AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters
BY
REENA RAI (NAING NAING LATT) Student Number: 044214147
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
iv
Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true
education
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A bright person is not necessarily wise; a dull person not
necessarily foolish. Wisdom is not the same as knowledge;
it lies in how you treat others and handle yourself.
v
This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to:
My beloved Moms and Dad
My lovely Family
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I would like to give my greatest honor to Holy God who reminds me that I can be a better person and there is always a reason to be a better person throughout my life’s journey. My deepest gratitude goes to my beloved Moms and Dad who are truly my guardian angels and give the greatest eternal love of parents to me in my life. I am really grateful for your support and kindness as parents who gave me special permission to take this opportunity for further education. My special thanks also go to my family for their support.
vii
I would like to present my greatest thanks to Sr. Benedict CB, Sr. Mary Rose FCJ and Sr. Terry CB for their kindness and encouragement. I owe also my gratitude to Fr. Opzeeland SJ, Fr. Clay SJ, Fr. Harjanto SJ, Fr. Baskara SJ, Fr. Benny SJ, Fr. Ari SJ, Fr. Setiawan SJ, Fr. Heru OMI, the community of Jesuits and the community of Sr. FCJ for their generosity and support.
I want to convey my deepest gratitude to all my dearest friends for helping me in my study and giving me a wonderful time throughout my academic years. My thanks go to my batch-mates, my classmates Aili, Hilda, Ayu, Nita, Vina, Lucia, Wisni, Oos, Krisma, A Doll House my play performance group, my KKN friends, my Myanmarese friends Daisy, Goretti, Joseph, Mary and also other Myanmarese friends, my dormitory friends Sasma, Tures, Anggita, Richa, Ning Ning, Tere, Sisca, Hana, Vina, Weny, Putri, and Mbak Lina and her whole family. My special thanks go to all who have given me a hand in completing my thesis even though I could not mention every single name here.
viii
1. Character and Characterization Theory... 15
2. Theory on Setting………. 18
3. Postcolonial Literary Theory: Nationalism………. 20
C. Theoretical Framework……… 25
B. The Portrait of Burmese Postcolonial Society Seen in the Story... 42
1. Military Regime………. 43
f. The Rebels (Anti-military Regime Groups)………….. 54
ix
1. Oppression in Politics………. 56 2. Oppression in Economy……….. 62 3. Oppression in Education………. 65 4. Discrimination on the Ground of Ethnicity and Social Class… 69 5. The Misuse of Power……….. 72 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION……….. 77 BIBLIOGRAPHY……… 81 APPENDIX: A Brief Note about Pascal Khoo Thwe and the Summary of
x ABSTRACT
REENA RAI (NAING NAING LATT). Colonization Practices Seen through the Main Character and His Society in Pascal Khoo Thwe’s From the Land of Green Ghosts. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2009.
The main object of this study is a postcolonial literary work, Pascal Khoo Thwe’s From the Land of Green Ghosts. The novel describes Burma, a third world nation, which was once colonized by the British. The national culture of Burmese postcolonial society is transmitted from its colonizer since the military regime employs colonization practices in running the nation by means of oppressing the public with imperial power.
There are three objectives of the study. The first one is to study the description of the main character, Pascal Khoo Thwe; the second is to examine the portrait of the society seen in the story; the last objective tries to explore the colonization practices revealed by the main character and his society.
xi ABSTRAK
REENA RAI (NAING NAING LATT). Colonization Practices Seen through the Main Character and His Society in Pascal Khoo Thwe's From the Land of Green Ghosts. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2009.
Objek utama dalam studi ini adalah karya sastra postcolonial, From the Land of Green Ghosts karya Pascal Khoo Thwe. Novel ini mengambarkan Burma, negara dunia ketiga, yang pernah dijajah oleh Inggris. Kebudayaan nasional masyarakat postcolonial Burma berasal dari penjajahnya karena rezim militer menerapkan praktek-praktek penjajahan dalam menjalankan pemerintahan dengan cara menindas masyarakat dengan kekuasaan imperial.
Ada tiga tujuan dalam penelitian ini. Yang pertama adalah untuk mempelajari gambaran tokoh utama, Pascal Khoo Thwe; yang kedua adalah untuk mengamati potret masyarakat yang terlihat dalam cerita; yang terakhir mencoba melihat dari dekat praktek-praktek penjajahan yang diungkapkan oleh tokoh utama dan masyarakatnya.
From the Land of Green Ghosts karya Pascal Khoo Thwe merupakan sumber utama skripsi ini. Pendekatan postcolonial diterapkan dalam data penelitian ini. Teori-teori yang digunakan dalam studi ini adalah teori tentang tokoh dan penokohan, teori setting, dan teori sastra postcolonial yang disebut teori nasionalisme.
Hasil penelitian ini adalah, pertama, citra masyarakat postcolonial Burma yang dilihat melalui pengalaman Pascal Khoo Thwe yang penuh dengan penderitaan. Temuan ini mengarah pada temuan kedua tentang masyarakat Burma, yang mengungkapkan bahwa pembentukkan masyarakat postcolonial
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
The term “colonialism” is not new at all for almost all the nations in today’s world. Since the early centuries, the existence of colonialism can be seen through the whole time of human history. The basic idea of colonialism is the invasion of another’s territories in order to take control of another’s land and properties. This process of expansion existed not only throughout the era of Monarchy but also in the time of modern European colonialism. The process of European colonialism causes changes in the colonized nations and also in the whole of humanity (Loomba, 1998:2-3).
Even though the period of colonialism is over, its mode of essence or its spirit is still streaming in once-colonized people known in the present day as postcolonial societies and this is the aftermath of colonialism. Hence, colonialism is the original point generating the philosophy of postcolonialism and also the pre-history of postcolonial society. Postcolonialism is the idea that tries to view the ongoing colonial aspects or practices in postcolonial society critically and intensely. In this case, its concern is to unfold the curtain of truth beyond the vision of the ongoing colonial practices such as hegemony, subordination, discrimination, oppression, class, race, hybridity and dehumanization that have been experienced by the colonized named third world nations up to the present and also to sweep out the colonial syndrome from colonized or third world nations by revealing the detailed fact of colonial practices that have been tactfully disguising colonized people throughout the history (Loomba, 1998:15-19).
…the ‘Third World’ is seen as a world defined entirely by its relation to colonialism. Its histories are then flattened, and colonialism becomes their defining feature, whereas in several parts of the once-colonized world, historians are inclined to regard colonialism ‘as a minor interruption’ in along, complex history (Loomba, 1998:18).
Moreover, postcolonial discourse can be said to be the new literary canon related to colonialism that brings the world into two divisions, known as the first and the third world. It discusses the third world nations that share the same colonial exploitation in their past history. The third world is considered to be the nations once conquered by the Western countries, called the first world in order to be clearer in the process of postcolonial study.
This is because there is continuity of preoccupations throughout the historical process initiated by European imperial aggression. …this literature has in common beyond their special and distinctive regional characteristics is they emerged in their present form out of the experience of colonization and asserted themselves by foregrounding the tension with the imperial power, and by emphasizing their difference from the assumptions of the imperial center (Ashcroft. et.al, 1989:2).
The most significant feature of postcolonial studies is the literature that relates to colonialism and at the same time, opposes the enduring experience of imperial power in the third world nations through out the centuries. The period of colonization has been over since all the colonized nations gained their official independence from the European colonizers. However, the constant stream of colonization processes in the third-world nations seen in every part of the world is the effect of colonialism. This fact is confirmed and critiqued by literature from out side or within third world nations which has proved how third world nations have been culturally shaped by the imperial power. This literature is described as the postcolonial literatures.
literature is that any writing or books can be seen as postcolonial literature if the context itself carries out the fundamental idea of colonialism by providing evidence of the oppressor and subordinator. It can be assumed to be a critical way of viewing the literary text by interrelating it with colonial ideas that are widely spread in the third world nations to the present day.
Therefore, based on the writer’s interest toward the postcolonialism, postcolonial literature will be discussed in this study. Even though the postcolonial literature does not directly reflect its identity in this field. However, it can be regarded as having a postcolonial literary context because third world literature is chosen in order to make it easy to approach the topic of postcolonialism. Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin stated in The Empire Writes Back
that the literature from once colonized nations is all regarded as postcolonial literature. The chosen work; From the Land of Green Ghosts written by Pascal Khoo Thwe is one of the literary works from Burma, a once colonized nation of British Empire.
of Burma who are named Padaung. Next is how his life has been miserably passed, suffered and trapped by the political condition and how he struggles for his survival during the Burma revolution. The last part is his escape to England from the oppressive military government and also his success in gaining education as a weapon to use against the military government.
Therefore, the novel itself wholly supports the atmosphere of postcoloniality. To this point, the writer is going to relate this work with postcolonialism by criticizing the condition of the society in the story that is just mimicry of the colonization process. Besides, the writer also aims to uncover the national culture of Burma today that is only the heritage of colonialism. The society mentioned in this story supports the postcolonial society. So, there might be two divisions within the society in the story which reveal the deeper idea of colonialism in which always has two contradictory sides as colonial and colony, oppressive and subordinate, powerful and powerless and superior and inferior and so on. In this case, there are two contradictory sides represented as the main character, Khoo Thwe and the people (the part of non-military government) which are depicted as a powerless society and the military government depicted as a powerful society.
huge impact on the society (Pascal Khoo Thwe and the people who part of non-military government) who are totally dominated in every aspect by the imperial power of military government unconsciously practicing the colonization process in society throughout the decades. Furthermore, it will also figure out how the national culture of a third world nation, Burma is totally shaped by the past colonial idea that is a consequence of colonialism.
B. Problem Formulation
The writer generates three problem formulations and based on the idea of research the problems can be formulated as following,
1. How is Pascal Khoo Thwe’s miserable life experience described in the story? 2. How is the society portrayed in the story?
3. What colonization practices are revealed by Pascal Khoo Thwe and his society?
C. Objectives of the Study
deeper part of the analysis which will lead to the third problem formulation. The third objective is to observe the colonization practices revealed by the main character and the society to get to the bottom line of the analysis of this work. This stage is to explore deeply in order to discover how colonization process has remarkably remained in the Burmese society of the story and what colonization practices are actually reflected by the main character and his society throughout the story.
D. Definition of Terms
In this section, the writer tries to define a particular definition to avoid misunderstanding this research which is developed through the writer’s point of view. The following are definitions of words stated in the title and in the problem formulation of this research.
1. Colonialism
According to Ania Loomba’s Colonialism/Postcolonialism, colonialism is defined as the conquest and control of the other people’s island and goods. It is and has been a current and widespread feature of human history (1998:2).
2. Practice
3. Colonization Practices
Based on the above definitions, it can be defined that it is the way colonizers control the colonized or the methods or techniques used by the colonizers in governing the colonized. In other words, it is a kind of system formed by the colonizers which is employed to rule the colonized during colonization period.
4. Experience
The writer takes the meaning of experience as a theory in this study to be helpful in the study of Pascal Khoo Thwe’s experiences. Some explanations of experience are taken from reliable source in order to get more comprehension of experience. Experience is easily thought of as a stream of private events, known only to their possessor, and bearing at best problematic relationships to any other events, such as happenings in an external world or similar streams in other possessors. The stream makes up the conscious life of the possessor. One’s own relationship with one’s experience itself involves memory, recognition, and description (Answers Corporation, 2009). Experience is the effect upon the judgment or feelings produced by any event, whether witnessed or participated in; personal and direct impressions as contrasted with description or fancies; personal acquaintance; actual enjoyment or suffering (Accurate & Reliable Dictionary, 2004-2009).
through (A Free Dictionary, 2009). It is also defined as the act of living through an event or events; personal involvement in events as they occur (Your Dictionary, 1996-2009). In Encarta® World English Dictionary, the experience is explained as something that happens to somebody or an event that somebody is involved in (2009).
5. Life
In A Free Dictionary, it stated as the physical, mental, and spiritual experiences that constitute existence: e.g. the artistic life of a writer (2009).
6. Life Experience
10 CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
There are a few reviews of this novel by some critics providing their critique and point of view on it from different angles. These reviews are quite reliable and trustworthy. Helencbradshaw gives his comment about the novel through his article, Staying Alive?, as following
The Padaung tribe is an extremely remote tribe and their beliefs are founded completely in ghosts and folklore, never having experienced any kind of modern living. The tribal women are noted for their elongated ‘giraffe’ necks, possibly an optical illusion due to their tradition of wearing many rings around their necks and their arms. Here is a tribe, which few will have heard of, with believe in a spirit world, yet somewhere along the way their beliefs have started to include Catholicism. This book is a fascinating and moving autobiography as well as an excellent insight into the affairs of a remote land and peoples. The deep rooted beliefs of the tribe are interesting and awe inspiring, to say the least, when you consider that the grandparents could literally take years to explain their beliefs to their offspring by way of storytelling (2005).
Another review is from Mirante’s article Pascal Khoo Thwe and the Book of Memory. His comment is quite different from other critics because his point of view is pretty much, one must say, unique.
Green Ghosts is also clearly expressed enough for readers utterly unfamiliar with Southeast Asia. There is never a false step as Khoo Thwe tells his life story, although I would have liked to see more care taken with the illustrations. A few chapters into Green Ghosts, it suddenly struck me that Khoo Thwe is a sort of real-life Harry Potter, raised among spells and enchantments; bundled off to this odd boarding school, threatened by evil and always curious in spirit; a brave boy raised to face overwhelming oppression with an ancient curse hurled back at it. In the end, British academic robes donned, Khoo Thwe faces Burma’s regime with this book of magic, a work of art and truth that he has conjured to defy it (2003). As mentioned above, Edith Mirante points out that Pascal Khoo Thwe is a culturally transmitted man who is brought up in a strong tribal tradition and believes in ghosts, spirits and ancestor guardians. The incredible experience of Pascal Khoo Thwe and his belief in the spiritual world is similar to the mythical fiction character, Harry Potter who is raised in a magical world. Besides, the way Harry Potter bravely defeats the oppression of the magical evil world is compared to Pascal Khoo Thwe’s life journey and how he struggles to face the dictatorship.
Furthermore, Mirante gives another review from a different point of view that is a very critical one taken from the same article, Pascal Khoo Thwe and the Book of Memory.
World fantasies that in Third World struggles, the story is about the (usually white) person who will perform the rescue act (2003).
It is quite noticeable that there are two significant subject matters in Pascal Khoo Thwe’s success. These are how he overcomes the dreadful journey of his life by the guidance of spiritual world and how white people play a heroic role by helping with Pascal Khoo Thwe’s escape from dictatorship and by giving him a privileged education. In this case, Pascal Khoo Thwe’s rescue by a British Professor presents the traditional issue which is the first world’s fantasy that in third world struggles the white people usually act as the savior of the third world people (Burmese) whose fantasy is to free from the regime. In other words, the effort of white people (British Professor) in enlightening the third world people (Pascal Khoo Thwe) is a sort of echo from the colonial past.
There are some other reviews such as the critique taken from Schwalbe’s article Book Review: From the Land of Green Ghosts. His approach is from a humanistic perspective, as mentioned below.
Pascal Khoo Thwe’s memoir From the Land of the Green Ghosts is remarkable for many reasons, but what makes it of particular interest to Human Rights Watch is its description of the human rights catastrophe in Burma and its moving chronicle of the author’s route to becoming a human rights activist. One of the things this book bring home with astonishing power is the way that these interactions can turn out to be a lifeline when situations deteriorate, and how they create bonds and webs of responsibilities and possibilities across borders patrolled by even the most ruthless governments. It puts a human face on the victims of the atrocities perpetrated by the generals who have taken over a remarkable and varied country (2006).
Pascal Khoo Thwe’s life experience (autobiography), he was tortured by the dictatorship throughout his life journey because of his involvement in the revolution for civil rights and because of his disapproval of the authoritarian government. It gives the portrait of the terrifying violent oppression by a regime abusing public rights and also proves that the author himself is a human rights activist unfolding details about the people’s survival under the dictatorship. These descriptions are found in his autobiography.
In the article, Military action and jungle adventure for someone who just wanted to read modernist fiction, Murray provides his viewpoint on two overseas authors living in England by comparing their literary works.
The book is a moving tribute to the Padaung and to the martyrs of the misrule of Burma. In contrast to another writer enamored of English literature who got to England, V. S. Naipaul, Khoo Thwe loves the land and people he left behind and celebrates them and their struggle rather than laughing at them from the perspective of the British. Whereas Naipaul is sardonic about everyone and everything in Trinidad (and, indeed, everywhere except rural England), Khoo Thwe is sometimes bemused, but more often elegiac, feeling sympathy even for the young soldiers sent to kill him. Naipaul has produced a large body of work, whereas this memoir is the first book by Khoo Thwe, but for largeness of spirit, Naipaul could not compete with Pascal Khoo Thwe (2003).
sympathy for his nation, he satirically criticizes his own society’s weakness. Besides, Pascal Khoo Thwe’ memoir is incompatible with Naipaul’s work because it is not only an inspiring and moving memoir but also shows author’s nationalist spirit for the sake of his people.
B. Review of Related Theories
In analyzing this study, the writer applies a few effective theories which are supportive in solving the problem formulations. There are some significant intrinsic elements which interrelate with extrinsic elements in a work of literature. In the intrinsic elements, a character and a setting are not only the most significant elements for conveying the message of literary work but also the most helpful element to link with the extrinsic elements in this study. To research this study, the character and the setting (intrinsic elements) are used as a medium to explore a process of colonialism (extrinsic element). So, character and characterization theory, and theory on setting are used to answer the second problem formulation. To have a good comprehension about the society, society in novel is also stated in this part to be helpful in analyzing the second problem. In answering the last problem formulation, the postcolonial theory which focuses on nationalism is applied in this study.
1. Character and Characterization Theory
really is by defining his/her specific physical appearance and attitude toward work (Christopher and Casey, 1968:10-13).
Stanton’s An Introduction to Fiction gives further explanation of motivation.
A character’s reason for behaving as he does is his motivation. His specific motivation is his immediate reason, perhaps unconscious, for any particular speech or act. His basic motivation is an aspect of his general character: it is the continuing desire or intention that governs him through out the story, the direction toward which almost all his specific motivations tend (1965:17).
As stated above, the behavior of a character is based on his/her motivation. There are two divisions in motivation known as specific motivation and basic motivation. In the specific motivation, the character’s morality is revealed through his or her speech and actions. The basic motivation is a desire, a kind of intention of the character controlling him or her in the entire story that goes with the specific motivations.
In An Introduction to English poetry and the English Novel for Overseas Students, Murphy discusses more details about how a character is described by the author (1972:161-173). As following,
a) Personal Description: This section is a description of the physical appearance of a person by the author, that is what the person looks like in detail.
c) Speech: The character passes on to readers clues of his or her personality whenever he or she speaks, whenever he or she is in conversation with another character and whenever he or she states his or her opinion.
d) Past Life: By contributing the past life of the character, the author gives clues to events that assist the reader to figure out the characteristics of a person seen in direct comments by the authors and through his or her thoughts and his or her conversation.
e) Conversation of others: The author also gives clues to the characteristic of a person through the conversations of other people and the things they say about him.
f) Reactions: The author can also give us a clue to a person’s character by letting us know how that person reacts to various situations and events.
g) Direct Comment: The author can describe or comment on a person’s character directly.
h) Mannerisms: The author can describe a person’s mannerisms, and habits which may also tell us something about his character.
The above are the fundamental distinctive features of the character that can be seen through the character in the story, even though not as a whole. Besides, in order to have a good understanding of the story, the audiences need the knowledge gained by classifying the character. Abrams gives further explanation of comprehending the character in A Glossary of Literary Terms, as stated below.
single idea or quality’ and is presented without much individualizing detail, and therefore can be fairly adequately described in a single phrase or sentence. A round character is complex in temperament and motivation and is represented with subtle particularity…. (1981:23-24).
There are two kinds of character, the stable or unchanged character that has a constant quality through out the story and the changed character in which these can be seen a quality of character development through his/her motivation and the result of crisis in the story. The character is categorized into flat and round characters. The flat character, literally known as a minor character, doesn’t play a major role in the story because he/she has a few significant characteristics and less qualities to make any development. However, the round character, a major character, is a prominent one having an individualized character that is built up with a particular personality and motivation.
2. Theory on Setting
Setting is one of the intrinsic elements in a literary work. This theory will later be helpful to study the society of the story. A term setting is quite broad consisting of many related elements within it (Gill, 1985:148). The elements making up a setting can be seen through Abrams, Harmon, Roberts, Van de Laar and Schoenderwoerd, and Gill’s theory of setting which gives a clear explanation on it.
take place” (1981:175). This theory is also supported by Harmon’s theory of setting in A Handbook to Literature that the setting is also defined as:
a) The geographical location, its topography, scenery, and such physical arrangements as the location of the windows and doors in a room
b) The occupations and daily manner of living of the characters
c) The times or period in which the action takes place, for example, epoch in history or season of the year
d) The general environment of the characters, for example, religious, mental, moral social, and emotional conditions (1936:469-470)
Setting is important in a literary work since the characters in literature are associated with it. According to Roberts, setting is defined as “the natural and artificial scenery or environment in which characters in literature live and move. References to clothing, description of physical appearance, and spatial relationships among the characters are also part of setting. In short, the setting of a work is the sum total of references to physical and temporal objects and artifacts” (1964:72). Van de Laar and Schoenderwoerd in the book An Approach to English Literature said that “sense and environment in them is as important as the characters themselves, as the characters are determined and shaped by the environment. The characters are as they are because of their environment. They cannot be detached from it, as they are subordinate to and dependent on it” (1958:173).
a) The places in which characters appear
b) The social context of characters, such as their families, friends and class c) The customs, beliefs, and rules behavior that give identity to a society d) The particular locations of events
e) The atmosphere, mood and feel that all the above elements create (1985:148) According to Langland (1984:5), society in a wide sense is not merely peoples and their classes but also their customs, conventions, beliefs and values, their institutions – legal, religious, and cultural – and their physical environment; in short, their medium. Society is a context or background within which, and against which, characters define themselves. Society is a kind of medium in which characters define themselves by revealing their perspective and values through actions and thought.
3. Postcolonial Literary Theory: Nationalism
Postcolonialism is basically discussing the consequence of colonialism for colonizer and colonized after the end of colonialism. In other words, it is a decolonizing process in which the colonized are encouraged to revisit and recall their colonial past in order to uncover the lasting domination of imperial power in third world nations.
their nation from the imperialist oppression by means of national movements or anti-colonial movements (Ashcroft et.al, 1995:151).
However, nationalism itself still engages with the prehistory of colonialism. It even denies the colonial state but tries to form its own autonomy within a postcolonial society that is not the whole and pure traditional idea of that third world society but it is just continually a replication of colonial philosophy. Besides, many aspects of third world nations are created by their colonizers’ ideas and the invention of new nation-ness is merely a reduplication of their colonial past (Loomba, 1998:196).
In The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, Ashcroft et.al, stated that
….a national culture which existed before the colonial era finds its legitimate reason in the anxiety shared by native intellectuals to shrink away from that Western culture in which they all risk being swamped. Because they realize they are in danger of losing their lives and thus becoming lose to their people, these men, hot-headed and with anger in their hearts, relentlessly determine to renew contact once more with the oldest and most pre-colonial springs of life of their people (1995:153-154).
from the western made culture or history ironically turn out to be in vain because of surrogating the old colonial culture which is just another sheer torture for their own people or third world colonized people.
The colonization of the mind is manifested in the manner in which a people’s history is denied and they are made to feel inferior and incapable of challenging the colonial order. In this way the national identity of a people is denigrated and made non-functional. The colonized are rendered not only economically dependent but also psychologically dependent, thus making them subjects of the colonial power. It is through decolonization that the colonized country begins to construct a history, this can be conceived only as a result of the war of liberation, whereby the colonize nation is able ‘to rediscover its own genius, to reassume its history and assert its sovereignty’ (Ahluwalia, 2001:41).
In Politics and Post-colonial Theory: African Inflection, it is stated that postcolonial society has been mentally colonized. This syndrome constantly causes the colonized to fail in searching their own national identity by regarding themselves powerless and subordinate. Besides, the colonial power ruins the mantle, physical, economic and many other capacities of colonized people by making native people’s brain empty, and natives’ spirit inferior and this causes the natives to consider themselves unable and incompetent to revolt against the colonial past. Even though the colonized attempt to build up their national identity, the self-invention of their nationality is doomed to fail. On the one hand, it is suggested that to form natives’ own history, it is important to fully wipe out the past colonial experiences and purify natives’ spirit from inferiority to gain a pure nation-ness.
nationalism is itself made possible and shaped by European political and intellectual history. It is a ‘derivative discourse’, a Calibanistic model of revolt which is dependent upon the colonizer’s gift of language/ideas (Loomba, 1998:189).
As stated above, the native intellectuals perform a central role in the national movement. However, there is a gap between the basic concept of nationalism itself and the new creation of native intellectuals’ nationalism. The expression of native nationalism does not represent the present reality of natives and nation-ness because it steps into the wrong path employing the western culture in the national movements. In this case, the anti-colonial movement which has been generated in the third world is completely shaped by western policy either in the political system or in the mind-set of natives. Therefore, this nationalism is simply a movement derived from former colonialism or a kind of new invention which is only a reformation of past colonial idea. In this way, third world people are still colonized by means of embracing colonial language and ideology as a heritage.
with the new nation-ness concept instead they are just exploiting, corrupting and torturing their people. Thus, their national movement simply embodies an empty shell instead of fulfilling the hopes of the people, and representing the result of collective achievement. Furthermore, their concept of nation-ness is only an artificial one affirming itself as finding their own national culture but totally deceiving their own people by employing an old-fashioned of colonial idea as their national culture (Ashcroft et.al, 1995:156-157).
The three distinct phases of Fanon on nationalism are restated in The Post-Colonial Studies Reader by Ashcroft et.al.
The assimilationist phase in which ‘the native intellectual gives proof that he has assimilated the culture of the occupying power’. Characteristically, the literary productions of the native at this stage bear resemblance to those in the literary tradition of the colonizing country (1995:158).
The first phase, assimilationist, implies as evidence of integration that the imperial power has been mingled in the national culture by native intellectuals. The out-put of literary art of the third world is quite similar to the work of literature of western worlds, in other words, it is descended from traditional cultural literature.
The cultural nationalist phase in which the native intellectual remembers his authentic identity an kicks against attempts to assimilate him. But owing to his own cultural alienation, the native intellectual’s attempts at cultural reaffirmation stop at romanticizations of bygone days corrected by philosophical traditions and aesthetic conventions borrowed from the world of the colonizer (1995:159).
space with their own philosophy by discarding the past colonial culture but their work of fantasy is merely derived from the colonizer’s world. Thus, the value of third world nationalism has been corrupted by the native intellectuals integrating the national culture with the colonial past.
The nationalist phase which is also the fight phase in which the native man of culture ‘after having tried to lose himself in the people and with the people, will on the contrary shake the people’. This is the revolutionary and nationalist phase in the literature of the colonized in which the exposure of more natives to the realities of colonialist oppression also contributes to a democratization of the drive for literary expression. ….the relevant response of the colonized intellectual is contained in the second phase, that of cultural reaffirmation characterized by unbridled traditionalism and even ancestor-worship (1995:159).
The last, nationalist phase can be said a phase of liberation in which natives achieve their own voice referred to as an independent particular culture of native after struggling with all their national effort and unity. At this stage, nationalism reaches its peak and it starts to unfold the realities of colonialist domination in third world nations which has been deceiving the natives or postcolonial society. In contrast, the action of colonized intellectuals still existed in the second phase, the cultural nationalist phase, identified as an unrestricted traditional culture by means of worshiping the forerunners of colonial culture.
C. Theoretical Framework
condition of the society (Burmese society) in the story. In order to have a good comprehension of the story, the theory on setting and society in novel are employed to find out the social structure of the story that will be observed through the main character, Pascal Khoo Thwe and his society who convey the whole idea of society. This will help the writer to relate the idea of colonialism to the social structure of the story.
27 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of the Study
From the Land of Green Ghosts written by Pascal Khoo Thwe will be the object of the study. It is Pascal Khoo Thwe’s first and foremost autobiographical novel in which he vividly expresses the present situation of Burma through his life experience. The first publication of this novel was by HarperCollins UK, USA and Australia in 2002 with 301 pages and it was divided into three parts, Part I with 9 chapters, Part II with 13 chapters, and Part III with 6 chapters. Each part presents a wonderful and breathtaking life experience of Pascal Khoo Thwe in narrative style and also all three parts are remarkably fascinating. This book is the winner of the Kiriyam Prize, an international literary award for nonfiction in 2002 given by Pacific Rim Voices, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Moreover, it has been a greatly-favored novel according to Customer Review by Amazon.com that 17 people out of 20 give 5 stars. It also provides effective and valuable comments that are helpful and inspiring for its readers (Amazon, 1996-2008).
Rosenthal, a former U.S. Ambassador and Chair of the nonfiction panel in 2002 also gives his critique of this novel that it is first and foremost an exciting adventure story, a true personal ‘odyssey’ (Pacific Rim Voices, 2002).
Another critic, Janice Harayda says that it is pretty much like typical novels of Ishmael Beach’s Along Way Gone and Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel. However, she admits that it is a better book than either of them. Thus, the story itself is marvelous one which raises fewer questions about the author’s memoir and also is posted in HarperCollins’ as an outstanding choice for reading group guides (2007). Either the story or the writing itself is incredible and outstanding and it also offers a colourful tone to the readers. Even though English has been Pascal Khoo Thwe’s second language, his writing is better than most native writers can manage, noted by Chris Mitchell (2007).
B. Approach of the Study
The approach that is used in analyzing the story is a postcolonial approach that inspired the writer to study the work more intensely. This approach is the most suitable one to research the work because the chosen work itself is taken from third world literature. Being third world literature, the significant atmosphere that covers the entire story and the story itself relatively well supports the postcolonial idea related to the scope of postcolonial approach.
Basically, the postcolonial approach is a well-known approach that discusses the phenomenon of culture as a matter of an endless colonialism process always identified with the imperial power of western domination over colonized nations from all parts of the world. Colonialism influences the third world countries by affecting social structure, political policy, economical system, and other aspects of the society or culture throughout the centuries.
….postcolonialism as a set of cultural strategies centered in history. Even this latter group however, can be subdivided into two branches: those who believe postcolonialism refers to the period after the colonized societies or countries have become independent and those who regard postcolonialism as referring to all the characteristics of a society or culture from the time of colonization to the present (Bressler, 1999:266).
colonial culture that has been unconsciously streaming in the third world nations since the colonized countries gained their independence. Although the colonialism ended many years ago, colonialism practices can still be observed in the third world countries. In this state, it can be confirmed how the spirit of colonialism is still alive in the third world nations by passing colonial practices or cultures to the new generations of third world nations as a colonial heritage.
According to Beginning Theory: An introduction to literary and cultural theory by Peter Berry
….the first step for ‘colonized’ people in finding a voice and an identity is to reclaim their own past. The European colonizing power will have devalued the nation’s past, seeing its precolonial era as a pre-civilized limbo, or even as a historical void. If the first towards a postcolonial perspective is to reclaim one’s own past, then the second is to begin to erode the colonialist ideology by which that past had been devalued (1995:193).
Related to the above facts, a postcolonial approach is quite applicable to accomplish the research to the maximum extent. The reason that the writer chooses a postcolonial approach in analyzing Pascal Khoo Thwe’s From the Land of Green Ghosts is to be effective in analyzing based on the circumstance of the story. Besides, the story conveys how the society of Burma has been shaped and influenced by the colonizer’s culture by means of practicing the former colonization process in the present Burmese society as seen through Pascal Khoo Thwe and his society. Furthermore, to make the analysis deeper, more fluent and systematic, a postcolonial approach is applied in this work in order to explore the basic idea of postcolonialism that completely opposes the dominant culture that has been devaluing the culture of the third world nation, Burma.
C. Method of the Study
The writer used several methods, library research, and an internet source to be efficient in analyzing Pascal Khoo Thwe’s From the Land of Green Ghosts. Most of the activities of this study involved with the library which was quite reliable because it gave much information and references related to the study. The purpose of using the internet source was that it provided extra information about the work like special records, helpful reviews of related studies, critical comments and some other useful information to help to accomplish the study.
some data from internet access. To achieve the writer’s intended result; the writer chose several steps to research this study. First of all, the writer read the novel several times in order to get a deep understanding of the content and its characteristics. While comprehending the story, the writer also tried to find out not only the significant character of the story but also its characterization. Then, three problem formulations were formulated to carry on the work with suitable reasons.
34 CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter is the analysis part of the research. The analysis will be divided into three parts according to the problem formulations previously mentioned in the Chapter I. There will be three main divisions in this analysis. The first division will be the description of Pascal Khoo Thwe’s miserable life experience. The second one will examine how the society is portrayed in the story in order to have a clear image of the society in relation to colonialism. The last one will observe colonization practices found in the Burmese postcolonial society of the story.
A. Pascal Khoo Thwe : A Poor Unhappy Man Who is Full of Misery in the Entire Life
Pascal Khoo Thwe is a poor tribal man whose whole life is full of unhappiness and misery. He has to face the real agony of bitter life experience. He lives in Phekhon, a small simple village. He grows up in a poor family and as a culturally transmitted hill tribe man, a member of the Padung tribe, one of the minority ethnic groups seen in the remote part of Burma. Although their whole family is Christian, they still believe in animism which is their forefather’s belief. His early days were quite hard, being brought up as the first of eleven children while his parents were in financial difficulty.
Either my mother or I cooked breakfast and lunch for the family. Sometimes we had to pound husked rice-grains in a big wooden mortar with a heavy wooden pestle to get white rice – a backbreaking job All my younger brothers and sisters would then wake up with their cries for breast milk and later, rice-wine. (p. 4)
We all shared our dinner on one big round bamboo plate, coated in shiny black lacquer, that my father had woven himself. Portions of rice were piled along the rim of the plate, with curry dishes in the middle. We ate with our fingers, while with our spare hand we drank soup using a wooden spoon. (p. 22)
rice-wine. It became the exclusive meal for breakfast and a kind of nutriment for the children as well. Having meals together on one big round bamboo plate shows his simple, plain and poor life which is far from luxury and which is still far behind from advancement.
By 1971 I began to sense that my father was becoming unhappy with how things were going in Burma. When he ran short of medicines for his veterinary practices, he had to write a detailed report requesting what he needed. He then had to pay ‘tea money’ – i.e. bribes – to get the medicines. (p. 33)
My mother was always in a desperate mood when she was about to give birth to a new baby. Her sense of the hopelessness of life in Burma, the feeling that we would always go on getting poorer, had taken its toll. (p. 83)
His family did not have a way out from poverty throughout his young age. He hardly experienced what a warm and harmonious family was really like because of the family’s economic crisis that eventually caused family conflict. His father, who is a civil servant, a vet had to face difficulties to obtain the medicine subsidies from the government for his veterinary practice. His father became more desperate while doing his job with a little income that was not enough to support his whole family. His family situation became worse and his parents’ fragile relationship always resulted in quarrelling. His mother complained more and more about her hopeless life of giving birth to babies with no promising future for her children and family.
Uncle Yew, the hero of my childhood, was now a tall, handsome man in his mid-twenties, captain and goalkeeper of the township football team. Despair touched my heart. My youthful hope sank as they lowered Yew’s coffin into the grave… (p. 71-72)
After my grandfather’s funeral the house seemed bereft of a quiet and powerful presence. We knew that something stately had departed. (p. 92) It was really hard for him to except the loss of his beloved ones because of his naive and tender age. He really wanted to be like his uncle Yew, who was the idol of his childhood. His uncle Yew was his inspiration of becoming a great footballer. However, his uncle died because of a serious deadly illness in middle age. Since that day, his dream of becoming a footballer faded away with his uncle’s death. Besides, the death of his oldest sister and his grandfather were like a horrible dream for him. Nobody knows how his heart was hopeless and in pain when he was left by his childhood idol, his innocent sister and his dear grandfather.
The thought had begun to grow on me that it might be precisely these things that attracted me to the priesthood – that it would be a way of escaping the poverty and daily grind of my family, as well as gaining prestige among my people that I would obtain, therefore, rewards in this life and in the next as well. Armed only with naivety and a sense of my own luck, I left the seminary with genuine sadness and headed home to prepare myself for university life. (p. 103-107)
decided to enroll in university. His dream was to get a degree and have a good career.
There was an immediate build-up of political tension, and the universities, colleges and many schools throughout the country were closed. I had hardly any money left. I sold my bike and went home. (p. 134)
When the university eventually reopened in January 1986, I didn’t have enough money to get back to Mandalay. After roaming about the streets of Mandalay and starving for several months, I got a job in a Chinese restaurant owned by a Chinese Methodist elder. (p. 137-138)
During his college years, he faced a lot of hardship from many aspects. When he left for Mandalay, the second capital city of Burma to join university, it was his first time to plunge into a crowded city life. All the educational institutes were suddenly closed in the middle of his college years because of political instability and devaluation of the currency. Then, he had to leave for home penniless and hopeless. When the colleges were reopened, his parents could not afford his college fees at all. He felt a real disaster fell upon him because he had to make money for his living, his family and his college fees. So, he had to take a break from college while working as a waiter. It was such a big burden for him to go along with all those things.
Two weeks later she vanished. The prison authorities eventually informed
her mother that Moe had died ‘from natural causes’ while in confinement. (p. 158)
What was as horrible as anything was the robotic way, their faces completely without expression, the soldiers carried out their orders to fire into the crowd. You felt that here were two worlds – one, the world of those begging the government to help and listen, the other of people who understood absolutely nothing. (p. 162)
(underground freedom fighter) who was suddenly lost twice. To his great sorrow, he just heard of her death in a prison but he couldn’t find out the facts of her death. The feeling of guilt for her death remained with him for the rest of his life. His witness of the slaughtering of innocent spectators in Mandalay made him aware of a terrifying political game that he even never imagined and was concerned about before. From that moment on, his desperation grew deeper.
There was something I could not tell him, as my sorrow was too deep. I hate obedience, I hate authority, I hate being told what to think and I hate living under this hopeless, stupid dictatorship.’ Never had I expected to be drawn into such an immense conflict, let alone to become, inexperienced as I was, a leader in a revolutionary struggle. (p. 171-174)
Surviving with total silence under an inhumane dictatorship was like a deadly agony for him. Days became harder for him and keeping the truth to himself and doing nothing for his nation was always torturing and burning him down. A complete nightmare fell on him without any way back when he became involved in a revolution in searching for justice for his people. At last, he and some of his revolutionary friends were forced to flee to the jungle fearing slaughter.
I had now met the ‘destructive elements’ face to face, and seen the human reality. I started to get a deeper, much more somber sense of the Burmese reality. (p. 188)
As more and more students went to the front, Hwe Zedi became almost deserted, and a depressing place to live in. Malaria and news of deaths in the fighting became our daily experience. (p. 214)
help of the rebels named the Karenni fighters. To his desperation, the unceasing battles and the terrible disease caused all the students and him to gradually become weary and weaken both mentally and physically. Embracing hopelessness, depression and anguish in his deep heart, he kept on fighting to the bitter end.
I knew I would be back. I knew also that was making a sacrifice by leaving my beloved friends. (p. 235)
Saying goodbye to my friends was the most difficult thing for me. The blue ranges of the mountains were massive walls separating me from my family. (p. 256)
I forgot how to enjoy the present. A mixture of fear and pride drove me to try and try, but there was something missing. When I woke up I was thrown back to the lonely reality of exile. I was worried about my friends and family in the wrong way, because my feelings for them were mixed up with guilt and frustration. (p. 278-279)
Malaria and other illnesses had taken their toll of them. They looked gaunt and ghostly, shadows of their former selves, cadaverous faces peering out of their worn-out shirts. Enthusiasm had vanished from their faces. I walked with them to the checkpoint at the border and watched them until they disappeared into Burma with the crowd of shoppers. There I saw my
father for last time. He died from tuberculosis two years later. (p. 286- 289)
In the middle of his academic year in England, his deep desire to meet his family and friends grew stronger. At last, he could not help to leave for Thailand again with the hope of searching for his long lost past memory. His reunion with his friends really hurt him because he came to sense that their vigorous spirit had gradually been washed away by the jungle life with the deadly diseases and the never ending fighting in the hope of getting freedom some day. It was the first time and the last meeting with his father since he left his homeland for the revolutionary movement. His great regret was not to have a chance to revisit his father until his last day.
I picked up newspaper, flicked absently through the pages, and saw the headline ‘Burmese Opposition Leaders Killed’. Edward Byan and his brother Gabriel were dead, gunned down in Burma by the pro-government militia. All my false optimism fled immediately. I was not convinced, but fortunately there were three days before my next exam, during which I could grieve and hope to achieve temporary insensibility. I went back to my room, and wept until dawn. (p. 291-292)
life. In his great depression, he did not even have the self-assurance and courage to go further any more. Eventually, he could struggle for his education. Surviving in his empty deserted world, he continues to fight for his nation’s freedom for the rest of his life.
Therefore, it can be said that the condition of the Burmese postcolonial society of the story can be discovered through Pascal Khoo Thwe’s miserable life experience. His experiences achieve to give the image of the society in order to make it easier to study in details about society of the story in the next part.
B. The Portrait of Burmese Postcolonial Society Seen in the Story
The society is a key point in stimulating the analysis because later, this
Based on Pascal Khoo Thwe’s experiences, the writer would like to assume that there are two crusts within the mentioned society of the story, classified as ruler, military regime or dictatorship governing the people of the story and ruled people, public represented in this study by the main character, his family and all who are part of the non-military regime. The public are also under the control of the military regime obviously seen through Pascal Khoo Thwe’s experiences.
1. Military Regime
The writer would like to explore the governmental formation of Burmese postcolonial society of the story through the ruler, the military regime or dictatorship in this study. The military regime was only a group of native intellectuals who had been progressively governing the nation of Burma since the independence day of Burma. Besides this, the military regime was the most dominant group over the entire nation.
of the nation. Eventually, the whole nation came under the control of a group of ambitious native intellectuals who were passionate for supremacy, power, wealth, benefit and self-interest.
Ne Win banned all political parties and set up a one-party system called ‘The Burma Socialist Program Party’. Independent newspapers were shut down and student organizations outlawed. Peasants were compelled to sell their produce to the stated at government-control prices. All private industry was nationalized; even shops, hotels and restaurants were largely owned by the sate. Ne Win closed Burma to the outside world, and for many years foreigners were refused permission to visit the country as tourists. The boards of nationalized companies were dominated by retired army officers, and the army became a super privileged ruling caste. (p. 15) He oversaw even the smallest details of national life, decreeing, for instance, that the Burmee ought to wear national dress (trousers were supposed to be confined to members of the armed forces, the Tatmadaw). If spelling mistakes occurred in newspapers, the editors were fined. ...regime was marked by hostility to educated people. (p. 16)
without any profit even though they did not get any subsidies from the military government. Finally, the public had to deal with the financial crisis which resulted in lasing poverty because of military’s mistreatment in governing the nation. This suffering was experienced by Pascal Khoo Thwe and his family. They also endeavored to prohibit the newspaper publishing any news, establishing any organizations and raising any political issues. It was prohibited to publish any news. The establishment of other political parties was completely restricted. They attempted to oppress the educated people in order not to challenge with their authority seen through Pascal Khoo Thwe’s suffering because of his involvement in political affair in his college years. Moreover, the national dress was a must for all citizens to wear except the army who were free to wear trousers. No one dared to give his or her own opinion about the injustices of the military government because they were forbidden and forced to stay with the legislated laws. They intentionally made the nation a place deserted by the outside world in which the public were oppressed and exploited from every aspect with the intention of maintaining absolute power. Gradually, the military regime developed into the most powerful and superior group over all the nation.
The moral ideal was to end ‘the exploitation of man by man’. It was a sort of voodoo socialism, composed of little more than slogans. In fact the Burmese army – or at least its higher officer – had embarked on a campaign of national plunder. It has been calculated that nearly half the national budget went on maintaining the armed forces. (p. 15-16)
their own people. Moreover, every important high position in all departments in governing the nation was occupied by the armed forces. All the natural resources of the nation were dominated and controlled by the military regime and they were the only beneficiaries of all the out come from those resources. The worse thing was that the members of the military regime were just concerned for their development, and they totally ignored public affairs and the situation of the nation. This fact can clearly be seen through Pascal Khoo Thwe’s experience that the military government seriously oppressed the innocent people including Pascal Khoo Thwe having desire and concern for the development of people, and the national freedom and rights. The public were gradually drowned in poverty because of the egotistic military government who had been taking advantage of the poor public using the false reason of national development. Out of fear of losing absolute power, the military leaders had used most of the nation wealth establishing armed forces to protect their present position from any threat. Eventually, vanity of the military regime grew so great that they considered themselves as high class wealthy people who were the right ones to rule the nation. It shows how the public had been deceived and treated unfairly by the military government. It is obvious that both the nation and the public have been under the control of the military regime.
2. The Public
of the military regime. Those chosen characters have already been stated in the description of Pascal Khoo Thwe’s miserable life experience by the writer. However, the writer would like to describe each character more in detail in this part in order to examine the condition of public in Burmese postcolonial society of the story.
a. Pascal Khoo Thwe
Pascal Khoo Thwe is a simple and honest man. He came from a poor hill tribe, a Padaung family and grew up in a plain village. His enrolling in the university in Mandalay, the second capital city of Burma was his first time to step in to metropolitan city which was a total new world for him. There, he spent his college years but his education was ended because of the national revolution.
Brought up as I was in the profound tranquility of a tribal hill village… I had never seen such a mass of discordant humanity, and had no idea…where the University of Mandalay was. (p. 117)
So this was how my four years in Mandalay were ending – the closure of the university for political reasons… (p. 167)
It started with my making a speech in Phekhon, standing on a bullock cart on market day in front of a group of peasants and people from the town…. I told them what had happen in Mandalay... (p. 172)
‘Welcome to the Karenni Liberated Zone… We were led into the barricaded compound…. (p. 198)
as secretary of the student organization. He kept on struggling for civil rights and nation freedom and letting the people know the brutality of the military regime. His leadership was not to last long because the uprising had violently been oppressed by the armed force. The revolutionary activists were also accused of being rebels and seized by the military regime with the reason of the safety of the nation. Finally, he had to take flight with some of his revolutionary friends to the jungle in order not to be arrested and killed. Later in the jungle, he joined the Karenni fighters and he continually fought the military regime for justice and freedom. He escaped to England and had his education through the help of his foreign friend, John Casey.
b. Grandfather (La Pen)
I gradually became aware that my grandfather had been a ‘Hane’, a chief. He used to rule the Phekhon area – about twenty-four by thirty miles, with a population of thirty thousand – until all the traditional rulers were abolished by the Ne Win regime. Not only did the government abrogate his chiefly authority, they also nationalized much of his land, and what was left was then mostly submerged under the waters of a new dam. I felt protected as the grandson of a Hane, and I soon realized that most of population still regarded him as their chief whatever the government might say. (p. 22-23)
However, his leadership had ended since the military regime nationalized all the properties of the public all over the nation and had abolished the authority of all the ethnic leaders in every region of the nation. Most of his possessions and lands were taken and all of his territory was under the control of the military government. Then, the army officers increasingly dominated in governing all his regions and he was forced to follow their rules and regulations. Finally, he had to abandon his positions and all of his possessions at the enforcement of military regime. However, the devotion of his people to him still remained the same as before and he was also a highly respected tribal leader for them.
My grandfather was confident that he would meet God in the next world, but he was not sure how soon this would be: ‘There is a long queue between heaven and hell. A flash of his old political bitterness came back: ‘I hope the queue is not a long as for the Socialist shops.’ (p. 90)
opportunity to receive it that makes them really distress. However, nobody dares to comment on their actions because it is an obligation for all to follow.
c. Father
Pacal Khoo’s father is a civil servant working as a vet who is so devotes to his profession. He completed his education in the capital city of Burma, Rangoon. He had faced a terrible experience at the time of political changes in Burma during his college years. From then, he decided never to be involved in political matters for his entire life and he much preferred to have a peaceful life. At that moment, most of his friends were arrested because of participating in politics and some fled to the jungle.
He had entered Rangoon University in the late 1950s to study veterinary medicine. My father witnessed his friends being arrested and killed en masse on the university campus. Some of my father’s friends fled to the jungle…. When he qualified as a vet, my father was sent to a small town near the Chinese border for several years. (p. 31)
No sooner he had graduated, then, he was posted in the remote area near the Chinese boarder where he had to work for many years. It took a long time to get his promotion and his transfer to a town because of being a tribal man. He even did not receive any subsidy from the government even though his salary and expenses were totally out of balance. He also could not support his family at all during his posting in the remote area because of insufficient income.
and sold on the black market. His life had been devoted to his work, and now he found that he could not get even a bag of rice at the official rate. (p. 51-52)
Besides, the economic crisis of the nation grew bigger because of the black-market handled illegally by the military government. The impact of the economic crisis especially fell on all sort of social classes. Sometimes, he had to work full time not receiving any salary for some months and his ration was suddenly been cut by the government without any explanation and reasonable cause. His days were getting more difficult dealing with his work and family affairs without getting any support for his field work from the government and without any income as well. Eventually, he was really disappointed that his devotion to work for his entire life now did not bring any good fortune but only suffering. It was painful and hard for him to accept the military government’s actions but he had to carry on living without any choice and rights under the dictatorship.
d. Moe
Moe is the lover of Pascal Khoo Thwe. She is a young pretty girl whose ethnic group is Burman. Her father was an army officer who was said to be killed in the civil war when she was only twelve year old. The government compensation was too little to make any living for her and her mother, and it was also the last time to get support from them. Her mother’s pension also was too little to be enough for living and for her educational needs.
compensation for the father’s death and the widow’s pension were not enough for the two of them to live on, … (p. 131-132)
Since her father’s death, she and her mother had to struggle themselves for their living by being street vendors. They finally moved to Upper Central Burma and settled there permanently where she completed her high school. At last, she could continue her university education in Mandalay, the second capital city of Burma because of her mother’s great effort.
She was determined not to be a mere housewife doing menial tasks – but she was equally determined to be a good wife. I came to see that in her idealism she was actually at the heart of reality because, unlike me, she was consciously and consciously dissatisfied with the society around us. (p. 140)
‘In prison.’ I had never thought of Moe as an underground freedom-fighter… He… was eventually assassinated in an ambush set up by soldiers on his own side. The government claimed he had been killed by the insurgents, but Moe had been collection evidence about the exact circumstances of his death… (p.157)
