Mahendra Kumar Budhathoki

Social Conflicts in Guru Prasad Mainali’s Paralko Aago (The Blaze in the Straw)

Mahendra Kumar Budhathoki

Abstract

Conflict is a key element in the story, and without it, the plot of a story is almost impossible to move ahead. Social issues cause conflict in literature. Here, this paper tries to expose the social conflicts in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s story Paralko Aago (The Blaze in the Straw). This story typically represents the Nepali rural society. There is a conflict between a husband Chame and a wife Gauthali in the story. This research paper tries to analyze what the social factors inflame the quarrel of poor couples. The researcher has used a descriptive qualitative method and used conflict theory to analyze the story. The major findings are manifest and crisis conflict in the story. There is conflict between an individual Chame and an individual Gauthali, conflict between an individual Chame and an animal buffalo, conflict between an individual Chame and social beliefs, etc. Mainali has given such conflicts to make aware of individuals, especially couples, that quarrel between a husband and a wife is a fire of straw. Couples should not break up their relationship due to such quarrel.

Key-words: Conflict, Latent, Manifest, Social Belief, Paralko Aago

Introduction

Literature can generally be a study on the bases of linguistic, aesthetic and social aspects. This study focuses on social conflicts in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago (The Blaze in the Straw) based on sociological perspective. Sociology talks about human behaviors and their relationships with others in the real society. Sociologists seek sociological causes in every human behavior and events happened in the real society. Literature is a creative art that reflects society. Literature cannot be aloof from the real human society. As in the real society, literature has expressions of human behaviors, feelings, attitudes, intentions that are products of the certain social values and principles. Literature represents ―human activity and experiences‖ (Widdowson 2) of the real society. A society has their structures and functions. People have their various activities and those activities directly or indirectly affect or influence others in the real society. In the same way, a novel or story has different types of characters; they are socially connected. They do different activities and behaviors that are

guided by their social cultural values and principles. The various values and guided principles make clashes among them.

The clash becomes a key component to develop the plot of the story. There are certain processes of socialization in the society. In the process of socialization, characters or people have different social values, status, power, access to resources, religion, nationality, identity, attitudes and perceptions; they do accordingly. Their different manners and behaviors make people understand differently; those different understandings affect human behavior, attitude, perception and their relationships with others. It can be a root cause for conflict. A story or novel has an imagined society in which characters do various activities, show different attitudes and behaviors; that create conflicts and different events happen in the plot. In these events, there must be social causes. Human behaviors and activities are socially constructed. A conflict is a consequence of social acts. Events ―take place under specific social circumstances and rules‖ (Mishra 6). People or characters show the socially patterned behaviors and activities within the socially organized institutions, such as families, communities, workplaces. ―It is a particular kind of societies- societies in particular historical and structural circumstances - that invent witchcraft and witches and burn them at stake‖ (7). Conflict means a clash or debate between two or more opposite thoughts, attitudes or interests socially patterned and constructed. There are generally two types of conflicts: internal and external. Internal conflict refers to the conflict that is within an individual; it can be said as individual vs. self. A character may fight with his/ her own belief, interest, desire, morality, and s/he should solve the problem alone. External conflict refers to the conflict of an individual with the others. Characters may struggle with the issues connected with others. There are five types of external conflicts: individual vs. individual, individual vs. society, individual vs. nature, individual vs. technology, and individual vs. supernatural and fate. There may be more than one conflict in a literary text. It is necessary to recognize the types of conflicts, its causes and effects in the story. The main purpose of the study is to seek and analyze the conflicts and their sociological causes in the story.

Statement of the Problem

Fiction is the reflection of the real society. The society has different social inequalities concerning gender, caste, class, occupation, age, generations that are attached with power, money, education, tradition, self-respect and prestige. These inequalities cause conflicts in

the society; so do in the stories. In the stories, there are crisis and conflicts that cause the events move forward; there are also some factors causing the conflicts happened in the story. In Paralko Aago, quarrel between husband and wife provokes me to talk about the conflict. I, as a researcher, am interested to explain the kinds of social conflicts and their causes in the story Paralko Aago.

Research Questions

This article has the following research questions: 1. What are the social conflicts happened in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago? 2. What are the factors that cause the social conflicts in it?

