Assighnment: paper-7

Indian Writing in english

Topic: Time and Space in Shadow Lines

Name: Kalani Jalpa H.

Roll No: 13

Semester:2

Batch:2010-11

Submitted: To  Mr.Devershi mehta,

Department of English, Bhavnagar University.

The Shadow lines by Amitav Ghosh

The Shadow Lines is an intricately woven tale based on both fictional and non-fictional events that shaped the author's life. Amitav Ghosh sends the reader on a journey that defies all familiar perceptions of time and space.
The Shadow Lines by Amitav Gosh paints a landscape of symbolism and realism that spans both time and space. The concepts of distance and time are uniquely portrayed in both the physical borders that divide countries and the imaginary borders that divide human beings. From the image-conscious character of the grandmother to the riots that explode in the streets, Ghosh takes the reader on a fascinating journey of exploration, dissecting the characters of the story while simultaneously dissecting the human race.
The title of the novel is perhaps the most philosophical statement Ghosh makes, asserting that 'The Shadow Lines', or the lines that not only define our human shape but our inner struggles to choose between darkness and light, are an intricate part of all human existence. Shadows, like time, are both tangible and intangible at any given moment or realm of perspective. They are a fleeting, generically depicted, generally distorted representations of ourselves, and they can only be viewed in the proper light. Ghosh uses shadow lines as a way of telling us that the way we view ourselves is not always the way that others view us, and until we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves we will remain in the shadows of our own enlightenment.

Ghosh manages to speak excessively of shadows, darkness and light, weaving them subtly into the context of what he is trying to convey. He uses the terms both realistically and metaphorically to show that the shadow we cast, the one other people can see, is not always an accurate reflection of which we really are. Nick was not the hero he seemed to be and when May reveals this to the boy, they are in the process of moving from light to dark, both in physical environment and the truth. In a way, a shadow line is like a “fair weather friend” in that it appears to us only when the sun is directly overhead. While every human being casts a unique shadow, a common theme can be seen in them all, namely that they are just as much a part of us as they are detached from us. This is another realm in which Ghosh metaphorically uses the elements of shadow lines in to tell his story.

Throughout of literature’s long history, shadows have been used as metaphors for secrets. Things hidden in shadows, things which we can not see though we can vaguely make out their outlines…these are the traditional metaphors which Ghosh can not avoid. Ghosh demonstrates that when secrets come out from behind the shadow and are exposed to the stark, revealing brilliants of daylight, they do not immediately evaporate. Secret tend to linger long after they’ve been exposed because the fact that they were hidden in the in the first place casts strong shadow of doubt upon the person keeping the secret. The revelation of these secret can have served consequences, such as being kicked out of school or being labeled a liar. Though the grandmother’s “letter from the grave” is eventually dismissed, its mere existence taught the boy some valuable lessons.

While he is astonished by his grandmother’s ability to see past the shadow and into the light, he is equally annoyed by it. It seems to him that a person ought to be able to keep some secrets hidden, like his “visits to the women”, but at the same he respects his grandmother’s insight while her first revelation caused him great embarrassment, her second was a truth he wished he could have faced himself long ago. He is both praising and admonishing his late grandmother in a single breath.

The narrator’s secret love for his cousin Ila was forced to remain in the shadows because the feeling itself that is considered taboo, such as the same family, automatically quivers in the shadows of its own dark truths. Both of the major   truths that the grandmothers exposed were leaden with sexual taboos, which raise the question, should they ever have been exposed of all? In sight of the pain they caused, one would think not, but in a world in which truth is the foundation of evolution into maturity, has can claim that any truth should remain unilluminated?

On the one hand, Ila’s enlightenment to her cousin’s feelings for her was good in that it marked a promise of change in her behavior towards him which she hoped would help to dissipate his obsession. On the other hand, from the narrator’s viewpoint, this revelation and his cousin’s subsequent rejection caused him a great deal of emotional distress should his feelings have remained in the shadows, he may not have endured this sharp, heart-stabbing pain, yet he may have been subjected a long, slow torture instead. The answer to whether this truth should have been revealed lies in which kind of pain the narrator finds less troubling.

While the title ‘The Shadow Lines’ can be read a thousand different ways, and the significance of shadows throughout the novel can be interpreted with vast distinctions, one thing remains clear. The shadows that all human beings reflect are as unique to the individual as each written word is to a talented author like Amitav Ghosh.