The Ice Age: An Introduction

Last Island · #1 Wednesday, June 06, 2007

There are two approaches to modernism. One is that man carries the sin within him and second is the fear of society.

1.When man feels guilty, his confidence is shaken. He can’t confront any challenge. Negative forces dominate him and he becomes destructive like “Kurtz” or commits suicide.

2.Second is the fear of society. The modern society is based upon guilt and fear. So it can’t be a healthy society.

In early 19th century, there was the influence of clash of ideologies. Ideologies are destructive. The only value is life itself because war is anti-life. Man can’t kill the other man but on the name of ideologies, men are reduced to sects and they have ceased to be humans. They call man, an enemy and kill him easily for it is not difficult to kill an enemy. But ultimately man has realized that ideologies are not important, only man is important behind the ideologies.

Now the individual is absolutely free from the pressure of society. The society is reduced to some certain conducts as one must keep one’s lane, traffic signals and some other laws.

There is no concept of love, care even the aesthetic values have come to an end. On the top of all, the problem of survival is left behind and this is post modernism.

In the West, things have become impersonal. This is the thesis of post-modernism. It rejects all the values except survival. Country, ideology, patriotism are for man neither the man is for them. Man is supreme. Nature of man is not important but it is the life of man that is important. Survival is important.

Victorianism was not a name of an age but of certain attitudes. It was a set of values. Similarly modernism is an attitude, a set of values and this set has been beautifully presented in “The Waste-land” written by T. S. Eliot in which there is corruption, faithlessness, alienation, prejudice, moral degeneracy, war, disintegration of family, causality, and absurdity.

Modern age is the age of ideologies but in post-modernism economic concern has become a major problem. People are economically destroyed. They forget everything about other things but run after real estate business. There are many irregularities. People get money from common people on big promises. There is no legal check concerned. Many have turned bankrupt and are sent into jails.

This is an “Ice Age”. All values are reduced to zero. People are living on private levels. The sanctity of values is gone. Seriousness is at an end. Literature has gone out, the classics are totally rejected and the institution of marriage is totally destroyed. All aesthetic and moral values are thrown at the background but only the humanitarianism is there. Sense of guilt and social awareness has been left behind. The only concern is the concern of man with man.

Women are no more seen as mere wives and Christian ladies but just human beings. All institutions are particularly rejected. The slogan is that the values of life have to be redefined. A big radical change is undercurrent. Old world is totally destroyed and there are glimpses of new world. 100 years before, Mathew Arnold complained that “the old order is dead and new order is not borning”. In Drabbale’s time new order was passing through the pangs of birth. The old world was totally rejected. There was a search for new values and beyond everything else it was an age of humanism. Family, religion and society all these institutions were in disarray. Promiscuity was common. There was no concept of any sexual morality. Wives and husbands were separated but they retain human sympathies. So, all values had been reduced into one value that is man.

Man is important whether it has been ceased to matter. Man should rise above ideologies. Now the new morality is money oriented that is commercialism. Drabble says that this commercialism has destroyed not only morality but also aestheticism. Old beautiful buildings are pulling down and ugly plazas are being constructed e.g. London was a cultural city of art, poetry and aesthetics but now it is becoming a city of stock-exchange, traders and of businessmen.

All relationship is now business relationship and this has destroyed all the values, particularly the real estate business has ruined the people.

Margaret Drabble has shown two contrasted worlds; Capitalism in Western Europe and Communism in Eastern Europe. Problems are different between the two but the individuals are equally miserable in both. It is a world of propagation, a world of misinformation and disinformation. Another important aspect of this novel is feminism. Women are no more conscious of their old problems in this chaos. They need a home. A home for then is not only an emotional need rather it is a physical need. In this world of trade and commerce, the only capital that a woman has is only her beauty. Alison keeps looking into the mirror and keeps worrying how long she can retain her beauty. Maureen is a social climber. She always seeks a wealthier boss. The private secretaries are having a successful life. They are even offered as gifts of entertainment to the customers or business partners.

The novel thus ends on the protest that the Britain’s problems might be solved but the problems of women would never solve. The reason is that women are only considered as a part of man’s life. It is believed that when man’s problem will be solved, all the corruption will be removed and women’s problems will be solved automatically. Man has not accepted woman as a separate being neither their problems. On the other hand, we see all the finer things, culture and beauty are going out of the existence. Nobody is interested in literature, fine arts and in philosophy anymore. People are shifting to commercial interests. Margaret Drabble seems to suggest that England is perhaps passing through an evolutionary stage, i.e. post-modernism.

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