Reading Session

1. Reading Session Of A Passage to India

2. "You are so fantastic. . . . Miss Quested, you won't treat her generously; while over Mrs. Moore there is this elaborate chivalry. Miss Quested anyhow behaved decently this morning, whereas the old lady never did anything for you at all, and it's pure conjecture that she would have come forward in your favour, it only rests on servants' gossip. Your emotions never seem in proportion to their objects, Aziz." "Is emotion a sack of potatoes, so much the pound, to be measured out? Am I a machine? I shall be told I can use up my emotions by using them, next." "I should have thought you would. It sounds common sense. You can't eat your cake and have it, even in the world of the spirit.” • "If you are right, there is no point in any friendship; it all comes down to give and take, or give and. return, which is disgusting, and we had better all leap over this parapet and kill ourselves. Is anything wrong with you this evening that you grow so materialistic?” "Your unfairness is worse than my materialism.” • "I see. Anything further to complain of?" He was good-tempered and affectionate but a little formidable.

3. These lines are taken from A Passage to India by E. M. Forster, written in 1924. It was selected as one of the 100 great works of English literature by the Modern Library.

4. A discussion is being set between Dr. Aziz and his friend, Fielding. This quotation highlights the larger issue of British rule over India. Britain’s control of India began initially as a capitalist venture. As such, Britain appears to see itself as taking the muddle of India and turning it into an orderlyand capitalist system. Aziz objects to this kind of materialism, believing it values profit and efficiency over intangible matters of spirit and love.

5. 2nd Quotation: • Fielding did not even want to pull him up; he had dulled his craving for verbal truth and cared chiefly for truth of mood. As for Miss Quested, she accepted everything Aziz said as true verbally. In her ignorance, she regarded him as "India," and never surmised that his outlook was limited and his method inaccurate, and that no one is India. He was now much excited, chattering away hard, and even saying damn when he got mixed up in his sentences. He told them of his profession, and of the operations he had witnessed and performed, and he went into details that scared Mrs. Moore, though Miss Quested mistook them for proofs of his broad-mindedness; she had heard such talk at home in advanced academic circles, deliberately free. She supposed him to be emancipated as well as reliable, and placed him on a pinnacle which he could not retain.

6. Comment on 2nd Quotation • This passage, occurring at Fielding’s tea party. It highlights a major distinction between the English and the Indians. Forster shows that Indians value the emotion and purpose behind a statement more than the literal words being stated. This passage highlights a problem with Adela’s approach to India. Adela is still caught up with English literalism, even though she is well meaning and her intelligent individualism sets her apart from the rest of the English. Adela’s relationship with Aziz is, in this sense, without understanding or compassion. Rather, it is somewhat materialistic. Adela wants to know the “real India,” and she expects Aziz to render it for her. This goal in itself is Adela’s second mistake: whereas she seeks a single India, the real India exists in hundreds of guises, and no single Indian can offer an entire sense of it.