Biju? Hari's father? Billu? Which one? I shan't tell you, but continue reading on and find out!
Okay, firstly let's analyse Biju's character. At first glance you would say that he is the proudest man on the surface of this earth and deserved to be hated to the core. His ill-treatment to his workers cause us to feel for the workers and make our hate swell towards him. He boasts about his boat, has the most amount of bullock carts and even has a television set which doesn't work. How odd! He has a serious ego problem. BUT if you look more closely.... what is the yelling all about to the guard? He was protecting the village! He had an ego problem nonetheless, but he managed to use his egoism to make the villagers have a sense of belonging and they could depend on themselves and not others.
Hmm, now its time for Hari's father. He drinks toddy all day long, beats his wife and children, caused the death of the family dog, sold the family boat and made his eldest children carry the burden of sustaining a family. Obviously they cannot do a good job, who can if you are just in your so young and immature? He "recovers" nearing the end of the story but I think that the family has suffered a lot already. Perhaps if I were Anita Desai, I would complete it with the father doing something good for the family like getting a job or something of that sort.
Lastly, lets take a look at Billu. He looks really kind at first sight, tossing Hari a coconut to drink to quench his thirst. Really a nice guy right? Good man at heart right? Wrong, wrong and wrong again. Teaching Hari to disobey his parents, tell him to be a loner and that there is no help in the world. The world is full of rich people who doesn't help the poor and he was one of those who was helpless. This is really morally wrong and I hope all of you would not heed his advice even if you felt that your situation was worse than Hari.
Alright, that brings me to the end of character analysis, its time to name the man. Who would it be? None other than Hari's father. Surprising? Not really. Let us take a look at Biju. He did not affect Hari much. Just some demoralising. What about Billu? Hari would not have met him if his father was responsible! Thats why I made Billu seem as if he was such a terrible man. It was all Hari's father's fault. Get it now? Even if he made some"amendments" I think it would be too late. That is also why I wrote that if I were the author, I would write something nicer about Hari's father to absolve himself from the blame. Alright, quite a long post, it would be yours truly signing off......
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Hi Joshua Hia, first time commenting on your post, and I shall make it snappy. You had a nice description of each of the characters you named that could have been hated and substantiated your reasons pretty well and reasonable. You sort of provided all the links between each analysis of each character and that was very effective. I agree with your point of view that you hated Hari's father the most and your analysis of every character is well-written too. Some suggestions for your blog posts include writing a shorter blog post and going straight to the point. For me, I do not really prefer this beating about the bush. Well, its your preference. Keep up your wonderful posts.
ReplyDeleteGarreth
Hello Joshua Hia. I like the way how you analysed the characters one by one and then tell us who you hate most in VBTS. However, I noticed that you made a comment about Billu. "Teaching Hari to disobey his parents, tell him to be a loner..." I think that Billu did not really tell him to disobey his parents, but just asked him to be independent.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, excellent blog post!
Please comment if you disagree with my comment.
Greetings, Chairman. I cannot help but feel that I must speak up for all fathers in the world. Indeed, Hari's father seemed or rather was incorrigible at first but nonetheless its never to late to change. I do not have a dad like Hari's but if I am Hari, I would have felt extremely proud of him to change over a new leaf. How many habitual gamblers stole their family members hard-earned money for gambling? How many drunkards beat their wifes and threatened them for money? And how many drug-takers borrowed money from loansharks to satisfy their *need*? Have they all change? Indeed, indeed they have, ONLY by forceful means! What about Hari's dad? Was he in some place to forcefully change his habits? No! He change his bad habit by love and concern for his wife and do you know how strong his resolution must have been to stop drinking toddy? You do not know, neither do I. All the more I think he was forgivable because of the unimaginable suffering he has to go through to stop drinking toddy. Now, now, Hari would not have met Billu if not because of his father. What about Jagu and Mr Panwallah!? He would not learn a new skill and earn some money to bring home and have a complete new life, would he? No! Sorry if I sounded rude or harsh but I really felt a need to speak up for all Daddies in the world.
ReplyDeleteChuckles,
Zhi Yong
Hi Joshua Hia, Jun Xuan here. That was a great analysis of the characters in the story. It helped me to understand your point of view better. I also agree that Hari's father was indeed irresponsible and deprived Hari of his childhood, instead making him suffer in harsh reality that he had to support his family alone. However, on the other hand, it allowed Hari to experience the real world that he would have to enter when he grows up right? So I think it acts as a training to harden him and to prepare him for the future.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think?
=)
Jun Xuan
I like the way you listed out the top few characters you hated. Also, the way you listed your reasons of disliking the characters were quite interesting and the analysis were great!
ReplyDeleteYou also gave much of your opinions and vivid description of the characters! However,Bilu did not made or told Hari to disobey his parents, instead, he's just teaching him to be independent and self reliant
Dan :)
i agree with 'highly flammable'<--Teaching Hari to disobey his parents, tell him to be a loner..." I think that Billu did not really tell him to disobey his parents, but just asked him to be independent.--> you made it thrilling to read and find out who is your most hated character.I thought it is Billu cause you made him sound so bad but it ended up to be his father!!
ReplyDeleteqi pop
Hi , Emil here . I think that teaching Hari to be a loner does not really mean to disubey his parents . I would agree with Mr.Kang that he actually means to be independent . Since Hari's parents were as good as dead , he had to be independen to fend for himself , to earn a living . Thank you very much
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