The respective volume contains the stories, Five Little Pigs, A Murder is Announced, and Taken at the Flood. When reading these stories, I asked myself whether the “modern” reader has a lead over the “old” reader of Christie; because of the possible exposure to all those crime shows on TV (provided, they expose themselves to it). This might harden the modern reader and thus, make him or her foresee the plot. If so, does that mean that “modern” Christie readers cannot appreciate these stories the same way as the “old” reader might have appreciated them? Did readers back in the 40s and 50s have a different reading experience? Were they more scared to go to bed after poring over this sort of crime fiction? Were they more excited when Hercules Poirot or Miss Marple announced who the murderer was?

As far as the first premise is concerned, I do not think that increased exposure to crime fiction, or crime TV shows, etc., transform the reader into a super-sleuth who already gets it all. What I do think is that people who lived during the time when Christie novels were published, had a better understanding of the time in which the story unfolds; a better grasp of references made about people, places, politics, etc. It would be interesting to know, what people back then were taking in when reading Christie texts. I am a reader of Agatha Christie who has no idea what it was like to live during that time in which the story unfolds, but the author leaves me hints that I then can compare to now (e.g., references about clothing/textile, social relationships, money). What seems plausible is that these references which I, as the modern day reader, need, in order to make sense about the period, might have been read and meditated on differently in the past.

In conclusion, it seems that Agatha Christie’s strongest asset was to create stories that are timeless and appeal to a vast variety of readers. What I most like about Christie, is that she gave us Miss Marple and Hercules Poirot-two entirely different protagonists that are a consistent staff in her stories. When beginning to read her novels, one never knows who is going to appear -Poirot or Miss Marple (for they never solve crimes together), and that alone can be just as exciting as getting through the last pages.

