“The Role of Memory in the Sense Of an Ending”

·        “The Role of Memory in the Sense Of an Ending”

The Sense of an Ending is, a novel written by Famous British author Julian Barnes. This is Eleventh novel of writer. This novel was released on 4^th August 2011 in the United Kingdom. This novel is based on memory of writer (narrator). That how narrator recalls his past (memory) and that create a sequence of accident and that makes a twist in the story. Thus the novel based on Memory of narrator.

This novel won MAN BOOKER PRIZE AWARD on 18 October 2011. And also announced The Sense of an Ending had been nominated in the Best Novel category at the 2011 Costa Book Awards.

Story of the novel is narrated by a retired man named Tony Webster. Tony recalls his memory of past about his clique and their friend Adrian Finn. They all have took vow to remain friends for life time. As time passes they become far from each other. At the age of sixty tony recalls his memory of school days. And the memory played vital role to develop the plot. And then story has different ending just like no ending.  

SOMETHING ABOUT THE NOVEL

The novel is divided into two parts, entitled "One" and "Two", Bothe part of the story is narrated by Tony Webster, when he is retired and living alone.

The first part begins in the 1960s with four intellectually arrogant school friends, of whom two feature in the remainder of the story: Tony, the narrator, and Adrian, the most precociously intelligent of the four. Towards the end of their school days another boy (Robson) at the school hangs himself, apparently after getting a girl pregnant. The four friends discuss the philosophical difficulty of knowing exactly what happened. Adrian goes to Cambridge University and Tony to Bristol University.

Tony acquires a girlfriend, Veronica, at whose family home he spends an awkward weekend. Their relationship fails in some acrimony. In his final year at university Tony receives a letter from Adrian informing him that he is going out with Veronica. Tony replies to the letter. Some months later he is told that Adrian has committed suicide, leaving a note addressed to the coroner saying that the thinking person has a philosophical duty to examine the nature of their life, and may then choose to renounce it. Tony admires the reasoning. He briefly recounts the following uneventful forty years of his life until his sixties.

The second part of the novel – which is twice as long as the first, – begins, with the arrival of a lawyer's letter informing him that Veronica's mother has bequeathed him £500 and two documents. These lead him to re-establish contact with Veronica and after a number of meetings with her, to re-evaluate the story he has narrated in the first part. And at the end of second part tony comes to know about himself, but he cannot see the Veronica and her vision of living a life.

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The style of the writer is ‘Memory Novel ‘or ‘Suspense Thriller’ or ‘Psychological Thriller’ This novel is mainly centered on the characteristics of 21st century writing. The Sense of an Ending is about "memory and time”. The book opens with a short list of memories. That memory is a part of narrator’s past experience. Not all of which the as yet unnamed narrator actually saw. Immediately we’re on warning, if one of these memories is imagined rather than real, can any of them be trusted? As the narrator says, “what you end up remembering isn’t always the same as what you have witnessed.”

Here Let’s define what is memory??

As per class room discussion, we have seen that memory is a mixture of Event and time. As more event and accident occur during some time period those events – accident becomes more powerful and that stored much effectively – strongly in the memory of human kind. If there are lesser accident and event that memory is lesser effective and stronger. More accident or Event that makes more effective and strong memory

  

Most of the thing of this novel is narrated by Tony Webster. Somehow it is a question of plot that how many things he narrated from his memory turn out to be real. As a memory played vital role in the developing of plot, Julian Barnes here justifies the Universal Truth that “One cannot know what he does not know” – with the reference of Tony Webster that he never understand the words of Veronica, When Tony asked Veronica bout the Money at that time she replied with very tragic answer “Blood Money”.  When Tony asked about other things at that time Veronica also replied with unaccepted answer: -

The Sense of an Ending is novel which has element of psychological approach. This novel deals with the theme of psychological situation of human mind. Each coin has two sides same way human nature has two sides good or bad. This novel represents this thing through character of the novel. In the first part of the novel, reader can find Tony as a good, responsible fellow. He is very responsible towards his duty. But as the second part is opening reader can find tony with some gray shade. There are some holes in his character; at some extent he is responsible for the damage of Veronica’s life, Suicide of Adrian. This accidents can be interpretation of reader as his own sense, though novel has not detail about any clarification about this accidents, reader are free to narrated and explain all accident happen in the story and he can interpreted it as his own way.

The writer describes Veronica’s life with different triangle. She scarified her life for her step brother, she lost her love. The writer mentioned unreliable narrative style. Tony is the perfect narrator for this novel. But all the narration depends on Tony’s memory so here raised a doubt that all the things and incident are real or not. May be he create his own story. Life of Pie is the example of unreliable narrative style. As a bing narrator Tony has never seen the life of Veronica, so he can not feel the problem of her, so he has not any description regarding the Life and Damage of Veronica’s life. Tony has narrated Veronica with some gray shades but as reader moves towards the end of the Novel they find that the character of Veronica emerges with high morality and responsible because she has spent her whole life, Losing his Boy Friend, Mother. She was living with child of her x-boyfriend and mother. She has ruined her whole life with her x-brother. So, whenever Tony asked Veronica she replied: “You still don’t get it. You never did, and you never will. So stop even trying”.

