In The Lowland, the first chapter narrates stories happened in east of the Tolly Club inTollygunge, a neighborhood in the West Bengal city of Calcutta, which is saturated withdisplaced refugees caused by the 1947 Partition of India. Two brothers, Subhash and Udayan,born in India before Partition, were familiar and inseparable in their youth. As the unfold andevolution of the biggest instability in the plot, they both faced different ethical dilemmas.They came of political age in the 1960s. Udayan, the younger one, became politically activein embracing the Naxalite movement which supported the violent resistance of landowners inthe impoverished West Bengal city of Naxalbari; Subhash, the older brother, however, hadmore passion in further education, and left for Rhode Island in America. Gauri, an importantantagonist of the novel, expected a forward-thinking, liberated married lifestyle, but sheunconsciously got involved in the Naxalite movement by her old-fashioned husband Udayanwho betrayed her by putting his dedication to a cause above his love for her.
2.2 Ethical Positions Held by Main Characters
While the main characters are facing their own dilemmas, a deeper analysis of ethicalpositions held by characters in The Lowland can help us clear out the dominant ethical valuesworked on them and how these values exert power on their behaviors and steer them in someways. “When accessing the ethics of the told, the most relevant is the ethics of the characters,or the specific ethical positions of the characters” (Phelan, EF 11). Moreover, a deeperanalysis of the ethical positions held by characters on ethical issues, to some extent, show thedominant thematic and emotional values of the novel.
When the Naxalbari movement gets tougher, Udayan gradually gets disillusioned by theplight of Indian peasants and the inaction of the government. He makes his ethical position,chooses to stay in their native land, fights for the freedom of the peasants, and aims toeradicate the inequality in India.
Why would he make such a decision? From his mother Bojili’s memory and description,Udayan used to be a warm-hearted, helpful and respectable man. “She remembers him sittingwith a piece of chalk in the courtyard, teaching the boys and girls who used to work for them,who’d not gone to school, to write and read…” (183).
Chapter Three Ethical Implications on the Level of Discourse......................... 24
3.1 Ethical Values Underlying Shifting Focalizations.............................25
3.2 Ethical Implications of Narrative Progression.................................32
Chapter Four Ethical Obligations on the Level of Authorial Writing...............................42
4.1 Ethical Obligation of Actual Author to Homeland...............................42
4.2 Ethical Obligation of Actual Author to Subaltern Class...............................44
Chapter Five Conclusion............................ 49
Chapter Four Ethical Obligations on the Level of Authorial Writing
4.1 Ethical Obligation of Actual Author to Homeland
Jhumpa Lahiri, one of the most famous contemporary India-America female writers,was born in London in 1967. At the age of two, she moved with her family to Rhode Island.From then on, she usually commutes from Rhode Island to Calcutta, and has a deepattachment to this mysterious homeland. Thus, this place naturally becomes the eternal topicand the background setting under her writing. “For Lahiri, Calcutta is like Faulkner’sYorknapatawpha or Mark Twain’s Mississippi River, the setting for many of her stories” (Yun1).
Due to the ritual visits and the experience of wandering between America and India,Lahiri deeply feels the dilemma brought by the dual or complex identities of immigrantsunder these heterogeneous cultures. The com