2. Die Debatte über den Gebrauch von Papier und Pergament
Albert J.Elen ergründet, weshalb Jacopo Bellini (c. 1400-c.1470) für sein Pariser Skizzenbuch Pergament und für das Londoner Skizzenbuch Papier verwendet hat. Diese strikt gehaltene Trennung der Materialien veranlasst Elen eine These aufzustellen, die besagt, dass Bellini aus experimentellen Gründen gehandelt hat.
Der essentielle Unterschied zwischen dem Londoner und dem Pariser Skizzenbuch ist die getrennte Materialienbenutzung von Paper und Pergament, wovon Pergament das teurere Material von beiden war. Es gibt verschiedene Faktoren weshalb die Wahl auf den einen oder anderen Träger fallen sollte. Elen weist auf die marktwirtschaftlichen Gründe hin: Die Preise für Pergament richteten sich nach den Schwankungen des Tiermarktes. Papier war ebenfalls sehr teuer und wurde erst Ende des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts billiger, als mehr davon produziert wurde. Pergament wurde jedoch wegen seiner Haltbarkeit bevorzugt. Als Anfang des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts das Skizzenbuch das Musterbuch ersetzte, wurde die Haltbarkeit des Trägers weniger gewichtet, denn das Skizzenbuch war für informelle und experimentelle Zeichnungen für Künstler und für die Werkstatt gedacht, weshalb der Gebrauch von Pergament für Skizzen weniger üblich war. Elen geht davon aus, dass Bellini die getrennte Verwendung von Pergament und Papier aus ökonomischen, wie auch aus experimentellen Gründen vorgenommen hat. Zum Experimentellen ist zu erwähnen, dass Bellini die Farbe und Struktur des Trägers, sowie seine Dauerhaftigkeit und was dieser für Auswirkungen auf die Zeichnung hatte, prüfen wollte.
Carmen C. Bamach hingegen stützt sich auf Bernhard Degenhart und Annegrit Schmitt , und schreibt, dass Bellini die Pergamentbögen wiederverwendet hat, was Elens These etwas abschwächt: In ihrem Buch, Drawing And Painting In The Italian Renaissance Workshop , ist zu lesen, dass es in Norditalien beliebte Motive gab, die in verschiedenen Musterbüchern einzusehen seien. Die Rede ist von Zeichenvorlagen für Musterbücher die Tierdarstellungen, vor allem gejagte Tiere, sowie nauralistisch und phantastische Blumenmotive zeigten. Bambach erwähnt hierfür Pergamentblätter aus einem Musterbuch, welches Bellini für seine Skizzenbücher wiederverwendet haben sollte. Bambachs Aussage schwächt Elens These folgendermassen ab: Hat Bellini wirklich mit seinen beiden Skizzenbüchern das Experimentieren mit Pergament und Papier im Sinn gehabt, wäre es unlogisch und kontraproduktiv, dass er hierfür bereits gebrauchtes Pergament verwendet haben sollte. Ginge es Bellini darum zu sehen, wie sich seine Zeichnungen auf Pergament und Papier unterscheiden, darf angenommen werden, dass der Zeichenstrich auf blankem Pergament anders aussieht als auf gebrauchtem.
3. Anschauungen über die Stilistik der Skizzenbücher
Colin Eisler (*1931) besinnt sich der Anmerkungen, welche Victor Golubew geschrieben hat. Darin vergleicht er das Louvre Skizzenbuch mit den minutiösen Pergamentwerken der Skriptoren des Mittelalters, die für Könige und Adlige hergestellt wurden. Laut Eisler macht es den Anschein, als ob Bellini in seinem Pariser Skizzenbuch für eine Patronage gezeichnet hat, denn die ritterlichen Themen, die darin oft vorkommen, hätten genau ihren Geschmack getroffen. Eisler sieht dies als Grund dafür, dass das Louvre Skizzenbuch gewissermassen festlicher wirkt als das Londoner Skizzenbuch. Das Londoner Skizzenbuch hingegen wirke in seinen Ausführungen viel moderner und habe die heroische Phase des frühen Renaissance Stils durchbrochen. Dies zeige sich vor allem in komplexen Verkürzungen und perspektivischen Konstruktionen. Der Zeichenstil auf der linken Seite des Londoner Buches wirke spontaner und weitreichender als derjenige auf den rechten Seiten. Es wird deswegen spekuliert, dass die linken Seiten erst nachträglich gezeichnet wurden, wie Marcel Röthlisberger annimmt. Diese Frage ist jedoch bis heute noch nicht geklärt. Eisler allerdings hält die These von Röthlisberger für plausibel. Dennoch offeriert er eine Gegenthese, die besagt, dass die progressivsten verso Seiten von seinem talentiertesten Sohn Giovanni gezeichnet wurden und die flächigeren Zeichnungen von seinem anderen Sohn Gentile oder von Werkstattlehrlingen durchgeführt wurden.
Eine These die Golubew in seinen Vormerkungen zu Die Skizzenbücher Jacopo Bellinis aufstellt, soll an dieser Stelle erwähnt werden: Golubew weist darauf hin, dass im Pariser Skizzenbuch, mit Ausnahme einer einzelnen Skizze , alle Zeichnungen über bereits bestehende Zeichnungen mit Farbe und zum Teil neuen Skizzen überarbeitet wurden. Bei den überzeichneten Darstellungen handele es sich um Zeichnungen, die orientalisch geprägte Stoffmuster zeigen. Solche Stoffmuster seien im späten Mittlelalter in Mode gewesen und wurden in verschiedenen italienischen Städten gewebt oder gestrickt. Golubew fügt hinzu, dass diese Ornamente in den neuen Zeichnungen durchschimmern würden. Ob diese Muster für Aufträge für Stoffweber und Kunststricker oder für Bellinis Eigengebrauch gedacht waren, kann Golubew nicht sagen.
Der Gedanke, dass diese noch sichtbaren Ormanente das Pariser Skizzenbuch gewissermassen aufwerten, scheint an eine interessante These anzuknüpfen: Eisler behauptet in seiner These, dass das Pariser und das Londoner Skizzenbuch zeitgleiche, aber verschiedene Renaissance Themen aufgreifen. Dies würde demnach bedeuten, wenn man Golubews These miteinbezieht, dass das Pariser Skizzenbuch gleich zwei Themen behandelt: Einerseits das Thema Zeichnung und andererseits das Thema Ornamente in Musterbüchern. Demnach wäre das Pariser Skizzenbuch eine wichtige Quelle für diesen Teil der Forschung, da die Stoffmuster über die Vorlieben der Renaissance Kundschaft sozusagen Auskunft geben.
4. Datierung und Chronologie
