Ruins of Civilization and Humanity: A Comparative Analysis of Poems "Ruins of Ruins" and "Man or Monkey" By Sita Ram Adhikari

Abstract

Background: The topic of civilization and morality vs. nature and humanity comes up in contemporary poetry frequently. Nevertheless, two poems "Ruins of Ruins" and "Man or Monkey" by Sita Ram Adhikari included in his poetry book "Song of Life" discuss this topic differently based on their particular poetic situations. While "Ruins of Ruins" is built on the symbolism of ruins, "Man or Monkey" is a narrative poem where the poet tells a story of a man travelling through a forest and encountering monkeys and a poor farmer. Thus, an analysis of these poems will give an opportunity to question civilized human activity and animal life.

Objectives: This study aims to examine the ways civilization, ethical degeneration, human-animal relation, survival, and humanity are represented in these poems and how poetic situation is contrasted for the sake of questioning the supposed superiority of humans.

Methods: The research methods of analysis are comparative close reading and qualitative textual analysis. Ecocriticism and posthumanism would be applied to the analysis of the poems, along with the critical animal studies approach and ethical literary criticism. Images, symbolism, diction, voice, contrast, characterization, and the development of poems' structure are to be analyzed.

Results: As a result of the above analysis it may be stated that the poem "Ruins of Ruins" presents civilization as a fragile and morally corrupt human construction. The ruins, darkness, owls, ghosts, "brain ruins," and "tattered" civilizational screen stand for the collapse of cultural and moral basis. The poem "Man or Monkey" changes the issue from civilization to a certain experience involving such aspects as hunger, agriculture, the world of animals, poverty, responsibility, and misunderstanding. The poem brings into play the relationship between people and animals, when the first are holding different moral positions and the latter are just following their instinct of survival. The both poems suggest that humanity should not be assumed simply because of one's belonging to the species of Homo sapiens or civilization.

Conclusion: In this regard, the poems of Adhikari constitute another type of criticism of modern civilization and its people's complacency. Thus, "Ruins of Ruins" is a poem of the collapse of civilization, while "Man or Monkey" is a poem on human nature in an inter-personal and inter-species relation.

Novelty: What makes the research unique is the comparative analysis of the two poems in the context of being human through their interrelation. Instead of considering animals in a symbolic way, the research argues that the monkeys in "Man or Monkey" are mirrors of human ethics.