There is a disconnect in the actions of our hero Ram, and I put the following down to the desperation of his life, at least in moments of crisis. He kills (attacks) Gudiya's father. He shoots a man on a train. He abandons his best friend. He steals money from his employer. He repeatedly engages a prostitute. He enters a gameshow with the express intention of killing its host. Ram is our hero and while these actions so stated do not paint a lovely picture of his character, each was done with the correct motive to absolve him of any crime.
Perhaps that is what brings me back to this theme while analyzing Q&A. The character of Ram ostensibly climbs out of the slums through the quiz show. He is largely a moral character and is blessed with luck, but he is not part of the slums. He is not the man who's son died of pneumonia from playing in tap water. Ram is constantly moving in and out of success and flirting with a middle class life just before he loses everything once again. He is rewarded with luck on the show for making the right choices in each of the flashbacks he describes to Smita though the 'moral' choices he makes in each instance lead to actions that in other lights would be considered heinous. It is in Ram's reaction to the desperation about him and his motivation to see done what he believes is 'right' that we learn that 'moral' in this context does not necessitate good.
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This is really an excellent point (about the contradiction), but I'm not sure what is meant by the distinction between moral and good in the last sentence. Are you trying to say that morality can result in poverty (and so you have to be willing to do immoral things to get out)? Or are you saying that the justifications Ram provides for his actions are flimsy?
ReplyDeleteI think the reason that Ram gets away with murder (so to speak) in the reader's eyes depends on the access we are granted to his innerworld. It is this more than any outside evidence that justifies his questionable actions. One example of this is when Ram is in the Taylors’ employment. His betrayal of his employ is justified because we see his logic and believe that he is in good faith till he is betrayed or threatened with betrayal. We don’t have the same back story for the cook turned thief and so his transgression is condemnable in our eyes.
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