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Comparative analysis of Dhowli by Mahasweta Devi and The Magic Chalk by Kobo Abe

The condition of mankind in the world is an inexhaustible source of tales and stories, one more impressive than the other. And even when the stories approach the same subject, they will still differ as the authors will address the ideas from different angles and the characters will feel different emotions.

Such is the case of Dhowli (Mahasweta Devi) and The Magic Chalk (Kabo Abe), which initially appear as two different stories, yet they also reveal some similarities in the ideas and themes approached. Both stories are strongly emotional and reveal the frustrations with the social conditions of the two characters Dhowli, the young poor widow, and Argon, the young and poor artist.

One story takes place in the East, where the culture is based on castes and the superiority of the specific social structures. The other story, The Magic Chalk, takes place in the Western hemisphere, where the culture is based on the equality of genders and where the single social status is dictated by money, rather than caste.

The two stories are both powerful -- despite their short span -- and leave a powerful imprint on the mind of the reader. And this very impression is the reason as to why they were selected for analysis. And the comparative analysis is expected to be intriguing, given that the two stories are different, yet they also resemble one another in some instances.

2. Common themes

The Magic Chalk, the story of a young painter, Argon, comprises of numerous themes, out of them the more interesting ones being:

The poverty of the individual

The desire for a better life

The love and lost of the individual

The comparison between the individual and the others around

The dissolution and the creation of a new world

The equality of genders, with emphasis on the Adam and Eve theme

The death theme.

In Dhowli, the themes approached by Mahasweta Devi are also numerous and complex, to include those revealed below:

The poverty of Dhowli

The social constructions and castes in India

The inferiority of women

The theme of the forbidden love

The eternal theme of death.

Both Dhowli and Argon are young and they live in poverty, and both of them would desire a better life for themselves. They assess this poverty at an individual level, as well as in comparison to those around. Dhowli for instance perceives her poverty in the context of the richness of the people she and her mother work for. Dhowli's father had been a land laborer all his life and he had to solicit a great loan from the Brahman in order to be able to marry his daughter; he then worked until he died to repay the loan. And when he died, Dhowli and her mother relied on the mercy of the landlords for work and scraps of food. The young girl would pick fruit from the ground that had already been started by birds and showed these to the landlady for approval to take home. In essence then, Dhowli's poverty is contextual.

Argon's poverty is presented in a less complex manner and it does not span through time and the remembrance of past years. His poverty is that of a more modern young man, who chose a career that is not financially rewarding. Like Dhowli, he also assesses his poverty comparative to other people, namely his next door neighbor and his friend who works at the bank. In both instances of comparison, Argon is hungry and the others eat; his neighbor's cooked meals spread an appealing smell to his room and his friend has eaten half his lunch, leaving the rest for later.

Another common theme in the two stories is represented by the desire for love, which drives both characters to decisions and actions they would have normally not done. Argon searches for a companion with whom to create a new world, like Adam and Eve, whereas Dhowli searches for love, passion and affection, which she has been missing in her life. And in the search for love and the start of a new life, both characters become victims of their own disillusion. They willingly commit to their new dreams, however these seem illogical. Dhowli knows that her social condition cannot be overcome, yet she hopes for a rewarding relationship beyond castes. However the widow's disillusion is illogical in the social context of India, Argon's dissolution is even impossible in a real life context as he cannot create a new world by drawing it on the wall of his room. And both of the disillusions end in tragic manners, with the absorption of Argon is his wall life and the prostitution of Dhowli and her abandonment of her family.

A fourth theme that is recurrent in both short stories is represented by the equality and role of genders. In Devi's story, women are the net inferiors of men, with the Dusad widows being the absolute lowest cast in India. In The Magic Chalk however, women are beginning to gain the same social rights as men and the equality of genders is better supported.

Last, the final common theme in both stories is represented by the theme of death. In Dhowli, death is omnipresent and it materializes in various instances, such as the death of Dhowli's husband and the death of her father, or the ongoing threat to her life, her mothers and the baby's, through starvation.

Death makes its presence felt even from the beginning of the story, whereas in The Magic Chalk, death is not even mentioned until the end of the story. And even then, it is not inflicted, but merely stated. When Miss Nippon has a pistol in her hand, she forces Argon into submission by the threat of death:

"Stop it! What are you going to do with that thing? [the pistol]"

"Death, I'm going to make death. We need some divisions. They're very important in making a world" (Abe).

Dhowli

The magic chalk

Similarities

Differences

Poverty

Contextual in the social stance

Individual choice

Compared to others

Source of poverty

Love

Love and passion

Lust and partnership for a new world (Adam and Eve)

Unusual decisions to pursue love

Different needs for love

Disillusion

Overcome social castes

Love from Eve (Miss Nippon)

Tragic end of disillusion

Nature of dissolution

Gender equality / inequality

Inferiority of women

Equality of women

Cause of problems

Attitudes towards women

Death

Omnipresent

Mentioned in the end

The end of things as they are known

Actual presence

3. Three ideas

The previous section has focused on revealing and presenting the themes and ideas which are recurrent in the two short stories by Mahasweta Devi and Abu Kabe, namely the themes of poverty, love, disillusion, gender inequality and death. At this stage however, it is important to select the three most important ideas and conduct a deeper analysis of them. In such a setting, after the initial assessment of the main ideas of the stories, it is now believed that the three most important ideas are those of love, disillusion and gender inequality. They will be further detailed below.