The first is the narrator’s is named Ton, memories of his years of during studies, and school days at school and his early years at university. Here reader can experience the early life of tony and his experience through the narration of Tony. So it could interpret that Tony had hide some reality or he has not put gray shade of his personality, just because it is a based on Memory of Tony. He is not ready to show his gray shades of his past.

“The memory becomes a thing of shreds and patches. It’s a bit like the black box aero planes carry to record what happens in a crash. If nothing goes wrong, the tape erases itself. So if you do crash, it’s obvious why you did; if you don’t, then the log of your journey is much less clear.” (Page - 105)

During the study there were three friends, a narrator himself – Tony Webster, Colin and Alex. Now a new boy, Adrian, joins the school and becomes a key member of Tony’s small clique of friends. Adrian Finn, who is much cleverer than any of them. They consider themselves philosophers, intellectual rebels, they look to great art and literature for inspiration and they are convinced as was I and as no doubt were many reading this that they have insights that the old and adult world never knew or has long since forgotten. They look down on those around them with all the haughty certainty of adolescence, and they look forward to lives which whatever they may be will not be like their parents, or so at least they hope.

What is History?

“History is that certainly produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.”

The Sense of an Ending is written from the perspective of Tony Webster as his reflects on a relationship that shaped his life. The narrative – at least in Part One – is written as a recollection. But not a factual recollection. Tony concedes that Part One is made up of his imperfect, shabby memories which, even as he writes, he realizes are inaccurate.

A few incidents that have grown into anecdotes, to some approximate memories which time has deformed into certainty. If I can’t be sure of the actual events any more, I can at least be true to the impression those facts left. That’s the best I can manage. So the narrative voice brings us face to face with the shoddy reality of one’s own memory, prompting me at least to consider my experiences of having my own memories proven wrong.

As class room interaction, we have seen that Memory is a mirror of oneself. Whatever is stored in the memory that can be a real personality of that person. Now days, we find many controversial thing regarding Spiritual and religion BABA or GURU. They played lot with the emotion and feeling of the people. They also trapped in some unbelievable activity, at some extent they also found guilty and captured, and sent behind the BAR (Jail). In some cases culprits are not accepting their crime, so they have to gone under “NARCO TEST” and they accepted their crime. This NARCO TEST is based on the base of memory that whatever culprit has done, that is stored in his memory and this test reveals all the secret of that person which is stored in the Memory. So here we can justify that: -

  

The Sense of an Ending reminds us of the uncertainty of memory and cautions us against drinking too pensively nostalgia’s nepenthe. Julian Barnes’ has achieved something remarkable with this text, creating a work that is honest in its inaccuracy that is genuine in its falsehood.

Through the narration of The Sense of an Ending, its protagonist Tony Webster teaches himself a set of lessons about the erratic itineraries of memory. We could say that a reflection is offered on how the chronological time of life gets itself undone through the durational time of memory. But realizing, by which I mean assuming in everyday behavior, ourselves as divided by chronology and duration does not place us outside either. They carry us on forward in time. Even in moments of realizing ourselves as split by chronology and duration, we dance freestyle to the beats of being and time. Living implies constant narrative shifts, adjusting to the rhythms of our truths, lies, and indifferences Memory, as Barnes understands it and as Tony is forced to realize far more edited than we'd like to believe.

"I have a brother who's a philosopher," Barnes says. "He maintains that almost all memories are false, all fallible, and that memory is the act of imagination, rather than the act of a lucid remembering machine somewhere up in our brains. I have a more sort of old fashioned, pragmatic view of memory. But I certainly increasingly think that it's not only faulty but some times over reliant on the imagination."

Memory, individual rather than collective, accounts for who we are and what we have become. And early memory is particularly valuable, though it can be misconstrued. Its influence can persist throughout adult life, though what is cause and what effect may be difficult to judge. In this short but compelling novel Julian Barnes tracks the origin of one particular memory through a long and apparently uneventful l life towards an explanation that leaves traces of unease that are difficult to dismiss.

During classroom discussion, this thing is explained that “When we are near to death or critical condition at that time we recalls all good thing which is occurred in our past and we recalls all the good memories. As Tony is near to End his life (at the age of Sixty), he recalls all the good and experience of joyful day of his past. 

The facts are quite simple. Three school friends, of whom the narrator, Tony Webster, is one, are joined by a fourth, Adrian Finn, who is much cleverer than any of them. They age and lose contact with one another. But Webster, eventually married and divorced, cannot rid himself of the memory of his former girlfriend, Veronica, at whose family home he once spent a weekend. At the time he had felt uncomfortable, socially inferior, and he was hardly surprised when the enigmatic Veronica took up with the more prestigious Adrian. His early misconception hardens imperceptibly into a mystery that is exacerbated when he learns of Adrian’s suicide. Nor can he understand why Veronica’s mother should leave him a small legacy and the news that she possesses Adrian’s diary.

These facts throw into relief his inability to reconstruct his relations with either Adrian or Veronica. What remains in his memory is the discomfort he felt on that weekend, a discomfort he cannot explain even at an advanced age. The clue might lie in the diary, but attempts to get hold of it are unavailing. He is up against an initial misalliance to which others are being added, containing the same characters but no further explanation.

