Action and Reaction – Citra Fernando

Setting

·         A village in the southern coast of Sri Lanka

·         The story depicts Sinhala Buddhist culture through names and practices

Characters

1. Mahinda - The narrator – a university educated westernized person with an increasingly broadening views on human nature. He is capable of self-deprecating humour.   

2. Loku Nanda

·         An obnoxious hypocritical unmarried woman

·         “Unless they were her relations Loku Nanda kept all men at a safe distance.” – appears to lead a chaste life by choice; however, Mahinda’s description of LN raises the question whether her chastity is really by choice.  

·         She practices popular Buddhism – does a lot of meritorious deeds but they are performed out of her need to outshine others and a desire to obtain comforts in the next life

·         Commands respect form her family and acts as the arbiter of family matters – smoking - “Everyone acknowledged Loku Nanda to be the wisest. This was her own opinion as well – naturally.”

·         Egoistic: gloats that her pirith mandapa was “ten times nicer than” Mrs Welikala’s

·         In the end, she becomes old and wheelchair-bound and at the mercy of Kusuma whom she had ill-treated an exploited

·         “It’s my Karma. It’s My Karma” – she tells Mahinda.

 

3. Punch Nanada

·         “Though she was always singing Loku Nanda’s praise she had a strange preference for living in our house.” – as a spinster, PN, unlike LN who was economically independent, was at the mercy of the benevolence of her relative 

·         She thought it was “much better for Kusuma to stay with Loku Nanda than going off with that Piyadasa and having ten children” – which implies sexual jealousy.  

4. Kusuma

·         A child from a poor family of toddy-tapers raised by Loku Nanda as a replacement servant for aging Salpi  

·         Loku Nanda prevents her from going to Colombo to visit the Zoo with Mahinda’s family and later from marrying Piyadasa

·         As she ages Kusuma turns into a replica of Loku Nanda

·         She too does meritorious deeds to obtain a better life in the next birth which in her case is a justifiable desire, one might say  

·         She channels her frustration to religion 

·         She wants “the merits” from her dhana to be “hers and hers alone”

Themes

·         Karma – one’s deeds determine the kind of life one would have here and in the lives to come

·         Popular Buddhism – religion as a status symbol; to satisfy one’s ego; as a solace from the trials and tribulations of life

·         Spinsterhood – fear of marriage; sexual frustration

Techniques

·         Local hues: names – Mahinda, Kusuma; kinship terms – Loku Nanda, Nangi; places – Galle, Matara; sweets – Kevun, kokis, aluva

·         Irony - “Everyone acknowledged Loku Nanda to be the wisest. This was her own opinion as well – naturally.”

Exercise

·         After you have read a short story think about these:

o   Main character

o   The changes each character undergoes

o   Conflict between characters

o   How the conflict is resolved

o   How the characters’ changes relate to the theme

o   How the conflict relates to the theme

o   Statement of theme

·         Write an appreciation of the short story

o   The introduction – usually a single paragraph providing the title, the author, and necessary background. It also includes your thesis statement in which you explain briefly the theme.

o   The body of the essay is the part where you explain the information you’ve gathered in your exercise 

o   In the conclusion, sum up your major points and add a new thought or a personal response

·         

El      Elaborate – get down to specifics

o   You should elaborate on every general statement you make, using details, examples, and quotations from the stories.