INTRINSIC AND EXTRINSIC ELEMENT
IN A HOUSE FOR MR. BISWAS
There are some intrinsic elements of the novel such as character, characterization,
plot , setting, theme, point of view,
conflict, diction, foreshadowing, style,
theme, rhyme, rhythm and metaphor.
However, this chapter focuses on the character and characterization because the
research relates to the character development of main character in this novel.
In
addition, the extrinsic elements of the novel are culture, social value and
author biography. Because the research relates to cross and clash culture especially
Indian culture, the writer will explain all Indian cultures that exist in the
novel entitled “A House for Mr. Biswas” by using postcolonial theory.
 |
| VS Naipaul |
Novel
Novel is fictional
narratives representing a way of life or an experience. According to P. Vasque The
range of the novel is from slight recollections of a small part of life or an
experience to the most complete and detailed accounts imaginable; and it vary
from the lightest to the most serious experiences and events faced by man (1998
:2). Novel is the representation of the author’s experience or the life of the author.
Henry
James in The Art of Fiction (1995:3) pointed out that:
“Novel in its
broadest definition a personal impression of life; that to begin with
constitute its value which is greater or less according to the intensity of the
impression. But there will no interntity at all, and therefore no value, unless
there is freedom to feel and say.”
From the quotation
above the definition of novel is a personal impression about life , the greater
or less the value of novel depends on how much intensity of the impression to that novel. Novel
is the form of the author’s freedom to feel and say.
However, as mention
before this research will focuse on intrinsic elements especially character and
characterization. The explanation about those will be described as follow:
Characterization and Character
Characterization
is one of intrinsic elements in novel. It
is used to know how the characters in the novel are represented. Character is
the person who acts and is acted upon in the novel. In studying the characterization we need to
know the meaning of characterization. As stated by John (1968) in Hansyar (2:2003)
explained that characterization is a creation or illustration of the imaginary
person. This means that the
characterization is the way how the author describes the character in the novel
in order to make the character as a real
person and life.
Furthermore,
Pickering and Hoeper in Albertine Mindrop (1981:27-28) explained the method how
to describe the character. They divided the method of characterization into two
parts, namely showing and telling method. The methods will be described as
follows:
One method is
telling, which relies on exposition and direct commentary by the author. In
telling a method preferred and practiced by many older fiction writers – the guiding hand of the authors
is very much evidence. We learn and look only at what the author calls to our
attention.
“the other
method is the indirect, the dramatic method of showing, which involves the
author’s stepping aside, as it were, to allow the characters to reveal
themselves directly through and their actions. With showing, much of the burden
of character analysis is shifted to the reader, who is required to infer
character on the basis of the evidence provided in the narrative.
Based on the explanation above, the writer concludes
that telling is used to examine what the main character is described
from the narration of other character in the story, and the indirect
presentation is used to analyze the characterization from the character’s
thought, speech and act. Besides, characters will be analyzed
whether they are flat and round character. Laurence in Literature, Structure,
Sound and Sense said that :
“Flat
characters are characterized by one or two traits; they can be summed up in a
sentence. Round characters are complex and many-sided; they might require an
essay for full analysis. Flat and
round character will be used as a sign of development of the main characters in
this novel; also it is important to divide, whether the main characters are
flat or round to know if there is any attitude changing.” (1984: 67)
Flat character can be described by one or two character’s
behavior. It can be called flat character if the character in the story does not
change from beginning until the end of the story whereas, round character occurs
when there is any character’s traits
change from the beginning until the end of the story.
Postcolonial Theory
Great
Britain during nineteenth century is known as the Empire which has great
imperial power because almost quarter of the earth was Britain conquest. The
Great Britain’s conquest spread from Europe, Asia until Africa. Great Britain
not only spread and colonized the country but also spread its hegemony to the
society in their colony. It makes The British people believe that they were born
to rule the world by virtue of that believe they feel the
British is biological superior than the other race in the world in terms of
physic and cultural difference.
By the early twentieth century, England’s political,
social, economic, and ideological domination of its colonies began to
disappear, a process was known as decolonization. Many scholars believe the beginning of Postcolonial is signed when
India in 1947 got his independence from the Great Britain. Britain Colony divided India into two nations:
India which the most civilization are Hindu and Pakistan which the most civilization
are Moslim. It made war between India and Pakistan , it also affected hundreds
people died. Many writers analyzed the impacts of the British colonial in
politic, economic, culture and social in the colony.
