Based on 'House Opposite' by R.K. Narayan there are two characters portrayed in the short story.
The first character is the hermit. He is a religious man living in solitude to refrain himself from enjoying worldly pleasure. He is a very discipline man both in religious activity and also his daily routine where he always sleep and woke up at same time everyday. The things that he do daily is same too. Although he lives alone to focus on worshipping his gods and cleanse his mind and soul, he cannot refrain himself from being a busybody by getting to know his neighbour, the prostitute's daily activities. He always think that what the prostitute does bring all sorts of evil to the world,by spreading disease and filth like as open sewer as people from middle-aged tailor to B.Sc. student came to her. We can also see that he punish himself when his mind goes astray while meditating . He does this by banging his fist on his temples, which hurt him but improved his focus while meditating. Despite all the bad thoughts he had about the prostitute, he is very forgiving man. He forgets all the lines he had rehearsed for a confrontation with the prostitute when the prostitute ask for his blessing and willingly accept the prostitute’s offering. The next character is the prostitute. She was describe as having a seductive body outline; her forearms were cushionlike, her hips were large and the thighs stout like banana stalks. Besides doing all the sin she does she is a very loving daughter and this can be seen when she ask for the hermit’s blessing on her mother’s remembrance day although she knew that the hermit is very opposing of what she does for money.
Topic : Realism Group Member : Faika, Thulasi, Nasuha, Nik Najwa, Fadhila
Based on the short story House Opposite by R.K. Narayan, there are two issues that are greatly interconnected with our real life.
First of all, the life of the hermit which is against his own humanity and nature as a man. The hermit or the holy man believe that by living life in the way as he live, one would be able to gain spiritual liberation and eternal blessing from God. The hermit chose to live in a single-room tenement and far from anyone he would know. However, it turn out that the house opposite of his house is occupied with a woman which is also a prostitute. The hermit spend his time everyday by meditating as one of the way to achieve his goal. Nevertheless, even in the greatest deep of meditation he could not help hearing the creaking of the door of the opposite house when a client leave the woman’s house. Everyday, he could not resist but to think of the woman and what did she do with all men that came to spend time with her. There was once when the hermit was sweeping the dust on the sill, he noticed that the woman was standing on her doorstep. As he studied the woman figure, his temples throbbed and he felt as if all his effort in this while in achieving his goal was becoming meaningless. Feeling angry, he cursed at the woman and sent the woman in with his words. With full of satisfaction, he went into his house and started repeating the mantras that he had learnt. However, even the greatest mantra could not stop himself from thinking of the woman. This shows that, the hermit which is also a man could not avoid or ignore completely the presence of the woman and concentrating in his meditation just as in reality of all men.
Next, the woman or the prostitute, as according to the hermit was living a life with full of sin. Each evening, more than one man came to her house and together they commited the greatest sin in the world. Despite of the way of life she was living, deep inside the woman, she do believe in God and longing for forgiveness and blessing. As evidence, on the day the hermit was heading towards outside the town, the woman stopped him and asked him to forgive her as on that day, which is also the day of remembrance of her mother, she pray and seek for saint’s blessing. This proves that as also in reality, every human being despite of their ignorance of their way of life, they do have their own faith and they do believe in God.
Basically, these are the two main issues that are greatly interconnected with our real life.
** Truly sorry sir for the very late reply . Thank you.
We are very sorry sir, got some problems. Here are the answers from Mok, Adib, Arman, Sajid and Azri.
