THE LOST JEWELS

-Rabindranath Tagore
SUMMARYA stranger sat on the stone steps or old bathing ghat of a river, near a huge, abandoned house
with broken windows and dilapidated verandahs. A dishevelled schoolmaster engaged him in
conversation. He asked him his name and whereabouts to which the stranger's reply was only
partially truthful. He said that he was a merchant from Ranchi but gave a false name. He told the
schoolmaster that he would be staying in the broken-down old house above the ghat. The school
master then told him the story of what had happened in that big house many years ago.
Ten years ago, when he had come to the place, an educated modernized Bengali, Bhusan Saha
lived in the house. His uncle Durga Saha, who was childless, had left his entire property to
Bhusan. Bhusan's weakness was that he could not be strict with his beautiful wife, Mani. He
loved her but was unable to be either firm or severe with her. He had brought her away from the
family home. Full of relatives, thinking he would have her completely to himself but that only
resulted in losing her more. He indulged in all her whims and fancies and lavished on her jewels
in a desperate attempt to gain her love. But she was cold hearted in her responses to him and all
his lavish overtures of love. He turned out a failure not only at home but also in his business for
which he could neither borrow money in the market where he was known nor get it from a
stranger because it would necessitate some security. He had pampered his wife and when his
business ran into losses, he did not have the courage to ask her to help him out by giving her
jewellery as a security for a loan. In fact, most of the jewellery that she possessed had been
bought by him. When he finally mustered the courage to ask, she set her face hard and did not
respond to his request, which hurt him. So, Bhusan went to Calcutta to find some way to raise
funds. Mani, Meanwhile approached her cousin Modhu, who was working on Bhusans estate,
for advice. Modhu was of the opinion that Bhusan would never be able to raise the money. He
warned Mani that she would eventually have to part with her jewellery. Agitated at the thought,
Mani asked Modhu what she should do to which he suggested that she take all her jewellery and
leave to her father's house. Modhu, being sly and opportunistic, hoped that a portion of the
jewels would finally be his.
Though Mani acted on the suggestion of Modhu, she did not trust him. So, when he asked her for
the box of jewels, As soon as she stepped into the boat she told him that she would give it to him
later. The truth was that an obsessed Mani had spent the whole night covering her entire body
with the jewellery. Modhu wrote a letter to the chief steward informing him that he was taking
his mistress to her fathers house. The steward, who was an old and loyai caretaker, was quite
enraged and wrote a long letter to Bhusan, in which he strongly criticized Bhusans laxity,
blaming it for the turn of events. Bhusan was very hurt that though he had allowed his wife to
have her way and not part with her jewellery, even though he was undergoing hardship, she had
not appreciated his gesture and had certainly not trusted him. Instead of bursting out in anger as
any man would have, he passively accepted his fate and decided to do his duty. After ten or
twelve days, on obtaining a loan, he returned home, expecting to find Mani there but to his
disappointment found the house empty. Bhusan was hurt and distressed but decided to wait till
she came back. However, on the advice of his steward, Bhusan sent messengers to Manis
fathers house and it was found that neither Modhu nor Mani had ever been there. A search was

