T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

community/communities, with some facts current and traditionalIn American hlstory. They have to interact with social forces,wlth Amerlcan clvilizatlon and American folk. Although the realthlngs are there, both Levin and Jasmlne never come to the partof partlcipating in them. Towards the begi4ng of the novelLevin knows and he chooses to avold the events and meanlngs ofcurrent hlstory. "America was" he says, "ln the best sense of abad term, un-American" (NL 21) and he 1s "content to be hlddenamld forests and mountains In an unknown town in the FarWest". (NL 30) To hlm "teaching was ltself sanctuary-to beenclosed In a warm four-walled classroom". (NL 41) Towards theend of the novel he commits hlmself to soclal leadership.Jasmlne also wants to leave her country for the far West. Shetells her husband Prakash Vl]hafter thelr marriage:We'll go to Amerlca. ... I thought of the old manunder the banyan tree. If we could first get awayfrom Indla, Chen all fates would be cancelled. Weldstart wlth new fates, new stars. We could say or beanythlng we wanted. We'd be on the other side ofthe earth out of God's sight. (Jasmine 84-85).Which ever slde of the earth one is, even I£ it is out ofGod's slght, crimes and transgressions are reflections of thesoclety In which one llves. Crlme 1s a protest against theabnormality of the soclety and nothlng more, Crime rate couldbe contained more by a rational organlsatlon of the societythan by rellglon. Quite often man's lrratlonallty would run