Name::- Sneha Agravat
Batch:- 2020-22 (MA sem 1)
Paper 2:- Contemporary Literature
Topic name:- Symbolic significance to Crosswords in ‘The Only Story’
Roll no.:-16
Enrollment no.:-3069206420200001
E-mail Id :- snehaagravat2000@gmail.com
Submitted to:- S.B.Gardi Department Of English Maharaja krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Symbolic significance to Crosswords in ‘The Only Story’
About author:-
Julian Barnes is one of the greatest contemporary English writers.
Born: 19 January 1946 (age 76) Leicester, England
Pen name: Dan Kavanagh (crime fiction), Edward Pygge
Occupation: Writer
Genre: Novels, short stories, essays, memoirs
Literary movement: Postmodernism
Notable awards:
Prix Femina 1992
Commandeur of L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 2004
Man Booker Prize 2011
Jerusalem Prize 2021
Spouse: Pat Kavanagh(m. 1979,Died: 2008)
About Novel:-
The Only Story is a novel by Julian Barnes. It is his thirteenth novel and was published on 1 February 2018. The novel is about the life story of Paul Roberts, who we first meet as a 19-year-old Sussex University undergraduate returning to his parent's house in the leafy southern suburbs of London (Sutton, in Surrey, is suggested as a model.) The time is the early sixties, and there are a few references to current events. Paul joins the tennis club, which is one of the few opportunities such places offer for socialising. In a random-draw mixed doubles, he is thrown together with Susan MacLeod, a 48-year-old married woman with two daughters older than Paul. Improbably, Paul and Susan become lovers and she eventually leaves her family to set up house with Paul in South London. Having nothing to do but a little housekeeping, Susan soon descends into alcoholism and dementia. Paul departs and embarks on foreign travels, picking up jobs and women at random.
Paul is a quintessentially alienated character. With no interest in either politics or religion, and no particular ambition, he takes life as it comes. As he narrates his life in this book, he freely admits that memory is unreliable and he may not be telling us the truth.
There are many symbols in the "The Only Story". So in this I would like to explore one symbol:-
Crossword
In this Novel two people are playing crosswords, one is mr. Gordon Macleaod and another is Joan.In ‘The Only Story’ Julian Barnes has captures the nuances of social life lived in the 20th century England. The crosswords was something so significant aspect of this traditional British activity that several characters of this novel are found meaningfully engaged with it.
It is said that Crossword puzzles have several benefits like:
They can strengthen social bonds. Completing a crossword puzzle on your own is impressive, but you should never feel bad if you need to ask for help. ...
They improve your vocabulary. ...
They increase your knowledge base. ...
They can relieve stress. ...
They boost your mood.
Benefits of Crossword in Education:-
Utilizing the crossword puzzle as an enjoyable and participatory teaching tool accompanied by lecture could improve management quality in Speech Therapy sessions. (Zamani))
Young and many other researcher examine that game like crossword puzzle increase learning motivation and improve student satisfaction in the classroom, such as computer-based learning.(Young et al.)
Use of crossword puzzles as a teaching tool in dental materials, can relieve the tedium of lecture and traditional teaching methods, thereby providing a more relaxed and friendly classroom atmosphere. This will facilitate active learning and make the learning experience of students more productive.(Saran and Kumar)
However, the postmodernist novelist Julian Barnes is not interested in this traditional meaning involved in crossword.
See, how Paul Roberts, the narrator of the story, explains the hidden aspects of this British pass-time activity:
“Everyone in the Village, every grown-up – or rather, every middle-aged person – seemed to do crosswords: my parents, their friends, Joan, Gordon Macleod. Everyone apart from Susan. They did either The Times or the Telegraph; though Joan had those books of hers to fall back on while waiting for the next newspaper.I regarded this traditional British activity with some snootiness.I was keen in those days to find hidden motives – preferably involving hypocrisy – behind the obvious ones.
Joan’s habit of ‘cheating at crossword':-
During trips to her house, Paul Roberts has seen that she cheats when tackling crossword puzzles. He's taken aback by this habit of hers. When he asks her directly, she responds positively. Here's her response:
Why do you cheat at crosswords?’
