Then, she attempts to support herself to continue her life facing the future. She finds a power to continue her life through feeling the nature. It is
described in Mukherjee‟s TMoG 1988: 197 that “Then I stood in the path
looking north to Queen‟s Park and west to the university, I heard the voices of my family one last time. Your time bas come, they said. Go be brave.
In the end of the story, Bhave attempts to find the direction of her life which way she has to start her new life to complete what she began in many
years ago. Mukherjee‟s TMoG 1988: 197 said that “I do not know where
this voyage I have begun will end. I do not know which direction I will take.”
d. Social Condition
In this part, Judith asks Bhave to help families. She needs translator to visit them in order to offer them money with bank forms. It is because they
have not paid their utility bills. Consequently, they will lose their places and all services if they cannot pay it or sign the papers that Judith brings. Bhave
sees the condition inside of their buildings. One of people they visit is an elderly couple in Agincourt. They are in a danger of losing their place and all
services they have. The social and political orders are kept in one case. The social part is the
condition of the people is in the grief. The government attempts to give a help to them by distributing money. The political part is the way the government
offering the help to the people. People have to sign legal documents they have prepared.
As Mukherjee‟s TMoG 1988: 192-193 mentioned that
An elderly couple in Agincourt whose sons were killed just weeks after they had brought their parents over from a village in Punjab. From their
names, I know they are Sikh. Judith Templeton and a translator have visited them twice with offers of money for air fare to Ireland, with bank
forms, power-of-attorney forms, but they have refused to sign, or to leave
their tiny apartment. Their son‟s money is frozen in the bank. Their sons‟ investment apartments have been trashed by tenants, the furnishings sold
off. The parents fear that anything they sign or any money they receive
will end the company‟s or country‟s obligations to them. They fear they are selling thei
r sons for two airline tickets to a place they‟ve never seen. Templeton as the appointee of the provincial government offers them to
sign the bank forms, so that they will not lose their place and services. Even though she offers the help for them, they still fear what they will sign and
receive will make them more difficult in economic. This accident or terrorist bombing has given some effects in economic,
social, and politic. The economic problem happens because some people do not have a job. Some of them still depend on their families who have died in
the accident. In this short story, the condition is depicted. As Mukherjee‟s
TMoG 1988: 193 said that The two rooms are dark and stuffy. The lights are off, and an oil lamp
sputters on the coffee table. The bent old lady has let us in, and her husband is wrapping a white turban over his oiled, hip-length hair. She
immediately goes to the kitchen, and I hear the most familiar sound of an Indian home, tap water hitting and filling a teapot.
They have not paid their utility bills, out of fear and the inability to write a check. The telephone is gone, electricity and gas and water are soon to
follow. They have told Judith their sons will provide. They are good boys, and they have always earned and looked after their parents.
Those sentences show the condition of Indian people facing their life in the difficult economic, but they attempt to accept the condition with a hope
that their sons will provide what have lost. Besides, they still hope that their sons are still alive.
Templeton as the appointee of the provincial government offers them to sign the bank forms, so that they will not lose their place and services. Even
though she offers the help for them, they still fear what they will sign and receive will make them more difficult in economic. This accident or terrorist
bombing has given some effects in economic, social, and politic. The economic problem happens because some people do not have a job. They
depend on their sons or husbands who have died and lost in the accident.
e. Emotional Condition
In reconstructing life, Bhave experiences some processes to make her sure that she can face the problem. In this case, Bhave learns about grief
management from Judith‟s. Mukherjee‟s TMoG 1988: 192 said that There
are still some hysterical relatives. Judith Templeton‟s list of those needing help and those who‟ve “accepted” is in nearly perfect
balance.Acceptance means you speak of your family in the past tense and you make active plans for moving ahead with your life. There are courses
at Seneca and Ryerson we could be taking. Her gleaming leather briefcase is full of college catalogues and lists of cultural societies that need our
help. She has done impressive work, I tell her.
“In the textbooks on grief management,” she replies–I am her confidante, I realize. one of the few whose grief has not sprung bizarre obsessions
– “there are stages to pass through: rejection, depression, acceptance,
reconstruction.” She has compiled a chart and finds that six months after the tragedy, none of us still reject reality, but only a handful are
reconstructing. “Depression Acceptance” is the plateau we‟ve reached. Remarriage is a major step in reconstruction though she‟s a little
surprised, even shocked, over bow quickly some of the men have taken on new families. Selling one‟s house and changing jobs and cities is healthy.
The quotation shows that Bhave attempts to realize which stage she positions herself in the grief. Besides, she also attempts to think that there are
many people she has to help to recontruct their life into the new life. Another PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
case, she still worries that she does not have job to live her life. Mukherjee‟s
TMoG 1988: 192 mentioned that How do I tell Judith Templeton that my family surrounds me, and that like
creatures in epics, they‟ve changed shapes? She sees me as calm and accepting but worries that I have no job, no career. My closest friends are
worse off than I. I cannot tell her my days, even my nights, are thrilling.
By realizing her surrounding, she realizes her friends are worse than her condition. This is the reason why she cannot tell Judith that she also worries
about her future life without a job. Besides, she cannot tell Judith about her family still surrounds her. It is because Judith has thought Bhave has accepted
the fate. Bhave, Dr. Ranganathan, and the other people wait for an information about their relatives. As the result, the policeman shows them a
picture if there is a possibility they find their relatives. Mukherjee‟s TMoG
1988: 188 said that “The first day or two the policeman showed us relatives only one picture at a time; now they‟re in a hurry, they‟re eager to lay out the
possibles, and even the probables.” In that condition, the nun comes to console Bhave that there is a hope. The
nun shows the picture and fingertip to Bhave. That effort does not work. Bhave only wants to find her relatives.
Mukherjee‟s TMoG 1988: 188 said that The nun assigned to console me rubs the first picture with a fingertip.
“When they‟ve been in the water for a while, love, they look a little heavier.” The bones under the skin are broken, they said on the first day –
try to adjust your memories. It‟s important. “It‟s not him. I‟m his mother. I‟d know.”
Those quotations show that there are people who care to Bhave and support her to face the condition. It is not only Bhave, but also Kusum
attempts to have a new life. In her recovery, it begins when Kusum sell her house and in Hardwar. Her moving is an idea of her swami to recover her
condition and find the peace. As Mukherjee‟s TMoG 1988: 191 said that
“Kusum‟s put her house up for sale. She wants to live in an ashrams in Hardwar. Moving to Hardwar was her swami‟s idea.”
There is also Dr. Ranganathan who reconstructs his life by his own way. He does not sell his house like Kusum, but he changes his job. It is because
he thinks that the house is a temple. Mukherjee‟s TMoG 1988: 191 said that
He is changing jobs, going to Ottawa. But Ottawa is over a hundred miles away, and he is forced to drive two hundred and twenty miles a day. He
can‟t bring himself to sell his house. The house is a temple, he says; the king-sized bed in the master bedroom is a shrine. He sleeps on a folding
cot. A devotee.
B. The Aspects of Postmodernism in the Settings
In this part, the elaboration between the setting and aspects of postmodernism will be shown. Aspects of postmodernism will be elaborated
with the theories of setting. In extending the culture and society, this undergraduate thesis attempts to depict the setting of the short story. By
depicting the setting, the aspects of postmodernism which is language games can be found because people use language in their activities. The language
that people use referring to their each experience and it depends on the time. In this undergraduate thesis, it uses the theories of setting to depict the
condition in the short story, so that, aspects of postmodernism can be easier to find. By depicting the setting firstly, the language games and another the