Victor Golubew schreibt im Vorwort zu Die Skizzenbücher Jacopo Bellinis. , über eine alte Eintragung auf dem ersten Blatt die besagt, dass die Zeichnungen von Jacopo Bellini stammen. Jedoch verweist er darauf, dass die Datierung der Zeichnungen nicht korrekt ist. Es sei zwar die Jahrzahl 1430 vermerkt, doch der Zeichenstil würde aber vielmehr dem Jahre 1445 entsprechen, denn die Zeichnungen weisen Beziehungen zu Paduaner und Ferrareser Kunstwerken der vierziger Jahre auf. Des weiteren seien die festlichen Sujets mancher Blätter eine Anspielung auf den Hof Lionellos. Als endgültiges Indiz einer falschen Datierung sieht Golubew das Wasserzeichen auf dem Papier, welches als solches erst 1441 erscheint.
Colin Eisler schreibt in seiner Monographie, The Genius Of Jacopo Bellini , dass die Variation der beiden Skizzenbücher nicht unbedingt auf eine unterschiedliche Datierung zurückzuführen ist, sondern dass jedes Buch separat verschiedene Aspekte der Renaissance aufgreift. Die älter wirkenden Zeichnungen im Pariser Skizzenbuch sind laut Eisler kein Anzeichen dafür, dass das Werk älter ist als das Londoner Skizzenbuch. Es sei vielmehr auf eine Art aristokratische Nostalgie für historische Themen zurückzuführen, was in der Kunst typisch war.
Albert J. Elen schreibt über seine schon vorhergehenden Annahmen, welche besagen, dass die Recto-Zeichnungen zuerst enstanden sind und die Verso-Zeichnungen erst später als Ergänzung zum Thema der Recto-Zeichnung angefertigt worden sind. Elen geht davon aus, dass Bellini die grossen Bögen einzeln aufbewahrt und diese erst nach Vollendung zu einem Buch gebunden hat. Elen begründet diese These damit, dass ein steter Transport des grossen Skizzenbuches sehr umständlich gewesen sein müsste und dass die Blätter viel schneller beschädigt worden wären. Zudem bezieht sich Elen auf die Technik der mittelalterlichen Scriptoria, in der auch die Schreiber zuerst auf einzelne Blätter geschrieben haben und diese erst später zu einem Band gebunden wurden. Die Blätter wurden unten mit einer Zahl vermerkt, was dem Buchbinder die Arbeit erleichtern sollte. Elen sieht keinen plausiblen Grund dafür, dass Künstler im Mittelalter und der Frührenaissance eine andere Technik hätten anwenden sollen. Dennoch vermerkt er, dass in keinem der Skizzenbücher Markierungen erscheinen, welche die Reihenfolge der Zeichnungen angeben und dass man deshalb davon ausgehen kann, dass die Zeichnungen nicht chronologisch zusammengebunden wurden.
Die Argumente, die Elen hervorbringt, scheinen zumindest aus heutiger Sicht plausibel: Ein bereits gebundenes Buch wäre für Bellinis Gebrauchszwecke eine umständliche Lösung gewesen, zumal der Einsatz von Gegenständen wie Zirkel und Lineal eine ebene Fläche voraussetzt. Ein aufgeschlagenes Buch, welches bekanntlich zwei aufeinanderstossende Papierwölbungen in der Mitte aufweist, würde das Lineal gegen die Buchmitte erhöhen, was ein exaktes Arbeiten hemmt.
Die zweite Argumentation von Elen scheint ebenso einleuchtend, auch wenn er seine These mit keinen weiteren Erläuterungen bekräftigt: Dass es im Mittelalter und in der Frührenaissance üblich war, lose Blätter erst nachträglich zu einem Kodex zu binden, kann man sicher als Tatsache hinnehmen. Wenn man ausserdem bedenkt, dass Bellini exakt gearbeitet hat, kann man sich nur schwer vorstellen, dass er es riskiert hätte einen Fehler in einem bereits gebundenen Buch zu machen.
Golubew schreibt über das Pariser Skizzenbuch, dass im fünfzehnten oder Anfang des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts auf der Folie 93r ein sogenanntes Indice, ein Verzeichnis der Skizzen, aufgezeigt hätte. Die Numerierung der Skizzen würde zwar mit dem Indice übereinstimmen, jedoch wäre der jetzige Bestand des Skizzenbuches anders geordnet als im Indice vermerkt. Golubew schreibt ausserdem, dass einige Blätter fehlten und andere nachträglich hinzugefügt wurden oder die Reihenfolge der Studien verändert worden sei.
5. Schlusswort
Abschliessend ist zu bemerken, dass Themen wie Datierung und Chronologie der Skizzenbücher in der Bellini Forschung äusserst wichtig zu sein scheinen. Es stellt sich jedoch die Frage, warum gerade diese Themen so wichtig sind. Es macht den Anschein als würde das Aufgreifen dieses Kapitels auch in Zukunft nicht verstummen. Doch, warum ist dieses Thema so wichtig? Was macht man, wenn das Geheimnis um die Datierung und Chronologie gelüftet ist? Gibt es einen Teil der Forschung, der darauf angewiesen ist, diese exakten Daten zu wissen? Beim Lesen der diversen Thesen fällt auf, dass Kunsthistoriker darauf bedacht sind, ihre Argumentation zu verteidigen. Dennoch wird generell nicht erwähnt, welchen Nutzen man sich von den als wahr herausgestellten Thesen erhofft und wie man diese in weitere Forschungen umsetzen könnte. Es ist eher unklar welchen Zweck eine genaue Datierung oder eine genaue Reihenfolge der Bellini Skizzenbücher erfüllt. Dieser Frage müsste mehr Wert beigemessen werden.
6. Literaturverzeichnis
Bambach 1999
Bambach, Carmen C., Drawing And Painting In The Italian Renaissance
Workshop. Theory And Practice 1300-1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Degenhart, Schmitt 1990
Degenhart, Bernhard, Annegrit Schmitt. Corpus der italienischen Zeichnungen 1300-1450. Teil II: Venedig: Jacopo Bellini. Berlin, 1990, in: Bambach 1999, S. 143.
Eisler 1989
Eisler, Colin T., The Genious Of Jacopo Bellini. The Complete Paintings And Drawings. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, 1898.
Elen 1995
Elen, Albert J., Italian Late-Medieaval And Renaissance Drawing Books From Giovannino de’ Grassi To Palma Giovane. A Codicological Approach. Proefschrift. Leiden, 1995.
Golubew 1908/12
Golubew, Victor, Les dessins de Jacopo Bellini au Louvre et au British Museum, 2 vols., Brussels, 1908/12., in: Elen 1995, S.433.
Golubew 1908/12 (hrsg.)
Golubew, Victor, Die Skizzenbücher Jacopo Bellinis. I (Londoner Skizzenbuch), und II (Pariser Skizzenbuch), Brüssel: Van Oest und Co. 1908/12.
Röthlisberger 1958-59
Röthlisberger, Marcel, „Nuovi Aspetti dei Disegni di Jacopo Bellini“, in: Critica d’arte, 13/14, 1958-59, 41-89, in: Eisler 1989.
7. Angaben zu den Skizzenbüchern
Bellini a. 1430[?]1445[?]
Bellini, Jacopo: Das Pariser Skizzenbuch. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.
Bellini b.1430[?]1445[?]
Das Londoner Skizzenbuch. British Museum, London, UK.

