Background Casually by Nissim Ezekiel, critical analysis and summary

Background Casually

NissimEzekiel (1924-2004)

—  Indian Jewish poet, actor, playwright, editor and art critic, foundational figure in postcolonial India’s literary history

—  Awarded Sahitya Akademi Award for 1983 poetry collection “Latter Day Psalms”

—  He is applauded for his subtle restrained well crafted diction, dealing with common and mundane themes in a manner that manifests both cognitive profundity and as an unsentimental, realistic sensibility that has been influential on the course of succeeding Indian English Poetry.

—  He enriched and established Indian English poetry through his modernist innovations and techniques which enlarged Indian English literature, moving it beyond purely spiritual and orientalist themes to include a wider range of concerns and interest including mundane familial events individual angst and skeptical societal inspection.

—  He is described as “the father of post-independence Indian verse”

—  His famous poems are “ Night of the Scorpion” and Anti- jingoism poem “The Patriot”

Works

—  Time to change (1952)

—  The unfinished man (1960)

—  The exact name (1965)

—  Snakeskin and other poem translation of Marathi poet Indira Sant

—  Hymns in Darkness (1976)

—  Latter day Psalms (1982)

PLAYS

—  The three plays 1969

—  Do not call it suicide (1993)

PROSE

—  Naipaul’s India and mine

POEM

A poet-rascal-clown was born,
The frightened child who would not eat
Or sleep, a boy of meager bone.
He never learned to fly a kite,
His borrowed top refused to spin.
I went to Roman Catholic school,
A mugging Jew among the wolves.
They told me I had killed the Christ,
That year I won the scripture prize.
A Muslim sportsman boxed my ears.
I grew in terror of the strong
But undernourished Hindu lads,
Their prepositions always wrong,
Repelled me by passivity.
One noisy day I used a knife.
At home on Friday nights the prayers
Were said. My morals had declined.
I heard of Yoga and of Zen.
Could 1, perhaps, be rabbi saint?
The more I searched, the less I found.

Twenty two: time to go abroad.
First, the decision, then a friend
To pay the fare. Philosophy,
Poverty and Poetry, three
Companions shared my basement room.
The London seasons passed me by.
I lay in bed two years alone,
And then a Woman came to tell
My willing ears I was the Son
Of Man. I knew that I had failed
In everything, a bitter thought.
So, in an English cargo ship
Taking French guns and mortar shells
To Indo China, scrubbed the decks,
And learned to laugh again at home.
How to feel it home, was the point.
Some reading had been done, but what
Had I observed, except my own
Exasperation? All Hindus are
Like that, my father used to say,
When someone talked too loudly, or
Knocked at the door like the Devil.
They hawked and spat. They sprawled around.

I prepared for the worst. Married,
Changed jobs, and saw myself a fool.
The song of my experience sung,
I knew that all was yet to sing.
My ancestors, among the castes,
Were aliens crushing seed for bread
(The hooded bullock made his rounds).
One among them fought and taught,
A Major bearing British arms.
He told my father sad stories
Of the Boer War. I dreamed that
Fierce men had bound my feet and hands.
The later dreams were all of words.
I did not know that words betray
But let the poems come, and lost
That grip on things the worldly prize.
I would not suffer that again.
I look about me now, and try
To formulate a plainer view:
The wise survive and serve–to play
The fool, to cash in on
The inner and the outer storms.
The Indian landscape sears my eyes.
I have become a part of it
To be observed by foreigners.
They say that I am singular,
Their letters overstate the case.
I have made my commitments now.
This is one: to stay where I am,
As others choose to give themselves
In some remote and backward place.
My backward place is where I am.

Analysis

—  “Background, Casually” tells about the struggle of the poet for identity in a country where he and his community are considered alien

—  3 sections

1.    Deals with childhood of the poet

2.    Throws light on his adult age

3.    Old age

Section 1

—  Ezekiel uses third person for himself. According to him he was born low. Being a member of alien community, he could never eat nor sleep and thus become weak. Due to this feeling he could not fly kite. Even the top also failed to spin in his hands

—  He was sent to Roman Catholic school, where he was like a prey before the wolves (Hindus and Muslims)

—  He was often taunted by Hindus and Muslims who accused him of the murder of Christ. They compared him to Judas who betrayed Christ

—  The same year he won Scripture Prize depicting he was quite good in his schooling

—  He was often beaten by a muslim boy and terror reigned in his mind during that stage

—  Hindu boys repelled him away with their wrong accent and use of language. Being enraged he even thought becoming violent and used his knife though he did not mention where how and why he used his knife

—  One night he heard prayers that made him believe that he is no morally so good

—  He thought if he could still become a Rabbi. But deeper he thought, the more confused he became

Section 2

—  Ezekiel talks about his adult age experiences. His family desired to send him to England for higher studies but being financially poor they could not afford his expenses. However one of his friends paid for him and he was able to go to England.

—  There he was alone and considered poverty, poetry and philosophy of his friends. Even after two years he was alone. A woman came and tried to motivate him and he tried to make his life better.

—  He recognized his failure which became unbearable thought. After spending some years there he desired to go back to India

—  After  coming to India, Ezekiel tried to be happy and feel at home again.

—  His father told him that Hindus are violent. He married changed his job, started writing poetry and knew that he had ample to write

Section 3

—  His experience as an old person

—  He recognized that writing poetry is also not safe and even the words can harm a person

—  He wrote poems and gave up his suffering , now he tried to write wisely without paying free play to his thoughts

—  He expresses his inner and outer suffering that he ultimately failed to defeat. He says he has become an integral part of India.

—  The foreigners consider him to be an alien but he decided now he will consider himself an Indian

—  The poem’s significance to Ezekiel’s oeuvre lies partly in it being an autobiographical poem, which is seen to indicate crisply his “official view of life”

—  Ezekiel’s general tendency in this poem is to be more communicative than be imagistic is evident

—  Similarly the ironic tone that swings between whipping the self and the society around it is also on abundant display in the poem.

Themes

—  Culture, identity, race, history and sense of belonging

—  It is up to the individual and not the society to decide where he most belongs and feels more comfortable with

—  Loss of identity in Indian society

—  Alienation

Recurrent motifs

—  Finding satisfaction in limited ambition

—  A set of experiences stated as providing deep insights

—  Use of unrhymed metrical lines

—  Probing the question of identity in a firm social content

—  Controlled fragmentation unlike the modernist tendency of obscurity.