Topic > A Passage to India - 1320

There are people moving, merchants selling, Anglo-Indians watching, and birds flying overhead. How many perspectives are there in this fragment of life? They are countless and this is the reality. Modernist writers strive to emulate this kind of reality in their own work as well. There is a tendency in these novels to lack a chronological or even logical narrative and there are also frequent breaks in the narratives where perspectives jump from one to another without warning. Because there are many points of view and not all of them are explained, modernist novels often tend to have narrative perspectives that change suddenly or cause confusion. This is because modernism has always been an experimental form of literature without a traditional narrative or a fixed, rigid structure. Therefore, EM Forster, author of A Passage to India, uses such techniques to portray the true nature of reality. The conflict between Adela, a young British girl, and Aziz, an Indian doctor, at the Marabar Caves implements multiple modernist ideals and is set in British India. In this novel, Forster shows the relationships and tensions between the English and Indians through a series of events all caused by the confusing effects of modernism. E. M. Forster implements such literary techniques to express the importance or insignificance of a situation and to emphasize an impression of realism and enigma in Chandrapore, India, in which Forster's novel, A Passage to India, is set. Forster has a tendency to suddenly change the narrative from one point of view to another, contrasting point of view. This underlines another modernist view which suggests that there is no single truth and rather that there is a... middle of paper ......and he refuses to come... I tell him: Come, and come, come, come, come, come. He neglects to come.” (84) The meaning is never understood because the narrative does not explain the meaning, and as a result, India's confusion is further strengthened. Thus, much of the modernist views of India are fuzzy, realistic truths, and the fact that there are multiple truths is all reinforced by the narrative techniques used by E.M. Forster. Many of the modernist techniques frequently used by modernist writers work in conjunction with the manipulation of narrative. In A Passage to India, most modernist views are strengthened by narrative shifts, multiple truths, and confusing narration or dialogue. In this way, Forster escapes traditional and rigid forms of writing and is able to explore a new and modern literature suited to his time..