gain his own American dreams.

On certain case, unique character inside Biju’s personality is shown when he rejected his friends’ invitation having fun with ‘dirty women’  (Desai, 2006, p. part 3).

“He covered his timidity with manufactured disgust: "How can you? Those, those women are dirty," he said primly. "Stinking bitches," sounding awkward. "Fucking bitches, fucking cheap women you’ll get some disease . . . smell bad . . . hubshi. . . all black and ugly . . . they make me sick. . . ."

In this case, he regarded Indian people have better strata than the black people (women from Dominican) and this stereotype was also rooted from his father’s (who worked as the cook for the judge) life principle in dedicating his life to serve white people (or beyond Indian) as good as possible.

Another case is happened when he worked in Freddy Wok as a deliverer. Once he delivered the food to Indian girls who were studying in America at that time, he heard their conversation that further they only prefer to marry Western boys (Marlboro man) to the Eastern boys. This tension makes him so ashamed and felt insulted by his own country’s society.

Soon, after resigning from Freddy Wok, then he worked in Queen of Tarts Bakery. In this place, Biju met with Saeed Saeed who then give him much better comprehension related to Western’s stereotypes in order to colonize Eastern. Again, to avoid American immigration officers, he decided to move from this place. Afterwards, he worked in Brigitte’s and later on, resigning again because this steak restaurant menu is serving beef-baking which clearly forbidden for Indian belief/religion to eat it. And the last place, he worked is at Gandhi’s Café. Unluckily, even he worked at Indian owner and has the same religion –as Hindu follower-, his condition is not better than the previous.

The last tension as the end of Biju’s story is about his final decision to come back to his homeland, India. He fails to become a successful immigrant worker in US restaurants and returns home to further disappointments in Kalimpong (Chandramani & Reddy, 2013). His nationality and his pride as Indian person finally hit everything about his American dreams. On the way home, GNLF (Gorkhaland National Liberation Front) robbed all his properties. It symbolizes that there is nothing left in Biju’s identity to be proud as a part of Western people. Finally, he is proud to be the real Indian person with its ideology and cultures.

Accordingly, the conclusion in comparing and contrasting between Biju and Sai are depicted as follow.

First, Biju’s story shows the struggling on Indian immigrant to achieve for a better life in the Western, while Sai’s story demonstrates England domination in India, even after independence.

Second, Biju is represented as a socially lower class and illiterate family, in contrary with Sai who is from a higher class family.

Third, the similar story is coming from both Biju and Sai’s stories are led by the stories of their parents and grandparents, which concern attentively to their future generations.

Fourth, the contrasting case happened when Biju strengthen his nationality in New York City, while Sai strengthen her Western after she witnesses Nepali nationalist rebellions in Kalimpong, India.

Fifth, both Biju and Sai simultaneously respond to the same issues while in different parts of the world, which highlights that the effects of British colonization play a role in Indian life regardless of Western or Eastern locations or identities (Hooda, 2014). 

As the closing statement in answering this number, if we comparing the superiority of the Western feminists, the Third World Women rise above the debilitating generality of their “object” status. The Western feminist approach thus manifests humanism as “a Western ideological and political project that involves the necessary recuperation of the “East” and “Woman” as others” (Mondal, 2014 ).

3.    Analyzing The Inheritance of Loss from postcolonial perspective by applying Kipling’s poem “We and They”

Talking about analyzing postcolonial perspective, Selden, Widdowson, and Brooker (2005, p. 218) say that, “Analysis of the cultural dimension of colonialism/imperialism is as old as the struggle against it; such work has been a staple of anti-colonial movements everywhere.” In The Inheritance of Loss, KD explained that as exploration of post-colonial chaos, did revolve around the same initial story line as one of her mother’s original novels (Jayaseela & Bhagyalakshmi, 2014). Rizvi (2014) state that, “In her narrative, Desai deftly shuttles between First and Third worlds, illuminating the pain of exile, the ambiguities of Post Colonialism and the blinding desire for a “better life”, where one person’s wealth means another’s poverty.”

