Abstract:
Syed Waliullah is a famous novelist, short-story writer and playwright. He shows equal efficiancy in Bangla and English languages as we find in Lal Shalu (Red Cloth) and Tree without Roots. The novel has also been translated in French, Urdu, German and Czech. This paper will analyze Sayed Waliullah’s “A Tree without Root” from existentialist perspective. The aim of this paper is to find out existentialist and modernistic elements from Tree Without Rools.
Introduction
Syed Waliullah mixes the concept of existentialist view as well as modernistic elements in his writing, He combines the modernistic idea of self-consciousness and existentialist approach of meaninglessness of a human existence in his work. A Tree without Root, written in English nineteen years after the Bangla version Lal Shalu, is actually a transcription by Waliullah himself which has been appreciated as “improved version” or a more mature work of the author by a renowned scholar of Bangladesh. Majeed declares his urge to survive with pride. Majeed could leave his shrine for his safety but he did not because his ‘existence’ has no meaning without the shrine. This particular moment of Majeed’s life matches with the core argument of existentialist philosophy that “Existence precedes. Though he knows that the mazar is a fake and meaningless entity, he grabs this meaninglessness to make his future existence meaningful.
Literature review
The following paragraph establishes Majeed’s self created value or essence for his life: Is it wrong to lie if it’s done in a good cause? He pondered. Majeed’s consciousness creates his individual value for his life. “There is no doubt at all in my mind that there’s little fear of God here, and that His name is hardly ever uttered. If I prevaricate slightly in order to implant fear of God and His holy name, I will surely be forgiven. “(Waliullah, l2) Majeed’s existence demands his consciousness to create a value to support his worldly existence in Mahabbatpur. It is his survival which precedes everything even his values. He speaks to himself: “If, at the same time, I make a living, is there anything sinful in that? After all one must live. And I live to spread the word of God” (Waliullah 12). Majeed is an existentialist character whose existence precedes essence. Majeed believes in God whereas most of the existentialist heroes in literature do not believe in God. Majeed is a replesentative of gross poor Bangladeshi rural people who seek their existence in self-created religious identity. Inspite of their severe poverty, they have to survive, to make their life meaningful.
Theoretical framework
Perhaps the reason there are so many white tupees in this part of the world is that the land cannot feed the men. Little food means more religion. God said: cover your heads when you pray to me, for this is the mark of the god-fearing man. . There are more tupees than heads of cattle, more tupees than sheaves of rice. (Waliullah, 5)When religious value cannot secure their existence they go to town for work.In the town work becomes their first priority for their existence. Majeed says about the villagers is: “The only time they became deadly serious was when they were working”.lt is an irony in the novel alhough Majeed does not like the villagers, he is actually an epitome of the common villagers. They have to change their values according to their existence demands. Majeed is haunted by the “individual human dilemma” of modem existentialist philosophy.
Results and Discussion
However, the presence of self-consciousness and self-questioning quality also depicts Majeed as a modem character. He fears of getting punished is revealed when he says “there was merely a vagueness, perhaps death and the day of judgment, but all distant and shapeless” (waliullah,l2). He declares he will be pardoned if he spread God’s name, although he thinks the Day of Judgment is a shadowy thing. He is still confused about his belief, His dilemma reflectes in his questions: “But did he, Majeed, really know any more than the rest of them?. . Could he really say that he knew more than they because he knew that the power of the grave was a lie?” (Waliullah, 52), or “Am I being punished? He asked himself, .Did I not lead innocent people to pray to the spirit of an unknown man, a man who might well have been a sinner? My aim was a noble one, but does that justify my having deceived them?” (Waliullah, 129)
He often mocks and.consoles himself through selfquestioning. Sometimes he boosts his morale to strengthen his roots in Mahabbatpur. Waliullah has often portrayed him as a modern-hero to seize the reader’s sympathy for Majeed. From his childhood he struggling with poverty, hunger and insecurity. He never had any home to live. He has always dreamt of a home, a wife and economic stability. His fate never supported him to have a smooth and well-off life. Like the villagers, readers are also enchanted by Majeed’s story-telling. He is genius by his ability to understand others’psyche. All these characteristics makes him a modem hero. Majeed is always scared that his “divine bounty might suddenly end” (Waliullah, 42).