Webster’s attempts to resolve this enigma form the bulk of this clever novel, in the course of which it becomes clear that the character of Veronica is pivotal. Even her random impulses, to which Webster had become accustomed, seem opaque. The explanation, when it comes, is so fortuitous that it throws intodoubt that early unease and what Webster had made of it. The unease had been, and had remained, authentic. This is a fact to which others are gradually added.

Going back in his mind, Webster unearths another memory of that uncomfortable weekend: the odd kindness of Veronica’s mother and her eventual legacy. His reading of the incident had been inconclusive: later reconstructions supply more clues. Finally he accepts an alternative version, which turns out to be the correct one, though it is a betrayal of all concerned.

There are many such questions which are not answered in the novel but reader can interpret with his own sense:---

v Why Mrs. Ford has Adrian’s Diary?

v What was the intention of Veronica to write Blood Money?

v Why only one page of Adrian’s Diary allowed seeing Tony?

v What is the meaning of Veronica’s statement: You still don’t get it. You never did, and you never will. So stop even trying”.

v What is the meaning of the mathematical equation:

Ø b = s – v x/+ a1

Ø a2 + v + a1 X s = b

As, Per reading of this novel, one can say that this novel is based on memory which Tony recalls all the event of his past and that narration is generating a story which is called “Sense of an Ending”.

Paper No. - 12 - Teaching English as a second language in India - focus on Objective and Importance in Gujarat

v Teaching English as a second language in India - focus on Objective and Importance in Gujarat

The global objectives of language teaching can be defined as helping children learn a language or language to perform a variety of functions. These use of language for phatic communion and a network of communicative user to its use at the highest level of “cognition”, “catharsis” and “self-expression” underlying these functions are tow fundamental functions helping children learn now to ask question, the most important intellectual ability man has yet developed, and helping children use this language effectively in different social networks.

A system-network language in a multilingual setting, each language in this network has a function-determined value of the other languages in the system network in terms of its-own policy of language planning. But the system network in terms policy of language planning, but the society or government must realize that this assignment of a new value o language will produce a chain reaction in the network. The values of the other languages in the network are bound to undergo changes. The notion of “link language” or “lingua-franca” has an important significance in the multilingual setting. It encourages wider mobility, notional interrogation, and a sense of tolerance. It enriched other languages in contact and gets multilingual is a powerful way of enriching the linguistic repertoire of individuals. These resource offered by plurality of language can be used for rapid social and economic changes and modernization programmer. Learners are not just passive recipient of socially accepted languages patterns. They play an active role in this teaching learning process. They actively strain filter and recognize what they are exposed to.

Their imitations are not photographic reproductions but artistic recreations. The learners are meaning-makers. The main objectives of every level of teaching should be to help learners learn how to draw out their latent creativity. Every learner is born with a built-in language-learning mechanism. This mechanism gets activated when the learner’s s exposed to that language. What is, therefore, essential is to create an atmosphere where learning can take place.  Children learn the language they hear around them. A rich variety of linguistic material is as important in first language acquisition as in second language learning. The teaching of English as has often been less successful that it  might have been, as a result of the restricted variety of linguistic contexts with which students are provided. 

Learners should ideally be exposed to a variety of contextualized language materials. They must hear and see language in action. The emphasis should shift from encourage in learning to memorize paradigms and them interact with people using different registers of language in a variety of situation. In that process the learners internalize not only the linguistic but also the sociolinguistic rules of the game, system which enables them to focus on “what to say when and how”. It should also enable them to organize words in sentence and sentences in texts effectively keeping in view “the topic of discourse”, “addresser-addressee relationship” and “socio cultural  setting”, learning a language is not just a question of learning to produce sentences and utterance which are grammatical and acceptable they must also b appropriate. Each of the four major skills; reading, writing, listening and speaking and understanding, is composed of a hierarchy of sub-skills. What is necessary is to identify the sub-skills that are to be strengthened and explained first language, a second language our foreign language.

·       Second Language

Second language may be used as an auxiliary or associate language as a functions which are not normally performed by first language. For a vast majority of educated people living in turns and cities, English as s second language functions primarily as an interstate or international link language. Some of them also use it as an international language of knowledge, trade and industry. An important question here is, is L2 the main or associated medium of instructions at all levels or of a particular level.

 The objectives have to be formulated in the light of  what we perceive our needs for English to be in a multilingual setting, of both the national and individual levels. This is related to the following questions what are the roles of Hindi, English, regional languages, classical languages, foreign languages, and languages of the minority group in our multilingual setting? What are the topics and situational that will necessitate the use of English?

What is the kind and amount of English that the learners will need? At the national level, English must serve as our “window on the world” as the language in which nearly all contemporary knowledge of science and technology, trade and commerce, political science, economics and international relations English will be important for industrial and economic development. It will function as the “language of development”. Our scientists, technologists, engineers, doctors and economists must be able not only to have access to professional literature in English but also to contribute to it and to communicative in other counterparts in other countries. The continuation of English seems important if our science and technology, trade and commerce, are be truly international. It is hearing to not that English based-Indian bilinguals constitute the third and technical manpower in the world. “English has important functions to serve internally in addition on the world”. English may be continuing to the medium of instruction in several faculties at the college level.

