Summary & Analysis of the Novel Bringing Tony Home
Bringing Tony Home recounts this perilous journey in detail, movingly tracing the boy’s rescue attempts and his spiraling emotions as he endures changes occurring in his family. In “Elsewhere: Something Like a Love Story,” a young boy finds forbidden love with a schoolmate scorned for her poverty. “Elsewhere” continues their saga, touching on the bittersweet memories they share as adults, and on the woman’s increasingly precarious place in a society concerned only with status. The other stories, “Poor Young Man: A Requiem” and “Hark, The Moaning Pond: A Grandmother’s Tale,” delve into a young man’s relationship with his father as the latter’s fortunes fade, and into the now-mature man’s attempts to come to grips with the death of his grandmother and what she symbolized. Abeysekara’s ability to evoke the sights and sounds of another time and place, and his skill in rendering the inner lives of his characters, make Bringing Tony Home a remarkable read.
The Writer of Bringing Tony Home
Tissa Ananda Abeysekara (7th May 1939 – 18 April 2009)
He was a Sri Lankan actor, writer, director, screenplay writer, film maker and political activist. His book Bringing Tony Home won the Gratian prize for the new creative writing in English. He was awarded the SAARC literary award.
He was born in Maharagama, a railroad town southeast of Colombo. He grew up in Havelock town Colombo. Due to poor health Tissa did not attend school until 11 years old. Private classes were conducted for him and he had formal education at Dharampala Vidyalaya in Pannipitiya. He completed his education. He was married to Asanka Monarvilla and they have one Svetlana and one son Dimitra. He died on 18tth April 2009, at Colombo National Hospital after having been admitted for a heart condition. Tissa began his career as a short –story writer writing in Sinhala and published some short stories in the Dinamina and Janatha national newspapers. He was chairman of the National film corporation from 1999 to 2001. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Colombo.
Plot Review of the Novel Bringing Tony Home
The novel Bringing Tony Home is structured in three different time periods of the narrator’s life. his life as a filmmaker, his teenage years as a restless kid, and his life as a young youth. The novel revolves around the narrator and his faithful dog Tony. Their relationship is peaceful but they part ways due to the poor economic situation in the family. The family leaves their home and moves to a different surrounding.
The first part is a dog abandoned by a family due to their difficult economic situation. Their parting away from their loving Tony. In this novel a boy (the narrator) returns to his old home to find. Tony is his beloved dog who was abandoned when the family left due to their economic situation. This novel is a journey into how human’s emotions change due to different situations. Every part says about the sensitive feeling of humans.
Themes, Structure, Language Style
Bringing Tony Home, a traditional Sri Lankan novel, like a movie, one could feel the visual images of the past era, nature, tradition and the people. The novel is structured in three parts, reflecting the adult life of the author, his teenage and his young youth. The whole work takes place in a beautiful Sri Lankan traditional surrounding.
Analysis of the Themes in the Novel
The central idea in the novel is a sincere love and affection between the narrator and his loving dog Tony. This beautiful bondage split due to the difficult economic situation in the family. Both the dog and the small kid (the narrator) do not know how to part away and end their seven year strong close relationship for the family to leave the dog behind and move to another different locality. This situation gives a turning point to the story.
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The novel gives a beautiful picture of the past era of the Sri Lankan people. Their simple peaceful lifestyle is well brought out in the story. The nature of Sri Lanka is painted so beautifully by his skillful description. Sri Lanka is beautified by the trees and waterways. Beautiful Sri Lanka is rich by its simple lifestyle. The novel is about his parents’ grandparents, love and his mistakes and his life which he lived to the fullest. His love and bondage to his mother, love hate relationship with his father. Downfall due to difficult economic situations, his troubled young age, his love affairs failure. All are expressed in a simple language style. Now the author is in his mid to late sixties, telling all about his village and its historical background, its beautiful natural landscape and its changes.
The book is full of his reminisces. Tissa is in love with nature and with the Kelani valley till his last breath. “Elsewhere” expresses his forbidden love for a schoolmate. It touches the bitter sweet memories. Grandmother’s tale pictures the love-hate relationship between a father and son. “Hark, the moaning pond” is about the narrator’s grandmother, the culture of Sri Lanka. Abeysekara’s skill to capture the inner emotions of the characters make ‘Bringing Tony Home’ a remarkable work.
Tissa Abeysekara’s language is not simple, it has the touch of Charles Dickens. His sentences are rich with deep meaning. His way of writing is completely different from other Sri Lankan writers in English. The novel also expresses the bondage between the children and parents. The mother is kind and loving. But father is for away emotionally and not sensitive enough. The narrator could understand that his life is associated with such different characters. Even the dog accepts the challenges of life to live with different human personalities. The narrator’s views are open to all. Because the past could not be taken away, it is hidden in our mind, and it would be taken out by just a sound or visual thought.
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