He often thinks that in future he may be questioned by the villagers about his phoniness and even his power could be questioned by someone. When a pir comes in a neighbourhood village, Majeed got scared. Form an existentialist view this has depicted Majeed’s anguish, he wants to unveil his trick to the villagers to show how worthless they are: ‘Ingratitude,’ Majeed said to himself lying there in the dark, intolerable ‘ingratitude.’ He decided to expose that this pompously decorated so-called mazar, the grave of a nobody, was just about what they deserved for their ingratitude. If I should ever decide I’ve had enough of them, then I’ll tell them the truth. I’ll tell them exactly how I’ve been making fools of them year after year. And then I’ll tear down the yellow canopy and the red cloth with its silver trimmings, and I’ll leave the country. (Waliullah, 44)
Existentialist philosopher, named Macquarie, in Existentialism compares “freedom” with “the child of necessity” as it “is determined by being” (179). Again Sartre in his Exisrentialism and Humanlsrn says a o’man is responsible for everything he doesl’ (30). The freedom of an individual is to choose his or her values, he is free to choose, responsible for his own choice of values. In existentialist philosophy, there is no single value inherently good or bad in this universe but depends on choice. In general, Majeed’s value may seem to be an evil, but his responsibility towards his choice of value establishes his existentialist freedom, Majeed’s individual responsibility has been shown by his own confession. Majeed will never be able to reveal the truth as he has dedicated his full conscience to the shrine: “But in his heart’s heart Majeed knew that he would never do it. It was he who had created the mazar, and he could not destroy it. For he was now its slave” (Waliullah, 45). Majeed is the slave of his own created value which is a representation of severe kind of responsibility towards his own value.
This slavery has been compared with mauvaise foi (bad faith) by Kaiser Haq in an article titled “Existentialism in a Bangladeshi Village.” In existential philosophy the individual realizes his loneliness. Despite having two wives and a powerful landowner as a friend, Majeed is very lonely. Moreover, he cannot share his secret with anyone, not even with his wives. Majeed thinks, “‘We are alone, all of us, every man is alone in this cruel and friendless, intolerant, pitiless world.” (Waliullah, 59) At the beginning of Part Four of the novel Majeed mentions Khaleque as a ‘friend’ for numerous times. It shows that how Majeed was longing for friendly company but later he realizes that Khaleque has never considered him as a friend. It makes him feel more lonely and abandoned than ever in his life. This loneliness establishes Majeed as a modern character too. One of the minor characters of the novel named Tara Mian is also very existentialist by nature. He and his wife often quarrel with his wife but he never doubt his wife. The quarrels had a kind of recreational value to their boring, monotonous life. But Majeed shaken his belief, his existence becomes meaningless to him. He loses his interest in his life because now he attaches no importance to his past life. Everything of this world seems to be meaningless to him. It encourages him to bring an end to his life. Amena, another poor victim of Majeed’s villainy, consciously chooses to bring change in her life. She had enough comfort in her life and could lead her life easily if she never wished to have a child of her own. However, her decision to improve her status by breeding a child in her family causes her ultimate downfall. A keen observation can assure us that both the minor characters have similarities with Majeed as both of them search a meaningful life.
In this novel, Syed Waliullah uses stream of consciousness to build the structure of the novel. We do not find any clear connection between the first two chapters. One can never be assured that the muazzin from the Garo Hills is the protagonist of the novel, but can only guess that he is the same person. He mingles his past and present, his happiness and sadness, he is a modern character: How hungry I was that wilderness day when I first came to this village! I had nothing then, owned no land, no home, no wife and no cattle. And now I am the gua.rdian of the mazar.I eam money, I live comfortably, I command the people’s respect. Of course, I have changes but, thanks be to God, for the better. I have no reason to be sad. (Waliullah,76) The structure, techniques and the character sketch depict this novel as a modem novel. But at the end of the novel we find an existentialist view of a modern character.