Objective of the Study

The objectives of this research paper are 1. To find out the social conflicts happened in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago, 2. To explain the factors those cause the social conflicts in this text.

Delimitation of the Study

This article is only limited to the analysis of social conflicts in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago. It discusses the kinds and causes of social conflicts happened in the text. This analysis is done from the sociological perspective based on the conflict theory. It discussed only social conflicts, but not physical conflicts. Significance of the Study

This paper will be useful for the English literature students who are interested to the sociological study on literature. This research paper will be a sound reference for other researchers. It can be a sample paper for novice researchers to carry out research articles.

Review of the Literature

Conflict occurs in a situation in which there are opposing ideas, opinions, interests, feeling or wishes, and people or characters cannot treat them equally and fairly at the same time. They have difficulty to choose one. Conflict refers to a situation in which people, groups or countries are in a disagreement with events and issues like cultures, classes, genders, love,

politics, ethnicity, distribution of resources and powers. ―The clash of values and interests, the tension between what is and what some groups feels ought to be, the conflict between vested interests and new strata and groups demanding their share of power, wealth and status, have been productive of vitality‖ (Coser 197-98). There is antagonistic relationship between or among the characters in literature.

Social theory talks about the social behavior based on the empirical evidences in the real society. Sociology discusses the social relations in the real world. Literature like story, novel is the representation of the real society. ―Literary discourse is part of a general social discourse‖ (Hughes 3). There are characters, their social relations among them, nature, etc. in the story. ―Social conflict theory sees society as an area iniquity that generate conflicts and changes‖ (Macionis 14). In the society, culture, class, gender, caste, race, ethnicity, age, occupation, etc. determine social differentiation and social stratification, which cause the social inequalities. Such inequalities cause social conflicts. ―Human beings are sociable but are also capable of opposing one another and struggling with one another. […] Conflict is what happens when the interests of individuals or of groups are antagonistic and they are in conflict for status or power‖ (Wieviorka 3). A sense of lacking resources to a person or group produces conflict. ―Most social conflict is based on the unequal distribution of scarce resources. Weber identified those resources for us as class, status and power‖ (Coser 216).

There are ―some functions of conflict within social system, more specifically with its relation to institutional rigidities, technical progress and productivity‖ (Coser 197). There may be changes in social structural relations, its value system and institutions through conflicts. There are many types of conflicts found in the real society. Francis Abraham classifies conflicts into two types: ―endogenous and exogenous‖ (cited in George 19). Endogenous conflicts refer to the conflicts of individuals with society, authority, value, distribution of resources. Exogenous conflicts refer to the conflicts of perception, ideology, cultural invasion and wars. Santon classifies conflicts into two: ‗internal and external conflicts‘ (cited in Arifuddin 7). Internal conflict refers to individual‘s conflict with self. External conflicts are the conflicts between person and person, person and society, person and nature, person and technology, person and the supernatural or God, and person and fate. Frank Pfetsch categorizes conflicts into five types: latent conflict, manifested conflict, crisis, severe crisis, and war; among these, latent and manifest conflicts are non-violent conflict, and crisis, severe

crisis, and war are violent conflict (cited in Axt, Milososki and Schwarz 5). HIIK classified conflicts into five intensity stages: latent, manifest, crisis, severe crisis and war.

A conflict has generally three phases – initial, middle and final. Eric Brahm in ―Conflict Stages‖ describes seven phases of conflict dynamic: latent, emergence, escalation, (hurting) stalemate, de-escalation/negotiation, settlement and post-conflict peace building. The general factors that cause conflicts in the society are class, gender, culture, age (generations), identity, social position and roles, land, religion, ideology, different ideas, interests and values, scarce resources, politics, business, etc. Conflict is the key component that makes story interesting to readers. Conflicts in novels are influenced by ―the social and historical contexts in which we live‖ (Hughes 1).There may be one or more than one conflict in a story. There may be variety in the presentation of conflicts and their solutions in literature; it depends on how the story is told.