Ahmad
stated in Margaret Kumar in Journal of Educational Enquiry Vol 1, No. 2, 2000
that Postcolonialism was traditionally seen as a period of history initializing
the handing over of colonized states by what colonies themselves. It means
poscolonialism is a period after the colonial colonized and studied the
influence of colonial to the colony.
However, the aims of colonial are not only expanses the colonial region but
also spread their hegemony in its colonial state. Indirectly, the societies in
that state are influenced by the colonialist. The colonial influences the
colony in some aspects such as economic,
politic, social, culture and religion. Furthermore, cross and clash culture occur
in those aspects. As sited in Peter
Burnell Colonialism and Postcolonialism
(38:2007) “ The impact of colonialism was transformative rather than
transitory. As well as reshaping economic and political forms, it also changed
the way people, especially the educated to see the world” It explain that the impact of colonialism
changes the way of the politic and economic of the colonial country. It can
happen because the colonialism transform their education terms so that they
change the ideology and mentality of the
colony countries.
Cross and Clash Culture
The
power of the colonizer to the colonized produced another cultures and new
habitual of civilization in colony or it is called cross and clash culture, as
stated by Homi K Bhabha in The Postcolonial
Studies Reader (1964:205):
“There is always
ambivalence at the site of colonial
dominance. When two cultures commingle, the nature and the characteristics of
the newly created culture changes each of the cultures. This dynamic, interactive
and tension-packed process unitary Bhabha names hybridity.”
Bhabha stated
that in colonial dominance, there are clash and cross culture between colonizers
and colonized. The clash culture happens when a foreign culture comes to one
region. It has some differences between
foreign culture and tradition culture that cannot be accepted by the societies
in that region. Whereas the cross culture happens when the foreign culture comes
in one region and the societies in that region are influenced by it. Thus, it
assimilates with the traditional culture in that region and creates the new
culture.
Bhabha also pointed out in “cultural diversity and cultural
differences,” he stated that :
“The problem of how in signifying
the present, something comes to be repeated, relocated and translated in the
name of tradition, in the guise of a pastness that is not necessarily a
faithful sign of historical memory but a strategy of representing authority in
terms of the artifice of the archaic.” (1995: 210)
When the new culture or the modernity comes and repeats in
the original tradition, the original tradition has to keep the tradition as the
historical and the heritage for the new generations. It means the clash culture occusr between the new culture and the original
tradition but the cross culture also happens because we cannot prevent it.
Theredore, hybridity occurs after the
colonizer went out from the colony.
Hybridity
Basically hybridity refers to most basic sense to mixture. It is the term
originating from biology and in the nineteenth century is employed in
linguistics and in racial theory. The concept of hybridity in racial theory especially
postcolonialism is formulated by Homi K. Bhabha in his piece entitled “Cultural
Diversity and Cultural Differences” . It
along with Bhabha ever state in the essay. he does in as follows:
It is significant that the productive capacities of this
third space have a colonial or post colonial provenance. For a willingness
to descend
into that the theoretical recognition of the split-space of
enunciation may open the way conceptualizing an inter - diversity of cultures,
but on the inscription and articulation of culture’s hybridity (1995:206).
Bhabha argued that all cultural system are constructed by
enunciation or he calls it third space. The third space is the result of
colonialization that is influenced the
cultures and the civilization in the colonies. Hybridity is the example of third space. It is
the situation when cross culture between colonizer and colonized’s cultures mix
so new cultures is formed.
He also states that “culture are never unitary in
themselves nor simply dualistic in relation of self to other.” it means that
culture cannot be utilize by themselves but it need human being and the process
of utilize is not the simply thing but it needs the long time to form it .
However, the hybridization of any culture creates ambivalent situation. Ambivalent
refers to a state of mental or social cultural or behavioral condition of
people. The ambivalent also creates the negative and positive aspects.
Indian Culture
Caste System
The
word caste derived from the Latin castus
which means “pure”. In India the word
caste is known by “jatis” or the small groups as distinct from classes. In
the sixteenth century, the Portuguese who were the first European power arrived in India and changed the word 'Jatis' into caste. The word
caste is used by The British who arrived to India much later after the
Portuguese.
J.H
Hutton as cited in Richard Lannoy, The Speeaking Tree: A Study of Indian
Culture and Society (1971:137) stated that : A caste system is one whereby a
society is divided up into a number of self-contained and completely segregated
units (casted), the mutual relations between which are ritually determined in a
graded scale. This description means the caste system is a social unit or group
that has different customs from another groups and it is related by the
religious world.