My cricket game was the one thing for which my grandmother never grudged me time away from my homework: on the contrary, she insisted that I run down to the park by the lake whether I wanted to or not. You can’t build a strong country, she would say, pushing me out of the house, without building a strong body. (8)

This example substantiates the position that studying takes up a major role in the narrator’s youth. I shall explain this in more detail, because I propose two ways of looking at this passage. Firstly, as mentioned before, the narrator’s spare time appears to be work-related. To be more precise, it is the Grandmother, a former schoolmistress, who feels that physical activities and being meticulous about one’s homework help to shape a strong personality.
The cricket game is a striking element in this sense, because it is the sort of game one would connect to British society. To make a general statement, it was the British who did not assimilate to the Indian culture. On the contrary, during the period of English colonization in India, the British people brought their traditions to India, cricket being one of them. It seems that the game has established itself in the Indian community as being a national one. Boria Majumdar and Sean Brown write in their essay ‘Why baseball, why cricket? differing nationalisms, differing challenges’ , that in India, the nationalist movement from the close of the Nineteenth Century made it crucial that cricket be taken up as a non-violent means to compete with the ruling British. The grandmother’s statement “[Y]ou can’t build a strong country […] without building a strong body” might entail the notion of a more Western society, where personal achievement seems to be credited to a stern education. Yet, it seems to be an overhasty conclusion that this form of education — that is, the combination of mental and physical education — is a British one and not traditionally Indian. To compare the traditional British school system with the traditional Indian means of education lies beyond the scope of this paper. Extensive research would have to be undertaken to adhere to such statements.
In the section above, I have offered a two-way perception of the provided excerpt. Firstly, I have discussed the grandmother’s promotion of education, and secondly, education as a means to run a nation. As discussed previously, the narrator emphasizes his grandmother’s severe ways of tutoring him. I have suggested that one way of discussing the narrator’s statement is to focus on the importance of studying and playing cricket. The narrator has the grandmother- figure explain the impact these activities have on the individual and on the country. To sum up, the grandmother’s belief that only the physically strong can build a strong country lead to the conclusion that education does play an important part in the social status of individuals in India. Furthermore, it is the educated people, in the grandmother’s opinion, who are able to rule a nation.
To make a connection between the grandmother’s ideas and the Indian nationalist idea that the game of cricket has been applied as a non-violent counterforce to Britain, it seems that there is a strong connection between the game of cricket and the nationalist point of view. To be more precise, the non-violent way of competing with a nation’s former colonizer appears to be the only way to publicize the nation’s struggle for its own identity. In turn, the only way of gaining enough strength to be able to rule a nation is through disciplined studies and playing a game that represents the nation.
So far, I have tried to highlight the importance of education in The Shadow Lines. I have substantiated my position by discussing the narrator’s recollections of his boyhood, where he clearly states that his spare time had to be reasonably spent with doing homework and playing cricket. This, of course, is a focus, which lies on one single-family structure.
The reader might find it interesting to know that throughout the novel there is but one passage that could be considered dealing with outcasts in Indian society. In the following excerpt, the narrator and his family visit a relative of theirs in the economically deprived parts of Calcutta. The narrator is watching outcastes washing their children in filthy water and collecting rubble off the slopes. Interestingly, the connection is made between poverty and education when the narrator is reminded that education is the only means to keep people in India from sliding into poverty. The construction of this connection is as follows: At first there is a narrative description with an overall focus on the setting, evoking feelings of disgust and shame towards the social outcasts. Secondly, the narrator uses the evoked feelings of disgust and shame in order to make the connection that failure in one’s education leads to poverty.