The story of the 'House Opposite' is told through two characters, which are the hermit and the prostitute. The hermit, from which the story is narrated through his thoughts, is a man of religion, a man blind-folded by his own philosophy, and a mortal-man, one with his own weaknesses. The hermit is a holy man who follows his traditional Indian lifestyle strictly and suppresses his cravings for worldly sensations. He is arrogant as he thinks himself as a man of a higher order from the practice of his gurus' teachings. However, it is quite clear from his lack of self-restrain that he is performing all these without any true, sacred understanding other than his selfish desire for spiritual liberation in the afterlife. The hermit is a male chauvinist who blames the prostitute for her seduction, failing to realize just how fragile is the philosophy he holds so dearly. A hypocrite through and through, the hermit can only reflect his weaknesses upon others and does not consider himself as the root of all problems. He is a weak-willed man, and though he consciously fights to drive the thought of the prostitute out of his head, he can only succumb to his cravings for her, and in the end resorts to physically escape from his sanctuary in a cowardly manner. From this, we can see that though one can superficially appear as saint-like through rigorous practice and meditation, one's thought is ultimately the core for spiritual relief.
The other character is the prostitute. From the hermit's observation, we know that she is an attractive woman who carries an air of exquisiteness with her, wooing men, and hermits alike, with her curves and lines. Viewed as a sinful woman for her evil deeds of servicing men with needs, the prostitute portrays a loving attitude when she presents offering to bless her mother on remembrance day. This is obviously something the 'holy' hermit lacks. Interestingly, this presents to us some rather contradicting set of characteristics for both characters, leaving us to wonder just how unclearcut 'black and white' is in reality.
Title: Issues Group Members: dev, david tang, ehsan,nazif, sayid
based on the story ' The House Opposite' by R.K. Narayan, there are many issues in this stories which had been portrayed by the many examples given. Less-abstruse as it can be, the story has any issues such as life full of penances, austerities and social discrimination. This story revolves around a hermit who lives around stringent rules of the religion and manifests himself as a man of virtue until he sees a well-described woman who lives across the street. The sight of many customers of different ages coming to her house every day, plants a seed of hatred in him as he is inclined to tell her off. he hates the woman, regarding her as one of low-chaste. He simply wants to tell her to move out of the place so as to allow him to continue his penances in peace. let us now dive deeper into the picture of the issues there were in the story.
First and foremost, the issue of living in austerity is the main issue in the novel. the hermit, or also called a sage, practices the inner teachings of Hinduism to a high level. as a sage, he prays to the deities a lot and has a amazing vocabulary of mantras and hymns. His daily life centres upon teaching the small children moral values, praying, hitting the sack at dusk as a matter of discipline and waking up early in the morning even before sunrise, sleeping on the bare floor ( a clear sign of discipline to withdraw sense desires ) and a block under his head as a pillow. Also, he sits on a deerskin during meditation ( deerskin has been a passed on religious tradition by the spiriual teachers ) and his not materially contaminated; he does not get thrilled by muscles and well built torsos. he is surprisingly thrilled by his thin and emaciated body. It gives him the impression of being blessed bi the God. He is also seen to be following the teachings if his guru at close proximities. Hence, that was the first issue in the reading.
Secondly, the was also an issue about social discrimination. The lady who lived opposite the hermit's house was thought to be impure and of low-chaste. Just because she had customers in her house day in and day out, the hermit thought that she was dirty and as an obstacle to his penances. he planted hatred towards her because of her being a prostitute, not knowing the real reason behind her choice. She actually had a loving heart and was a filial daughter to her mother. She offered a tray of flowers and things as a token of love to the hermit could perform prayers for her mother. the social discrimination here shows how much the hermit discriminated her when she actually was a loving daughter.
the last issue mentioned in the story was the hermit being a hypocrite. It is shown clearly in the reading that being a sage, he practices various penances and austere rules of the religion which has been mentioned in the holy books and has been brought down to him by disciplic succession and becaause of that he must be thought to be a man of great virtue and a champion of extreme self control and sense control. He, however becomes a hypocrite when he misjudges the woman but yet admires her beautiful body. He believes that he is strong enough to resist the sense temptations well and overcome material bondage but is easily distracted by the prostitute when he hears the sound of the creaking of the door of her house. Simply, this shows that he is a real hypocrite and thus maintains the issue of the novel.
The plot can be divided into five major phases which are exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.