These students will need a greater proficiency in the skills listening, writing and (perhaps) speaking than students being taught through other languages. At the level, English continues to be “the language of opportunity” and “the language of upward social mobility”. Any individual seeking socioeconomic advancement will find ability in English an asset. It is clear, that, the English has important functions in communication will continue to be at a premium, and teaching will have to try to import to retain minimal competence in these skills. The primary aim of teaching English as a second language at the secondary level should be to give the learners an effective mastery of the language, that is, to  help them acquire. Ability to read easily, and with understanding books in English written within a presented range of vocabulary and sentence structure and to read with good understanding easy unsimplified texts on familiars topics, fully glossed and annotated in their known language.

The ability to understand a talk in English on a subject on general experience and interest, clearly spoken and restricted in vocabulary and sentence structure to the range of the syllabus, the ability to write comprehensibly in English, and without gross errors, on a familiar topic which lends itself to expression without the range of vocabulary and sentence structure that has been taught, an ability to carry on  comprehensibly a conversation in English on a topic fully within the range both of their experience and interest and well within the range of the active command postulated by the syllabus.

We must ensure that English

1]. Function as a “service – language” for the various categories of learners.

2]. Promotes intellectual and cultural awareness of the contemporary world we live in and,

3]. Provides “information content ’’ necessary for the modernization of our country.

It is also important that special opportunities are made available to help the weaker sections of our society to acquire advance adequate competences in English so that they do not remain forever disadvantages in areas of higher education and in terms of upward social mobility. In order to achieve these objectives we will have to introduce changes in our syllabus, methodology of language teaching, materials, training programmers attitudes to learners and their language and the system of evaluation. We may need to change the school its physical structure, its atmosphere, its functions, its facilities, its roles and responsibilities. Teachers and learners are the greatest resources available to any society. English is now widely taught as subject of study in different languages teaching situations of different levels in India.

It is essentially taught as a second language in different language teaching and learning situations. In view of the lack of an overall language policy, and clear cut curriculum planning, the teaching of English as a second language faces a lot of challenges and does not seem to serve a useful purpose. Here an attempt will be made to indicate soon of the prominent problems the teaching of English as a second language is conformed with and to make some suggestions for teaching English in school educations.  As a second language teaching situation, it is regarded necessary to import instruction in the four basic language skills.

[1] Listening, [2] Speaking, [3] Reading, [4] Writing

 The language curriculum objectives of different skills have their different levels. To achieve the above objectives, there is a need to use selected reading materials to supplement the texts used in class more time should be devoted to general reading. This would help the students to expand their knowledge and experience of the language by reading at their own pace.

The complex grammatical structures need to be explained preferably in their actual use in the text. Oral drills and written exercises can be use in reinforcing them. The

Development of oral skill should form integral part of the course both accuracy and fluency should aim at students should be function in natural situation.

Teaching English as a second language as illustrated above can be achieved in individualized programmed instruction for those students who are unable to attend formal classes in any institution. In following individualized programmed instruction in English, the main learning effort required from the students involves the use of audio-visual presentation of lesson material, reinforced through drills and exercises in the in the language laboratories.

So English will continue to play an important role in education in India for years to come. It is imperative to make the teaching of it as effective as possible at different levels. The language policy defining the role of English curriculum planning, designing of syllabuses, selection and gradation of instructional materials including audio-visual.

v Importance of English language in Gujarat, compared to other states of India

English language gained its popularity in India with the coming of British; they ruled India for nearly two centuries. During this period they gradually introduced English and western educating to great a class of Indian who could serve the imperial ruler as an official and link between them and masse. In 1947, when India becomes free, some of our leader was not in fever of introducing English in our curricular. but actually speaking it was the English language that helped us as a great unifying force in our struggle for freedom. Many of our leaders inspired from the right thing of the great thinkers lie Ruskin, Lincoln and other who wrote in English, Realizing the importance of English language for growth, development and advancement of India, Pandit Nehru and Dr. Radha Krishna were not in fever of abolishing in completely.

As in Gujarat, all things of foreign/England was avoided, because Gandhiji was from Gujarat so people of Gujarat has believed in “Gandhi na Gujarat ma Angrej nahi” and they were highly followed it still freedom and also after the freedom, all states has invited this language in their day to day life and also in education but somehow Gujarat could not accepted it but after 1971, English language has established its important in Gujarat also. Before write about importance of English language in Gujarat, let`s have glance over on objectives of teaching English as a second language in Gujarat.

In heterogeneous society like ours the need for learning English, differ from one to another person. As English is second language, its very difficult task for a teacher to teach it. To Teach it teacher has to………

Understand the nature of language Keep in mind principles psychological of language learning

Be aware of aims and objectives

Objectives:

The term aims and objectives are used interchangeably. However both have different meaning. The main difference begging aim provide general direction to educational purpose whereas objectives indicate particular achiever to be made in specific time limit, There are two types of objective….

1] General Objectives:

The general objectives are long-term aims in comparison to the specific objectives. The general objectives are par with the aims and education. Therefore they are meant to be achieved during the schooling period of pupil. As English begins from class-I and continues to be studied up to xII th class, these general objectives are to be well spread from I to XII classes of school period, These general objectives are decided in advance. They are disinet for each subject and standard. They state what to achieve at the end of the year or course.

 Meaning:

General objective are the statement indicating general achievement regarding knowledge comprehension, application skill etc there can be many specific objectives for one general objective.

·       Semantic aspect

It related to understand meaning, meaning of words and their relationship with other words which is used in a sentence.

