Nursel Turhan
2010200030
EL 480, Contemporary English Novel
As. Prof. Özlem Öğüt Yazıcıoğlu
09 January 2015
Being Human: Individual as the Other, and Madness What is ‘‘unacceptable’’? It would be better to ask the same question in another way: what is ‘‘acceptable’’? In what regards humankind decide on the difference acceptability of an object? How is it possible to recognize an ‘‘unacceptable’’ being within the everyday life during which the variety of ideologies and actions are not limited? Those are the first questions that come into mind considering the acceptability of an object, being, or human-being. The most important question, however, have not been uttered yet: Who decides on the ground rules of the acceptability, and in what kinds…show more content… From Saleem Sinai’s reoccurring stories, the reader is introduced the outcast within the society who are not actually mad, but the other in the social strata. The other in Rushdie’s novel is the every single citizen in India because their difference is determined through race, religion, language, economic status, and social standing. Dehumanization of human being is not through their sensitivity or perception. Because he is a Hindu, people blame Lifafa Das being a rapist, and try to lynch him. Till Aadam Aziz meets Tai the boatman and given an advice by him related to his nose, he has heard gossips about Tai’s delirious insane state. The continuation of dehumanization may be read further into the novel. Saleem’s claims on hearing the archangels caused his father to beat him. Aftermath of the beating causes his loss of hearing in one…show more content… The evolution of the individual, the changing perspectives, fresh forming ideologies have always been controlling the other. The mad people are either mentally defected that they need help in order to cope with their problems and to prevent them hurting themselves. However, there is another notion of madness that stem from the acceptability and adjustment to the society that one lives within. The social order is formed through empowering community of the civilized society. Individual is regarded as a part of the society, and the disturbance has been caused by individuals. Is it a good approach to take? Social relativists may believe in the sanity of the culture, yet Fromm’s and Felman’s approach to the case is rather reasonable. Doris Lessing leads her readers to question the neutrality of madness, and describes a new sense of sanity. On the other hand, the other of Salman Rushdie is from every single stratum, ethnic and nationalistic background, as well as education level. Salman Rushdie’s Saleem contains these others within himself in order to carry them till his full disembodiment which will lead to terminate the exclusion of Indian man. Clinics have been the confinement’s camps for the individual since they have been robbed of their language, silenced and ruled under the hegemonic power of the reasonable clinician. From this point of view, we may accept India as the confinement’s camp or a