Exposition: The story of House Opposite by R.K. Narayan deals with two fundamentally ways of life, portrayed by a hermit and a prostitute. The hermit is someone who was pursuing an austere life, forswearing family, possessions and all the comforts of life. He lived in an unvarying pattern of life, carried out the same routine every day. In contrast, the woman who lived opposite is a prostitute. The men always came after the woman. She is judged as a shameless woman.
Rising Action: One afternoon, the woman stood on the doorstep while the hermit was sweeping dust and this introduces the conflict. The hermit gazed at her, appraising her seductive contour and body. This is why the men liked to visit her so frequently including the students, tailors, old and young and the middle aged. “Awful monster! Personification of evil” he thought. The anger started creeping up on the hermit and thus he asked the woman to get into her house since she had ruined his tapas.
Climax: The climax of the short story arose when the hermit non-stop thinking about the woman in the opposite house during his meditation. He tried to concentrate but he failed miserably as the thoughts and distractions kept hovering in his mind. Ultimately, he came up with a decision. He wanted to eliminate the woman. He wished persuading her stop being prostitute and to live in a cleaner life.
Falling Action: After that incident, the hermit could not fall asleep the whole night as the thought of the woman never leaving his mind. He rose up before dawn and his mind restored. He wanted to clear out immediately so that he could focus in the meditation. He recalled a tale heard from his guru for ages. It was about a prostitute, too. “A harlot was sent to heaven when she died while her detractor was sent to the hell. It was explained that while the harlot sinned only with her body, but her detractor was corrupted mentally because he was so obsessed with the harlot, her activities and could meditate on nothing else. The hermit packed his things and planned to leave during dusk.
Resolution: While leaving, the hermit heard someone was calling him. The woman approached him with a tray of flowers and fruits. She sought for forgiveness from the hermit and she prostrated. She told the hermit that today was a day of remembrance of her mother and she prayed and sought for a saint’s blessing on that day. Finally, the hermit accepted it and leaved without a word.
11 comments:
Hye peeps...post your answers here...
wheres 12m5?
no responds no marks!!!final.
Hi Sir
It is ok , maybe we can have it some other time. : )
Based on 'House Opposite' by R.K. Narayan there are two characters portrayed in the short story.
The first character is the hermit. He is a religious man living in solitude to refrain himself from enjoying worldly pleasure. He is a very discipline man both in religious activity and also his daily routine where he always sleep and woke up at same time everyday. The things that he do daily is same too. Although he lives alone to focus on worshipping his gods and cleanse his mind and soul, he cannot refrain himself from being a busybody by getting to know his neighbour, the prostitute's daily activities. He always think that what the prostitute does bring all sorts of evil to the world,by spreading disease and filth like as open sewer as people from middle-aged tailor to B.Sc. student came to her. We can also see that he punish himself when his mind goes astray while meditating . He does this by banging his fist on his temples, which hurt him but improved his focus while meditating. Despite all the bad thoughts he had about the prostitute, he is very forgiving man. He forgets all the lines he had rehearsed for a confrontation with the prostitute when the prostitute ask for his blessing and willingly accept the prostitute’s offering.
The next character is the prostitute. She was describe as having a seductive body outline; her forearms were cushionlike, her hips were large and the thighs stout like banana stalks. Besides doing all the sin she does she is a very loving daughter and this can be seen when she ask for the hermit’s blessing on her mother’s remembrance day although she knew that the hermit is very opposing of what she does for money.
Topic : Realism
Group Member : Faika, Thulasi, Nasuha, Nik Najwa, Fadhila
Based on the short story House Opposite by R.K. Narayan, there are two issues that are greatly interconnected with our real life.