carried out to trace the two of them but it was not successful.
One day, when all his hopes had almost died, Bhusan was sitting by the window brooding about
his lost love when he heard a strange clinking sound of ornaments come up the steps of the ghat
up to the house. Then there was a torrent of harsh metallic blows on the door and when Saha
shook the locked door he awoke from his dream, soaked in sweat. The next nights he left the
main door unlocked and sat up waiting, restraining himself from moving, as the sound reached
up to the threshold of his room. Unable to contain the wild excitement within, he called out
Mani and sprang out of the chair, only to wake up to the noises of the rain and frogs and reality.
The following day, he felt a strange peace and knew within that the mysteries he longed to know
were to be revealed that night. As on the previous nights the jingling sound came up to the
bedroom door. Bhusan sat with his eyes closed. It finally came near Bhusan and stood there.
Bhusan, when he opened his eyes, saw a skeleton covered in jewels, with lifelike wet eyeballs
between the long thick eyelashes staring from the bony face. The skeleton stretched out its hand
which was covered with sparkling rings and bangles and motioned to him to follow. Bhusan
followed the skeleton in a dreamlike daze past the verandah, the staircase, lower verandah, the
hail and came to a brick paved garden. It led him out to the river ghat down the steps and
descended into the river. When his foot touched the water he slipped headlong into the river.
Although he knew how to swim, his limbs seemed powerless and not in his control. He appeared,
for an instant, to awaken from dreams to momentarily hover in reality, only to be sucked into
everlasting sleep. When the schoolmaster stopped talking, they suddenly became aware of the
still silence of the surrounding darkness. Unable to see the expression on the strangers face he
asked whether he believed the story. In reply to the strangers query whether he did, the
schoolmaster said No because he perhaps felt that it was too imaginative and ghostly to be true.
The stranger, however, interrupted him to say that his name was in fact Bhusan Saha but his
wifes name was Nitya Kali.
Tagore leaves the story hanging in ambiguity, a deliberate ploy to facilitate varied interpretation.
However, it does appear that the ghost of Bhusan Saha had come and sat on the steps of the ghat,
pining for his wife, his lost jewel.
POINTS TO NOTESignificance Of The Title:
The point to ponder here is what is being meant by 'jewels. What is lost here? Is it the
material trinkets and adornments that the wife held so dear to her or is it the life that
vanished as easily as the aforementioned jewels did?
A deeper look would reveal that the lost jewels, in Mani's case would be the jewellery
and trinkets but in Bhusan Saha's case would be his wife, the jewel he lost.
Theme:
Loneliness and insecurity of a childless woman married to a rich, educated businessman
which makes her turn obsessively to jewels and ornaments to try and fill the vacuum
within her.
Avarice and Greed - An opportunistic cousin of Mani, Modhu has his own selfish and
devious plan laid out. His sight is firmly fixed on the jewels and he is ready to ensnare
the vulnerable, obsessed Mani.
Obsession with objects of material value which fills one with a pseudo sense of security.
Point of View:
The story is narrated by a local schoolmaster with a penchant for conversation and

storytelling to a stranger, sitting on the steps of an old bathing ghat or a river.

The narrator here gives his version or the story cloaked in the chauvinistic orthodoxy or
that era.
Symbolism:
The jewels become a material representation of love when Bhusan Suha showers his
wife with it in return for her Love.
The jewels represent security in the lonely and barren life of Mani.
It is not without reason that Tagore ends the story with Bhusan saying his wife's name is
Nitya Kali (a name of Ma Kali the divine source of consciousness). Nitya Kali means
'the dark, forbidding eternity. Thus, playing on truth and fiction, the author allows the
reader to wander into whichever realm he chooses to.

The Drover's Wife

1. Introduction
The Drover's Wife is a short story written by Henry Lawson, published in 1892 in The Bulletin
an Australian weekly magazine with a great influence on culture in politics until World War I.
Lawson is considered one of the best-known writers in the colonial period but he is also often
placed among the greatest Australian writers.
Lawson's short story was written during the colonial period but its central theme of a lone
woman on the farm seems to be of no importance to the postcolonial studies. But once the story
is subjected to the postcolonial reading and interpretation one will find covert elements in the
underlying structure that give an insight to the perspective of the settlers and their attitude
towards the natives the Aborigines. This is the main focus of the seminar which will attempt to
reveal possible unwitting elements of the story and interpret it in terms of postcolonial theory.
2. Previous Works and Postcolonial Reading
Previous studies on The Drover's Wife had a focus on various aspects: the theme of a woman in
19th century rural Australia and the conditions farmers' and rural wives were meeting while

