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Rushdie

In: Novels

Submitted By mscadet
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readers to pay attention and demands them to use their thoughts to interpret the underlying messages his short stories are conveying. In East, West, it is obvious that the stories from the East are very different from the West. The East has a more realistic approach about life situations while the West introduces this notion of foreign and the idea of escape from life itself. It might have been Rushdie's goal to achieve these two different themes, but from his personal background, it appears that this story mirrors his life issues. He is conflicted between these two separate junctions-East and West-and cannot find a way to joint them well-although he tried to do so by introducing the stories from the section East, West. These stories are not a success; they were lacking the much needed balance the characters were in search of to feel complete. Their endings left a trail of sadness. One would think with the joining of East, West, peace and belonging would finally come, but it is as if there's no conclusion or solution to this problem. Some of the short stories in East,West section finished without the audience knowing the destiny of the characters.
The Courter truly expresses Rushdie's feelings about being foreign and the realistic aspects of culture clashes are also included in this story. The characters' names, Certainly-Mary and Mixed-up only appeared as nicknames given by the children in this story, but they were actually symbolic meanings behind the East, West themes. Certainly-Mary was always certain about what she wanted. I believed that she was another version of the narrator because she too, was conflicted between two places where she called home. She shares a love for her home country and a love for England. She can not achieve a balance between these two. Her being in England while wanting to return to her home country affected her health. It became clear

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