Summary of An Introduction & Analysis by Kamala Surayya
Summary of An Introduction & Analysis by Kamala Surayya
Main Summary of An introduction
The poem An Introduction starts by stating her awareness of the mentality of the politicians of her country from Nehru to one of her times. The poet knows the names of the politicians as the names of the week and the names of the month. She expresses her agony towards the power and the influences of the male society of India. Democracy exists only in words in India. An introduction poem is a detailed study of the poet and her life and her struggles against male domination. Her personal bitter experiences are expressed honestly in this poem. It is a confessional poem about her personal struggles in life.
About the Author
Kamala Surayya (madhavikutty after marrying Kamala Das) was born in Malabar Thrissur, Kerala, India, on 31st march 1934. She is well known for her poems and autobiography. She spent her childhood in Calcutta and punnayurkulam. Her father was a senior officer in the Walford transport company. Her mother and great uncle Nalapat Narayana Menon influenced her in poems and her love for poems started at an early age. After marriage at the age of 15, her husband Mahav Das motivated her toward writing. She was known for her short stories and poems in English. Kamala Das was noted for raising her voice for women’s issues and child care. She wrote about love and betrayal. Her first work was “Summer in Calcutta.” “An introduction” is a bold pour where the poet has expressed her true feelings about men. She gives a message to the women's society to raise their voice for their individuality. Kamala Das was converted to Islam in 1999. She died on 31st May 2009 at the age of 75 in Pune. She suffered from Pneumonia. She was laid to rest at the Palayam Juma Majid at Thiruvananthapuram.
Analysis of The Poem
The poet starts by confession. She says she doesn’t know anything about politics and the strategy they use in politics for success but she very well knows the names of those in power and she could say their name as the days of the week or months starting from Nehru to the politicians of her time. The rulers of the country. Men rule the country. There was no way for women to enter the political arena as they didn’t give any rights to them. Also, the rulers are few. Democracy exists in words but in reality, the powers are in the hands of the powerful men who think they are the permanent rulers of the country.
Now the poet describes herself. She is an Indian, brown in complexion, born in Malabar. She can speak three languages and she knows how to write in one language. She dreams in one as the dreams have no particular language. It has a universal language. This stanza reveals herself as an Indian and the one who knows three languages, an educated woman of those days of India when there was no access for women for education.
She is fluent in English and she uses English in her writings. But she wonders why Critics' friends and visiting cousins criticise and pressurise her to leave English and to go with her mother tongue. Every one of them condemned her for writing in English. She feels that she is not given the freedom to use the language she prefers.
The poet in this stanza says that the language she speaks is her own expression. The imperfections and the strangeness are all hers. Hers alone. It could be half English, mixed with Indian, or it could be funny. But it is an honest expression of hers. It has the touch of a human-like her. She wants everyone to feel her expression. But she wonders why society accepts all the mistakes of the men and doubts and questions the mistakes of women. No one could be perfect is a simple truth.
She expresses her joys, grief and hope. It is like cawing to crows or roaring to lions. It is human speech and the speech of the mind. The mind sees and hears and is fully aware as it is not deaf and blind. The speech is not the sound of the trees in the storm or monsoon clouds or of rain or the meaningless muttering of the funeral pyre where the dead voices could not be understood.
She recollects her past, her childhood, and her married life. She was informed that she had grown and matured enough to long for love and was drawn to the youth of sixteen into the bedroom to quench his own love and lustful desires. The poet has expressed the griefs and sorrows of each woman who is forced to enter into married life. Marriage life is a painful and not a happy one for women in India as they are forced to marry. The young girls who marry the older men could not accept that they have grown up to accept the duties and responsibilities. They were treated as slaves to satisfy their desires.
He didn’t beat her but her body felt so beaten and she felt that the weight of her breasts and womb had been crushed and she started to hate her body as it gave so much pain.
She further explained that to hide from her pain she changed herself into a tomboy wearing a shirt and brother’s trousers and cutting her hair short. But it was ignored and she was forced to wear sarees, to be a girl, be an embroiderer (to learn to stitch) and be a good cook and be a typical housewife. Her in-laws too commanded her to be quiet and take all responsibilities and her pain. The typical Indian lifestyle of a woman of the past is exposed here. She is forced to be a typical Indian bride, wife and daughter-in-law. Although she does her work with devotion and sincerity she is scolded and abused and not allowed to express her pain.
She meets a man and loves him unconditionally. Call him not by any name. He is a man who wants a woman just as a woman wants to love. There is a hunger in him that a woman waits for. When she asks him name the only answer he gives is I. He is like the sword in its sheath. He rules his own world. As does what he likes. His freedom takes him as a feather in the air. He drinks at midnight, he drinks lonely, and he satisfies his thirst for pleasure. His ego gives him pleasure when he gets what he desires. But he too feels ashamed of his inability and his I (ego) dies when he dies and shows that death is common both to men and women. There is no difference and it pricks as a rattle in her throat. The pain of disappointment is well expressed.
Now she too feels the same as I do for herself. Like men, she is also a sinner and saint, beloved and betrayed. Her joys and pains are no different than that of men. All are the same. So she elevates herself to the level of I. now she too entitled to the same freedom and liberty
Literary Devices in the Poem An Introduction
The poem reveals the attitude of Kamala Das to her works and life. She shares certain issues she faced. It could be said as a confessional poem about the past and present.
The title is quite phenomenal as it is an introduction about her to the poetry world and also the introduction introduces the issues of the female society.
The form of the poem is quite lengthy. The poem contains sixty lines and it is a single stanza poem with no formal metrical pattern.
It is a free verse poem with no proper rhyming scheme. Certain half and internal rhymes could be found in this poem.
The tone of the poem is quite confessional. She confesses her past with pain and represents the whole female society who is suppressed by the male society.
The theme of the poem is freedom of women, equality for women and feminism.
First-person narration gives more understanding of the pain of the personal experiences.
Allusions are used to mention the power of India in the name of politicians.
Imagery: colour imagery “very brown” is used to bring the difference of colour to matters in certain situations.
Enjambment: the continuation of the poem without any pause. The whole poem is a single stanza.
“It is half English, half Indian, funny perhaps, but it is honest” the poet compares and contrasts her identity.
“Of trees in storm or of monsoon clouds or of rain or the
Incoherent mutterings of the blazing
Funeral pyre.” It is visual imagery which makes the readers feel the bitterness of the poet.
“It is useful to me as cawing
Is to crows or roaring to the lions,” the Auditory imagery helps to show the poet’s comfort with the language. English to her is like a breathing process which makes her alive.
“He didn’t beat me/but my sad woman-body felt so beaten” she feels ashamed for losing herself to male chauvinism.
She shares her past as a flashback.
The repetition “Don’t” expresses her contradictory views. “I” is repeated to represent the egoistic attitude of males, they take what they need and it is easy for them to throw the same when they don’t need it. Later the “I” changes into herself who wants to fight for her freedom.
Metaphor- “The hungry haste of rivers, in me… the oceans’ tireless/waiting.” She wants to fulfil her desires. She is hungry as a river to swallow her thirst for emotional desires.
Simile “he is tightly packed like a sword in its sheath.” The position of a male and his power and his position is given a good priority in society and he is well positioned. Society is his sheath and the position he possesses and enjoys is like the sword.
Symbolism the poet represents the weak women and the lover symbolises the power and position of the society.
Conclusion
Thus the poet Kamala Das uses the poem as her voice to raise against the blind society. She rebels against society which is full of restrictions and taboos, pointless rules and regulations. She is harsh in her sincere confession. She is well-known in the literature world, as one of the best controversial Indian female writers.
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