When we talk about the “theme of survival” in literature, we should not forget the contribution of Margaret Atwood for the Canadian indentity. Margaret Atwood had written a literary criticism book named ‘Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature’. According to her theories, Margaret Atwood considers Canadian Literature as the expression of Canadian identity. According to this literature, Canadian identity has been defined by a fear of nature, by settler history and by unquestioned adherence to the community.
In general, the term ‘survive’ is defined as ‘continued living or existing’. So ‘survival’ would simply mean the act of continuing to live or exist. ‘Survival’ and the fight for it has been the struggle of human kind since the beginning of time. Each person lives through their own personal struggle. ‘Survival’ could also mean surviving in society, physically surviving or even spiritually surviving. Similarly the theme of survival is apparent in the following extracts “Adarsh”, “Homeward Bound”, “Guavas and Khandaan” and “Getting rid of it”.
The theme of survival is represented in “Adarsh”, a short story by a Mauritian author Mr Videsh Somanah Achadoo. “Adarsh” is a young boy of aged sixteen. He is in love with a girl of same age named Antoinette. One day Antoinette told him that she was asked out by a rich guy of 21 years named Ricardo Wilson. Adarsh got drunk with a group of elder boys. There, he saw Richard Wilson and fought with him out of jealousy.
In this short story the protagonist wants to survive his past “Oh, how he wished he could go back in time, back to nine o’clock yesterday evening.” Adarsh wants to go back yesterday to rectify his bad deeds. He would have chosen to go with Antoinette rather than staying with that group of elder boys, drinking beer and mocking at him.
Infact Adarsh wanted to go with Antoinette but as he was trying to prove that he is a matured guy, he