taking care of a household were presented by Katrina Alford (1986) while literary analysis
mostly elaborated Lawson's skills of storytelling of a difficult human situation. All these works
omitted the context of colonialism.
Such an almost-structural analysis of this story would take a central theme of a lone woman
versus dangerous nature as the dominant one. Analysis stops at this rather nodding point the
historical or social context was not completely taken into account because colonialism and its
possible manifestation in the underlying structure were obviously omitted. Finding and
interpreting the basic structure does not seem to be sufficient in the process of understanding
broader meaning of The Drover's Wife regardless of the postcolonial theory.
Bill Ashcroft elaborated the term of postcolonial reading as a form of deconstructive reading
that draws attention to the effects of colonisation process by reading or rereading anthropological
accounts, historical records, scientific and literary writings. The form can be applied to the works
of colonizers and those that were colonized. The purpose is to find and elaborate elements which
demonstrate the ideology of colonialists and the relationship between the colonialists and the
colonized.
3. The Elements of the White Culture in the Story
A central figure of the story is the woman with her children lives in a two-roomed house built of
timber. She and her husband are both Australian a part of settlers invasion and cultures that had
started almost a century before. Her house is the world that she needs to preserve and defend. All
around the house is the bush a vast area of danger and the bushmen with their lives. Lawson's
story telling created an apocalyptic atmosphere where the drover's wife and her children are
found in the middle of dangerous threats. If she leaves the house area she is immediately
exposing herself. Bushmen are the other world. Their lives are strange and unknown and their
appearance around the house is absolutely unwanted unless needed in terms of the help or the
physical work. On Sundays, the woman takes a walk in the bush but the walk is far from casual
one. She gets dressed, tidies the children and goes for a walk by pushing a perambulator 1 as if
she was walking the block in the city. Although she hardly meets anyone, this might be her form
of statement dressed and cleaned as she should be on Sunday, she takes her children and enjoys
1 A type of a baby-transport

a walk on the last day of the week, a day when both working and rich people of the western
cultures take time for themselves, the families and the city presentation. In her free time, she
finds excitement in reading Young Ladies Journal thinking about a frivolous matter such as
fashion.
4. The Relationship Between the Wife and the Blackmen
One of the critical questions that is raised in studying colonial and post-colonial literature is the
relationship between the settlers and the natives. In this case of literature written during the
colonial period in Australia it is the question of the relationship between the indigenous
populations in settled areas and the invading settlers (Ashcroft, 2008). Indigenous people are
those born in a place or a particular region; the term aboriginal was coined in 1667 in order to
describe the indigenous people encountered by European explorers, adventurers or seamen.
Although the term was used to describe indigenous inhabitants of settler colonies it is now
usually used as shortened term for Australian Aborigine.
Aborigines, or the blackmen as presented in the story, are appearing in the story on several
occasions. The wife and children have a story which they laughed over many times. Because of
the fire she was fighting in the bush her face was black, and once she reached to take up the baby
it screamed and struggled convulsively thinking it was a blackman. Alligator, the dog, also took a
defensive position. Their reaction to a supposed blackman entering the area of the house may
serve as a valid indicator that shows a position of the blackmen in their world: they are
unwanted, dangerous and the cause of fear.
Living with children without the help from her husband created many challenges for the wife.
She has to fight all kinds of dangers and threats in order to provide for her family. Lawson built
up her character of a fearless woman who is eager to do anything she seems to be a hero of the
story. Still, she is occasionally scared to death by a bushman in the horrors2 or a swagman3
looking for a place to say when evening approaches. She tells them that her husband and two
sons are working below the dam to get rid of them.
2 A bushman in delirium tremens ; alcohol poisioning
3 A temporary worker who travels by foot from farm to farm carrying the swag - bedroll

5. The Aborigines Viewed by the Settlers

When the European settlers began invading Australian continent in 18 th century the Aborigines
were the sole occupants. The adjustment between the whites and the Aborigines wasnt peaceful
and was often marked in blood. Settlers had a distinctive perspective of the natives. They found
them miserable, nasty and they were appalled by their physical appearance. In order to start them
on the path of civilisation the whites gave them work to do and paid them in alcohol and tobacco.
Obviously, their presence in the lives of whites was wanted only when it was of use. This point
of view was well maintained throughout the following century and its manifestation can be found
in The Drovers Wife. On one occasion the wife ordered from a blackfellow to bring her some
wood and went in search for a missing cow. When she came back she found a pretty large heap
of wood and rewarded him by an extra fig of tobacco. Contrary to the white view of the 18th and
19th century Aborigines, they had an organised social structure they shared norms and rules
(Dousset, 2002). Their life interaction usually derived from kinship and they werent simply
scattered in wandering groups as proposed by many white settlers. Having a developed social life
and culture but also a care for families and acquaintances from the groups, the Aborigines were
willing to help the whites when they were in trouble. The wife was in painful labour with her
second child with no one around in the bush when Black Mary, the whitest gin4 in the land,
appeared on the door and helped her to have a child. The wife found it to be an act of God
himself.