When we apply Joseph Rudyard Kipling’s imperial poem, “We and They”, it will clearly show us that “We” is Western country (England and America) and “They” is Eastern country (India). Western with its superiority regarded India beyond their ethnic and treated them as others. In this novel, the writer portrays the superiority of England and America in forcing their cultures to Indian people, e.g. In hiring of Jemubhai as an officer in Indian Civil Service (ICS) is not because of his intelligences but England needed a proper agent to maintain his hegemony among Indian. Abraham (2012) says that, “Therefore, a central theme in post-colonial writing is the transformation of the native into something other than himself – a Westernized native, or at least one who is in  a  crisis  regarding  his/her  own  cultural  identity.” Another case is drawn by Jemubhai’s attitudes towards his wife, Nimi, however, reflects what he learned from the English. He displaces the same lessons the British taught him about Indian inferiority onto Nimi, but categorizes himself as the superior white man and her as the second-rate Indian. A  lack  of  cultural  understanding,  driven  by  Jemubhai’s  time  in  the  Western  world,  interferes with Nimi’s informal education and her position as his good wife (Hooda, 2014).

Kipling's poem foreshadows identity, post-modern and postcolonial studies, illustrating perfectly the binary logic underlying western rationality. We and They is a controversial poem which identifies the division between cultures, for example, the two different lifestyles led by these two families is highlighted the impression of an Indian tribe and a British/American family comes to mind. In this novel, KD draws it inside the characters of Jemubhai and Nimi (in relation as husband and wife), Sai and Gyan (in relation as teacher and student) and the cook and Biju (in relation as father and son).

4.    Tensions analysis in The Inheritance of Loss and the functions of the tensions in the novel from the point of view New Criticism

Selden et al. (2005, p. 19) explain that, “New Criticism is clearly characterized in premise and practice: it is not concerned with context – historical, biographical, intellectual and so on; it is not interested in the ‘fallacies’ of ‘intention’ or ‘affect’; it is concerned solely with the ‘text  in  itself’,  with its  language  and  organization;  it  does  not  seek  a text’s ‘meaning’, but how it ‘speaks itself’ … it is concerned to trace how the parts of the text relate, how it achieves its ‘order’ and ‘harmony’, how it contains and resolves ‘irony’,  ‘paradox’,  ‘tension’,  ‘ambivalence’  and  ‘ambiguity’; ….”. What is meant by tension? Tyson (2006, p. 140) state that, “Finally, the complexity of a literary text is created by its tension, which, broadly defined, means the linking together of opposites. In its simplest form, tension is created by the integration of the abstract and the concrete, of general ideas embodied in specific images.” “Tension is also created by the dynamic interplay among the text’s opposing tendencies, that is, among its paradoxes, ironies, and ambiguities.”

For instance; the tensions between Jemubhai and Nimi demonstrate that this system of education does not ensure a good marriage. Because Jemubhai receives his formal education in England and spends his formative years abroad, he does not return with the desire to have a traditional wife who maintains the Indian household. Instead, when he returns he attempts to “teach her” what he knows: how to behave in colonial space. Jemubhai’s years in England Westernize him into an Anglicized Indian, that is, an Indian who converted from his Eastern norms and ideals to Western ones. His Westernization means that he and Nimi cannot harmoniously exist because the values  and idea they have  about  the private  sphere  conflict,  and  his  attempts  to  “educate”  his  wife  on  his  ideals  end  in  a  failed marriage (Hooda, 2014).

This transformation in relation to his marriage is crucial in creating the tensions between the West and the East, because he only remembers liking his wife before he became a supposedly reason man. Before he left for England, Jemubhai and Nimi possessed a harmonious relationship because they were better able to understand their positions and each other without Western influences. His time and experience of Indophobic attitudes in England leads to the loss of his sympathy for anything Indian. Nimi, however, suffers physically, mentally, and reputationally as a result of it. Desai demonstrates how the British colonizers’ claim that Indian men needed to learn reason in order to understand Indian women’s suffering actually causes women more suffering.