·        Phonetic aspect

It deals with speech sound, spellings and pronunciation of words.

·       Graphic aspect

It deals with the written form of a language it deals with representation of language and script.

·       Phonic aspect

It deals with reading aspect of language development and literary development are also general objectives. but it can help student to mug up English language, but not helpful in day to day communication.

2] Specific objectives:

Besides the above stated general? Objectives of teaching English the teacher should have definite clear cut aims for each lesson in his mind. They are called the specific objectives. In other words these are objective of teaching the content of lesson so indicate particular achievement to be made within specific time limit. They are short-term goals, and can be achieved in the classroom. They are definite, clear, and precise, to the point and expressible in the terms of achievement. They are achievable in day-today learning. They will accord the teaching point of a teacher. So it is very necessary for a teacher to specify his objectives of teaching. It helps him to know what he is to do of a particular lesson, why $ how. Objective is an intent communicated by statement describing a proposed change in a learner a statement of what the learner is to be like when he has successfully completed a learning experience. it is a description of pattern of behavior. We want the learner to be able to demonstrate. In Gujarat after 1980, English should be taught, according to above mentioned objectives. Through these objectives to learn English becomes simpler for the leaner at Primitive stage.

So these objectives are helpful for learning English language easily and most of student can avoid their fear to learn language... In secondary, higher secondary and primary school of Gujarat, English learns through these objectives.

The language formula followed by the Gujarat Government

Gujarat follows the three language formula recommended by the union government, in addition to the teaching a classical language, Sanskrit at the school level. It is in the line with the central government`s educational policy. The language offered is Gujarati, Hindi, English and Sanskrit, The state government in Gujarat follows the formula for the overall benefit of not only the stage natives but also the non-natives living in Gujarat. The government of Gujarat has born in mind that any language should far be offered for learning only with a a clear purpose in mind. The farmer of the language policy of the Gujarat government considered the question of

(1) The number of language that can be learned by pupil and,

(2) The stage of stages at which the study of this language should be commended.

The government has considered one more perspective. That is, the medium of instrument of For the non-native 9recent arrives and prescribe for speakers of Gujarati. It has prescribed two Media of instruction, namely. The Gujarati medium (for the natives and native spears of  Gujarati) and English medium (for the non-native who are non-native speaker of Gujarat), In states like Kerala where English for all student is compulsory but in Gujarat English Language in higher secondary school but after 2006 English language is compulsory for higher Secondary standard and also after 2010 in primary standard, the level of English language Becomes higher, as they are not learn only alphabets of English language as before it toughs in Primary standard in Gujarat but after 5th standard they also learn poetry, lessons of short Stories etc… So it means them to improve their language by their own not mug up language as a subject.

ü English – language curriculum

The language offered in the school system is arranged and named in terms of a sequential hierarchy. His first language, second language, third language and fourth language. Gujarati is called the first language. Hindi is called second language. English is third language and the fourth language offered is Sanskrit. But now situation change English placed as second language and Hindi can be selected as an optional language. But in primary Standard English language comes at the third language. In this language, the government has prepared textbook of two levels. Higher level and lower level. The higher level text books and teaching include both the language and literary content where as the lower level textbook and teaching include only the language of functional aspects that aim at giving a good communicative ability to the learners. The difference in the textual levels in a given language is a two years between higher and lower levels of the same language. The Gitterion for placing a student are appropriate level is not the medium of instruction but the status of the student as a native or non –native (recent arrival) and native, or non-native speaker in the case of the first language and second language. In totality, the entire student has to study all four languages at one or the other level. The teaching of each language commences at a certain level of standard in a given school .The intention is to see that all the student exposes to some level of skill in the communication literary or the language aspect of language prescribe. It serves to fulfill the guidelines prescribed by the education policy to a certain extent, and meet the language education need of the pupil in Gujarat.

Ø Place of English language in Gujarat

A great deal of controversy existed about the place of English in the scheme of studies especially in northern India. Mr. Promod Mahajan, a young prominent and capable cabinet minister of the BJP government, he has said that Indian.

“The success of Indian information Technology sector around the world, Was due to the competence of Indian Experts in English.’’

In Gujarat, the teaching of English for the natives and native speakers of Gujarati begins at the lower level. The number of good English teacher is uneducated even to meet this task. English is allowed as the first language to the non-native from the pre-primary level at the higher level. But the natives it is offered as the second language at the lower level from the third stranded. The contents at the lower are similar to the preprimary level meant for the non-natives.

Ø Difficulties faced by the teacher in teaching of English

This is also one of the reason that why Gujarat was lacking to learn English in compare to other states if India. Teaching of English Gujarat is a many sided problem. The teacher of English who has to face these problems should be familiar with the nature and scope of these problems. They should know how to organize these teaching at various levels in order to minimize these adverse effects. Some challenging in the contacts of a complex Indian situation in which the child must study in mother tongue and English as well .The English language institutes at Hyderabad has been doing useful work to solve difficulties of Indian children in learning English. Nevertheless despite researchers an investigation done in India and other countries to discover better teaching of teaching English. But result is not gained.

The problems are………

1] Policy on English:

Since the mid-1950`s the government policy towards retaining English has been rather we, consulting uncertain-ting and unpredictable.