The caste system in India is a social
stratification based on the Hindu hereditary class and occupations in the
societies. In fact, there are four class in Hindu Caste system or in Hindi
called Catur Cast (Brahmin, Ksatria, Vaisya and Sudra) and
fifth’ one called Pañcama or untouchable.
Pancama is the hill and forest population who is called tribals, inclusive.
This group occupies a place below, outside this Varna scheme. The Brahma or Brahmin
is a person who fulfill the calling of priests and spiritual preceptors. Etymologically
the Ksatriya means the
‘protector ’who usually as a rulers and a
warriors. The Vaisya is a person who h
the as commercial in livehood. Also he is associated with other producers and
wealth-creators as well. Sudra is a toiler and artisan. People that belonging
to the ‘fifth’ group perform ‘unclean’ service such as cremation, killing
animals for food.
However, the caste in Hindu religion divided
into two parts, first depend on the birth (Jati)
and second depend on how that people education and their occupation (Varna). However, now along with
modernism, Indian society prefers to choose the caste system by varna. For that reason, the member of
lowest class in Indian caste system can
move to upper class.
The
phenomenon of Indian caste system becomes controversy. Some people assume India’s
case system as Indian culture because some of
Indian holy book was written about it. For example the Purusa of the Rgveda (5000 B.C) contains the first symbolic reference to the
emergence of the four castes; Brahmanas
from the mouth, Rajanyas (Ksatriyas)
from the shoulders, Vaisyas from the
thights and Sudras from the feet.
The other one assume
that caste system is colonial artifact. In the past India was one of British
colonized country. The purpose of the colonizer not only to expand their
colonized region but also to spread their ideology in colonized country for
example caste system. As cited by Dr Susan Bayly in Prof. M Narasimhachary “So, you want to marry my daughter?” The
Caste System: An Overview (2002), “caste is not the essence of
Indian culture and civilization. It is rather a contingent and variable
response to the enormous changes that occurred in the subcontinent’s
political landscape both before and after the colonial conquest.
Due to Dr. Susan Bayly the caste system is not
Indian culture but it is one of the colonial political landscapes to separated
between colonizer and colonized. The colonizer believes that they have higher
social class than the colonized. Thus, they created caste system and
assimilated it with Hindu religion. It happened in order the colonized country obey
it because Indian societies believe in their religion and always obey what it
orders.
It is clearly
that caste system is not colonial artifact because the Britain
ruled India from 1757 to 1947 whereas the holy book of India Rgveda was
appeared in 6000 B.C. This clear that Rgveda is early than Britain colonized.
It proved that caste system is truly Indian essence culture.
Joint Family System
Regarding to I
Karve the joint family system is “a
group of people who generally live under one roof, who eat food cooked at one
hearth, who hold property in common and who participate in common worship and
are related to each other as some particular type of kindred” (1995). Joint
family system is Indian culture that they still hold until now. Under one roof
is gathered several branches of an extended family, living together sharing
their property and incomes in order to teach and control the youngest couple in
their married. The younger generation in
Indian societies believe that life will go easily by togetherness. The younger
generation strictly but not systematically controlled by the elder.
The joint family system also has several
disadvantages such as the laziness of
the family members because they think they can get food without hard
effort, the lackness of the effort to earn money and become independent , and
the important thing they cannot prevent the quarrel between the member of the
family.
In Modern times the joint family system no longer use
by Indian society especially in the middle class . They are living under
separate roofs or in the other word they prefer to choose nuclear family
system. After married the son or daughter are live in separated roof and they
build their own family in order they can be independent and they can resolve
their problem by theirselves. They come to their parent’s home only in special occasion such as festival, and marriage ceremony.
Marriage and Dowry
Regeneration is really important to keep our
existence in this world in order to prevent the extinct of human being. Through that statement the society have to marriage.
Every country in the world has his own marriage tradition. Regarding to
William Stephen in A Study
On Desertion Of Married Women By Non Resident Indians In Punjab And Andhra
Pradesh , he stated that :
marriage is a socially
legitimate sexual union, beginning with a public announcement, and undertaken
with some idea of permanence, with a more or less explicit contract, which
spells out the reciprocal rights and obligations between the spouses and their
future children.
The definition of marriage is the way to
legitimate the relationship between man and woman included the sexual union by law,
religion and social culture or norm in the society. However, every country in the world have
different culture of marriage ceremony and grief ceremony.