3.1. The idea of love

Dhowli's expectation of love has been decreased, and her most favorite time was from her childhood, when she would spend time with her father. As she grew however, she was bethrowed to an older man, whom she barely knew and whom she did not love; nor he loved her. Dhowli's life as a married woman was hard; she lived on the leftovers and she was beaten by her husband.

"About her wedding she could not recall much because she must have been very small at the time. She was sent to live with her husband when her body blossomed. […] She remembered noting nice about her husband. He used to beat her. He died of a fever" (Devi).

And after he died, Dhowli chose to not interact with any boy in her community:

"After she returned to Tahad, she did not let herself near any Dusad boy. What good could come of it? The same routine of backbreaking work, with kids in your lap, kids following you around, no food, nothing. Dhowli had no desire for that kind of life, the only kind of life for a Dusad girl" (Devi).

As a widow, Dhowli as such choose to remain alone, and neglected both the boys in her caste, as well as the Misra boy, when he first approached her. She however gave in eventually and lived a passionate love, yet in constant fear of what might happen. Her love affair was irresponsible and she did not believe it its resistance over time, often saying that her lover would soon marry a girl of his own social status.

Nevertheless, Misrilal was genuinely in love with her, despite his mother's perception that it was a temporary infatuation of his young age. He tried to ensure a better future for her and their unborn child, but was sent away. Their separation was painful for both of them. The young man hoped that his mother would take care of his lover, whereas Dhowli feared a grim fate. And where the young Misra was dreaming of opening a store and providing for them all, Dhowli was coming to terms with her future as a prostitute, a public whore forced to leave home, her mother and her baby.

Overall, however tragic, the love idea in Dhowli is true and real and the affection was pure and heartfelt by both lovers. In The Magic Chalk however, the idea of love is more sensitive, as the feelings are only sensed by the young painter. And furthermore, the love developed as lust, when Argon saw Miss Nippon in the newspaper. Then, when he came to think about her, his affection became more practical (and more disillusioned) as he wanted her to be Eve, his partner in the creation of his new world.

Miss Nippon nevertheless did not share in his goals nor his affection. She did not want to be Eve, did not believe that he was Adam and was not interested in his plans. She became interested when she heard the story of how his red chalk drew things that would come alive in the night. She as such forced him to share his magic chalk and then used it to draw a pistol and a hammer, with which she immobilized him and broke his world. In this setting, the love in The Magic Chalk is more practical than that in Dhowli, where the love is shared and real, creating a love story as poignant as a Greek tragedy.

3.2. The idea of disillusion

Like love, the idea of dissolution is common in both short stories, yet at different levels and with different manifestations. Most of the disillusion of the young widow was represented by the belief in a powerful love, which can overcome the social barriers. When she got pregnant with Misrilal, her mother tried to persuade her to lose the pregnancy, yet she would not hear of it for she wanted to keep the baby and she believed that her lover could help her.

"No! Dhowli shouted, I'll not get rid of the baby.

Will you then go to the Misra house? Tell them that, because their son is the father, they should help to bring up the child carrying their blood?

Who is going to believe me? It would have been different if he were here now, if he came back.

How? He would have looked after you?

He promised to." (Devi)

In Dhowli, the disillusion is characteristic to Misrilal more than the young widow. She nevertheless becomes convinced of his promises that he would never marry another and he would come back for her; however she knows the fate of an abandoned woman. Even while he promises to come back, she awaits to see how his family would react towards her, as this would determine the course of her life.

"If the Misras would support her and the child with a regular supply of corn or money or a job, then they [the Dusad-Ganju boys, the coolies and the labor contractors] would leave her alone because they did not want to annoy the Misras if they wanted to line in their domain. If not, then they would turn her, a widow with no on but an old mother and a baby, into a prostitute for all of them to use" (Devi).

Dhowli as such engages in the disillusion, yet fears the reality. Argon on the other hand gradually losses contact with the reality and pushes his disillusion to the extreme. He uses the magic chalk not only to feed himself and attend to his immediate needs (for instance by drawing the bed), but he also uses the magic chalk to create a new world within his room. When he realizes that the magic only lasts in the dark, he draws money to buy utensils that make it dark in his room all the time. And then he realizes that within his room, he could create an entirely new world. He could draw and enjoy not only the food and the objects, but the landscape. The problem however resides in the he does not know what kind of world to create outside his room and he has trouble selecting the best landscape.

Argon then realizes that he would be alone in his newly created world, like the biblical Adam. He as such decides to create his own Eve, in the persona of Miss Nippon. She nevertheless does not share his goal, but becomes interested in the chalk. She convinces him to give her half of it and then uses it to draw means of escaping.

"Move and I'll shoot. Hands up. You're stupid, Adam. Don't you know a promise is the beginning of a lie? It's you who made me lie" (Abe).

Like Dhowli, Argon is alone and saddened, but unlike the widow, who makes the harsher decision of any woman and sticks with the reality, the painter gives in to his fantasy and joins the world in his wall. With Dhowli, the disillusion starts with Misrilal and ends in reality; with Argon, the disillusion begins with him and ends with Miss Nippon.