Joan laughed loudly.
‘You cheeky bugger. I suppose Susan told you. Well, it’s a fair question, and one I can answer.’ She took another pull of her gin. ‘You see – I hope you never get there yourself – but some of us get to the point in life where we realize that nothing matters. Nothing fucking matters. And one of the few side-benefits of that is you know you’re not going to go to hell for filling in the wrong answers in the crossword. Because you’ve been to hell and back already and you know all too well what it’s like.’
‘But the answers are in the back of the book.’
‘Ah, but you see, to me that would be cheating.
Apart from Joan, Gordon Macleod is the only character in the story who is seen solving crossword puzzles. He is seen solving crossword puzzles with Paul Roberts on two occasions. The puzzle's answers are 'Taunton' – a town name – meaning continue mocking at – and 'TREFOIL, REF – arbitrator – in the middle of TOIL – work.' If we interpret these words in the context of Paul and Gordon's relationship, we may find it symbolically important. Taunton – making fun of someone or something, and Trefoil – a common warning symbol – signify a triangle relationship between Paul, Susan, and Gordon. Both of these words in the crossword problem appear to be a dig at Paul's middle-of-the-road marriage to Susan and Gondon.
We can take one contemporary example to related it:-
Wordle Game:-
Wordle has become so popular on Twitter that some of the microblogging platform’s users have started muting the word. For those who haven’t figured it out by now, Wordle is a daily word game that can be played online. It’s like a password without clues and can be played only once a day. Every day there is a new word to guess and players get six chances to go at it.
If you are on Twitter you would have definitely seen people sharing posts from Wordle, a set with its unique yellow, green, and grey boxes. These posts are accompanied by two numbers. The first indicates the game number and the second is the number of attempts out of six that the player needed to win.
Conclusion:
To sum up, we may say that the work contains numerous references to 'Crossword.'
It's been dubbed a "British time-pass activity" by some. It's also the most snobbish criticism of the practice.Apart from these cultural connections, the crossword puzzle serves as a metaphor for studying Joan's character as a contrast to Susan's.It's also worth looking at Paul Roberts, Susan, and Gordon Macleod's tense triangular relationship.
Work cited:-
Barnes, Julian. The Only Story. Penguin Random House UK. 2018. Book. 24 January 2022.
Julian Barnes: Official Website, http://julianbarnes.com.
McMahon, Liv. “What Is Wordle? How to Play Wordle, UK Reset Time, Words to Try and Spin-off Games Nerdle, Quordle and Worldle.” The Scotsman, 22 Feb. 2022, https://www.scotsman.com/culture/gaming/what-is-wordle-how-to-play-the-hit-word-game-plus-words-and-spin-offs-to-try-3525205.
Saran, Runki, and Saurabh Kumar. “Use of Crossword Puzzles as a Teaching Aid to Facilitate Active Learning in Dental Materials.” Indian Journal of Applied Research, vol. 5, no. 4, 2015, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Saurabh-Kumar-134/publication/320891742
Saxena, Anurag, et al. “Crossword Puzzles: Active Learning in Undergraduate Pathology and Medical Education.” Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, vol. 133, no. 9, 2009, pp. 1457–1462., https://doi.org/10.5858/133.9.1457.
The Shores of Lake Phalen. “Benefits of Crossword Puzzles.” The Shores of Lake Phalen, 25 July 2020, https://www.theshoresoflakephalen.com/benefits-of-crossword-puzzles.
Young, Michael F., et al. “Our Princess Is in Another Castle: A Review of Trends in Serious Gaming for Education.” Review of Educational Research, vol. 82, no. 1, 1 Mar. 2012, pp. 61–89., https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654312436980.
Zamani, Peyman. “The Use of Crossword Puzzles as an Educational Tool.” Journal of Advances in Medical Education & Professionalism, vol. 9, no. 2, 2021, https://doi.org/ 10.30476/jamp.2021.87911.1330
Thank you....
No comments:
Post a Comment