Preview

Essays on Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
295 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Essays on Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
Kiran Desai’s HULLABALOO IN THE GUAVA ORCHARD is the whimsical story of a young man who escapes from the comical confines of life in the sleepy, R. K. Narayan-inspired North Indian town, or city, of Shahkot for the no less comical freedom of life in a guava tree. Once there, the previously timid Sampath finds himself at the center of an adoring crowd of pilgrims who mistake his knowledge of their private affairs (gleaned from reading their mail during his previous life as a lowly postal clerk) for spiritual enlightenment. At first filled with shame, his officious father soon realizes just how profitable his son’s supposed spirituality can be. His mother, meanwhile, finds in the orchard relief from traditional Indian family life and middle-class respectability by devoting herself to creating increasingly exotic curries. All goes well until the local monkeys start to drink. Plans to rid the orchard of their unwanted hullabaloo multiply and eventually go completely awry, but not before Sampath is released from the endless cycle of demands. Transformed into a guava, he is last seen being carried towards the sacred Himalayas by the hungry monkeys.

HULLABALOO IN THE GUAVA ORCHARD is a lighthearted work told in the faux-naive style of the literary folktale. This story, by the daughter of novelist Anita Desai, works best when the pacing is as fast as the author’s touch is light, as it surely is in the final thirty or so pages. When it drags, stylistic tics become annoyingly apparent, the narrative too slender to support even a novel this short, and this talented author’s indebtedness to other writers, from Narayan and Salman Rushdie to Italo Calvino, Jerzy Kosinski and Gabriel Garcia Marquez the sign not of postmodern play but of youthful

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Mango Sparknotes

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages

    However, the fruit has a very significant and symbolic role throughout Mariatu’s agonizing childhood. The mango represents checkpoints in Mariatu’s life, one of which begins near the beginning of the book. This “checkpoint”…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Camp X Book Report

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages

    This book report discusses the plot, significant characters, setting (e.g., time of the story took place, historical background), problems and resolutions, themes or messages of the story. A reflection of the author’s writing style will be presented followed by a conclusion.…

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel The House on Mango Street, is a story regarding the troubles Esperanza must face when trying to use her legacy in an effective way for her destiny. Throughout the book, characters are introduced to the readers, some of whom help and some of whom hurt Esperanza along the way. But fortunately, in the end, Esperanza is successful in her quest of undergoing a destiny that doesn’t involve being a fancy chandelier. The major lesson this book instills in the reader, is as life proceeds always look back on where everything started, and value the experiences that shaped ones life…

    • 1187 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    ‘The God of Small Things’, Arundhati Roy’s debut novel is now considered to be a world renowned literary sensation, mainly due to the distorted manner in which the story is told. Roy utilises the subversion of genre, a playful approach to language (especially when Estha and Rahel are concerned) and a complex temporal structure to portray a poetic retelling of “small things” and their importance. To fully appreciate the importance of the primary chapter we must reflect upon it with the rest of the novel in mind due to the non-linear chronology of the narrative.…

    • 1229 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The central idea in this story is of a young man slowly losing the meaning of his life as he changes himself to try to make everything in his life fit together. The protagonist is a young Indian man who has moved out of the reservation and into the city (363).…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The House on Mango Street reads more as poetry than as a narrative. This is accomplished through the liberal use of color throughout the vignettes. Nearly every passage in this book contains reference…

    • 2470 Words
    • 71 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gurinder Chadha has used dialogue to show the difference posed by opposing cultures. And most particular, Jesminder Bhamra (or ‘Jess’ as she is commonly known), is made to overcome the complications of wanting to both appease her traditional Sikh family, and her constant internal struggle as she tries to achieve her goal of becoming a football player, like her idol David Beckham. Gurinder Chadha’s dialogue is used to show the resistance Jess has to face, as she battles against what her family’s tradition asks of her, like cooking and learning how to become the ideal Indian wife, and the opposition that Jess has to overcome in the form of her disapproving parents.…

    • 765 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cited: Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. 4th ed. N.p.: X.j. Kennedy, Dans Gioia, n.d. Print.…

    • 842 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A High Wind in Jamaica

