Novel Summary Where Shall We Go This Summer & Aspects of Novel by E. M. Forester
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Where Shall We Go This Summer Summary by Anita Desai
Pregnant Sita
This is a story that highlights the gulf between the life of modern-day technopolis and conservative village life. The differences between the two often create a very different culture and breeding grounds for people and affect how they behave and what things they value.
The main character of the story is named Sita who is expecting a baby soon. She is pregnant but does not want to deliver her newborn in the toxic surrounding of her city. She is frustrated how her other children have been spoiled by the luxuries and distractions of modern lifestyle and remiss her own childhood and simple upbringing.
Desire to Move to Manori
She wants her newborn to be immersed in the same values and natural beauty that she enjoyed as a child in her island village of Manori. Her husband is against her wish to move to Manori as he realizes there will not be any nursing or healthcare facility there to aid her delivery.
He does not want to risk her pregnancy at that stage. However, Sita is determined and moves to Manori with her kids. While on the Island, Sita remembers her childhood days of fun and frolic.
Sita’s Father
She remembers her father who used to bring her and her siblings to the island and then narrate the stories about nature. He also enjoyed giving speeches about the country and its independence or freedom struggle.
On one such occasion, there were heavy rains and the island got flooded with a deluge of rainwater. Sita was in danger of being drowned when she was rescued by a stranger. That stranger eventually became her husband.
Kids Interact With Nature
At the island, she wants her children to immerse themselves in the same natural beauty and bounties. She takes them to the beach where they are mesmerized by the fishes and seashells. She is excited to see the kids interacting with nature.
However, she misses her husband. She wants her whole family to reap the benefits of such a simple and clean lifestyle. She loathes the hectic, fast-paced, mechanical city life.
End
In the end, her husband does come back to Manori. He consoles Manori but asks her to go back to the city to get proper medical care before the birth of the baby. Sita accepts and the whole family returns to their city life after a rejuvenating experience of the natural therapy of the Island.
Aspects of Novel by E. M. Forester
Aspects of Novel a series of lectures on the English novel, delivered by E. M. Forster at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1927. Forester is the view that there exist two types of critics in literary world-the one who "follows the method of a true scholar without having his equipment." (pseudo-scholar).
Such a critic focuses mainly on chronology. He divides literature according to ages, years, reigns, movements etc. This chronology according to Forester is irrelevant as well as pernicious or harmful in literature.
The true scholar, on the other hand, does not entertain chronology. Instead of focusing n the trends and styles of particular ages, he looks at the vital aspects of the novel that are common among all the novel of all the times.
These vital aspects are a story, characters, plot, prophecy and patterns and rhythms.
- The first element is the suspenseful story.
- The second important thing on which true scholar focuses on the characters-two types of characters-flat character who are straightforward and the round characters.
- The third important aspect is the plot-a novel should have a well-defined plot i.e. a well beginning, climax and end and the characters should fit the measure of the plot.
- The fourth one is the fantasy-the supernatural elements which are important for those novelists who cannot create good characters.
- The fifth one is prophecy. Forster describes the aspect of prophecy in a novel as “a tone of voice” of the author, a “song” by which “his theme is the universe.
- The last one is the pattern and rhythm-repetition plus variation.
A true scholar tries to find these commonalities in a novel as opposed to pseudo-scholar who instead focuses on ages.
