Diverse Culture- Guleri and Veronica Essay

Compargon and contrast the fe mannish characters speedwell in veronica and Guleri in A stink of kerosene.In this strive some(prenominal) female characters in speedwell and A Stench of kerosene will be examined for equivalentities and differences in their refinement and traditions.When you read these two stories the lead things that stand forbidden is their culture, tradition and the theme of love. The story t distributivelyes us that sometimes tradition gets in the way of tone. It can sometimes control your life or sometimes non. In two the stories, the women hold on tightly to their traditions. The authors are not just talking or so their family traditions but the world(prenominal) tradition of fertility and obedience. The main characters in these stories are speedwell and Guleri. This judge portrays about the roles of women.Although there are a lot of similarities between them on the surface but there are more concealed. In both(prenominal) the stories, the mai n belief in the female characters is their culture. Throughout the stories it shows us how of import their culture is to them and how their society forces them to do certain actions that occasionally leads to a someones death as seen in A Stench of Kerosene.Veronica and Guleri both live in male dominated countries, which tally females seen by e actuallyone as inferior. The story of Veronica is told in first somebody by Okeke who is Veronicas childhood fri expiry and the I in the story. The story of A Stench of Kerosene is told in third soulfulness by an omniscient narrator.The author of Veronica is Adewale Maja-Pearce and he was brought up in Nigeria, the aforementioned(prenominal) propose as Veronica was.Maja- Pearce later returned to London, as this was his place of birth so that he could supplement his education. In Veronica, the soulfulness narrating the story, Okeke can be compared to Adewale Maja- Pearce as he grew up in the very(prenominal) surroundings as him and also the same education and they lead similar lives.The author of A Stench of Kerosene is Amrita Pritam and she was brought up in India which later became Pakistan, then she moved to New Delhi so that she could begin writing in Hindi.She had precise unhappy experiences of conjugal union and divorce, this links with Guleri in A Stench of Kerosene as Guleri can not comport any children and her married man marries again agreeing to his stimulate so that he can drive children and this makes Guleri get down and broken hearted which then leads to her gruesome death as her m separate-in-law controls e trulything that goes on with Manak and Guleri. Manaks mother is an important force, though scarcely comes in as character.Veronica and Guleri both grew up in fairly rural areas of the country where they were sensibly poverty and war. But the only dissimilarity in their surroundings is that Veronica is in the country with troubled political history. The country has been torn unconnect ed by divisions between tribes and political groups, suffering massacres and civil war.As a result, financial development within the country has been limited and the rural areas have been badly affected by poverty.The characters in these stories have a dandy deal similitude in their personalities in the way they lead their lives even though both stories are set in genuinely different countries. The author make use of comparable and diverse techniques to inaugurate and show their characteristics.Veronica is a very unfortunate woman who grew up in her native village. She lived with her susceptible mother, abusive and alcoholic father and other young siblings who have not been mentioned much without the story.On the other return, Guleri lived in the village in India with her conserve Manak and her mother-in-law. She had no children but was content with her life. Manak and Guleri had a much pull throughed matrimony until her mother- in-law interfered by forcing her son to e mbrace another woman so that she accomplishes her vision of macrocosm a grandmother and ruining Manak and Guleris life.The profound theme of the story is the conflict between a mans love for his married woman and the obligation to have children. The major cultural rationalise concerns a man taking a second wife in order to do this. The author tells us that this practice of burning oneself for relief valve is not unusual in certain parts of India but was very prominent.Guleri lives with her husband and her moth-in-law. It was pointed out that Manak was satisfied with his fate and didnt want to marry again as most people around the country would have.Veronica cooked and served for her family. She married at a young age to a soldier and lived happily. Later on, she gave birth to a son. She is a very strong-willed person and is very content with her life.The physical appearances of both the female characters are not quite similar. Okeke describes Veronica, as no great beauty she unf lurried had a certain attractiveness that I knew would appeal to men. This is a very uncertain view as no one can be good looking and unattractive at the same time, they contradict with each other.Veronica being described as shabby may have been because of her surroundings and her lifestyle that has influenced her to be that way.Guleris physical features are scarcely described throughout the story. But when it reads they had bartered their hearts to each other an self-reliance that can be made from this is that Guleri must have been a very attractive woman as no one falls in love at first sight if the woman is unappealing. Also, as Guleri has neer inducen birth before, she must have had a slim figure.Veronica is very comfortable with her life accepts the fact that shes married to a soldier rather than being in the city with Okeke. She lives in the same hut as she used to when she grew up and she had never changed. She is standardized a slave first to her father and then to her trade union to her husband. She is pleased with what she does and doesnt complain about it much but if she had the opportunity to raise her phonate she would have probably had a say in what she desires to accomplish in life.They are my family and this is enough, this is a line of Veronicas let out expectations. She feels her family is everything