In Leonard Woolf's text The Village in the Jungle there seems to be a distinct struggle between order and chaos as they are associated with the village and the jungle respectively. From the beginning in Chapter 1, the jungle represents a sense of chaos and disorder as it is described as a living, breathing object that can swallow up the village at any given moment. It is almost as if the villagers must carefully "tame" the jungle if they hope to survive. On pages 4-5, the jungle is described as providing the villagers with a distinct sense of fear and terror; as if it possesses some innate sense of evil.
In Chapter 3, the sisters Punchi Menika and Hinnihami are described as possessing "the same strangeness and wildness as the jungle"(34). As the girls and their father spend more time in the jungle they seem to develop the same unpredictable characteristics of the jungle and in a sense, are viewed by the other villagers with the same fear and distaste as they view the jungle.
Finally, the culminating point of chaos as it is associated with the jungle in Chapters 1-4, is when Babun seizes Punchi Menika in the jungle. It is as if he is a "devil" emerging from the trees to take her (37-38). Much like in the stories that her father has shared with she and her sister. Punchi Menika experiences feelings of both desire and fear as she moves further into the jungle with Babun. This ultimately makes Punchi Menika as wild as the jungle that surrounds her.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree, the jungle is a living entity in which the village rests upon; however, the village and the jungle are seen as two different bodies. The only hope for the village is to clear the jungle around it before the jungle absorbs it and hides all traces of the village's existence. As in the story in Chapt. 1 of the man who didn't respect and fear the jungle a bad ending came of him but Silindu, who understands that fear and has taught his children accordingly, is free to roam in and out of the jungle without harm.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed the story of the leopardess and Silindu, it explains well of the importance of connection between people and their environment: "A man must live many years in the jungle before the beasts speak to him, or he can understand what they say." (Woolf 23)
ReplyDeleteI love it that the women wander like men in the jungle. Rachel Cohen reads this as almost an allegory of Bloomsbury-or Leonard Woolf's rendition of the relationship between Leslie Stephen and daughters. I don't think this is necessary. The idea that the daughters can wander with the father is startling enough in the context of the novel. It is appealing enough as well.
ReplyDelete