I could see women squatting at the edges of the pools, splashing with both hands to drive the back layers of sludge, scoping up the cleaner water underneath to scrub their babies and wash their clothes and cooking utensils. […] Running along the factory was a dump of some kind; from it the sludge-incrusted pools. […] I saw that there were a number of moving figures dotted over those slopes[…] They were picking bits of rubble off the slopes and dropping them into their sacks[…] [t]hey were completely camouflaged, like chameleons, because everything on them, their clothes, their sacks, their skins, was the uniform matt black of the sludge in the pools. (133).

The narrator constructs a situation, which evokes uncanny feelings such as disgust and shame towards the outcastes. The consecutive use of the terms “sludge”, “dump” “sludge-encrusted pools”, and “rubble” generate these feelings. To be more precise, the narrator builds up a climax of terms, which undermine the scenery that is so repulsive that it might even provoke a feeling of nausea in the reader. The depiction of mothers bathing their babies in filth is particularly strong, as those readers who might have children of their own will find themselves compelled to compare their situation with the narrator’s depiction. Moreover, all the goods that are washed in sludge are very close to one’s body. As a consequence, the clothes are never clean and the filthy water remains on the cooking utensils, and thus, indigested with the food that is eaten. Clearly, this depiction evokes disgust. Furthermore, the narrator compares these poor people with chameleons because they take on the same color as the puddles of mud that they stand in. Thus, these chameleon-like people are not to be told apart from each other, as they no longer appear as individual human beings, but as muddy creatures festering in trash. It follows that these people are not part of the nation because they are simply overlooked, as one can observe in the following citation.
In the second part of the excerpt the narrator makes the connection between failing in one’s education and sliding into poverty. Here, the reader is told that the fear of becoming one of the outcasts triggered his will to be meticulous about his studies. To be more precise, it is the mother that propagates this anxiety. She tells her son that if he doesn’t study hard enough he will end up on the slopes where all the poor people gather to collect trash.

Our relative spotted me leaning on the railing and ran out. Don’t look there! she cried. It’s dirty! Then she led me back inside. I went willingly: I was already schooled in looking away, the jungle-craft of gentility.[…] It was that landscape that lent the note of hysteria to my mother’s voice when she drilled me for my examinations; it was to those slopes she pointed when she told me that if I didn’t study hard I would end up over there, that the only weapon people like us had was our brains and if we didn’t use them like claws to cling what we’d got, that was where we’d end up, marooned in that landscape: I knew perfectly well that all it would take was a couple of failed examinations to put me where our relative was, in permanent proximity of to that blackness: that landscape was the quicksand that seethed beneath the polished floors of our house; it was that sludge which gave our genteel decorum its fine edge of frenzy. (131/132).

