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Are humans civilized, or are we just savages waiting to come out? William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies tackles that question.
Having a fancy title has always been on our to-do list, but somehow being Lord of the Flies doesn't sound all that glamorous.
Well, if this book doesn't make you want to tape over your laptop camera, we don't know what will.
Nectar in a Sieve 2862 Views
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Description:
What's the deal with "Nectar in a Sieve"? Shmoop amongst yourselves.
Transcript
- 00:04
Nectar in a Sieve<<siv>>, a la Shmoop. Have you ever told someone a story about something
- 00:10
that happened to you a long time ago?
- 00:13
Like… when you regaled your friends with the tale of the time you fell off your bike
- 00:19
and had to go to the hospital?
- 00:20
Or when you told them about the time you fell off your skateboard and landed face-first
Full Transcript
- 00:24
on the concrete?
- 00:25
Hm. Maybe you should be wearing protective padding…
- 00:28
We like to tell stories about our past.
- 00:30
But… why do we like doing that so much? In Nectar in a Sieve, our narrator, Rukmani,
- 00:41
who is now an elderly woman…
- 00:42
…tells us of her childhood.
- 00:48
So why did the author…
- 00:49
… choose to tell this story as a reflection of Rukmani’s past, rather than in the form
- 00:54
of a normal narrative?
- 00:58
Maybe it’s because she wanted to show how different things were years after the events
- 01:01
that took place in the story.
- 01:03
“Ruku” struggles with money problems…
- 01:05
…a growing emotional distance between herself and her children…
- 01:12
…droughts, starvation, death… all that good stuff.
- 01:17
But the book ends on a hopeful note.
- 01:19
And because our narrator has lived to a ripe old age, we can only assume that things got
- 01:20
better.
- 01:20
So perhaps we’re supposed to see how all those struggles… the strikes at the tannery…
- 01:24
the overcoming poverty… the resilience in the face of tragedy…
- 01:28
…all win out over desperation and despair in the end.
- 01:33
Or could it be that the author doesn’t want us wondering whether or not Ruku is going
- 01:36
to die?
- 01:37
She’s an elderly woman when she tells us this story, so we know she’s not going to
- 01:41
kick the bucket in some freak bicycling accident in her twenties.
- 01:45
By giving us the information that Ruku survives, it allows us to focus more on the story at
- 01:51
hand…
- 01:51
…rather than tempting us to play prophet and try to predict the outcome.
- 02:00
On the other hand… are we supposed to see… not how the world around Ruku has changed…
- 02:04
…but how she has changed? Has she become more or less optimistic as
- 02:11
a result of her hardships?
- 02:12
Has she lost faith in love and goodness in the world, or did her experiences enforce
- 02:17
her positive attitude?
- 02:19
Does she have regrets, or is she satisfied with the way her life has played out?
- 02:26
We wouldn’t be able to answer these questions… or to even ask them, really… if the story
- 02:32
were being told as it unfolded. So… why are we some… fly on the wall of
- 02:37
this time machine?
- 02:43
Are we supposed to see how Ruku has changed…
- 02:45
…how the world has changed…
- 02:47
…or are we just supposed to not worry about her suffering an untimely demise?
- 02:52
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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