she needs and nothing else would have the same satisfactory.Guleri on the other hand is very childishly stubborn and always wants everything her way. She is portrayed similar to a little girl. Guleri is a happy go lucky person and loves her life. Manak and Guleri are expressed as a happy couple and care about each other.In Veronica culture is a main dowry of her life. Her life was about tradition. When she refuses to go to the city with Okeke and says that it will be harder for her as she is a woman and she isnt educated enough.God blessed us with a son. Is that not enough? this explains that Veronica is always the same afterwards a lo ng period of time that the two have been apart. She is still surviving in the squalor of a village of which Okeke had once lived. The first base expectations of Veronica have for herself, compared to the high expectations Okeke has for himself throughout for story, shows us that this is a male dominated country. The social expectations demonstrate this too. Veronica is very stubborn and it shines through the story.Veronicas life was all about the tradition. Guleris gravitas is the main view of her life. Her life was all about Manak and her parents village. She always want being the centre of attention. After Manak got married again, Guleri couldnt believe the circumstance she was in the middle of. She did not have to express her distress and green-eyed monster in words. The look on her face was enough. But her husband Manak did not do anything about the circumstances.Her husband pulled out his hookah and closed his eyeball. Hookah is a tobacco pipe with a long, flexible pipag e by which the smoke is drawn through a jar of pissing and thus cooled. He seemed as if he either did not like the tobacco or that he could not bear to face his wife. In this short story, Guleris character shines winning the sympathy of the readers. Guleri, a satisfied girl coming from a well-to-do family and her marriage to Manak, her failure to give Manaks family a son, creates a terrific situation for her tragic abrogate and the readers immediate sympathy is with the heroine of the story, Guleri. She was the pleasant young girl who ended her life with an extremely disastrous manner.Indian culture is such that a married woman should bring a son to the family. If a woman fails to fulfill this role, she is not successful, in marriage and therefore rejected. Thus Manaks mother escapes a reasonable percentage of acquiring accused for bringing a second wife for her son, Manak.Not that she hated Guleri, but Indian culture had influenced her to extremes of believing in the gift of a s on to the family.On the other hand, Guleris family was rich and wanted a man from a good family, for their daughter.But Guleris father was prosperous and lived in cities. He had swear that he would not take money for his daughter, but would give her to a worthy man from a good family. Guleri failing to give Manaks family a son and having to wait seven years and even the gloomy end to her life could have been sad even from the early old age of her marriage. In India, the mother is supposed to be the representation of Indian culture. A mother enjoys an important place, if she is able to fulfill a mothers part meeting with the expectations of motherhood these being the customs and traditions of Indian culture.Manak performing his flute as they walked or were at the fair, made Guleri feel that the medicinal drug brought her joy, taking her closer to Manaks heart. Thus the flute standing as a symbol of joy in their lives.He looked at her sadly. whence putting the flute to his lips bl ew a strange and anguished wail. Striking the show of the tragedy and anticipating the tragic end. Bhavani announcing the sad end of Guleri, when she heard of your second marriage she soaked her clothes in kerosene and set fire to them. Manak getting mute with pain.He stared a long time uncomprehending, his face as usual expressionless. Therefore the death of Guleri could be called cultural violence in Indian society, though not recognized as violence in reality it is a violent act leading to death of a person. In the short story, A Stench of Kerosene the writer, point out in simple diction the theme of the theme of violence present in the culture of Indian society. Amrita Pritam gives a clear picture of the episodes with the take away choice of a family setting and the intended aim and view of marriage in typical Indian society.The family setting of the extended family, this can be compared to Veronica as her father beats her and was bullied by her father plot she was growing up .In Veronica, Okeke felt responsibility for his death, as so feels an extreme crime as he did not come ass to her from the cities more often and persuade her more to go with him and if he had make this enough, she would have agreed at some point to go to the city. Manak with this tenacious event trapped in his mind leaving every blessed moment with his new wife feeling guilty instead of pleasure after the tragedy of his former wife and the manner and circumstances he had married her.Amrita Pritam shows us how this guilt has not only affected his life but his mind and senses at the same time as it reads in the last line of the story when he holds the new born screw up of his second wife when it is given to him, he saysTake him away He stinks of kerosene this portrays that the baby symbolizes the death of his former wife and the baby being brought to this world has made his former wife leave it.In both the stories we should pity Veronica and Guleri, as they were just victims of death. Veronica physically dies against her own rule and Guleri mentally felt that she could not live no more. Therefore, the main two women, in both the stories suffered the main tragedies. The reader may also have felt pity that Veronica was unable to stop being born into a sexist and poor culture, which caused her to live her life with the tragic ending. Manak was also a victim, not of death but of guilt as he was taunted by the events of his wife and the evidence at the end of the story proves this as he thinks his child smells of kerosene, which is the liquid that caused his previous wife to burn to death. This proves that his future with his new wife will be very hard to cope with.