The Learners Community and Technology
5th Semester ENGLISH
Bestsellers and Genre Fiction
Unit 1: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond
What is fiction: - fiction is a work of creative writing based on the writer’s imagination instead of facts. Within the board Rubric of fiction, It comes in various genres and sub-genres like a novel, short story, play, etc. Genre is a term used for the classification of different works of literature into categories like poetry drama and prose.
Characteristics of fiction:-
● Fiction is not real. However, the element of
reality and fantasy both are present in any work of fiction.
● The story and characters are made up of the
writer’s imagination the story or plot can be based on real-life incidents and
the characters can be inspired by a real person
● It is usually read for enjoyment like
nonfiction, which is read for facts information, and explanation. On the
other hand, A good piece of fiction's best lecture will always give some new
knowledge to its reader.
● it is written with a message the writer wants to
give her story as a reader and as a student one needs to read and analyze the
text to understand the message given by the writer.
● Works of fiction can be relevant and complex
however basic elements of fiction will remain in fact and one can use them to
understand any piece of fiction writing.
Element of fiction: - section has 6 mean elements which are
present in all fictional works of literature.
1. Characters: - a character can be based on a real human being or it
can be completely imaginary. the writer needs to describe all the characters of
the reader to imagine them while reading. readers can easily remember those
characters to whom they can relate it means the reader can understand the
choices they made in the story. characters are equally important as plots are
theme to make any book popular and a best seller
2. Plot: - it’s the sequence of incidents in which the narrator tells
the story. Every fictional work has a plot. The same story can be told in
different plots it means with a different sequence of incidents. Any plot can
be divided into basic narrative structure a) where and how the scene is set the
characters are introduced to the reader b) what is the main conflict in the
story which needs to be resolved c) how the story moves towards a climax and
how it is achieved d) how the resolution happen and the writer concludes the
story with a moral lesson.
3. Point of view: - the narrator tells the story from a point of
view. It could be from our first person, second person third person of point of
view. Asim's story can be told from many points of view every person has their
own point of view so he can tell the story from their own point of view.
4. Setting: - all fictional works are set in a combination of time,
space, and place. It provides a general background of the character and the
plot and helps the reader imagine the story in their mind while reading. The
reader needs to know when the action will take place in the story.
5. Style: - each writer has his own writing style. They choose to
write in a specific style that includes language, choice of words, sentence
structure, use of adjective, and verbs. The writer uses their own creative
Idea while writing a story.
6. Theme: - all works of fiction are supposed to give a message to
The reader. The message is a mean the idea of fictional works and their main theme. A
text can have multiple themes but there will always be one Central Idea known
as the text's main theme which we knew as a moral idea of the story.
Bestseller: - bestseller refers to books that have the highest sales among their specific categories are genre. A writer can also be called a best seller if he or she gives the highest sales for example the Harry Potter series is a bestseller and JK Rowling is a best-seller writer. When any work is considered popular, it means it is appreciated by the mess and its content has become general knowledge. On the other hand, the bestsellers category is based on selling rates of a book or writer, for example, Shakespeare's sonnets and place might not have more sealing rates than JK Rowling Harry Potter series but they also are famous.
The Blue Umbrella by
Ruskin Bond
Introduction –
The Blue Umbrella is a novella written by famous
Indian author Ruskin Bond. It was published in 1980 and later on, in 2005, it
was adapted into a movie with the same name. The film was directed by Vishal
Bhardwaj and won the National Film Award for Best Children's Film. This story
also appeared in Bond’s other collection Children's Omnibus. This novella is
also adapted into a comic book by the Amar Chitra Katha publication with
another story by Bond named Angry River. The title of the comic adaptation is The
Blue Umbrella – Stories by Ruskin Bond and it was published in 2012.
About
the Author
Ruskin Bond is an Indian author of British
ancestry, famous as a children’s author among readers. He was born on 19 May
1934 and he lives in Landour, Mussoorie with
his adopted family. He has received Padma Shri
and Padma Bhushan in 1999 and 2014 respectively. He has also received the
Sahitya Akademi
Award for his English novel Our Trees Still Grows
in Dehra in 1992. The Room on the Roof is his first novel and he was awarded
the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957.