Discussing the citation, the reader perceives that the landscape, which the narrator is looking at, is so dirty that he is scolded immediately and taken back inside the apartment. Interestingly, the narrator states that he is already schooled in looking away, because he was told early on that neglecting one’s studies would lead to poverty. The way in which this fear has affected the narrator is, to use a Western example, is reminiscent of the stories that act as a deterrent in the German children’s book, Der Struwwelpeter. The stories in this book serve to make children believe that they will be punished like the protagonists if they do not behave the way their guardians want them to.
Another aspect to be considered is the word there, which is used synonymously to refer to the gutter. Therefore, one can draw the conclusion that the people in the narrator’s family are so overwhelmed with fear of sliding down into poverty that this unwanted situation is simply referred to as there. What is more, the mother emphasizes that the brain is the only weapon that saves them from ending up in that particular situation. To sum up, the narrator creates a climax when he uses the quicksand metaphor to refer to the instability of his family’s home. The narrator pictures their home on top of quicksand, and the only way to avoid being swallowed is to keep one’s grades up in school.
At this point I would like to discuss a character that does not consummate his education. Tridib is the narrator’s eccentric cousin who lives in his family’s old house in Calcutta. What makes this character so special in the context that is discussed in this paper is that he acts as a deterrent. Ironically, Tridib is by no means an uneducated person; he is one of those individuals who would fit the typical description of a bohemian. He is a bachelor and spends most of his time in his room reading and smoking cigarettes. It seems obvious that Tridib is a threat to the grandmother’s notions of education.

She would often try to persuade me that she pitied him. Poor Tridib, she would say. There’s nothing in the world that he couldn’t have done with his connections. He could have lived like a lord and run the country. And look at him – oh, poor Tridib – living in that crumbling house, doing nothing. (7)

Judging from the grandmother’s perspective, it is obvious that education is only good if one makes use of it. For her, Tridib is the perfect example of a man who will not lead a meaningful life. Apart from this, the grandmother’s belief appears to be that educated people should rule the country, and this is only possible if one implements one’s knowledge. As previously discussed, the grandmother, like the mother, makes use of the deterrent theme. Again, the narrator is lured into believing that if he does not implement his knowledge, he will end up living in a deteriorating house like his cousin. The narrator offers an interesting insight into the reasons for the grandmother’s disfavor of Tridib, namely, that he associates with people of a socially lower status.

She had deep horror of the young men who spent their time at the street-corner addas and tea-stalls there. All fail cases […] [t]hink of their poor mothers, flung out on dung heaps, starving…(7).

The passage is very similar to the one where the mother passes on to her son the fear of having to live an outcast life on the muddy slopes.
At this point I think it could be argued that Tridib has used his education to liberate himself according to his own wishes and desires. He has made a conscious decision, and seems content with his choice of lifestyle. One has the impression that the narrator cannot make this claim for himself, because he seems to be more a victim of the grandmother’s manipulation rather than the master of his own life. Also, “the deep horror” of those men, those “fail cases” (7) is justified, as the grandmother believes that it calls for strong and educated men to rule a nation. Clearly, those men will never be candidates for such a position. In addition, it is indicated that the women will suffer the consequences.
To conclude, I have mentioned in my introduction that the topic discussed in this paper is not the outstanding feature in The Shadow Lines. Yet, what I have hoped to bring across is that being an educated person inevitably contributes to a social upraise. To apply this notion to the discussed excerpts, it is fear of loosing social status and housing that is the reason for emphasizing the importance of education. Moreover, I discussed that the grandmother and mother characters function as the figures that bring this idea across. The means by which the narrator is made to take his studies seriously is by choosing social outcasts and the narrator’s cousin Tridib, who take on the functions of a deterrent. To be more precise, they are made examples of social failures, which under no circumstances should be emulated. The reasons why the outcasts became such in the first place is oversimplified, as these people most likely never had the access and means to education. The narrator is made to believe that education is the only way to prevent a downfall into poverty. But, education in the case of Tridib has a function of personal liberation – he has made educated choices – his choices, and is happy with them. One could argue that the grandmother’s insistence that education must have a practical application, such as running a country, actually imprisons the individual instead of liberating them. On the other hand, Tridib serves as an example of an educated individual who has not put his knowledge to use and is prone to slip into poverty. To sum up, to antagonize the socially deprived individuals in The Shadow Lines is a means of make-belief.

Works Cited

Ghosh, Amitav. The Shadow Lines. United States of America: Viking Penguin, 1989.
Brown, Sean, Majumdar, Boria. ‘Why baseball, why cricket? differing nationalisms, differing challenges’ In: International Journal of the History of Sport. Volume 24, Issue 2 February 2007, pages 139 – 156. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a768567400~db=all (visited on 6/1/08 11:10 AM)