How is Fokir devalued by the others around him in the novel and how does Ghosh use The hungry tide to display his value and show him as the postmodern canny?

Lekshmy, C. S. A. “Spatial Literary Theory in Amitav Ghosh’s the Hungry Tide.” New Literaria, vol. 4, no. 1, 2023, pp. 68-73. ProQuest, http://proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/spatial-literary-theory-amitav-ghoshs-hungry-tide/docview/2778533488/se-2, doi:https://doi.org/10.48189/nl.2023.v04i1.009.

“Article on Amitav Ghosh, ‘The Hungry Tide.’” Dr Christopher Rollason: BILINGUAL CULTURE BLOG – ENGLISH/SPANISH – CASTELLANO/INGLÉS, 5 Feb. 2006, https://rollason.wordpress.com/2006/02/05/article-on-amitav-ghosh-the-hungry-tide/.

Through this whole semester we’ve read many texts and articles about climate fiction and how it ends up in these fictional realties, But as I’ve read more and more into it there’s a very thin blurred line between fiction and the world as we know it now. In Ghosh’s novel People constantly have to change their way of life and adapt to the new changes thrown at them from nature, And in Butlers novel they’re in a apocalyptic world trying their best to survive with what little resources and skills they have. Both are examples of what can happen to the world as we know and are living our every day lives in.

As the days go by the climate clock also goes down, Is that our apocalyptic countdown for humanity and the time for us to try our best to save it or is there no turning back from the damage we’ve done to the planet already. Or are we going to adapt like the the characters in Ghosh’s and Butlers novel… is there a way for seven billion people to adapt to such a unknown and drastic change that they cannot predict as the earth is getting more and more unpredictable as the days pass. Or will we be stuck in our ignorant ways and continue life as it is in the west where people do not believe in things like climate change.

The west is often depicted as one of the most innovative and leading countries in the world and because of how much power they hold they have control over many things globally but only come second to certain other countries. While the East is the most effected by the actions of the west and everybody outside of there. Few specific countries are heavily affected in the East from the actions of the Western countries when it comes to climate change and how consumerism has taken over in such a horrid way where every miniscule thing is mass produced, used, and thrown out which becomes a constant cycle till the environment gets worser and worser.

It seems like we’re closer to a climate apocalypse rather than changing our ways as human for the better of the planet and our own future. The Human nature of greed is going to cause the demise of humanity as people value profit over anything and everything. To change the planet for the better humans have to change which is something that seems very unlikely.

How are the people of the world affected by climate change outside of the west and how does Ghosh’s novel portray that?

In many things before the canny is something that varies and depends from person to person, But in Nayars “The postcolonial uncanny…” the idea of a Indigenous canny is presented which is extremely unique but a rather unfamiliar concept that’s a bit hard to grasp. The idea of a canny describes something that feels familiar but unfamiliar at the same time as described by Freud, The idea of home and house are connected but they’re not the same thing as both evoke different feelings.

The Home is somewhere a person has the feeling of belonging and return to but a House is a place where someone just lives its like the blurring of familiar and unfamiliar. The indigenous cany that’s described by Nayar is something that’s described as a familiarity that people have when they’re connected to the place they live in the idea of a home is something that’s supposed to be stable but like in Ghosh’s novel the stability doesn’t exist in the Sundarbans. Fokir in the Novel is in a way used to show the Indigenous canny as someone whose used to the instability and adjusts their life to it. He grew up in the Sundarbans so he’s been with instability his whole life and got used to the way of life there which shows Indigenous canny. While Piya’s perspective is shown as the uncanny in the Sundarbans because of how the Bengali culture and language is familiar to her and like home but she isnt very connected with it so she feels like a outsider whose visiting a new place at the start of the novel.

The Indigenous in my opinion shows a different way of life that many are used to because they adapted to the place they live in instead of depending on migration to a new area to seek better conditions to live in. But when you accept a life that’s like the Indigenous canny its just depending on instability and your own ability to adapt to the changes the environment throws at you but your life isn’t always guaranteed and can be taken away by a slight change even. Fokirs life was taken like that but that’s how many peoples lives are still when they choose the Indigenous canny as nothing is stable in a land where everything is unpredictable and a surprise. Adapting helps you get used to it but its never something you’re 100% used to as change is surprise to us humans.