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A Slice of Life and Cadjan Friends

Uploaded by JithendraWij on Jun 11, 2008

“A slice of life” – is this what “Cadjan Fence” and “On Broken Wings” are?


Yes, “Cadjan Fence” and “On Broken Wings” are a slice of life. A slice of life can be compared to a slice of bread. The slice is not the whole pound of bread, but it is representative and of it. It is the pound of bread in miniature. We will now take a look at each story in turn and see how each one is not giving the full detail but displaying just a part of life.


“Cadjan Fence”


There is no great detail offered in this story. It is a snapshot of life. That is, it gives enough information to understand the whole thing. The whole thing is the situation in olden day Jaffna. There are many things symbolic to Jaffna and its culture that are mentioned. The story was written in Tamil and the theme can be easily understood by the Tamil audience for which it is targeted. The tale starts with the mother answering the daughter’s question of where the brother is. She explains that she has let him go see a film as the father is out. There was a high state of culture and natural desires were suppressed. The father is very strict and was in Colombo. Most of the families in Jaffna saw the head of the household staying away from home working in Colombo. Jaffna was known as a money order economy.

The mother wants the daughter to study, but at the same time knows that her children must also experience life once in a while. This is why she lets her son go for the film. She talks of thosais and letting the ulundu soak and this connects the reader effectively. The second scene pictures the daughter and her lover. Again the authoritarian nature of the father is hinted at when the daughter tells her lover that her father will give him the ekel-broom treatment for asking to marry her.

There is some humour in the narrative when the daughter tells her lover that his habit of tooting the horn while driving makes him want to toot and fondle hers. This conversation is unbeknownst to the mother and brings the cadjan fence to play....

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Uploaded by:   JithendraWij

Date:   06/11/2008

Category:   Literature

Length:   5 pages (1,144 words)

Views:   2089

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