2] Goals of English Teaching:

The teaching of English in India and particularly in Gujarat has many co-distinct purposes. Each of them requiring a different approach and different condition for its success. The four purposes are social, technical and administrative and cutter. Thus student are coming to school with various requirement and needs so it is difficult for a teacher to fulfill all the needs and requirements. Over crowed classes, substandard of books, lack of supplementary reader and workbook are also become barrier to learn English language. But the most important noteworthy thing is that students of Gujarat habitual to mug up grammar structures and sentence and learn it as subject not as a language.

Conclusion

The Gujarat government educational policy values language sentiment`s of Guajarati’s and at the same time tries to avoid any confrontation either center, with regard to teaching Hindi. In order to keep the communicative ability in English while at the same time not burdening the students with a heavy load of English it has prescribed English as a second language for the natives with a lower-level text book. Since Gujarati has its root in classical Sanskrit, this language too has become one of the languages taught as the fourth languages in the school.

Paper No. - 11 - Critique on Black Skin, White Mask - With the justification of Race

Critique on Black Skin, White Mask -  With the justification of Race

Introduction

The author of ‘Black Skin White Masks’ is Frantz fanon. He was born on July 20, 1925, at Fort-de-France, Martinique, France. He died at the age of 36, on 6^th December 1961 at Bethesda, Maryland.  He was revolutionary, philosopher, psychiatrist and writer whose writing influenced post colonial studies, Marxism and critical theory. He was an intellectual fellow political radical, existentialist humanist; he dealt with social, cultural, political problems. He supported the Algerian war of independence from France, and was also a member of the Algerian national liberation front. The life and works of Frantz fanon have inspired anti-colonial national liberation movements in Palestine, Sir Lanka, and the U.S .He served in the French army. He studied Medicine. He was a psychiatrist.

            In France in the year of 1952, Frantz Omar fanon wrote his first book,’ Black Skin, White Masks.’ The book is an analysis of the negative psychology-cal impact of colonial subjugation upon black people. Originally, the manuscript was the doctoral dissertation, submitted at Lyon. Its title was “Essay on the Desalination of the Black” It was rejected and fanon published it as a book.

Frantz Fanon was influenced by many thinkers and traditions including Jean-Paul Sartre, Lacan, Negritude and Marxism. He was influenced by Aime Cesaire, a leader of the negritude movement, was teacher and mentor to fanon on the island of Martinique. Fanon referred to Cesaire’s writings his own work. He quoted, for example, his teacher at length in “They lived experience of the Black man “ a heavily anthologized essay form Black Skin, White Masks.

  

“A Critique on Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon”

As a critical theory, post – colonialism presents, explains, and illustrates the ideology of neo-colonialism, with examples drawn from the humanities history and political science, philosophy and Marxist theory, sociology, anthropology, and human geography, the cinema, religion, and theology; feminism, linguistics’ and post colonial literature of which the anti- conquest narrative garners presents the stories of colonial subjugation of the subaltern man and woman

·       Salman Rushdie,

·       Ngugi wa Thiong,

·       Frantz Fanon,

·       Toni Morrison,

·       Amei Cesire,

·       Tagore,

·       Edward Said,

·       Homi Bhaba,

·       Gyatri Chakraborty Spivak

Post-Colonialism, it is an academic branch featuring the methods of intellectual discourse that analyze, explain and respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and of imperialism, to the human consequences of controlling a country and establishing settlers far the economic exploitation of the native people and their land. The post-colonialism questions and reinvents the modes of cultural perception the way of viewing and of being viewed and many more writers exploded the Post- Colonialism. I am going to discus Frantz Fanon’s work, “The Black Skin White Masks.”

Fanon‘s works influenced the Liberation movements of the Palestinians, the Tamils, African Americans and others. His works Influenced Africans literature. “His revolutionary ambitions’ cut Short by leukemia in 1961, psychoanalyst and Philosopher Frantz Fanon red by the time of His death amassed a body of critical work that today establishes his position as a leading  Theoretician Of black consciousness and identify, nationalism And Its failings, colonial rule and the inherently “ violent” task of decolonization , language as an Index of power, miscegenation, and the objectification of the per formative black body.

“Black Skin, White Masks”

Fanon‘s growing popularity and influence and more recent postcolonial readings of black liberation and nationalism perhaps sever as an index of his centrality to the movement for the Algerian self determinations in the 1950‘s that was shaped his diverse career as a political activist and critic.  “Black Skin, White Masks” is a Book about the mindset of psychology of racism. The book looks at what goes through the minds of Blacks and the strange impacts that has, especially on the black people.

The black man and the white man are not. And yet they are, and the reality of their being is Fanons starting point: the black man trapped in his blackness, the white man in his whiteness, both trapped into their mutual and aggressive narcissism.

What, then, brings them or calls them into being, or sentences them to non-being? Writing of his childhood and emergence from it, Fanon remarks: I am a negro, but naturally I don’t know that because that is what I am. I am going to use nègre in French because of the ambiguity of its political semantics and because there is no single English  quivalent: it is distinct from both noir (black) and the more recent homme de couleur (man of colour) and covers the whole semantic field from negroto nigger, the precise meaning being determined by context, the speakers position or even the speakers tone of voice. Fanons comment that he had to be told what he was is at one level a fairly banal  example of the bracketing out of facticity in favour of simply being: at home, he remarks (meaning, presumably, in Martinique), the black man does not, has no need to, experience his being-for-others.

