'There is no painting and scarcely any carving in the bazaars. The very wood seems made of mud, the inhabitants of mud moving. So abased, so the Ganges comes down it might be expected to wash the excrescence back into the soil." This quote from A Passage To India, by E. M. Foster on the scenery and life of Chandrapore, is very significant to the flow of this novel because it in a way sets the mood of this community and the racial tension that is supposed to exist between the British and the Indians. After reading this quote, I felt that the community would be life-less and that this "excrescence" would be this sense of racial tension that occurs in the lives of the natives and the British colonials. This tension resulted in the British feeling like they were superior to the Indians, which relates to the reason for their dwellings on a higher ground than that of the Indians dwellings. This type of tension relates to the same racial tension that persists today among minorities. From the tension that occurs between African Americans and Hispanics to the tension that still persists between African Americans and Caucasians. There are some among these races that feel that they are superior to others among different races, and so they themselves will cause tension by exercising this "superiority". Another reason I felt this way about Chandrapore because of it's dull description, was because there were no paintings drawn anywhere in the bazaars. Paintings bring objects and ideas to life with color and sharp images. Reading that there were none of these, made me think of Chandrapore as "city full of the dead". These first depictions of the city, showed me that the mood of the novel would be boring.
Questions For Discussion
1. Did anything resonate with you as you read the description of Chandrapore?
2. How do you think the tension between the Indians and English will excel?
3. Does Chandrapore's description connect with the people of this community?
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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