IN
THE MONTH OF JULY
Jean
Arasanayakam
Jean
Arasanayakam was a Srilankan poet and novelist.
She wrote her works in English.
The themes of her works were ethnic war and religious turmoil in
Srilanka.
In
her poem In the Month of July, the
poet portrays the inner violence in human nature. She also presents the pathetic conditions of
the people affected by the violence and the futility of the ethnic war.
The
poem begins with a description of a young boy playing with pebbles under a tree.
The boy skillfully tosses the pebbles from back of hand to palm. The poet wonders whether the boy is able to
perform this trick by sheer practice or by magic.
The
boy grows and now he is an adult. The
small pebbles which the boy once used have now disappeared and now he has small
rocks. He uses those rocks as a weapon to attack his enemies who belong to
different ethnic group. When he throws rocks at his enemies, the skulls of his
enemies break and the brains splash on the pavement of the road.
Then
the poet recounts an incident that happened in Srilanka in the month of July,
1983. It was only then the ethnic war broke out violently. The poet saw a man
fleeing from his chasing enemies. The man tried to escape them by climbing up a
tree. But the mob pelted stones at him until he got down from the tree. As the wounded victim lost his balance, he
fell down the tree. The ferocious mob did not leave him but mercilessly
trampled him to death.
Thus
Jean Arasanayakam presents the gruesome face of violence in a land that is
affected by ethnic problems.