Judging by my own experience, it is, for example, perfectly possible to grow up in a uniquely white community in the north-east of England without knowing in any real sense that you are white. There is no need to know that, and it is well known that fish have no sense of wetness.

Here, we can intemperate that how this White and Black are portrayed in literature in different ways. Novel ‘Oliver Twist’ by Charles Dickens’ In this novel we can find the controversy of Black and White. Here Christianity – Whiteness portrays as goodness, while Jew – Black portrayed as Evil. Here reader can find conflict between Christian v/s Jew. The novel has an idea of Christianity and Jewish. At some extent writer has described Christianity as a superior and dark side of Christianity has been presented. He portrayed Jew in a negative connotation.

Let’s analyze the book of Fanon ‘Black skin, White Mask’ - This book divided in many chapters. Each chapter has its own importance. They deal with the psychological aspect. It includes the condition of Black people and their mentality. It also gives reflection of white people towards black people. Let’s have a brief look on chapters of this book.

 

1.    The Negro and Language ;-

This chapter deals with the language of white people. It shows that language of White people is in power position and Language of Black people has lesser importance. The Language of White people is in centre, and Language of Black people is in periphery. In this chapter the author discusses that if a black person does not learn the white man’s language perfectly, he is unintelligent yet if he does learn it perfectly, he has washed his brain in the world of racial ideology. Thus the language of White people in centre and the Black people don’t learn it they do not get enough values in society of that time. So, Black people have to learn the language of White people.

2.    The Woman of Color and the White Man ,

The effect of white people also touched to the society. Black Woman also wished the White Skin which White woman has. So they wanted to be as white as White woman Here one can find that how desire of “WHITENESS’ is more in the Black woman. Because of that many ‘FAIRNESS CREAM’ and their industries grow faster and faster. As reader can understand that how Whiteness is showed as something goodness and Blackness is showed something like a dark side. Because of getting White Skin the colonized women look down on their own. Race and deep down want to be white.

 Here, an individual can give an example from literary work that how Black women wished to have White Skin of Bluest Eye just like White people have.

“The Bluest Eye” by ‘Toni Morrison’ ‘we find a black girl Pecola Breedlove desires to have the blue eyes of white men and woman.

3.    The Man of Color and the White Woman ; -

In this chapter, writer deals with the mental condition of Black man and their desire to be white. Here we can understand that Why Whiteness is something goodness? Just because White people have rules over Black people and they have shaped that idea that whiteness is symbol of Goodness. The author in this chapter talks about the condition of Black men. He says that these men want to be white too. These are equal to whites. The Black man also wished to get white and fair skin. So Whiteness is spread as a something goodness and they believe that whiteness gives them higher position in Society.

If reader can see in the literature, he can also find an example where Black man wished to have white skin.

Gwendolyn Brooke’s poem “We Real Cool” deals with the same theme.

  

4.    The So-called Dependency Complex of the colonized peoples:-

Here, the writer argues against Fanon’s view that people of color have a deep desire for white rule, that those who oppose it to do not have a secure sense of self that they have a chip on their shoulder. From this chapter I came to understand that the stereotypes of Happy Darkies, Uppity Negroes and White Saviors all come from the need of white people to feel that their power in society is good and not racist.

5.    The fact of Blackness (Fanon: The Lived Experience of the Black Man)

This chapter deals with the condition of Black people. Though they are highly educated, spiritual and knowledgeable, but their color of skin giving feeling of embarrassment. Here the sad condition of those people narrated. This chapter deals with the pathetic conditions of blacks. They thought that being always black is as if they are never fully human. No matter how much Education you have or how well you act. They felt they are just like isolated creature from the world.

6.    The Negro (The Black Man) and Psychopathology:

Here writer ask question to reader that, Why should people fear black?  Question asked here. Part it has to do with white men’s repressed homosexuality and their strange hang-ups about black men’s penises. More generally, black men are viewed as a body, which makes them seem like mindless, violent sexual, animal beings. Add to that all the bad meanings that the word “black” had even before Europeans set foot in black Africa.

7.    The Negro and Recognition:-

This chapter deals with how different styles of white rule shaped black people in America and Martinique.

8.    Way of conclusion:

            This final chapter discuses the escaping the prison of one’s past and one’s race.

“The negro is not: Any more than the White Man”.  In Fanon’s words, his writing

“Exposes an utterly naked declivity where an authentic upheaval can be born”

Fanon’s agonizing self- images performance spell-bound us-----

“I had to meet the white man’s eyes. An unfamiliar weight burdened me. In the white world the man of color encounters difficulties in the development of his bodily schema….I was battered down by tom-toms, cannibalism, intellectual deficiency, racial defects…I took myself for off from my own presence…what else could it be for me but an amputation, an excision a hemorrhage that spattered my whole body with black bleed?” “Black Skin, White Masks” That it rarely historicizes the colonial experience. There is no master narrative or realist perspective that provide a background of social and historical facts against which emerge the problems of the individual or collective psyche. Such a traditional sociological alignment of self and society or history and psyche is rendered questionable in fanon’s identification of the colonial subject who is historicized as it comes to be heterogeneously inscribed in the texts of history literature science, myth, the colonial subject is ‘always’ over determined from without.”