Arifuddin in his thesis ―An Analysis of Social Conflict in Rick Riordon‘s Novel The Red Pyramid‖ analyzed various kinds of social conflicts and their causes. Hikmah in his thesis ―Social Conflicts in Owen Matthews‘ Stalin’s Children‖ discussed social conflicts between

individuals, groups, causes of conflicts. These two theses are analyzed from the sociological literature approach. There were no studies on Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago from the sociological literature approach. This study is the analysis of social conflict in Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago from the sociological viewpoint.

Research Methodology

This study has used qualitative descriptive method. This article was based on the primary source Guru Prasad Mainali‘s Paralko Aago and the secondary sources books and articles related to conflict theory. Note-taking was used as a tool for data collection from the story. In the procedure of data collection, the conflicts happened in the text were identified and then analyzed their causes. Here, conflict theory was used as the tool of data analysis to find out social conflicts in the story. This paper was based on the critical textual analysis.

Exposition of the Social Conflict in Paralko Aago

Paralko Aago (The Blaze in The Straw) by Guru Prasad Mainali is a popular story in Nepali Literature. This story typically represents a poor farmer of a village in Nepal. It tries to show the types of conflicts happened in the lives of rural farmers and the causes of conflict. In the story Paralko Aago, there is a conflict between a farmer Chame and his wife Gauthali. They quarrel one day and Gauthali goes to her maita, parents‘ home. Chame lives alone a few days but he realizes the necessity of his life-partner to run his life smoothly. He also goes to his inlaws‘ home to return her. The major message of this story is that a quarrel between a husband and his wife is a fire of straw i.e. short-lived blazing fire. It blazes quickly and does not exist long time.

There is a violent conflict between a farmer Chame and his wife Gauthali. Chame used force

to beat her wife Gauthali. There is also a conflict of patriarchal belief. Gauthali was very mukhali, sharp-tongued, foul-mouthed and impertinent. Chame thought that his wife should follow him without questions but Gauthali speaks her opinion to him. Patriarchal society believes a wife should follow her husband silently without query. However, in this story a wife Gauthali spoke what she thought right. She did not tolerate a bit injustice. A male, like her husband, does not like her sayings because they counter the belief of male, and thinks that her sayings are rude, impertinent, insolent and quarrelsome. If so, Chame was violent, murderous because he used to attack physically his wife Gauthali time again.

There is a conflict of interest, longing and responsibility. There was a marriage ceremony in the village, and Gauthali had desire to watch and enjoy the wedding. Therefore, she has gone there. Her absence at home was a surprise for Chame. He returned hungrily home from the field where he has ploughed whole day. He thought that she should perform her responsibility at home, but he found his wife returning from the marriage ceremony leaving everything in disorder at home. He got fiercely angry with Gauthali. There was no fire in fireplace and water in a gagree i.e. a water-pot. Gauthali hurriedly went to pandhero (a common watering place or spring) for water. He sat with fierce rage on the pindhi (raised platform around the house) when she came back from pandhero. He rebuked her- you widow, you blink your eyes with janti (people accompanying groom to bride‘s place attendees of wedding procession) and now impersonated here; then he kicked her. Chame again dragged her by catching her

chultho (a braid of hair) in courtyard of the house, and he threatened her- go where you like, do not stay at my home. When he has first kicked her, she tolerated because she realized her mistake. Later on, she thought dragging her was too much and she cursed him- your hands infected by leprosy, you butcher, pauper. He kicked her again and she cried. He took himself as a superior person at patriarchal home and her as a helper. A conflict of patriarchal social structure caused this domestic violence. Chame said, ‗do not stay at my home‘, this means, where is Gauthali‘s house. Where does she belong- husband‘s house or her parents‘ house? Is she homeless? It happens due to social cultural practices. There is also a conflict between genders- a male Chame and a female Gauthali. Females are dominated in patriarchal society; here is also Chame dominated his wife Gauthali.

There is another issue of conflict- haves and have-nots. They including Chame were the farmers who did not have enough food to eat in the mornings and evenings if they did not plough and work every day in the field. Gauthali wished to enjoy the marriage ceremony but no one was at home to work. If Chame and Gauthali were rich, they would go together to enjoy the ceremony and did not worry about the ordinary things like water, cooking food, caring buffalo, etc. at home. Next day, Gauthali went to her parents‘ home. The economic condition caused the conflict between Chame and Gauthali in the story. This is the conflict between a person Chame and the next Gauthali.

