Essay Draft Two

Linda Liu
May 23, 2007
Draft two

The Humorous Tone in the Grass-Eaters

Living in a world rife with vivid and bloody reports of violence and poverty from the media, we have become immune to miseries; the mass-produced stories that intend to jerk our tears can no longer stir our sympathy. To some extent, we are more callous and less credulous readers who are not easily satisfied.

However we find the story of “The Grass-Eaters” by Krishnan Varma so compelling, in which the author depicted the wretched life of the first-person narrator “Ajit” under the context of Indian society. The miserable life displayed in the story is beyond our imagination, yet the author used a humorous tone throughout the story. So here we may come up with an intriguing question: “why does the author use a humorous tone in such a miserable story? In order to resolve such a problem, let us explore the effect the humorous tone has on us readers.

The story begins with a comic scene --a conversation between the narrator, an Indian tutor Ajit and his student’s father Misrilal. The characters that appear in this scene are almost cartoon-like. The boy “I” taught is “spherical”; his mother is “cuboid” while his father Misrilal is “ovoid”. What a funny combination of a well-off family! This humorous and sarcastic description immediately arouses the readers’ interest; therefore the author grasps our attention from the very beginning. What will their conversation be about? We readers are curious.

Misrilal looked exceedingly distressed. “A pipe, Ajit Babu? Did you say—a pipe, Ajit Babu?”
His cuboid wife was near to tears. “A pipe, Ajit Babu? How can you live in a pipe?”(56)

Their exaggerating reaction as well as the repeated questioning vividly depicts how surprised the couple is at the answer from Ajit of where he lived. This is a scene both theatrical and typical. A further reading of the story perhaps will enable us to notice that the sharp contrast in social and economic status among the characters makes such a scene particularly sarcastic. The well-off have no idea of the life of the poor. How can they be so blind to each other? We readers might be amused by the couple’s hysterical reaction but we also doubt how it comes about that Ajit live in a pipe! Therefore a further explanation from Ajit is needed and anticipated.

This humorous start has well intrigued the readers to go on reading. The scene that proceeds is a most vivid and detailed description of a fray set in a footpath, which we may find even funnier. “I” and “my wife” Swapna slept on a footpath that is so crowded that one morning “I” woke up to find “I” had one leg over an old woman! So “I paid bitterly for my mistake. The woman very nearly scratched out my eyes. Then came Swapna, fangs bared, claws out…” (56 ) We could not fail to visualize such a funny picture of a poor and miserable husband with two furious women running after him! But after a carefree laugh, prudent readers might discover that the diction here is a little “dehumanizing” which arouses our curiosity. The old woman is described as “a bag of bones” (56), her husband “a hill of man” (56) and Swapna even “fangs bared, claws out…” (56) Words that normally describe lifeless things or even beast are used, which sound ridiculous. However, such a seemingly ridiculous scene really provokes our thinking: what does the author intend to indicate in such a scene? Does this reflect the overall living conditions of the poor Indians? Or does this connote their decreasing in humanity? In asking such questions, it seems, we are really taking another step towards what lies beyond the humor.

Another type of humor which we find in the story lies in the sharp contrast between what the protagonists react in certain situation and what is normally expected is even thought-provoking. And Ajit’s reactions in several occasions are typical examples. For instance, there is clear “exultation” written on his face when he settled in a freight wagon and commented: “…it was heaven, I felt I was God.”(57) Who can imagine that a human being can be so easily and fully satisfied and overjoyed at what we might regard as unbearable confinement. And what was his reaction when he finally settled on the roof? Pretty contend! For now he has a roof that is “flat” “made of cement concrete”, the rent is “far less”(58), “we have far more light and ventilation” and their son “has far more room to play than the children below.” (58) He seems trying to convince others while we readers know clearly the explanation is totally absurd and invalid, which makes the entire situation ridiculous. We are even more surprised at how he mentioned the privilege he got from his handicap: “I don’t mind my handicap at all; I need wear only one sandal and thereby save on footwear.”(59) I suppose no one is willing to exchange one leg for the benefit of saving one shoe. But Ajit just doesn’t mind it “at all”! Unlike the character we usually find in a comic show, which is both humorous and positive, Ajit’s humor stems from his indifference to his own misfortune, from his contention of an almost unbearable situation which is absurd and ridiculous. And it is this absurdity as well as the ridiculousness that at first shocks the readers. After recovering from the shock, they begin to think of the real message that the author intends to convey to them. Why Ajit’s reactions are so different from us? Why they live in a world that seems so strange from ours? Is that absurdity the reality of life? The humorous tone here prompts the readers to ask questions and seek answers from the text.

