Nocturnal creature spotted in remote Indonesian rain forests:

Simple ways of understanding the novel

K S SIVAKUMARAN

Most students entering higher studies of literature consider the novels and short story collections as mere 'Story Books'. But as we know these imaginative stories, even if they are written realistically, are categorized under fiction.

Take for instance the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. They expect the teacher to give the notes summarizing each chapter so that they can remember the 'facts', memorise and answer stock questions.

Seldom do students realize that understanding fiction is made successful through a different approach to literature that includes poetry, fiction, drama and prose.

The different approach is basically critical analysis. That means they should know something about 'literary criticism'. To know this they must first learn specific meanings of 'literary terms'.

Further, the word 'criticism' immediately gives them the impression of dictionary meaning 'condemnation' and 'censure'.

Consequently, if you ask them to write a critical appreciation of Jane Austen's style of writing, they would write a one word answer: 'I don't like her writing because she uses words that I don't understand' or 'She writes boring stuff'. In such a situation what can the teacher do?

The teacher is in the precarious situation of having to teach them afresh the basics of understanding literature.

While the teachers in the primary and secondary schools are doing a wonderful job in imparting grammar successfully to a great extent, our education system is such that little attention is paid to literary appreciation.

The origin of the word 'criticism' comes from Greek from Aristotle's times. What it means in present times according to dictionaries is: 'the practice of analyzing, classifying, interpreting or evaluating literary or other artistic works'.

It is never finding only facts. With the above preamble let us talk about in the first instance plots in novels. As we know the first task of the novelist is to arouse our interest to read his or her novel.

The novelist does this through characters, situations, settings or atmosphere.

The development of the plot maintains that interest through portraying characters and their relationships.

A plot really as in the drama is basically involves conflict. This conflict or problems have to be solved. There is struggle in the process and finally there is a discovery- all these help to maintain interest.

The order in which the story is told is important for creating suspense.

Through the structure of the plots different points of view are shown. The reader too develops his or her views about characters and events.

Next we move on to characters in novels. We learn about characters directly from their speech and actions and indirectly from their appearances, dress, surroundings and the opinion of others.

The inner life of the characters is revealed through the thoughts and feelings of the characters by the novelist's exploration on these aspects. As the famous writer and critic E M Forster said, there are round and flat characters. A flat character is seldom given prominence but the main characters should be rounded in having a strong or unique personality.

Development of a character depends on the function of the plot.

The characters relationships reveal the theme of the novel. In Pride and Prejudice, as we all know, Darcy represents Pride from the point of view of Elizabeth in the early stages, and Elizabeth herself is prejudiced over Darcy only to change her attitude later. The way the characters are presented and the language used to describe them shows the novelist's attitudes to the characters. At this point let's observe a few points to know the function of language used in the prose form as opposed to the poetic form. It is undeniable that prose writers use comparisons and associations in the same ways, but usually not to the same extent as poets.

Unlike in poetry which is concise, precise and brief, in prose contrast and repetitions are used to emphasize for better registration of the traits in a character. The differences in style depend on the kind of words used, the kind of sentences, and the amount and kind of dialogue found in the text.

Let us now look at how we can read a novel to understand it better. Very interesting novels are usually written in the first person. But it has some limitations in covering the whole scene or canvas of the novel. So, most novels are written the third person and seldom in the second person.

This is why the story is told in different ways. The type of narrator alters the way the story is told. Some students mistake the writer as the main character in the novel even if the writer writes in the third person.

As found above the first person narration gives an impression of intimacy to the reader, but they can only be told from one person's point of view.

Third person narratives allow the author to know everything about all the character. They can present several points of view.

On the other hand if there is an imaginary person to whom the story is told, then it also affects the way it is told. Novels have several strands linked by a common theme.

So the students should read the novel closely to understand the significances of the different layers in the novel.

There are few more observations one could make to understand the novel in simple ways.

A new species of bent-toed gecko has come to light during night time expeditions into the rain forests of Indonesia's Foja Mountains, sometimes called a 'lost world'. Herpetologist Paul Oliver spotted Cyrtodactylus boreoclivus - which bears the characteristic curling toes of its genus - via the glow of his head lamp in 2008.

"The eye of the gecko reflects red, so you can see a gecko 20 to 30 metres away in a tree just by its eyeshine," said Oliver, of Australia's University of Adelaide. "When we pulled this thing out of the tree, it was like, OK - straightaway I knew it was a new one," he said.

That is because the reptile has characteristics that set it apart from up to 23 related species that live on the island of New Guinea. For one thing, the approximately 25-centimetre gecko is smaller than the many known gecko species on its home island of New Guinea - some of of which are among the world's largest and grow up to 0.3 metre long.

Also, the male C. boreoclivus sports a distinct pattern of pore distribution on its legs. Common to many gecko species, the pores exude a gooey substance, presumably containing a scent that conveys information to other geckos, Oliver said. Oliver nearly missed that distinction, though, because males of the species proved especially elusive.

After three nights of searching and finding only females, he spotted a C. boreoclivus about 5 metres up a tree. Thinking fast, he found a long stick and tapped the trunk above the gecko. The lizard ran down and Oliver caught it - this time, it was a male.

More geckos waiting in the 'Lost World'?

Oliver was not the first to discover the new gecko species, only the first to formally document it - as was made clear by a post-expedition trip to the Australian Museum in Sydney, where he found an old C. boreoclivus specimen marked as unidentified.

He suspects there are many more amphibian species waiting, unidentified, in the Foja Mountain forests. After all, scientists have explored the region only in the past few years, and only during short expeditions. C. boreoclivus, he said, is "only the tip of the iceberg."

National Geographic News