Here is a conflict between a person and an animal. After yoking the field, Chame returned at home in the evening, and he was hungry. He did not find Gauthali at home. His buffalo was hungry and cried. When he went to draw milk from an udder of buffalo, it kicked him. Hungry buffalo did not give milk to Chame. He furiously bit buffalo with a stick and buffalo galloped to Kokale‘s maize field. It destroyed all the plants of maize. Chame tried to catch the buffalo but could not catch. It fled away. Here is the conflict of a person Chame and buffalo. Buffalo was hungry, how was it ready to milk to Chame. Kokale and his wife became fire and cursed Chame because his buffalo treaded upon the plants of maize. Their crop were their food. Kokale slapped two times on the cheeks of Chame but Chame did not respond anything.

Then next few days he struggled alone at home. When he was carrying water on his back from pandhero, Juthe Damai‘s wife teased him- ―Oh! How unsuitable a man carries water on

his back‖. Here is also a debate of the partition of work between male and female. In a traditional patriarchal society, carrying water from pandhero is the work of a female but not of male. Such kinds of practices cause conflict in a family. Juthe Damai‘s wife suggested Chame to go and bring Gauthali back and a man‘s life cannot run alone. It was not good to be hostile with own wife. But Chame said, ―If she comes with her knowledge, here is her home; I will go for her if I become Pode‖. Here is a conflict between an individual and the self. Chame is an individual and his ego is his self. He felt inferior to go and got her from in-laws‘ house. His ego was not ready to bend in front of his wife Gauthali. He compared himself with Pode i.e. a low-caste Newar in caste system society. It means Chame‘s caste status was higher than Pode. There is a conflict for survival. Chame thought if he killed his buffalo, moneylender would catch him. Unless he managed the kitchen, he had to live hungrily. It would be better to live as jogi (hermit) than this wretched life. He again thought even a jogi must visit others‘ door to collect food, and if he fell sick, no one would give him water. Here is a debate of ordinary earthly life and life of hermit. Chame thought, ―Life of hermit seems better when we suffer little at the moment of trouble.‖ He thought a lot and decided to go to get Gauthali.

On the way to his in-laws‘ house, he saw his wife Gauthali was carrying a load of grass, and got angry because she sang there and his buffalo was hungry at home. Again, a conflict arises in the mind of Chame- what will his parents-in-laws tell him? At in-laws‘ home, no one talked about sending Gauthali with Chame. After dinner, he slept alone in porch. Even his wife Gauthali did not come to talk with him. He regretted about the quarrel with her. Next day Chame asked her father-in-law to send Gauthali. Her father complained about Chame‘s sayings about her parents as a poor person. Gauthali also rejected to go back with him at first. Later, Chame returned home with his wife Gauthali. The story ends with Juthe Damai‘s wife‘s a proverb- ‗a quarrel between a man and a wife is just a fire in the straw‘- ―That is, it blazes up fiercely, but quickly dies down‖ (Hutt 9). Not all conflict may exist long last; some conflict may not for destruction. Here the conflict of a husband Chame and a wife Gauthali results in love increment.

Conclusion

Conflict is a major component in the story. Conflicts move the plot ahead. There is a chain of events in the story; events happen because of some causes. The social factors like economic,

cultural, social beliefs, etc. influence the causes in the story. Paralko Aago by Guru Prasad Mainali is a famous short story of Nepali literature. He depicts a quarrel between a village farmer Chame and his wife Gauthali. She was a hot-tempered but clean in heart that Chame could not understand. At last, he realized his weakness. This is a story of village poor couple who had difficult to maintain their duty and entertainment in life. It was also difficult to join their hands to mouth if they did not work every day. There was a conflict between Gauthali, who went to see a wedding in her village, and Chame, who returned at home after ploughing the field. This is a conflict between an individual and an individual. Mainali has given this quarrel to show the conflict usually happened in Nepali rural society. The writer‘s purpose of presenting other conflicts such as conflict between Chame and buffalo, Kokale and Chame, Chame as an individual and self, Chame as an individual and social cultural value, etc. is to transform the pride of Chame. At last as Juthe‘s wife says, Chame realized a quarrel between a husband and a wife is a fire in the straw.

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