Existentialist Reaction
The future of Majeed in the novel remains open-ended. But it appears that he has unequivocally decided to return to his hallowed place “indeed at the taken a toll of his claim pulverization” (Waliullah, 135). In the long run it is a “borderline circumstance” for existentialist reasoning (Maksud, 277) becawe fear, blame and uneasiness have their full impact on Majeed’s intellect and he has been constrained to select between two conceivable outcomes or choices. Existentialism as characterized in Britannica is: “They centered, to begin with, on the risky character of the human circumstance, through which man is persistently gone up against with assorted conceivable outcomes or choices, among which he may select and on the premise of which he can venture his life” (25: 612). Majeed’s. choices are: a life taking after Majeedls past unreliable life or an extreme passing grasping his respect. Here, Majeed applies his opportunity to choose among conceivable outcomes. rn Existentialism and Hum.anism, lean-Paul Saftre characterizes existentialism as o’. . . a tenet that does render human life conceivable; a convention, moreover, which asserts that each truth and each activity suggest both an environment and a human subjectivity” (20).In the same way, Majeed demonstrates himself as his claim ace by applying his claim subjective choice. Really, he does not have any presence without the hallowed place. Possibly the holy place is fake but it is the as it were point to proceed his life. In spite of the fact that Majeed knows that his return may bring his life at chance, he chooses to maintain his esteem or pith as his presence will not have any meaning (here esteem or control) without his pith. As a result his presence at a certain point of life without his esteem (pith) is too aimless. The reason behind this is an uneasiness or fear of losing his quintessence or conviction. Instep of any Pir, it is surge or characteristic adversity that carries uneasiness back inside Majeed to smash his self-created esteem: “It is difficult for one to know whether one has trespassed, and to what degree, Majeed told himself. But I do know that I am not panicked since of my sins. My fear is of having to go back to where I begun” (waliullah, 134). Likely it is the reason why Majeed chooses to put his life at chance with the trust of holding all his accomplishments he has picked up in Mahabbatpur. Likely he fears his past destitute feeble life. Presently he knows that both his past and display lives are good for nothing but with his free will he has chosen his show life as more vital.
Conclusion
Majeed is not an crazy saint but a individual who employments devout superstition to burrow his roots among the common villagers. Continuously he gets to be compelling, effective and overwhelming. He does not as it were appreciate financial soundness but moreover takes delight of being definitive. This unused taste makes him the slave of his self made pretense personality. His return is a choice of accommodation towards his possess nobility. A world without consolation and authoritativeness would be a insignificant put for him. As a result, he chooses to give up his presence and quintessence inside and out at once. The Skeptical finishing proposed by the creator does not conclude in inaneness of life or maybe actuates a idyllic equity to dishearten figment.
References
Choudhury, Sirajul Islam ed. Tree Without Roors. Dhaka: Writers.ink, 2005′ Print.
Cuddon, J. A. Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. London: Penguin Books, 1999. Print. “Existentialsim.”The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. I5rH Ed. 2003. Print.
Haq, Kaiser. “Existentialism in a Bangladeshi Village.” The Daily Srar online edition, Dhaka, 22 October 2005. Web. 20 September 2010.
Lavine, T.Z. . From Socrates to Sartre. New York: Bantam Books, 1989 . Print
Macquarrie, Joht. Existentialism. New York: Penguin Books , 1972.Print
Maksud, Syed Abul. Syed Waliullahar Jivan o Sahitya (Life and Works of Syed Waliullah). Dhaka: Tamrolipi, 1983. Print.
Morner, Kathleen, and Ralph Rausch. NTC’s Dictionary of Literary Terms. Dhaka: Friends Book Corner , 2004. Print.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism and Humanism. London: Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1975. Print.
Waliullah, Syed. Tree Without Roots. Dhaka: Vfriters.ink ,2005. Print.
