NUR FATHIN SYAHIRAH BINTI MOHD RUSLE (TESL 2)

TASK 1: WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

Akem Henry (2019), stated in his paper that ‘literary criticism attempts to explain the
literary work to us which is its production, its meaning, its design, its beauty, its strength and
weaknesses based on the application of the tenets of a literary theory’. Just like literature
itself, the aims and standards of literary criticism have continuously evolved over the years.
Current theories have been revised, their tenets have changed or the whole theory has been
replaced by another which is more applicable to the literary critique phase. This essay aims
to analyse a few samples of literary works by using some of the theories of literary criticism
that have been disclosed in this course.

I have come across a short story by Ernest Hemingway with the title The Snows of
Kilimanjaro while browsing for famous literary works. According to Henrichon (2010), this
story is one of the author’s important stories that was published in 1936. The story begins in
Africa in a location called the Kilimanjaro Mountains from which the lead character named
Harry was dying due to his severe wounds. His spouse, Helen took care of him throughout
the story and have never abandoned him despite his violent temper. The husband
intentionally tried to taunt Helen throughout the narrative by discussing in detail about his
past affairs with other women. She was easily labelled as “bitch” by the man that she kept
most dearly to her heart. This obviously is a patriarchal story whereby the female character
is viewed as less superior than a male character who could easily belittle and humiliate his
wife by calling her a bloody fool woman. Harry claimed a man’s tragedy could be a woman’s
wellbeing. While the woman was seen caring for her husband, he did not acknowledge all of
her efforts instead, he wilfully dismissed her feelings.

Other than that, while reading about postcolonial literary theory I remembered about
a well-known novel with the title Things Fall Apart written by Chinua Achebe that depicts the
true African cultures and histories that most people misunderstand. It also tell readers about
the hardship that the African people had to face during the colonial era that almost wiped out
Igbo culture but also bring positive changes in their society . This novel also describes how
the introduction of Cristian religion by colonisers greatly influenced the lifestyle of Igbo
society which is also Chinua Achebe’s own society. The time setting in the novel is during
the colonisation by most of European states where they migrated to Africa and Nigeria was
amongst other African nations that received visitors. Chinua Achebe lived through this period
of time so he also had written in the novel about the white missionaries that came to his
mother’s village named Mbanta to teach the local people about the one and only god and to
guide them so that they stop worshiping their fake gods. Chinua’s parent had also stopped
practicing their traditional religion and had converted to Christianity so he was exposed to a
combination of Igbo’s culture as well as Christianity influence.

There is also a tragic musical play entitled Miss Saigon that was created by Alain
Boubil and Schonberg whereby in the play, the ‘Miss Saigon’ was a character named Kim
who is also a young orphan forced into prostitution during the height of the Vietnam war. She
fell in love with her an American soldier named Chris despite being the enemy of her
country, and ends up having a child with him while waiting for him to return from the United
States. While most of us would be sceptical at the return of a lover from a foreign land, girls
like her simply wait despite the uncertainty. The Engineer is the owner of Dreamland, the
nightclub where Kim ended up working. He is happy that one of his girls ended up into a
relationship with an American GI because he views this as his ticket to migration to America.
Sometimes comes across as the character that represents the Asian idea that migrating to
the West will alleviate them from poverty, a concept alien to Kim. According to Saroj Malik
(2011),’feminist literary criticism primarily responds to the way woman is represented in
literature’. This clearly shows the male characters in this play constantly exploits women for
the sake of their own benefits and interest in which the female characters in the nightclub
had always dreamed to be free from their misery.

According to Mart (2019), reader-response theory is based on the assumption that a

literary work takes place in the mutual relationship between the reader and the text.
According to this theory, the meaning is constructed through a transaction between the
reader and the text within a particular context. In this case, I have a very personal
connection with one poem written by Gwendolyn Brooks with the title Sadie and Maud that
describes about two sisters that lived their lives in two different ways in which Sadie had
lived her life to the fullest while Maud lived in a life of education. The main theme in this
poem is going against the norm of society in this case, Sadie who had enjoyed her life freely
as a young maiden without thinking about how the society looks at her with judging eyes.
She took all the opportunities that comes to her with pleasure although she may had to go
through hardship and the twist and turns in life. This is when the ‘fine toothed comb’ comes
in as a symbol of how she spent her life without holding back. Sadie even bore 2 babies
which of course brought shame towards her entire family because in those days, it is
absolutely not normal for a maiden to have a child without marrying a man and legally have
sex with each other.

On the other hand, Maud had always followed the grain of society by studying and
holding back on exciting things that a young person should experience. She went to college
and I personally think that she became too engrossed in her education until she forgets what
is the true meaning in having a life. In the end, Maud became a timid and lonely person as
the word ‘mouse’ in the poem describes her and the words ‘old house’ symbolizes that she
regrets not enjoying life when she had the chance to do so. I believe that every person must
have both Sadie and Maud inside of them because we cannot be too free and we also
cannot hold back in every opportunities that struck us.

In conclusion, criticism is very crucial that it tells us what even the author did not
intend to say. There are two types of critics which are those who reveal authorial meaning
and those who say what the text means. According to Tyson (2015), exploring biographical
and historical information to know that the author is coming from such a background might
have meant when the text says otherwise for example, the latter goes beyond the surface to
“read against the grain”. This means that learning more about a literary work as well as the
authors can give the readers insight of what is the true message that lies within a text or
even a simple story.
REFERENCES

Akem Henry. (2019). LITERARY CRITICISM: Its Nature and importance. University Of Buea,
Cameroon.

Henrichon, S. E. (2010). Ernest Hemingway’s Mistresses and Wives: Exploring Their Impact
on His Female Characters. Graduate Theses and Dissertations. p31, 48-50.

Mart, Cagri. (2019). Reader-Response Theory and Literature Discussions: a Springboard for
Exploring Literary Texts. The New Educational Review.

Saroj Malik. (2011). An Introduction to Feminist Literary Criticism: At A Brief Glance. Gohana
Sonepat.

Tyson, Louis. (2015).Critical Theory Today. London: Routledge.