presentation lit

7/29/2019 Presentation Lit

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presentation-lit 1/16

PRESENTED BY: | NOOR AMIRAH BT MEOR JAMALUDDIN|

NUR JANNAH BT AZIZI|



Mr. Basu has been suffering for a number of years with a multitude of

physical and emotional problems that often plague the asthma,

depression, and failing eyesight. His wife, Otima, is the loving,

understanding, but totally exhausted caregiver. As the story proceeds,

Otima reads aloud from the newspaper that there will be a planned power

outage that night. Basu responds with an asthmatic attack, fearing the hot

night to come with no electric fan to move the air. Otima decides they will

sleep outside, up on the terrace.



Basu is no more comfortable on the roof and the night is

spent in agony. At one point, he remembers bringing his

grandson up to see the collectors pigeons on the

neighbor's rooftops . This memory fills him with emotion.

Remembering the sense of wonder that the boy had is a

wonderful feeling but Basu is also saddened by the

passage of time.



•Still unable to sleep, his discomfort too much, Basu says his grandson's name

over and over to himself, like a prayer or mantra. At daybreak, Otima goes

downstairs to get Basu some iced water and discovers the electricity is back

on. She runs back up to the terrace to help him down so he can sleep in his

own bed for a while. He refuses saying it is cooler up there now and tells her

to leave him alone.

•The story ends with him laying "flat and still, gazing up, his mouth hanging

open" and the pigeons hurtling upwards against the "dome of the sky,

opalescent, sunlit, like small pearls". They turn into crystals, then prisms of

light, then disappear into "the soft, deep blue of the morning."



Refers to those practices, institutions and systems of

classification through which there are inculcated in a

population particular values, beliefs, competencies, routines

of life and habitual forms of conduct. (Bennet, 1998)



The clothing that they always practice

In this story, Otima Basu is wearing sari which is long piece of cloth that is wrapped around the body and worn as the mainpiece of clothing by women in India.

EVIDENCE: “…giving everything that came her way a little

loving polish with the end of her sari for it was something she

loved to do, but she did not stay very long.



The practice of eating fish jhol (Bengali-East Indian food)

In this story it was served for the ill Mr.Basu because

such material production of food is part and parcel of

the Indian community.

EVIDENCE: “.. after that, to make him eat a little rice

and fish jhol, very lightly prepared, just as the doctor

prescribed.

Fish jhol is a traditional Oriya and Bengali spicy fishstew. It is in the form of a very spicy stew that is served

with rice. It is liberally seasoned with turmeric, garlic,

onions, and grated ginger.



In India, the man appears to be the one who holds the most power. Man is

assumed as the powerful where as woman is the symbol weakness. As a

result, the man is dominating the woman. In Indian culture, woman has to

give a dowry to man before her marriage. There was no question of the

dowry in the marriages.So here, we can see that in this story that this system is one of the

highlighted issues among the Indian when Otima Basu read up the

headlines of the newspaper.

Evidence: „Husband and mother -in-law have been arrested on charge of

pouring kerosene on Kantibai‟s clothes and setting her on fire while she

slept. „Yes, that it is how they always do it. Why? Probably the dowry didn’t

satisfy them, they must have hoped to get one more… (Pg.222)

The system of dowry



Significance of the title chosen by the author

In Indian culture, pigeons is considered sacred as it is believed by most religious

groups in India that when a person died, his or her soul is assumed as a form of a

bird especially pigeon.

EVIDENCE: “Pigeons hurtled upwards and spread against the dome of the sky(pg.228)

The story ends with him lying “flat and still, gazing up, his mouth hanging open

followed by pigeons hurtling upwards against the “the dome of the sky, opalescent,

sunlit, like small pearls. They turned at last into crystals, into prism of light, thendisappear into “the soft, deep blue of the morning”

PIGEONS AT DAYBREAK



STEREOTYPES



STEREOTYPES

1) The wife serves for the husband and family

• Reads newspaper for his husband

• One of his worst afflictions, Mr Basu thought, was not to be able to read thenewspaper himself. To have them read to him by his wife.

(Page 220, line 1-3)

2)Responsibility to do the house chores.

• This reminded her to see to the fish before it was overdone. “You don‟t want charred fish for your lunch, do you?” she shouted back when he called.

(Page 220, line 11-14)

3) Take care for the husband.

• All through the night her husband moaned and gasped for air. Toward dawn it was so bad thatshe had to get up and massage his chest.

(Page 227, line 21-25)



SUBALTERN

1) Male(husband) dominated the family organization without appreciating the wife effort.

“What else? What else?” Mr Basu snapped at her.“Nothing else in the papers?”

(Page 221, line 20-21)

2) As a woman(wife), she cannot complain any wrongdoings and burden that she holds

because of man.

When she brought him his afternoon tea, she asked “Had a good sleep?”

“Never slept at all,” he snapped, taking the cup from her hands and spilling some tea. “How

can one sleep if one can’t breathe?” he growled, and she turned away with a little smile at his

stubbornness.

(Page 225, line 5-9)



• “Husband held for murder of his wife.” “See?” she cried excitedly. “Once more. How

often does this happen? “Husband and mother-in-law have been arrested arrested

on charge of pouring kerosene on Kantibai’s clothes and setting her on fire while sheslept. Yes, that is how they always do it. Why? Probably the dowry didn’t satisfy

them, they must have hoped to get more…”

(Page 222, line 23-29 )

16

WOMEN ABUSE

Violence perpetrated whether it is physically, emotionally and sexually assault like

battery,ignorance , and/or other abusive / behavior towards women.

1) Women always being the victim and been oppressed easily.

presentation lit

Documents