Abraham (2012) Here,  there  is  always  a  tension between wanting to belong to the new society yet wanting to retain the culture of the old one. The characters in Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss are in such dilemmas. It is not merely a matter of adapting to a new environment, or adjusting to new customs, or learning a new language. It is much more profound, a displacement far reaching. It is an agonizing process of alienation and displacement which may create an imbalance that can profoundly affect a person’s feelings, thoughts and ideas.

Another example is occurred between the link of the judge and Sai. Sai desires to achieve a kind of emotional bond with her grandfather, the retired Judge, also fails, for he himself is displaced emotionally and physically- the tension between wanting to belong to his own native land and a foreign culture, the usual post-colonial dilemma. The first evening when Sai was at Cho Oyu at her grandfather’s home “she had a fearful feeling of having entered a space so big it reached both backward and forward”.

Finally, the function of those intensions in this novel are aimed to construct the complexity of the novel. As Tyson (2006, p. 140) says that, “The complexity of a literary text is created by its tension, which, broadly defined, means the linking together of opposites.” KD herself eagers to use binary opposites like arrivals and departures move in and move out, hope and hopelessness- all part of the postcolonial dilemma.

REFERENCES

Abraham, A. P. (2012). Uprooting and Re-rooting: Post Colonial dilemmas in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. ELT Voices-India, 2(1).

Bilwakesh, C. (2009). Reviews: The Inheritence of Loss. Retrieved from http://www.sawnet.org/books/reviews.php?The+Inheritence+of+Loss website:

Chandramani, M., & Reddy, M. G. B. K. (2013). Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss: Elements of American Dream and Globalization. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 79-81.

Desai, K. (2006). The Inheritence of Loss. Canada: Penguin Group.

Gandhi, L. (1997). Indo-Anglian FIction: Writing India, Elite Aesthetics, and the Rise of the 'Stephanian' Novel". Retrieved from http://www.australiahumanitiesreview.org/archive/Issue-November-1997/gandhi.html website:

Hooda, A. (2014). “Could Fulfillment Ever Be Felt as Deeply as Loss?”: A Postcolonial Examination of the West’s Influence on India as Reflected by Kiran Desai’s Portrayal of Twentieth Century Female Education in The Inheritance of Loss. English Honors Theses.

Hussein, A. (2009). Maps of the Heart. Retrieved from http://independent.co.uk/art-entertainment/books/reviews/the-inheritence-of-loss-by-kiran-desai-415010.html website:

Jayaseela, P., & Bhagyalakshmi, A. (2014). ANITA DESAI AND KIRAN DESAI- A COMPARISON. Int.J.Eng.Lang.Litt. & Trans.Studies, 1(4).

Mishra, P. (2006). Wounded by The West: A Book Review of The Inheritence of Loss by Kiran Desai. Retrieved from http://www/nytimes.com/2006/02/12/books/review/12.mishra.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all website:

Mondal, B. (2014 ). The Location and Struggles of the Third World Women: Postcolonial Feminist Explorations in Kiran Desai‟s The Inheritance of Loss. Lapis Lazuli: An International Literary Journal (LLILJ), 4(2).

Rizvi, N. F. (2014). Conflicts of Globalization: A Study of Kiran Desai’s “The Inheritance of  Loss”. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 16-19.  Retrieved from www.iosrjournals.org

Rocester, S. (2009). Kiran Desai: Exclusive Interview. Retrieved from http://www.themanbookerprize.com/perspective/qanda/40 website:

Selden, R., Widdowson, P., & Brooker, P. (2005). A reader’s guide to contemporary literary theory (fifth ed.). UK: Pearson Education Limited.

Tyson, L. (2006). Critical theory today : a user‑friendly guide (Second ed.). New York: Taylor & Francis Group.