Ronny Moore As A Symbol Of England example essay topic

E.M. Forster's A Passage to India is a foreshadowing of the needed changes that are about to take over pre-liberation India. The social climate is tense, and Forster depicts the precarious political environments by using pivotal characters to represent the individual parties. If pre-liberation India is the society, then Ronny Moore represents colonial England, Dr. Aziz is India and Mrs. Moore is the salt of the Earth. Ronny Moore illustrates the problematic Colonialist in pre-liberation India.

Throughout the story, Forster orchestrates multiple references to Ronny as a symbol of Colonial Enl gand to reveal England's loosening stronghold of India. The first suggestion of Ronny as a symbol is his name. The word "moor' has multiple meanings, one of which is to fasten or anchor; England has an anchor on India. A Moor is also a North African person of Arab ancestry that conquered Spain in the 8th century, once again hinting at the colonization.

A "moor' could also mean an open and infertile wasteland, symbolizing that Ronny, as well as England, are lacking affection, decency, and more in general, soul, putting their moral and ethical values in question. Another suggestion to Ronny's representation is his position as the court's magistrate. This clearly shows that Ronny is the power and law enforcer in India and a reflection of the tyrannical control of England over India. Ronny Moore is much like the church in that he is an institutional figure with power and therefore represents the white, heterosexual male majority. The general feeling of repression has been transcended into this character. Forster uses Ronny Moore as a symbol of England and thus is the unlikeable symbol of power.

Through the changing phases in Dr. Aziz's character, Forster foreshadows the transitions that India is about to experience. Throughout the story, Dr. Aziz goes through several shifts in character. At first, he is a Doctor and well-respected member of his community, but when that community is removed from its social context and administered by the English, he becomes a simple Indian. He is slightly na ve and benevolent to the English (he goes through much trouble to accommodate and accompany Mrs. Moore and Adela Quested on their journey India) and wishes to be white.

He mirrors the vast majority of the population that is not white, strait, Christian and male. But he is then stabbed in the back by Adela, accused of attempted rape and brought to trial. It is then that he comes to the realization of his abuse and enters a period of rebellion. This is exactly what happens to the Indian people when they realize the tyranny the English have brought down on them; they rebel.

At the trial, the huge manifestation outside the courtroom is symbolic of the Indian people defending their homeland. The protest for Aziz is symbolic of Inida's need to be recognized as a victim of genocide caused by England. After the trial, Aziz leaves colonial India out of anger for the uncontrolled part of India where he has time to clear his thoughts and later accept his past as part of him. He comes to the realization that he had become so involved in being accepted by the English that he was eluded of the harsh reality. It is then that he writes to Adela and forgives her. This imitates India, which had similarly been consumed with pleasing the English and had lost focus of its identity.

Dr. Aziz is, therefore, a clear representation the transitional phases which India eventually goes through to gain their independence. If Ronny Moore represents Colonial England, and Dr. Aziz is India, then Mrs. Moore is the Earth-mother figure that is to bridge the two. Throughout the novel, Forster describes Mrs. Moore with a magical and mysterious quality. Her often white and pastel-coloured clothing give her a soft and mother-like image. In the scene where she meets with Aziz for the first time, Aziz finds comfort in her face and tells her that she has the kindest face of any English woman he had ever met. This indicates to the reader that she is not like the rest of the English; she is an egalitarian that is to set the balance between the races as well as the races.

Even when she meets Dr. God pole, he senses that she is an old soul, a reincarnation, and that she has seen the world through many different eyes. Forster is announcing it loud and clear that she is this magical Earth-mother figure that is surely going to have an affect on Aziz, which in symbolic terms means that the kindness and decency inherent of humanity will eventually take its tole and the Indian people will get their justice. Forster reflects the tense social and political climate of pre-liberation India through the use of symbolic characters. These characters' actions and dialogue foreshadow what is to come and demonstrate the volatile environment boiling underneath the oppression.

What must be understood is that the oppression is only delaying and multiplying the eruption of India's claim of the right for equality and independence in their homeland..