Bond’s father, Aubrey Alexander Bond was the
English tutor of the princesses of Jamnagar Place. He lived with his parents
and sister Ellen in the palace till he turned six years old.
Bond had a very close relationship with his
father and he describes the time spent with his father as one of the happiest
times of his life. His father died when he was just 10 years old. Bond did
receive the news of his father’s death from his teacher in his boarding school
in Shimla.
At the age of sixteen, he wrote his first short
story- “Untouchable”. After he graduated from Bishop Cotton School, Shimla,
Bond moved to the United Kingdom with his aunt. There he wrote his first novel
The Room on the Roof and created one of his most famous characters
Rusty. Rusty is a lonely teenager who is looking for love, happiness, and
friendship. Bond was successful in showing the confused and struggling world of
a teenager from his point of view. Readers find themselves rooting for Rusty in
his daily adventures.
Rusty’s character appeared in other works of
Bond - Vagrants in the Valley (a sequel to Room on the Roof), Rusty, the Boy
from the Hills (collection of short stories), Rusty Runs Away (collection of
short stories), Rusty and the
Magic Mountain, Rusty goes to London, Rusty
Comes Home, and, The Adventures of Rusty.
Bond has been a writer for over fifty years and
he has experimented with different genres like a novel, short stories, novella,
essays, non-fiction, ghost stories, romance, autobiography, memoirs, short poems, and specific books for children.
In one of his interviews with the Hindustan
Times, he said “Sometimes I got lucky and some [work] got selected and I earned
a few hundred rupees.
Since I was in my 20s and didn’t have any
responsibilities, I was just happy to be doing what I loved doing best”.
Bond has written more than five hundred short
stories, essays, and novels which include over fifty books for children
including our text the Blue Umbrella. Bond is very happy with his writing
career and he sees writing as one of his favorite things.
Critical Analysis:
The Blue Umbrella is a novella, which means
short novel. A novel is lengthy in size, has a complex plot, has multiple
settings, and has more characters than a novella. A novella can be seen as a
shorter form of the novel with a less complicated plot, simpler setting, and
fewer characters in the story than a novel but more than a short story. A
novel, novella, and short story all come under the fiction genre and are written
mainly in prose. Moreover, like any work of fiction, a novella also has six
main elements of fiction- character, plot, point of view, setting, style, and
theme.
Characters:
There are four main
characters in this text- Binyadevi or Binya, Vijya or Bijju, Ram Bharosa, and
Rajaram.
The rest of the characters like a group of
people who came for a picnic, Binya’s mother, pandit, schoolmaster, customers,
villagers, silversmith, people in the town market, all of them are not given
any names because they are the background and setting requirements for the
plot.
Binya: She is a ten-year-old girl who enjoys singing and natural
landscapes. She walks barefoot on the pine needles enjoying the rain with her
blue umbrella. She is clever enough to bargain with Japanese tourists and
knowledgeable enough to understand their language. She is smart to name a price
for her umbrella when Ram Bharosa wants to buy it. Moreover, she is an
athletic, kind and caring young girl who sometimes gets lost in the town market
streets. Her bravery is shown again and again in the story. Once when her
umbrella fell from the cliff and she chased after it even though she was afraid
of heights. Pain and fear were nothing to her. She was madly after her most
precious possession- her blue umbrella. Her character developed when she
learned to share her happiness.
Ram Bharosa is the main villain in the story but he becomes
a good person in the end like it ideally should be in any children’s book.
Ram Bharosa is an old man who is so busy making money that
he rarely goes out. His health was not very good because all he cared about was
his hope and his money only. He did not have any friends and he measured every
relationship in terms of profit and loss. This is how most adults behave in our
society. They are so immersed in materialistic obsessions that they have
stopped cherishing the real joys of life like singing, walking, looking at
natural landscapes, friendship, caring for each other, love, etc. Binya’s
character is a reminder of what all is missing from Ram Bharosa’s life.
Ram Bharosa’s character is a dynamic type
character. Dynamic characters change in the story from positive to negative or
negative to positive character The story did not end only with the blue
umbrella, it ended when Ram Bharosa’s character got to know about true joy and
happiness. Like Binya, he also learned to share his material possessions with
others and cherish the joy of giving someone a reason to be happy.
