Conflict Between Illusion And Reality: A Study of Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines.

Abstract

AmitavGhosh is a world renowned Indian author and novelist known for his works in the English language. His writing often shows an amalgamation of cultures expressed through the use of various languages. He has received numerous awards for his works in the year 2007,he was awarded the PadamShri by the Government of India. His writings are unique and contributed a lot to Indian writing in English.The Shadow Lines is one of such writings,a highly innovative novel. It received the prestigious Sahitya Academy Award in 1989. The novel, according to A. K. Ramanujan “weaves together personal lives and public events”(qtd.in Trivedi). This novel has various themes such as nationalism,freedom,violence,memoryand conflict between illusion and reality. This theme is represented through various characters of the novels. Illusion means false notion and reality means truth. The title of the novel also depicts conflict between illusion and reality. In the novel, ‘Shadow’ stands for illusion and ‘Lines’ stands for reality.Thamma,the narrator’s grandmother,plans to fly to Dhaka in 1964;she asks her son if, “she would be able to see the border between India and East Pakistan from the plane”(Ghosh 151). Her sons laughs at her and asks her if she thought that “the border was a long black line with green on one side and scarlet on the other,like it was in a school atlas”(qtd. in Sapra). The grandmother says that at least there must be some trenches. When she hears that she might see green fields,she said:
But if there aren’t any trenches or anything, how are people to
know