Division Or Connection--A Thematic Analysis Of A Passage To India From The Postcolonial Perspective

The first chapter serves as an introduction to the present paper, which applies the postcolonial criticism to a thematic analysis of A Passage to India. This novel intends to show sympathy to the East and tries to connect the West with the East. But many critics draw their attention to its pessimistic keynote. Postcolonial criticism can shed light on the real intention of the novelist, for it offers a new horizon on interpreting the commonwealth literature. By drawing on the theory of deconstructionism, postcolonial criticism mainly focuses on the power relation between the colonizers and the colonized, and makes colonialist ideology-Eurocentrism, its main target. The Eurocentric ideology exists in almost all the commonwealth literary works, in which the East is represented biasedly and the Eastern people are marginalized. A Passage to India also produces a false representation of the colonized India, with its positive portrayal of the colonialist officials and marginalizing of the native Indians.The second chapter of this paper analyses the complex situation in Chandrapore. The typological arrangement of the city suggests the racial division between the colonizers and the colonized. The Anglo-Indians occupy a physically superior position, while the local Indians reside on the low lands. The arrangement of the buildings and streets of the civil station in which the Anglo-Indians live is orderly and proportional, while all the things in the bazaar have the characteristics of chaos and disorder. The sharp contrast itself says much for the idea of the novelist that the Anglo-Indians' residing quarter is much more rationally and properly arranged than that of the colonized. The Marabar Caves, the symbolic place for India, are described as mysterious and romantic if viewed from a distance, but monotonous and chaotic if being approached. The darkness and the monotonous and mysterious echoes symbolize the inaccessibility with the latter's environment charged with risk and sexual menace when clear boundaries are crossed. They are also the metaphors for the denial of the Christian value and the Western rationalism.The third chapter of this paper traces the experience of Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested in India. Being upright and sympathetic with the Indians they want to see "the real India" and made several attempts to connect with India. But all of their attempts turn out to be failures. Mrs. Moore intends to find spiritual unity with India and she senses some mystery of India by her intuition, but she simply cannot penetrate further into the nature of India within her intellect. Though she perceives some limitation of Christianity, yet she cannot accept the doctrines of Hinduism. Furthermore, she dislikes the muddle in India. So, when she goes to the Marabar Caves, an intensified form of muddle, she is lost and disillusioned. Adela lacks the intuition possessed by Mrs. Moore. Her way of approaching India is completely rational. She cannot understand the mystery of India and is puzzled by it. Her relationship with Ronny Heaslop, her fiance, is also rational and her passionate feeling is habitually suppressed by her rationality until in the Marabar Caves, her rational thinking is completely denied by the mysterious and monotonous Caves and the echoes. Then, she is so frightened by the feeling that she cannot adjust to it and it causes her hallucination that she has been sexually assaulted by Aziz. Their failures to connect with India show that India is incompatible with the European ideas, and that when the clear boundaries between the colonizers and the colonized are crossed there will be disaster.The forth chapter of this paper analyses the temporary friendship between Fielding and Aziz and their final parting. The friendship between the two exemplifies Forster's belief in individual connection that can transcend the racial and political division in the colonized land. Fielding is Forster's "top man" who possesses the masculine merits. Humanistic and unconventional, he always remains composed in front of crisi...