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  • Background Casually Summary Nissim Ezekiel

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    Nissim Ezekiel's poem "Background Casually" describes his struggle with identity as a Jewish person in India. It is divided into three sections chronicling his childhood, adulthood, and old age. As a child, he was taunted for his religion and often felt like an outsider. In adulthood, he went to England for education but struggled with poverty and loneliness. Upon returning to India, he still felt like an alien and witnessed prejudice against his community. In old age, he realized he could never fully escape being seen as an outsider but embraced his Indian identity despite the challenges.

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    Nissim Ezekiel's poem "Background Casually" describes his struggle with identity as a Jewish person in India. It is divided into three sections chronicling his childhood, adulthood, and old age. As a child, he was taunted for his religion and often felt like an outsider. In adulthood, he went to England for education but struggled with poverty and loneliness. Upon returning to India, he still felt like an alien and witnessed prejudice against his community. In old age, he realized he could never fully escape being seen as an outsider but embraced his Indian identity despite the challenges.

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    733 views2 pages

    Background Casually Summary Nissim Ezekiel

    Uploaded by

    Paranji Creation
    Nissim Ezekiel's poem "Background Casually" describes his struggle with identity as a Jewish person in India. It is divided into three sections chronicling his childhood, adulthood, and old age. As a child, he was taunted for his religion and often felt like an outsider. In adulthood, he went to England for education but struggled with poverty and loneliness. Upon returning to India, he still felt like an alien and witnessed prejudice against his community. In old age, he realized he could never fully escape being seen as an outsider but embraced his Indian identity despite the challenges.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    Background Casually Summary Nissim Ezekiel

    Introduction
    The poem Background Casually written by Nissim Eziekel tells about the
    struggle of the poet for identity in a country where he as well as his
    community (Jews) is considered to an alien. The poem has been divided
    into three sections. The first section deals with the childhood of the
    poet. The second section throws light on his adult-age and third section
    deals with the old-age of the poet.
    Section 1
    In the beginning, Eziekel uses the third person for himself. According to
    him, he was born low. Being a member of the alien community he could
    neither eat nor could sleep and thus became quite weak. Due to this
    feeling, he could not fly a kite. Even the top also failed to spin in his
    hands.
    In the next stanza, the poet describes his childhood by using the first
    person. He was sent to a Roman Catholic School where he, according to
    him, was like a prey before wolves (referring to Hindus and Muslims).
    He was often taunted by the Hindus and Muslims who accused him of the
    murder of Christ. They compare him to Judas who betrayed Christ. The same
    year he won Scripture prize depicting that he was quite good in his
    schooling. He was often beaten by a Muslim boy and hence terror reigned
    in his mind during that stage.
    Not only Muslims but Hindu boys also repelled him away with their wrong
    accent and use of language. Being enraged he even thought of becoming
    violent and used his knife, though he did not mention where, how and why
    he used the knife.One night he heard prayers that made him believe that
    he is not morally so good (as he heard of Yoga and Zen). He thought if he
    could still become a Rabbi (a saint). Being curious he tried to find the
    answer but the deeper he went the more confused he was.
    Section-2
    In the second section, Eziekel talks about his adult-age experiences. His
    family desired to send him to England for higher studies but being
    financially poor they could not effort his expenses. However one of their
    friends paid for him and he was able to go to England.
    There he was alone and considered poverty, poetry, and philosophy of his
    friends. Time passed and even after two years he was alone. A woman came
    and tried to motivate him and henceforth he tried to make his life a
    little bit better.
    Later he recognized his failure which became an unbearable thought. After
    spending some years he desired to go back to India. However, he was too
    poor to do so. Hence he started working on a cargo ship that took French
    guns and mortar shells to India and China. He was finally able to go back
    to India on the same ship
    After coming back to India Eziekel tried to be happy and feel at home
    again. However, he was still an alien. His father often told him that all
    the Hindus are violent. Nissim and his family were often humiliated by
    their neighbors. Hence he prepared to endure the worst.
    He married and even changed his job. Doing such things he acknowledged
    that he was a fool. He started writing poetry and knew well that he has
    ample to write. He explains how low their community was. His ancestors
    did the job of crushing seeds which were not a good job.
    Section-3
    In the 3rd section, Eziekel explains his experience as an old person. He
    says that one of his friends told how he fought in the Boer War. Hearing
    the stories started fearing from the Indians. He recognized that writing
    poetry is also not safe and even the words can harm a person.
    He wrote poems and gave up his sufferings. Now he tried to write wisely
    without giving free play to his thoughts. He expresses his inner and
    outer suffering that he ultimately failed to defeat. He says that now he
    has become an integral part of India.
    The foreigners consider him to be an alien on that land (India). But he
    decided now he will consider himself as an Indian. He has to stay there
    though it is a backward place for the other Jews living outside of India.

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