A Clash of Cultures in A Passage To India Essay -- A Passage To India E

A passage To India is a classic example of how different cultures, when forced to intermix, misunderstand individually other, and what consequences stem from those misunderstandings. All of Forsters greatest works deal with the failure of humans being able to communicate satisfactorily, and their failure to eliminate prejudice to establish realistic relationships. A Passage To India is no exception. (Riley, Moore 107) To understand Forsters motive, it must be established that he is a humanistic writer. Harry T. Moore states Of all imaginative works in English in this century, Forsters stand highest among those which may properly be called humanistic. (Riley, Moore 107) His main belief is that individual human beings fail to connect because the humanistic virtues, tolerance, good temper, and beneficence are ineffective in this world of religious and racial persecution. However, he also believes that personal relationships aan succeed, provided they are not unrestrictedly expos ed, because values and noble impulses do exist within human nature. Life is not a failure but a tragedy principally because it is difficult to translate private decencies into public ones. (Riley, McDowell 108) Forster is conscious of the evil that exists in human nature. Forster feels men do not know enough to control that evil, and he takes on the humanistic responsibility to undertake internal and external order by utilizing reason. f orster depended on the individuals conscience and sense of identification with others as equal components of the human race as his origination for maintaining that order. He also gives the individual social, political and metaphysical worth, and favors the individual when in conflict with society. (Riley, McDowell 108) It is fo... ...ia University Press, 1979. Riley, Carolyn, ed., Contemporary Literary Criticism. 4. Detroit, Michigan Gale Research, 1975. Bradbury, Malcolm, E. M. Forster as Victorian And Modern Howards End and A Passage To India, Possibilities Essays on the State of the Novel (1973 by Malcolm Bradbury reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press), Oxford University Press, 1973. Riley, Carolyn, ed., Contemporary Literary Criticism. 3. Detroit, Michigan Gale Research, 1975. Johnstone, J. K., E. M. Forster (1879-1970) The Politics of Twentieth Century Novelists, edited by George A. Panichas (reprinted by permission of Hawthorn Books 1971 by the University of Maryland) Hawthorn, 1971. Riley, Carolyn, ed., Contemporary Literary Criticism. 1. Detroit, Michigan Gale Research, 1973. McDowell, E. M. Forster, Twayne, 1969.