First of all, the life of the hermit which is against his own humanity and nature as a man. The hermit or the holy man believe that by living life in the way as he live, one would be able to gain spiritual liberation and eternal blessing from God. The hermit chose to live in a single-room tenement and far from anyone he would know. However, it turn out that the house opposite of his house is occupied with a woman which is also a prostitute. The hermit spend his time everyday by meditating as one of the way to achieve his goal. Nevertheless, even in the greatest deep of meditation he could not help hearing the creaking of the door of the opposite house when a client leave the woman’s house. Everyday, he could not resist but to think of the woman and what did she do with all men that came to spend time with her. There was once when the hermit was sweeping the dust on the sill, he noticed that the woman was standing on her doorstep. As he studied the woman figure, his temples throbbed and he felt as if all his effort in this while in achieving his goal was becoming meaningless. Feeling angry, he cursed at the woman and sent the woman in with his words. With full of satisfaction, he went into his house and started repeating the mantras that he had learnt. However, even the greatest mantra could not stop himself from thinking of the woman. This shows that, the hermit which is also a man could not avoid or ignore completely the presence of the woman and concentrating in his meditation just as in reality of all men.
Next, the woman or the prostitute, as according to the hermit was living a life with full of sin. Each evening, more than one man came to her house and together they commited the greatest sin in the world. Despite of the way of life she was living, deep inside the woman, she do believe in God and longing for forgiveness and blessing. As evidence, on the day the hermit was heading towards outside the town, the woman stopped him and asked him to forgive her as on that day, which is also the day of remembrance of her mother, she pray and seek for saint’s blessing. This proves that as also in reality, every human being despite of their ignorance of their way of life, they do have their own faith and they do believe in God.
Basically, these are the two main issues that are greatly interconnected with our real life.
** Truly sorry sir for the very late reply . Thank you.
We are very sorry sir, got some problems. Here are the answers from Mok, Adib, Arman, Sajid and Azri.
The story of the 'House Opposite' is told through two characters, which are the hermit and the prostitute. The hermit, from which the story is narrated through his thoughts, is a man of religion, a man blind-folded by his own philosophy, and a mortal-man, one with his own weaknesses. The hermit is a holy man who follows his traditional Indian lifestyle strictly and suppresses his cravings for worldly sensations. He is arrogant as he thinks himself as a man of a higher order from the practice of his gurus' teachings. However, it is quite clear from his lack of self-restrain that he is performing all these without any true, sacred understanding other than his selfish desire for spiritual liberation in the afterlife. The hermit is a male chauvinist who blames the prostitute for her seduction, failing to realize just how fragile is the philosophy he holds so dearly. A hypocrite through and through, the hermit can only reflect his weaknesses upon others and does not consider himself as the root of all problems. He is a weak-willed man, and though he consciously fights to drive the thought of the prostitute out of his head, he can only succumb to his cravings for her, and in the end resorts to physically escape from his sanctuary in a cowardly manner. From this, we can see that though one can superficially appear as saint-like through rigorous practice and meditation, one's thought is ultimately the core for spiritual relief.
The other character is the prostitute. From the hermit's observation, we know that she is an attractive woman who carries an air of exquisiteness with her, wooing men, and hermits alike, with her curves and lines. Viewed as a sinful woman for her evil deeds of servicing men with needs, the prostitute portrays a loving attitude when she presents offering to bless her mother on remembrance day. This is obviously something the 'holy' hermit lacks. Interestingly, this presents to us some rather contradicting set of characteristics for both characters, leaving us to wonder just how unclearcut 'black and white' is in reality.
That's all.
Title: Issues
Group Members: dev, david tang, ehsan,nazif, sayid
based on the story ' The House Opposite' by R.K. Narayan, there are many issues in this stories which had been portrayed by the many examples given. Less-abstruse as it can be, the story has any issues such as life full of penances, austerities and social discrimination. This story revolves around a hermit who lives around stringent rules of the religion and manifests himself as a man of virtue until he sees a well-described woman who lives across the street. The sight of many customers of different ages coming to her house every day, plants a seed of hatred in him as he is inclined to tell her off. he hates the woman, regarding her as one of low-chaste. He simply wants to tell her to move out of the place so as to allow him to continue his penances in peace. let us now dive deeper into the picture of the issues there were in the story.