Vijay or Bijju is two years older than Binya. He is a schoolboy
busy preparing for his exams therefore Binya has to take care of the cows.
Biju is described as a sturdy young man who has to become capable of
protecting his family. Like any Indian household, he has to study and fulfill
the dreams of his family. He is also naught in many ways like you expect from
any boys from hills.
Biju does not let cows wander on their own
instead “Bijju pulled them by their tails if they went too far”. When schools
open, he has to go to school and after coming back he has to do household
chores. During his holidays, he got the offer of working as a helper at Ram
Bharosa’s shop but He declined the offer as he
has to deliver milk to the schoolmaster and pujari in the morning. He was
equally hard-working as his mother and sister.
Rajaram is another minor character in the story. Readers get very limited
information about him. He goes to the same school as Bijju but they are not
friends. He is from another village and comes to Ram Bharosa’s shop for help
during the holidays. On one hand, he can be seen as a hardworking boy like Bijju but
his malice is evident when he comes up with an evil plan of stealing the blue
umbrella for three rupees. He even manipulated Ram Bharosa to give him three
rupees instead of two.
Summary: The Blue Umbrella’s Story is about a girl named Binya. One day
she saw an extraordinary bright blue silk umbrella. She exchanged her necklace
hung a leopard claw with that bright blue silk umbrella to a lady who came from
the city for a picnic. The umbrella was so beautiful that everyone in the
village dreamed of having one. Binya always used to carry the umbrella with her
wherever she goes.
There was one more
person who was deeply Desire to have a fancy blue umbrella. He was an older man
who was also the richest in the village; his name was Ram Bharosa, the shop
owner. He even tried to buy that umbrella from Binya, saying that this umbrella
is not for a little girl, but Binya refused to sell. Binya was so attached to
the umbrella that she barely pulls it off.
As the years passed
the umbrella began to fade its color. But still, the umbrella was the best in
the village. As time passes, Ram’s jealousy of the umbrella turns into an
obsession, and he employs a boy named Rajaram from the next village to work at
the shop. Rajaram tried to steal the umbrella for his master, but
unfortunately, he was caught, and everyone in the village started hating Ram
for his act. Now no one used to go to Ram’s shop. Ram was extremely
disappointed with his action.
One day Binya went to
ram’s shop to buy candy and left the umbrella there. Ram Bharosa got the
feeling to keep the umbrella, but he was very disappointed, so he ran out
of the shop and called Binya to take back her umbrella, but Binya Said she left
the umbrella for him. Ram was filled with joy. After a few days, Ram gifted her
a bear claw pendant.
Setting The story is set in a village of Garhwal hills where the
nearest town market is Tehri. The surroundings are natural hillsides. Readers
can imagine the natural landscapes of hills with pine forests and the hustle of
Tehri town. The exact time of action is not mentioned in the plot but readers
can assume that the story is set in the rainy season which is July to September
in
Garhwal. And as there is also a mention of
Bijju’s school holidays, one can assume that it is set in early July. Besides
the present time of action, the reader gets some information about Binya’s past
(father’s death) and Bijju’s past (bee sting incident) by an omniscient
narrator.
Writing Style Bond’s writing style is very simple and elegant.
He does not use superfluous vocabulary and an excessive number of adjectives in
his stories. The simple writing style is characteristic of his children’s
fiction. He creates this beautiful tale with a mixture narrative style where
sometimes characters speak to give emotional insights into the story and
sometimes an omniscient narrator gives information about characters with a
personal commentary.
Book Question
- 1. Comment on the character development of Binya and Ram Bharosa.
- 2. Write a short note on the moral lesson given in the Blue Umbrella.
- 3. What do you think about Binny's obsession with the blue umbrella?
- 4. Write a description of natural landscapes in the Blue Umbrella.
- 5. Write a short note on Bijju’s bee sting incident. What is the writer trying to do by sharing this incident?
- 6. Why does Binya’s blue umbrella become her pride and why does she give it to Ram Bharosa?
- 7. Write a short note on the incident when the blue umbrella fell off the hill.
- 8. Comment on the narrative structure and writing style of the novella.
- 9. Do you think Ruskin Bond is a bestseller writer? Why?
- 10. Explain the elements of fiction with examples from the Blue Umbrella.
Watch This Video for These Notes Explanation-