Some comic scenes are intentionally created by the author to draw our attention to one facet of the society which we may not be familiar with, that is the prevalent belief of Hinduism. For instance, we find such a scene amusing. When Ajit knew that Swapna was pregnant again, he couldn’t help kissing him. But how did he do that? Ajit kissed her wife “on the elbow”(57) but was “roundly chided”(57) and Swapna reproached her husband seriously, “Kissing, she holds, is a western practice, unclean also, since it amounts to licking, and should be eschewed by all good Hindus.”(57) At first we might find her reaction strange and funny, for the humor lies in our ignorance of the belief of Hinduism. Therefore it prompts us to realize the sharp chasm between us in religious belief and ideology. If we have some idea of Hinduism, which is characterized by a belief in reincarnation, then we may come to a better understanding of the Indian society. The Hindus believe that if a person leads a good life, the soul will be born into a higher state. Therefore several scenes depicted in the story may get some proper explanation from a religious perspective. With this belief, Swapna seems sometime so prudent and adamant. With this belief, they can endue poverty and miseries better.


However, Varma does not merely aim at providing the readers with some insights into Hinduism. He invites us, finally, to examine the entire society, through a humorous and absurd picture of it.
In Calcutta the trams are always crowded and if you can’t get into a carriage you may get up on its roof. The conductor will not stop you. If he tries to, the passengers beat him up, set fire to the tram and any other vehicles parked in the vicinity, loot nearby shops, break street lamps, take out a procession, hold a protest meeting, denounce British imperialism, American neo-colonialism, the central government, capitalism and socialism, and set off crackers.(59)

Thanks to the great power of mass-media, we have already been familiar with such a scene in India—buses and even trains with people thronging on the roof. But how can it become the trigger of this long list of ever deteriorating turmoil. It seems absurd. And it certainly is! Beneath the absurdity reveals by the long list, what the author really contrives to display to us is an India society rife with chaos and turmoil. What bears a sense of sarcastic is that the last item of this long and ever upgrading list is “set off crackers”(59), which seems extremely childish when comparing with the serious protests and the violence!

Through in the last paragraph of the story, the tone sounds more contend and quiet rather than humorous, it is still very important for our further understanding of the whole story as well as the humor in the previous paragraphs. In the brief sum-up of his eventful life, Ajit commented with a peaceful and content tone. “But does it matter? We have survived them. And now, we have no fears or anxieties.”(59) So here we come to the understanding that they have “survived” the vicissitudes of life, so they count their blessings when compared with thousands or even more that fail to even maintain themselves. So to some extend the humor in Ajit’s depiction is reasonable. Perhaps we have just felt relieved at this point, and wanted to have a truce with the endless pursuit of the reason of Ajit humor. Whereas the author, it seems, does not propose to let the readers merely satisfied in finding such an explanation. So he continues:

We live very quietly, content to look at the passing scene: a tram burning, a man stabbing another man, a woman dropping her baby in a garbage bin.

Through the author uses the humorous tone throughout the story, the final tone of the story is set as miserable and bleak. This ending is like a melancholy echo which is reverberating in the story and pinching readers’ heart continuously!

To some extent, the intriguing appeal we find in the story stems from the unconventional tone the author used in the story. By manipulating the humorous tone in certain scene, the author exerts certain influence on us through its effect. Sometimes we are attracted; sometimes we come to understand the differences and sometimes we are compelled to raise questions. The humorous tone which is absurd and sarcastic has intrigued the readers to explore the story and go through a process of continuing questioning and examining, from the character to the nature of the humor, from the religious belief to the reality of Indian society. Eventually, what the story leaves us is not only a picture of the Indian society, but sympathy, passion and thoughts, which linger in each readers mind.