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A review by julan1027
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
5.0
Painful, poetic, beautiful, frustrating, poignant, and devastating.
Mrs. Moore has brought the young Miss Quested to Chandrapore, India to see if she might become engaged to her son, Ronny, who is working there as a civil servant. The two women very much want to see and experience the real India, but that is not at all the done thing among Anglo-Indians who do their best to remain separate and exude a sense of superiority at all times. In spite of the best attempts of her son, Mrs. Moore becomes acquainted with Dr. Aziz, a bright young Indian doctor. Her son has been quick to point out that the role of the British in India is not to behave pleasantly toward the the "natives". Meanwhile, Miss Quested is concerned by Ronny's attitudes and at first decides not to marry him, then decides to marry him, and then decides perhaps it was a mistake to agree to marry him. When Dr. Aziz takes the women to the Marabar caves for a picnic, confusion ensues and he finds himself arrested for attacking Miss Quested. His British friend, Fielding, is certain that Dr. Aziz in no way behaved inappropriately, and Mrs. Moore concurs, but the rest of the British community lines up against Aziz and is determined to see him punished.
This novel, written in 1924, exposes the racism rampant within the Anglo-Indian community and their patronizing, highly insulting attitudes toward the Indian population. But more than that it shows how the people of both cultures seem constantly to misunderstand and misinterpret the behaviors of one another. Nothing seems simple because every action or word is thought to have deeper meaning.
Mrs. Moore has brought the young Miss Quested to Chandrapore, India to see if she might become engaged to her son, Ronny, who is working there as a civil servant. The two women very much want to see and experience the real India, but that is not at all the done thing among Anglo-Indians who do their best to remain separate and exude a sense of superiority at all times. In spite of the best attempts of her son, Mrs. Moore becomes acquainted with Dr. Aziz, a bright young Indian doctor. Her son has been quick to point out that the role of the British in India is not to behave pleasantly toward the the "natives". Meanwhile, Miss Quested is concerned by Ronny's attitudes and at first decides not to marry him, then decides to marry him, and then decides perhaps it was a mistake to agree to marry him. When Dr. Aziz takes the women to the Marabar caves for a picnic, confusion ensues and he finds himself arrested for attacking Miss Quested. His British friend, Fielding, is certain that Dr. Aziz in no way behaved inappropriately, and Mrs. Moore concurs, but the rest of the British community lines up against Aziz and is determined to see him punished.
This novel, written in 1924, exposes the racism rampant within the Anglo-Indian community and their patronizing, highly insulting attitudes toward the Indian population. But more than that it shows how the people of both cultures seem constantly to misunderstand and misinterpret the behaviors of one another. Nothing seems simple because every action or word is thought to have deeper meaning.