6. The Black Snake

The plot of the story revolves around the snake entering the house walls and floors through the
cracks in the wood. Symbolically, the snake might refer to the colonial situation - allegory is
often used in reading the texts of colonialism (Ashcroft, 2008) as it may reveal the point of
4 Aborigine

view of the colonialists. Therefore, the snake in the story carries the role of an intruder which
represents danger for the family. The wife is determined to not only protect the children but to
dislodge the snake as soon as possible. The house is almost a sacred place to the wife. That very
house is a place of her living and existing, a place where she and her children are building their
lives. Other lives that differ from what they know and are used to are unacceptable and
unwelcomed. They are disturbing their existence, whether its a blackman or a black snake. At
first, she places a bowl of milk in front of the wood crack in order to allure the snake. Her act is a
typical white thinking and the proof of the settlers imperialistic ethnocentrism. Not only she is
offering a somewhat of a materialistic good to the snake in trade for her leaving the house so she
could get rid of it but she is also giving her what she thinks the snake would like and need a
bowl of milk. While it is in fact a possibility that milk would allure the snake, it is also just as
possible that the snake was looking for a place to say for a while, just as those nasty swagmen
she has to deal with.
Once the snake matter is resolved, mother and her children watch the snake burning having their
peace recovered.

7. Conclusion

In 1788 when the first European settlers started invading Australia the path of pain, destruction
and alienation began for the Aborigines. Their land which they found sacred and spiritual was
put in the white possession, they were tortured and degraded and put to hard labour. Although
they had an organised society consisted of rules and terms and their own culture, the settlers
found them uncivilised and almost non-human. Lawson wrote The Drovers Wife in a tradition of
a populist nationalist mode of writing which served to claim Australian tradition. One of those
traditions was the life in the bush. Since his story is not only about the bush but about an
Australian woman with children fighting all the difficulties including the Aborigines, it is quite
understandable why Lawson and the story are keep a special place in the Australian literary
tradition. The Aborigines were of no importance such tradition since their very existence is
simply an intrusion in it. Still, this short story served its purpose of an evidence of colonial
period. In only few pages of the plot, Lawson unintentionally left the proof of the colonialist
ideology and Euro-centric perspective of the Aborigines.