Fanon radically questions the formation of both individual and social authority as they come to be developed in the discourse of social sovereignty. “Look a negro…mama, see the negro! I’m frightened…I could no longer laugh, because I already know there were legends, stories, history and above all historicity…then arrived at various points, the corporal schema crumbled its place taken y a racial epidermal schema….it was no longer a question of being aware of my body in the third person but in a triple person…..i was responsible for my body, far my race, for my ancestors.” Turning to the return of the subject of colonial desire, at the end of Black Shin, White Masks to way for an existentialist humanism that is as banal as it is beatific:

“Why not the quite simple attempt to touch to feel the other, to explain the other to myself? At the conclusion of this stud I want the world to recognize, with me, the open door of every consciousness’.”

Such a deep hunger for humanism, despite fanon’s insight into the dark side of man, must be an overcompensation for the closed consciousness a ‘dual narcissism ‘for Fanon, in Black Skin, White Masks, there is the intricate irony of turning the European existentialist and psychoanalytic traditions to face the negro which they had never contemplated, to face the reality of fanon himself.

Fanon throughout the book deals with the inner struggle of black when they were colony ‘the black man and language’ deals with language. Here we saw the ideal of blackness, notion of desire, idea of identity, what is humanism?, 0-Other, self ego, civil rights, human rights, self desire, the idea of Negritude, idea of darkness. For him- Black is attitude, attitude comes from culture.

§  The idea of Blackness

§  The idea of identity

§  Notion of desire

§  The idea of Negritude

§  The idea of Darkness

§  O- Other,

§  Hate # Other

§  Self-ego

§  Self (play) (desire) ego ideal

§  Black-Mulatto-White

There are two such women: the Negros and the mulatto. The first has only one possibility and one concern: to turn white. The second wants not only to turn white but also to avoid slipping back. What indeed could be more illogical then a mulatto woman’s acceptance of a Negro husbands? For the understood once and for all that it is a question of saving the race. Fanon noticed that “when people came back from France after receiving their university education they would speak in painfully perfect French and act as if they no longer knew Creole.

ü Why was that?”

Fanon found out first-hand in France white people talk down to you if you are black either it speak in fake pidgin French-“why you left big savanna?” And yet even if you speak perfect French the racism does not stop: white people will then say stuff like, “you speak such perfect French!”- Something they never say to a white person with the same university education or for writer they French would say-“here is a black man who handles the French language unlike any white man today.”

Further fanon talks about three women, Mayotte, Nini and Dedee. Those entire woman are part white. A Blackman proposed Nini. Police was called because he is black and she is half white he has offended her “white girl’s” honors. Dedee was proposed by a man with a good government job. She was eager to enter the white world where Mayotte, the third woman had an affair with a married white man. She goes to white side of town with him where the white woman made her feel unworthy of him.

·       “The man of color and the white woman” reveals a boy, team venues that grow up in France and desired white woman. As a civil servant, he just is a bad as the whites.’

·       “The so-called dependency complex of the colonized brings out the brutality of whites the whites used black natives to enslave Madagascar. They used Senegalese soldier to strike fear into the earths of natives. Far this the author writes, “I will force the white man to acknowledge my humanity.  But monsieur Mannoni will tell us you can’t because deep down inside you there is a dependency complex”

“They lived experience of the black man” The author’s experience are heart rendering

“He is seen not as Dr. Fanon but as a black man who is a doctor”

“White people do not see him, they see his body”

The author was - “Always seen a negro, never a man”

Fanon felt - “Sin is black as virtue is white”

In India we had untouchability. There (Africa) they had color problem. Black felt inferior as did our untouchables. Example “Urmila Powar’s book” The Weave of my Life” deals with such problems.

“Black man and psychopathology” is related with some wrong beliefs that whit had for natives”

“The black man and Recognition” draws our attention as the author writers- “I am narcissus, and I want to see reflected in the eyes of the other an image of myself that satisfied me.”

“By way of conclusion” is the final chapter, Frantz fanon does not want to be a black man, and he wants to be amen plain and simple. Black and white could not live in present as they can’t separate themselves from their past, says fanon.

“He writes--- “I will not make myself the man of any past. I do not want to sing the past to the detriment of my present and y future. Let the dead bury the dead: I am my own foundation.”

Fanon says he has only one rights and one duty.

Black Skin, White Masks is a unique work of art. It deals with much aspect like a man’s search of identity race prejudice that prevails all over the world and in our century too. The whites addressed the third world people as others they wanted to civilize to others them humiliated others. They treated us as if we were ignorant ant and animal’s non white means not human but savage-this is what they believed. Black always tried to be white they did not respect their culture but ram madly after white culture they were made o believe themselves to be inferior to the colonizers. The colonizers believed to be far.

Conclusion

At the conclusion of this study, I want the world to recognize, with me, the open door of every consciousness. My final prayer:

“O my body, make of me always a man who questions!”

Frantz work present hybridists, syncretistic, creolizaion, national and religious

peculiarity, abrogation, appropriation, rewriting of history and much more many Indian novelist work like Tagore’s “Gora” can be compared with this book as far as social moral and political issues are considered. Own Dalit literature also can be kept in mind while referring “The Black Skin White Mask”.

Here, in Black Skin, White Mask the writer Frantz Fanon highlights his ideas about Justification n of race.