Regarding to AK
Goval in A Study On Desertion Of
Married Women By Non Resident Indians In Punjab And Andhra Pradesh “Marriage
under the Hindu Law was primarily and essentially a sacrament in which a wife
is declared to be half the body of her husband equally
sharing the fruits of pure acts, and the husband is regarded by the wife as god.”
It means that the marriage in Hindu is a ritual religion that the wife stated for
life and sharing the sweetness and the bitterness of life with their husband. In
Hindu custom the wives assume that the husband is a god in the earth where they
have to obtain all their order.
Marriage system in
India society is treated as alliance between two families than the union two individual.
The parents especially the groom’s parents have selecting the spouse by caste,
education, economic position and the value of dowry. In India society the value
of dowry is the most important thing. Dowry is a cultural system where the parent
of bride gives a huge amount of money, jewelry, and expensive gifts to the
groom and their parents during marriage. The amount of dowry depends on the
caste system and the educational system of the groom, if they from the high class
their dowry is expensive and vice versa.
The dowry system in India is the evidence
of the patriarchal system that means men have more power in society than women.
The dowry system in India is popular
since the Vedic period. When Brahma‘s daughter was marriage, he gave the gift
for her husband and her parents in law so that the couple can start their life easily.
Meanwhile, nowdays, it changes into
commercial transaction. The groom’s parents become greedy and want to receive much
money from the bride’s parents. It effects Indian
socio- economic problems as Achdeva said in AK
Goval “A Study On Desertion Of Married
Women By Non Resident Indians In Punjab And Andhra Pradesh, he stated that:
The Dowry system has always given rise
to innumerable socio-economic problems of far reaching consequences and wide
ranging ramifications. Of late, numerous incidents of bride burning, harassment
and physical torture of the young brides and various kinds of pressure tactics
being adopted by the husbands /in-laws pressurizing for more dowry have compelled
the social reformers and the intelligentsia to give serious thought to the
various aspects connected with the very institution of dowry (1998, 301.)
It
is clear that the dowry system becomes the huge problems for the lower class
family who does not have much money. The bride burning, harassment and physical
torture of the young brides appears as the affects from the bride giving few
dowry to the groom. Some of the Indian researcher calls this even by “The Evil
of Dowry system”. Many young brides die because they are burned by their
husband. This even is called “Dowry Death”. It is affected by their lackness to
give huge dowry to their husband. An average
of five women in India are burned dowry
related daily because of the dawry case and there are many cases which unreported.
(www.un.org.rights/dpil
772e.httml 12/4/01). The problem is appeared by the
dowry. Many couples in India especially from the lower class abort their female
baby because they think they have to
paid huge dowries when their daughter
marriage . This even is called female infanticide. Furthermore, some legal efforts done by Indian government to reduce the amount of
dowry death for the example by the Dowry Prohibition Act
(1961), An Act to prohibit the giving or taking of dowry. However, the payment
of dowry has not stopped in India because their society is more obtain to
culture than to government and their rule, although the number of dowry deaths
has slightly decrease.
The Power of Superstitions
in India
In modern public life using high-tech to
fulfill all man needs, the societies still believe superstition. The meaning of superstition regarding to Dipesh
Chakrabarty in thought and
action an official journal Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Sammittee India
( 2011) as follow:
“the word
“superstition” to refer to practices marked by two features: (a) they entail
human beings appealing to supernatural, extra-human forces for positive or
negative interventions in their lives, and (b) these forces cannot be systematized
into a set of religious doctrines. “
He argues that in human life there are
the forces from God, god, goddess as positive intervention and Lucifer, Satan,
devil, spirit etc as the negative intervention. T S
Raskar also state in the same journal that
“Superstitions consist of beliefs and practices, which
have no evidence to support them, and are inconsistent with the degree of
enlightenment
reached by a community.”
We
can conclude that most of superstition links to the religion. the society still
believe superstition even though there are not any evidence to prove it because
they are believe to their religion or their belief. It is in with line that Edmund
Burke pointed out that Superstition is the religion of feeble minds. It is
something irrational that someone believes and do it. Sometimes it is something
foolish that someone do. It can happen because they lack of education.
However, many Indian citizens are Hindu. In
Hindu, superstition plays big role in Indian live. For example they have to believe
and respect to what the Pundit said about prediction, a good date for wedding,
for getting a job and astrology. Pundit is the important person in Hindu society.
He prepared the ceremony and ritual in Hindu. He is the second hand of god that
every word which he spoke will obey by the Hindu society. It is also happen in
this novel.
*By Erna Susilawati