Drovers Wife Aliter

In the short story The Drovers Wife, Henry Lawson acknowledges the hardships of Australian
women whose bravery and perseverance is unfairly overlooked. It is often the men who receive all
the glory while the women suffer silently in the background. In this story, Lawson sheds light on the
life of one of these heroic women as she struggles to keep her children safe in the Australian bush.
The vivid imagery of the environment creates feelings of isolation and monotony that the main
character experiences in her day to day life. Instead of focusing on the contents of the bush, Lawson
focuses primarily on what is lacking. The bush has no horizon, no ranges in the distance and no
undergrowth. The scarcity of scenery shows the reader a glimpse of the bleakness and emptiness in
the bushwomans life. There is more of this dreary imagery in the description of the house where the
wife and her children live. It is crudely made out of slabs of stringybark and round timber. The
kitchen, which is larger than the house itself, has a dirt floor and there is a large, roughly-made
table in the centre of the place. The rugged house reveals the poor conditions that the drovers wife
must endure every day. Even the weather is dismal as a thunderstorm comes on, and the wind,
rushing through the cracks in the slab wall, threatens to blow out her candle. She protects the fragile
flame of the candle, like her life, against the harshness of her environment. By visualizing the
bushwomans surroundings, the reader can connect with her frame of mind. One is left with an
overwhelming sense of loneliness and hardship.
Lawsons admiration of women is evident in the portrayal of a strong and independent female
protagonist. The drovers wife fights many battles without her husband, and each struggle makes her
stronger. She thinks about some of the difficulties she has faced in her life while she keeps watch for
a snake that has slithered under the house. She remembers when one of her children died and she
rode nineteen miles for assistance, carrying the dead child. This must have been a traumatic
experience for her, but the bushwoman was able to move on and deal with other obstacles. The
drovers wife recalls the fire that almost destroyed her home. She took on the role of her husband,
wearing his trousers while she snuffed out the flames with a bough. She has sacrificed her femininity
because her surroundings are not favourable to the development of the womanly or sentimental
side of nature. The only thing to feed her womanhood is the Young Ladies Journal. It is a reminder
of the dreams she had as a girl that never came to be.
Amazingly, the drovers wife is able to confront challenges single-handedly. Every difficult
experience that she can remember has taken place in her husbands absence. She has raised their
children on her own and constantly protects them from dangers like snake bites and fires. Many
people would not be able to handle the incredible loneliness of life in the bush, but the drovers wife
says she is used to being left alone. She once lived like this for eighteen months. She must miss
her husband terribly, but she explains that they are used to being apart, or at least she is. She
speaks of the maddening sameness of the stunted treesthat monotony which makes a man long to
break away and travel as far as trains can go, and sail as far as ships can sailand further. She is
stronger than these men, and perhaps stronger than her husband who has also broken away from this
dull life. She stresses that the monotony is not a problem for her, and that she would feel strange

away from it. By repeating the fact that she is used to loneliness, she is able to cope with being
alone for so long.
Beneath her tough exterior, the drovers wife is a sensitive and expressive person. When a flood
breaks the dam that the womans husband made, her heart [is] nearly broken too, for she [thinks]
how her husband would feel when he [comes] home and [sees] the result of years of labour swept
away. She cries then. It is not for herself that she cries, but for her husband. She cries again at the
collapse of a woodpile that was stacked by a native man. The bushwoman trusted the man and
praised him for his fine work only to discover that he had built that woodheap hollow. She is
genuinely hurt by this breach of trust and tears spring to her eyes. The drovers wife is overcome
by emotion once more at the end of the story, after the snake has been killed. The battles of her life
have worn her out, and in her exhaustion, she begins to weep. Her eldest son notices her tears and
comforts her, saying, mother, I wont never go drovin; blast me if I do. This perceptive child
realizes that his fathers absence is the cause of his mothers suffering. Like the boy, the reader is
drawn closer to the drovers wife by seeing her pain and understanding the reasons for this pain.
Lawson is successful in creating a bond between the reader and the protagonist through his powerful
scenery and the highly developed characterization. This bond enables the reader to truly appreciate
the accomplishments of this young woman and other women like her. The Drovers Wife is a
tribute to these women and gives them the recognition that they rightfully deserve.

The Stolen Bacillus

"TheStolenBacillusbyH.G.Wellsisasatiricshortstoryaboutthepotentialdangersposedbytheworld
ofscience.Satireisusinghumororwitasaformofridiculewhichexposesflawsorfaultsinmankindor
hisinstitutions;theintentionmustbetohelpimproveeithermanortheinstitution.Inthisstory,Wellsis
satirizingtheinstitutionofscienceaswellastheroleofanarchistsinsociety.
Theatmosphereof"tensionandfear"iscreatedfromthebeginninginseveralways.First,ofcourse,isthe
consistentmentionofthedreadword:cholera.Justthewordconjuresupimagesofdeath,horrible
sufferingandtheplague.Weareafraidofwhatmighthappen,eventhoughthebacteriologistassuresus
thatthesespecimens"havebeenstainedandkilled"andarethereforenolongerdangerous.
Second,themysteriousvisitortothelabisconsistentlydescribedas"thepalefacedman,"something
whichconjuresamysteryofdangerandintrigue.
Third,thedeadlyvirusisbeingkeptinatube,atubewhichkeepsreadersjustalittlebreathlesswith
anticipationbecauseweknowalittleglasstubecaneasilybebrokenorstolenandboththingseventually
dohappen.
Fourth,webegintoseeatransformationinthepalefacedmanasweseeagleaminhiseyesashe
becomesmoreandmoremesmerizedbythesightofthedeadlybacteriainthetube,"devouringthelittle
tubewithhiseyes."Itisespeciallychillingwhenhebeginstorecitethelitanyofwaysinwhichthe
deadlyvirusmightbesilentlytransmittedtoeverypersonandanimal.Themorehetalks,themorewe
knowthatthisisnotonlysomethinghehasgivenmuchthoughtto,butitissomethinghealmost
anticipateswithdelight.
Notethelanguageofdeathinthisdescription:

Onlybreaksuchalittletubeasthisintoasupplyofdrinkingwater...anddeathmysterious,untraceable
death,deathswiftandterrible,deathfullofpainandindignitywouldbereleaseduponthiscity,andgo
hitherandthitherseekinghisvictims....Hewouldfollowthewatermains,creepingalongstreets,picking
outandpunishingahousehereandahousetherewheretheydidnotboiltheirdrinkingwater,creeping
intothewellsofthemineralwatermakers,gettingwashedintosalad,andlyingdormantinices.He
wouldwaitreadytobedrunkinthehorsetroughs,andbyunwarychildreninthepublicfountains.He
wouldsoakintothesoil,toreappearinspringsandwellsatathousandunexpectedplaces.Oncestarthim
atthewatersupply,andbeforewecouldringhimin,andcatchhimagain,hewouldhavedecimatedthe
metropolis.
Theword"death"isrepeatedforeffect,andthenitispersonifiedasapersonwhogoes,seeks,takes,
creeps,liesinwait,appearsanddisappears,punishesandeventually"decimates."Thereisacumulative
effecttothesewordsandimages,andoursenseoffearanddoomincreasesuntilitreachesacrescendoof
destructionanentirecityhasbeendestroyed.Thiscouldhappen.
Aswefeared,themanstealsthetubeandruns;andweknowexactlywhatwillhappenbecausehehas
toldus.Thesatire(witandhumor)happenoncethedesperate,lifeanddeathchaseensues.Thescientist
isaridiculousfigurewhorunsoffhalfdressed,andthechaseisaspectaclethatthecabbiesplacebetson.
Wearehorrifiedthatthetubebreaks,unleashingdestruction,untilwediscoveritwasnotcholeraandthe
manislikelytoturnbluelikeamonkey.Sciencelooksjustasfoolish.

Enterprise
Summary and Analysis of the Enterprise by Nissim Ezekiel
Nissim Ezekiel is one of the prolific Indian writers in English of the 20th century. He was playwright,
editor, critic and poet. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his Poetry collection, Latter-Day
Psalms. He was also awarded the Padma Shree by the Government of India in 1988. He is often called the
Father of Modern Indian English Poetry. Ezekiels poetry has different themes and styles. His poems
are a depiction of his craftsmanship, restraint and intellectual approach to everyday life.
How many of you have read T.S Eliots The Journey of the Magi? While reading Enterprise, one may
think of Eliots The Journey of the Magi. Though that poem is different in approach but it is also about a
very cold and tiring journey by three wise men in search of spiritual pacification. Enterprise is one of
those wonderful poems published in Ezekiels collection of poems named The Unfinished Man. It
revolves around a metaphorical journeyof man on this earth followed by hardships and failures which
man is subjected to by the very nature of the earthly life that he leads.
Summarization:
Stanza:
The poem, Enterprise, begins with a group of people which includes the poet himself (as it is clear from
the use of we in the sixth line) journeys to a holy place. At that time, their minds were full of ideas to
reach their destination. Therefore, they started their journey with a lot of vigour and excitement, sure
enough that they can easily overcome all the difficulties that they face. Inconveniences seemed
insignificant to them. However, our real strength emerges when we face a crisis, isnt it? Similarly, the
travellers were full of enthusiasm and reached the second stage of their journey. During this second stage,
they confronted the adverse natural difficulties, symbolizing the blazing Sun. But nothing could detain
them from reaching their destination or take away their enthusiasm. Their passion to reach their
destination was as hot as the blazing Sun above their heads. The heat of the sun is symbolic of Mother
Nature being hostile towards human ambitions. The more the human beings aspire, the more the nature
tries to put up a hindrance to beat them down.
Stanza 2:
The group of the travelers continues their journey, experiencing the difficulties put in their way. Carried
away by the unrestrained excitement, the pilgrims kept a record of the events that they witnessed- goods

being bought and sold by the peasants and the ways of serpents and goats. The travelers passed through
three cities where a sage has taught. But they were unconcerned about what e taught or what his message
was.
Stanza 3:
The third stanza talks about the differences that cropped up among the members which made a hole in
their unity as they continued their journey. As they reached a desert, differences arose among on the
question of how to cross the challenging landscape. One of the members, an excellent prose writer, left
the enterprise. He was considered the most intelligent among the lot. Therefore, a shadow of discord fell
onto their enterprise and continued to grow as one of the members parted from the group.
Stanza 4:
The poet describes the hindrances that follow the enterprise. In the next stage of their journey, the
travelers are attacked twice and while saving themselves they lose their ways and forget the noble
ambitions which had motivated them to come so far. The enterprise slowly breaks into two. Some of the
members, claiming their freedom, quit the journey and went their own ways. The poet feels helpless and
upset at the breaking of the enterprise, looking at the disorganized lot of pilgrims, the only thing he could
do was to pray. And why do you think we pray? The answer is that the act of praying implies seeking the
help of a divine personality when human efforts go in vain.
Stanza 5:
There is still an assurance from the leader of the group. He assures them that the sea or the destination
was at hand. It seems that they members have lost their enthusiasm and hope as they see nothing
noticeable as they move forward. The pilgrims have now turned into a crowd of aimless wanderers
instead of being bounded by a well-focused goal like before. They were not bothered about the roar of the
thunder; some of them were too exhausted to stand erect.
Stanza 6:
The final stanza of Enterprise is a relief to the readers, as the poet tells us that they did reach their
destination in total disorder- exhausted and frustrated- and without any sense of satisfaction. Instead of
bringing a sense of fulfillment and achievement, the journey had only brought them frustration. They now
started to doubt the importance of their journey; they began to find it futile and meaningless. They found
nothing heroic in their achievements. They had a belief that their journey would be unparalleled and that
its success would give them a place in history. So was it disillusionment? They later realized that such a
journey was already undertaken by others before them and would be repeated in the near futile. This gave
them a sense of disillusionment and they felt the journey was futile. In the end, they feel that staying back
home would have been better than venturing out on such a dangerous journey with disastrous
consequences.
There might be a question that may come to our minds. That was the journey really a fruitful one or was it
as the members think, meaningless? What are your views?
For a better understanding of the poem, the critical appreciation is discussed below.
Critical Appreciation of the Enterprise:
Form and Structure:
The poem Enterprise is written in a conventional form. The poem consists of six stanzas, each having
five lines. The pattern is iambic tetrameter, with rhyming scheme ababa that is the first line rhymes with
the third and fifth, while the second rhymes with the fourth.
Use of Verbal Antithesis:
The poem has used verbal antithesis to achieve a balance. Antithesis is a contrast or opposition in the
meanings of contiguous phrases, lines or stanzas. In this poem, verbal antithesis is not only found in the
entire poem but in the same stanza and in the same lines. Some of the examples are listed below:
*The initial activities of the pilgrims are juxtaposed with those in the final stage as the pilgrims turn into
a straggling crowd of little hope.
*The exalted minds of the pilgrims are turned into darkened faces.
*in the beginning the pilgrims found themselves as the burdens light but at the end of the poem they are
broken in spirit and bent down physically.

Symbolism:
Enterprise is a symbolic poem. Symbolism refers to the use of symbols to represent ideas or facts. The
various symbols used in Enterprise are listed below:
*Pilgrimage in the poem symbolizes life.
*The crowd of pilgrims symbolizes a group of men, who undertake to achieve common goal which
begins with excitement and hope but ends with disillusionment and frustration.
*The Sun is the symbol of hostility of nature towards human aspirations and ambitions.
*A desert patch is symbolic of the challenges and hardships which the group faces or the differences that
rise among them.
* A shadow falls on us and grows is symbolic of the differences in opinion that leads to a discord in the
enterprise and consequently, a member leaves the group and the disharmony grows.
* A straggling crowd of little hope symbolizes a group of people who had a well focused goal and
during the course of their journey loses their zeal and becomes a crowd of aimless and frustrated
wanderers.
* Thunder is symbolic of mans inner voice.
* Home symbolizes remaining rooted to the soil or remaining true to oneself.
Allegory:
Allegory can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. The poem Enterprise is allegorical in nature.
The group of men all set for the journey, enthusiastic and full of vigour set out for the spiritual quest.
They face hardships, difficulties yet they do not lose their aspirations. But during the second stage of their
journey, disharmony and differences in opinions among the members arises and soon a conflict breaks out
which results in disunity. The final stanza raises a question, Was the journey worth all the struggles? The
journey here is a metaphor of life. The poem is a stark depiction of the condition of men on this earth who
are subjected to such failures, hardships and disillusionment during their course of journey of life.
Epigrammatic:
An epigram is a brief, sharp, witty and polished saying giving expression to a striking thought. It is used
to convey the poets message in the poem.
Home is where we have to gather grace is epigrammatic. Here, the poet wants to convey the message
that in the journey of life, home is symbolic of ones inner self which must be accepted and faced and not
shirked away. This is the only sane and balanced way of life that man should accept.
Questions for Self-Study:
1. Bring out the allegorical significance of the poem.
Hints for the answer*What is an allegory?
*Journey of life- (first stage, second stage, conflicts among members, disillusionment)
*Psychology of the group members (conditions they went through, conflicts)
*Journey to the holy place-(symbolizing life, final destination)
2.Do you think Enterprise is a symbolic poem?
Hints for your answerUse the symbols used in the poem in your answer and explain them.

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Gabriel Garca Mrquez
PLOT:
Exposition One day, while killing crabs during a rainstorm that has lasted for several days,
Pelayo discovers a homeless, disoriented old man in his courtyard who

Rising Action

Climax

Falling Action

Denouement

happens to have very large wings. The old man is dirty and apparently
senile, and speaks an unintelligible language.
After consulting a neighbor woman, Pelayo and his wife, Elisenda,
conclude that the old man must be an angel who had tried to come and
take their sick child to heaven.
Pelayo and Elisenda keep the old man in their chicken coop, and he soon
begins to attract crowds of curious visitors.
Father Gonzaga tells the people that the old man is probably not an
angel because hes shabby and doesnt speak Latin.
The old mans existence soon spreads, and pilgrims come from all over
to seek advice and healing from him.
The crowd eventually grows so large and disorderly with the sick and
curious that Elisenda begins to charge admission.
The old man ignores the people, even when they pluck his feathers and
throw stones at him to make him stand up. He becomes enraged when the
visitors sear him with a branding iron to see whether hes still alive.
The crowd starts to disperse when a traveling freak show arrives in the
village.
People flock to hear the story of the so-called spider woman, a woman
whod been transformed into a giant tarantula with the head of a woman
after shed disobeyed her parents.
The sad tale of the spider woman is so popular that people quickly
forget the old man, whod performed only a few pointless semi miracles
for his pilgrims.
Pelayo and Elisenda grown quite wealthy from the admission fees
Elisenda had charged.
The old man continues to stay with them, still in the chicken coop, for
several years, as the little boy grows older.
When the chicken coop eventually collapses, the old man moves into
the nearby shed. He often wanders from room to room inside the house,
much to Elisendas annoyance.
Just when Pelayo and Elisenda are convinced that the old man will soon
die. He begins to regain his strength and his feathers grow back.
One day the old man stretches his wings and takes off into the air, and
Elisenda watches him disappear over the horizon.