First and foremost, the issue of living in austerity is the main issue in the novel. the hermit, or also called a sage, practices the inner teachings of Hinduism to a high level. as a sage, he prays to the deities a lot and has a amazing vocabulary of mantras and hymns. His daily life centres upon teaching the small children moral values, praying, hitting the sack at dusk as a matter of discipline and waking up early in the morning even before sunrise, sleeping on the bare floor ( a clear sign of discipline to withdraw sense desires ) and a block under his head as a pillow. Also, he sits on a deerskin during meditation ( deerskin has been a passed on religious tradition by the spiriual teachers ) and his not materially contaminated; he does not get thrilled by muscles and well built torsos. he is surprisingly thrilled by his thin and emaciated body. It gives him the impression of being blessed bi the God. He is also seen to be following the teachings if his guru at close proximities. Hence, that was the first issue in the reading.
Secondly, the was also an issue about social discrimination. The lady who lived opposite the hermit's house was thought to be impure and of low-chaste. Just because she had customers in her house day in and day out, the hermit thought that she was dirty and as an obstacle to his penances. he planted hatred towards her because of her being a prostitute, not knowing the real reason behind her choice. She actually had a loving heart and was a filial daughter to her mother. She offered a tray of flowers and things as a token of love to the hermit could perform prayers for her mother. the social discrimination here shows how much the hermit discriminated her when she actually was a loving daughter.
the last issue mentioned in the story was the hermit being a hypocrite. It is shown clearly in the reading that being a sage, he practices various penances and austere rules of the religion which has been mentioned in the holy books and has been brought down to him by disciplic succession and becaause of that he must be thought to be a man of great virtue and a champion of extreme self control and sense control. He, however becomes a hypocrite when he misjudges the woman but yet admires her beautiful body. He believes that he is strong enough to resist the sense temptations well and overcome material bondage but is easily distracted by the prostitute when he hears the sound of the creaking of the door of her house. Simply, this shows that he is a real hypocrite and thus maintains the issue of the novel.
sir, i have posted my answer already.. it was quite a few times but i dont know why it does seem to appear here....... dev
it says dat the comment will be visible only after approval????
dev
TITLE: Plot of the short story-House Opposite
The plot can be divided into five major phases which are exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.
Exposition:
The story of House Opposite by R.K. Narayan deals with two fundamentally ways of life, portrayed by a hermit and a prostitute. The hermit is someone who was pursuing an austere life, forswearing family, possessions and all the comforts of life. He lived in an unvarying pattern of life, carried out the same routine every day. In contrast, the woman who lived opposite is a prostitute. The men always came after the woman. She is judged as a shameless woman.
Rising Action:
One afternoon, the woman stood on the doorstep while the hermit was sweeping dust and this introduces the conflict. The hermit gazed at her, appraising her seductive contour and body. This is why the men liked to visit her so frequently including the students, tailors, old and young and the middle aged. “Awful monster! Personification of evil” he thought. The anger started creeping up on the hermit and thus he asked the woman to get into her house since she had ruined his tapas.
Climax:
The climax of the short story arose when the hermit non-stop thinking about the woman in the opposite house during his meditation. He tried to concentrate but he failed miserably as the thoughts and distractions kept hovering in his mind. Ultimately, he came up with a decision. He wanted to eliminate the woman. He wished persuading her stop being prostitute and to live in a cleaner life.
Falling Action:
After that incident, the hermit could not fall asleep the whole night as the thought of the woman never leaving his mind. He rose up before dawn and his mind restored. He wanted to clear out immediately so that he could focus in the meditation. He recalled a tale heard from his guru for ages. It was about a prostitute, too. “A harlot was sent to heaven when she died while her detractor was sent to the hell. It was explained that while the harlot sinned only with her body, but her detractor was corrupted mentally because he was so obsessed with the harlot, her activities and could meditate on nothing else. The hermit packed his things and planned to leave during dusk.
Resolution:
While leaving, the hermit heard someone was calling him. The woman approached him with a tray of flowers and fruits. She sought for forgiveness from the hermit and she prostrated. She told the hermit that today was a day of remembrance of her mother and she prayed and sought for a saint’s blessing on that day. Finally, the hermit accepted it and leaved without a word.
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