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In most of their literary works, a significant percentage of novelists aim at presenting to the reader important information in the most effective ways. To attain this, they explore a host of literary devices and develop their plots with utmost coherence. The ideas that they present are in most instances reflective of the social and economic scenarios that are apparent in their respective settings. Just like other renowned novelists, Richard Hughes has explored various themes in his literary works. Among these are the aspects of morality and survival that he has explores at length. Notably, the manner in which his characters face their challenges offers useful insights regarding effective survival techniques. In his A High Wind in Jamaica, he uses his characters to inform the reader about various survival techniques that can be explored in the face of adversity. Although the challenges faced by the characters are very strong in order to draw emotional attention of the readers, there is a very motivational aspect of these sufferings that is reflected through the theme of survival after the incidents that occur, which the book celebrates well. Thus through a series of unfortunate events, the author details survival techniques that were used by the characters.…

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sandra Cisneros’ book The House on Mango Street raises a number of issues that merit further discussion. In this paper you are to choose a vignette and discuss an issue that is raised by the story. Then, relate the issue raised by the story to your own life. You need not agree with Cisneros’ take on the issue but in your paper you should use her ideas as a jumping off point for your own understanding of the issue. You will need to use quotations from the text to support your comments about Cisneros and The House on Mango Street.…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Namesake Essay

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Moving to a different country is never easy and author Jhumpa Lahiri captures this struggle in the astounding book, The Namesake. Her words perfectly emulate the struggles each main character— Ashoke, Ashima and Gogol face. This book is written in a third person omniscient view which enables readers to look into the intimate thoughts of each character, and how they individually handle their ability to balance the Bengali and American culture. Each character’s journey to conform is unique, making their personal growth different.…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Belonging Essay

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘The Namesake’ spans over thirty years and across two generations, following the tale of second generation Indian/American or ‘American born confused Deshi’ Gogol Ganguli and his family. Lahiri’s storytelling fastens or slows according to the emphasis placed on respective events and as such it is clear that Lahiri pinpoints certain significant moments in the lives of Gogol and the other characters as profound in what they contribute to Gogol’s understanding of belonging- which is accomplished only by the end of the novel. Penn’s film similarly sees an authorial manipulation of time- though over a shorter period than that embraced by Lahiri. Penn relies on cut-away flashbacks to reveal significant moments of change in the outlook of protagonist Chris McCandless (later self-named Chris Supertramp) and as such the viewer gains an insight into Chris’ inexplicable sense of belonging to nature and each other living person he encounters in his escape from materialistic, American suburbia and its ‘things, things, things’ in his embracing of a nomadic lifestyle ‘lost in the wild.’…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Humps

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Folk tales have served an important role in in the different cultures of human beings. They can be seen as a form of knowledge and education, as their ending morals influence a person’s attitude and behavior. In addition to acting as a moral guidebook, folk tales offer explanations of events or phenomena that cannot be explained through basic means. While Birago Diop’s African folk tale, “The Humps”, still offers a moral for people in the end, the folk tale focuses more on finding out an explanation for wonders in nature. The narrator tells a story, an explanation for the humps of Senegal (the Point of Alamdies). Through his story, he is able to give an interesting and detailed account of how they came to be, providing both a form of knowledge and entertainment.…

    • 870 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Innocence and Experience

    • 1681 Words
    • 7 Pages

    At one point in our lives we were all children, learning things about life, experiencing new things, and understanding life’s lessons. We were all naïve and knew nothing about the world around us, we were all innocent to life and what it had to bring. It was not until we grew older that we began to lose our innocence with every new experience. Growing older means taking responsibility, accepting and overcoming life’s hardships and understanding oneself. So as we reach adulthood we begin to question when the conversion from innocence to experience occurs and what causes and marks this coming of age. In the novel They Poured Fire on Us From The Sky, the characters and plot prolong the opposition of innocence and experience and show us how they continuously overlap and occur throughout the lifetime of an individual. By analyzing the boy’s experiences of being refugees, their encounters with war, and their relationship and appreciation for the Dinkaland, we become aware of the connection between innocence and experience and how it is portrayed and represented in the novel.…

    • 1681 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Levy is one of the 19th century’s invaluable assets. Her latest work is in the form of a well versed novel: “The Long Song (2010)”, which led her to receive a tremendous degree of readership. The Long Song is set in Jamaica during the final years of slavery and the early years of freedom that followed. It is 1831, just a few days left until Christmas will arrive. But this time, instead of bringing pleasing sounds of reindeer hooves and the jingles of songs, we’re in for Jamaica’s…

    • 1744 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays