I. Introduction
"And 'plan ... meaning behind everything that happens."
(Fire and drinking water in Essen, 1996)
In life, most of the time, we have some tough decisions, the people around us for our actions, to take into account is linked directly or indirectly with us for the kind of world we want to form or to make precise, a world we want to our children, and figuratively, a dreamer of a just and humane place, where happiness inside and outsideexist, where people in close association with what they considered important and where they are in awe before the divine obvious. Up to this point that we feel full and satisfied in our internal and external missions we can simply relax and anticipate the next event / s to take place.
The basic premise of the research the essence of existence, Plato more than 2,000 years and has led the battle cry of many to place themselves in the world of multipleEssence is too loud a cry that has found its niche in all disciplines and in all aspects of life.
From this position, critics, students anchor their analysis of the contemporary historical novel, Arlene Chai's Eating Fire and Drinking Water. Easily moral and philosophical foundations of the novel are taken into account in relation to their socio-historical context. To emphasize the background of the novel, is the student-critic of the highlights of the work by Alfred McCoy (1999)with the objective presentation of the traumatic experience of the Philippines is under the Marcos regime.
The writer II
Chai is a Filipino-Chinese-Australian, who migrated to Australia with his parents and siblings in 1982 because of political unrest. He was a copywriter in an advertising agency George Patterson in 1972 and worked since then. And 'there that his mentor, Bryce Courtney, whom he met inspired to continuously improve their work. She graduated fromwith a Bachelor of Arts degree from Maryknoll College. She is famous for his ability to weave the political struggle in the Philippines and in their fiction, so much so that they are often confronted with Isabel Allende, a Chilean writer of magic realism. He won the book of Louis Braille Audio Adult of the Year for his novel "On the Rock Goddess" in 1999. His first novel, The Last Time I Saw Mother (published in the United States and United Kingdom) is a bestseller in Australia. Although she has producedfour novels since 1995, all exploring complex and often bitter relations between the generations of families and individuals, eating fire and drinking water, his second book, which absorb most, if not stimulating.
III. The novel's socio-historical context and background
Arlene Chai "historicity" of this novel, though not comparable to Tolstoy (Russia and the world) in size, scope and breadth, perhaps in his chronicle of the sectionedpolitical tensions and political upheavals in the Philippines during the board in a wider and better for the search for human existence and its accessories at all, except her beauty and the multiple effects of the arts in their entirety for the whole ' humanity.
The text of eating fire and drinking water is divided into a prologue and four parts - the first is an appetizer, a teaser and other issues the story "... The airy and breathtaking saga of revolution and the discovery of self. "(The New York Times)
The novel is set against the backdrop of the Marcos regime in recent years particularly significant in 1960 and the first two years of 1970 in the Philippines, if not the radical socio-political awakening of the country experienced student population. Students in various colleges and universities to talk rather than large rallies and demonstrations and massive complaints about their frustrations and resentments. On January 30, 1970, protestersNumbering more than 50,000 students and laborers stormed the Palace Malacañan, burning part of the building and crashing through the door doctor 4 with a fire truck that was forcibly confiscated from workers and students. The Metropolitan Command (Metrocom) of the Philippine Constabulary (PC) beat them and killed them pushed towards Mendiola Bridge, where, hours later, after a firefight, four people and wounded dozens on both sides. Bombs tear finally dispersedAmount. The event is now known as the Storm's first quarter.
Violent student protests do not end. In October 1970, there were a series of violent events in many locations in Greater Manila Area, cited "an explosion in the bunker at least two schools." The University of the Philippines was not spared when 18,000 students boycotted classes in academic and non-academic reforms at the State University of demand and ending in "employment" of the Office of the PresidentUniversity student leaders. Other schools which were scenes of violent student demonstrations took place in San Sebastian College, University of the East, Letrán College, Mapua Institute of Technology, the University of Santo Tomas, Far Eastern University and the Philippine College of Commerce ( University of the Philippines hours). Student demonstrators even succeeded in "occupying the office of the Secretary of Justice Vicente Abad Santos for at least seven hours." ThePresident (El Presidente Marcos) has described the brief "pooling" of the University of the Philippines and the violent demonstrations of left-wing students as "an act of rebellion." (Wikipidia.org)
And recurring in the novel of life and the propensity for the art of leading figures in both upper and lower rungs of society. Even the events of the wedding on the controversial and highly politicized children are Marcos graphical presentation. During the MarcosRegime glamorous first lady Imelda Marcos had a vision to a hub in the Philippines, the latest fashions, sophisticated technology and refined culture. She realized this vision through the many millions of dollars of infrastructure projects. These projects were to promote the Cultural Center of the Philippines, which meant, and to preserve Filipino arts and culture. It 'was founded in 1966 and was by Leandro Locsin, a Filipino architect (the estimate developed the use of concrete, as inFacade of the main building.) On the opening day of 1969 there was a three-month anniversary with a series of musical events and other. It 'been a fantastic opportunity that Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Reagan present.
The Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1966 has not been created by executive order. 30 E 'was officially launched on 8 It was inaugurated in September 1969, he began a long speech three months of opening the festival with the epic musical "Dularawan" open. In the novel, the controversyhaunts the historic building of this infrastructure is his place among the twisting of the facts and the provision of conscious artistic manipulation, while fitting down the direct and indirect contact with prominent figures in the social and political.
Novel Analysis IV
"I tried an example, tell a deeper meaning, because at that time, the events that I seemed to find random and arbitrary. The reporter in me, you see, insists it is thereforeUniverse. It confirms my own life. In addition to denying the existence or does it mean to believe in a world of chaos permanent. And I think that this concept is not acceptable. "
(Fire and drinking water in Essen, 1996)
An example of a style, a different kind of fatalism, a rare species of spirituality first, and extrapolated a greater sense of paradox is embedded in the life of mysticism, Arlene J. Fire Chai 's Eating and drinking water is a typical case.
The novel tells the story of an orphanThe protagonist, a journalist by profession Clara Perez, was placed in the working world, while looking for problems in their journey for identity. Perez is tired and wants to cover trivial matters revive at least given a job with his substance seemingly boring existence. When she was asked to collect and investigate a fire that followed a small road that happens to kill an old Chinese shop owner, who is pursuing a complex network of events, they ignite aafter the other, which increases their unknown past, and that by comparison with the bittersweet love story of their parents.
Located at a time when they were awakened in the Philippines to call the government's political reforms, stimulate the involvement of the Roman Perez students in increasingly violent demonstrations. When his involvement in these activities turbulent depth, as the stories take place in the stories, it turns out that his life story is closely linked totheir country, which is similar to what they had, as a reporter was grown for its shocking violence, as he dug deeper, the facts of their stories.
"How could I know that this fire in a way that I never chew my life is somehow invisible boundaries so that they are available, the names and faces that have been running until then unknown to me?"
(Fire and drinking water in Essen, 1996)
Perez is in some way, physically and socially connected and disconnectedothers in the novel. And 'through these connections / divisions with the essences of life that Perez was presented. He did not, and soon it was clear that their larger world as they become smaller with people and with their involvement in their lives that their world will decline even more laden with bits and pieces to complete the puzzle everything is extended, that their existence Clara Perez, Don, like his father and Socorro, and her mother.
No wonder that whenhe met his mother, confronts her with the statement:
I'm Clara. The child who gave you away - and went almost dispassionately - people are always decisions to make. The choice or the choice of standards, but the elections. Why did you do? What inspired you? I want to know your opinion at election time.
(Fire and drinking water in Essen, 1996)
Comparatively, the higher the demand of the students that the new government that iscan govern for the people and the most gigantic noise for the right to own land as the desire for a personal identity of Perez, who had refused to see her mother, at least, or of his desire, finally loosening familiar with their roots if not their identity crisis of her torment, if not their sense of order unbridgeable gap. Your task routinely leads to the identity of a father who is missing in their lives is to find that Don, who has made her a"Bastard" when he put family obligations and reputation on its binding to a loved one, the first of the first family.
It basically refers to the novel about relationships, creating an atmosphere that could only be used from the bottom of a culture, historically and politically diverse country like the Philippines, while Ferdinand Marcos (El Presidente) 21 years of dictatorship. The advantages of the history of many interesting characters and events that, if you do not showencapsulate the Marcos regime. Satire chronicles the brutal treatment of demonstrators and student activists on the one hand, and traces the political life of the characters and their quirks and allusions to the other.
Abundance gradients that develop as you read the novel is alienating Chai leading figures in the late sixties and early seventies in the Philippines, 'El Presidente' and gentlemen, Judge Romero Jimenez - 'The Hanging Judge, "the minister of Defense -"Butcher of the South," the senator and his mistress, and figurative ones like them from the shop owner, Charlie, the Chinese, Don Miguel Pellicer - Baron Bayani as sugar and student activists, and countless others. Although it may be disconcerting, to determine whether these stereotypes typical signs or true-to-life, then a self-taught, that any historical basis for the design of these names.
Design implications that go far beyond theCountry, McCoy (1999), Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a principal investigator / analyst explained developments in the Philippines, the legacy of the Marcos dictatorship, in his article, Dark Legacy: Human Rights and that under the Marcos regime:
1 Looking back on the military dictatorships of the 1970 and 1980, the Marcos government appears, by any standards, remarkable for both the quantity and quality of violence.
2 According to Marcos,In addition, the murder of a pyramid top military was killed by terrorists-3, 257, 35 000 and 70,000 tortured in detention.
3 According to the martial law 1972-1986, the authoritarian military government of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos inch. His elite unit of torture were his instruments of terror.
4 But as the gap between fiction and reality extends sanctions, the regime of this contradiction mediated by the release of political prisoners and its transition to extra-judicial executions orSaving.
5 During 14 years of martial law, came the elite anti-subversion bill to customize units of capacity under the regime:
6 Officers in these elite units were the personification of an otherwise invisible terror.
7 Instead of a simple physical brutality, these units practiced some form of mental torture, with far-reaching consequences for the army and his company.
8 The show Marcos regime of terror opens us to a fuller understanding ofA size of torture, which is ignored in the literature, both human rights and human psychology.
9 Instead of investigating what damage its victims of torture, we must if we are the legacy of martial law are asking, what the effects of torture on the torturers.
10 Between the poles of the local and global justice, impunity was born in the Philippines since the first decade of the post-Marcos period with continued signs of trauma.
11 Exempt from review, theMarcos era torturers continued to rise within the police and intelligence bureaucracies, so spend the rampant brutality of martial law.
12 In the culture of impunity, and politics, recasting the past, neighbors are turning into statesmen, torturers and killers in general legislators.
13 Beneath the surface of a restored democracy, the Philippines, through the compromises of impunity that still suffers the legacy of the Marcos and a collective traumaingrained habit of institutional human rights violations.
In his conclusion, McCoy (1999) has rightly said that the Philippines has achieved rapid economic growth, can not afford to ignore the issue of human rights and if the Philippines is to fully fund its share capital after the trauma of dictatorship recovery must be a means to remember, record, and finally to accept reconciliation. He also said that no nation can its full economic potential to develop without a high degreeSocial capital and social capital can not, as Robert Putnam tells us grow in a society without any sense of justice. Novel chai, eating fire and drinking water is somehow a reconstruction, unless the representation of this great creative crying epoch in the history of the Philippines, a sort of recording, remembering the past bitterness in a subtle way to social justice and the imposition of the need for knowledge of the essences of human existence.
Weaving a story of all stories related toProtagonist "(Perez) discover their true identity, craft shows Chai as a writer. For all the cards together and triumphantly made the characters and the political history of terrible regimes El Presidente apt as a background and context of the case, without a personal history of a young woman in an orphanage run by nuns, is exemplary in every case.
The presence of binary oppositions such other notables as Bayani, a student leader, and Colonel Aure, an enlightened"Artist of the disease, whose canvas is the human body" by the government of arresting, torturing and finally killing Bayani worked with Perez to try out some points mentioned. These two people in the novel appears as a towering symbol of extreme values of the two systems - the good and evil auras Bayani. And 'between these two systems of values that people in the Philippines is fighting for their freedom and democracy. We meet characters that have been inexplicably linked with others, both tender andviolent as figurative descriptions seem appropriate. There were subtle, delicate, if not delicate moments, the connections between the characters and the metaphysical extent of their connections with the invisible units, helped shape the destiny of every individual, man porcelain and Socorro, Socorro, and that The nuns of Socorro Perez and his father Don. This is in stark contrast to the more violent, brutal, if not stopping moments as the graphic representation of violent Colonel AureHand, the injustice that the military have always done their people to zip her mouth. It continues with the observations Chai effects of these two systems of values on individual lives in the Philippines.
Chai words on one side seemed cathartic, as they left the stain and odor of poverty, narcissistic political corruption of the times, while the cleansing of the soul, even if extrapolated to the nuances of life, as the gap betweengood and bad, perhaps reconciled by the purity of their minds. Their vision is not to be underestimated.
This included what made Fred Millett (1950) in his book, fiction reading, clearly understand that, "every work of fiction and many works of fiction to express explicitly the point of view, philosophical, ethical or religious writer. Choosing a theme of the writer implies that he believes that the issue of the death and his passion for the treatment of this subject is implicit, its rejection of othersTopics to be less important. And almost no work of fiction is so short of saying what the author regards as good and less for what good or evil. "
V. Conclusions
Chai has a "historical" as the way they show their chronicles, the accounts of the political upheavals in the Philippines. From a top side, hitting a wider social dimension of the struggle with the essence of human existence, who believes that the student-critic, if not more transcendentalmoral-philosophical. In his person life is never say no to its clean lines, the linear direction of kinship and affinity, it is enough for us to fully evaluate tree when you realize not only the leaves on the branches, but also the roots, finding that under are complete. Only then can we say that we have enough, like a tree in its entirety, a person in his "whole" - is aware of one who knows about the birth of his parents', or gloriousbittersweet past and is willing to accept a world that is never without surprises, a world whose history evolves, humanity developed inherit.
VI. References:
Chai, Arlene J. Eating fire and drinking water. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.
McCoy, Alfred W. 1999 (Dark Legacy: Human Rights under the Marcos regime) Closer Than Brothers: Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Millett, FB Fiction Read 1950: A method for the analysisSelection for the study. New York. Harer and Brothers Publishing.
Wellek, Rene. 1963 Concepts of criticism. New Haven and London. Yale University Press
cpcabrisbane.org/Kasama/1998/V12n1/Chai.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://sharedreviews.com/review/eating-fire-and-drinking-water
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