The theme of language is explored in Amitav Gosh’s The Hungry Tide through the interactions between the various characters and their interactions with one another and society. This book has a big emphasis on language because it’s not just about speaking Bengali, English, Hindi, etc.; it’s also about speaking a deeper language that allows you to understand, empathize, and connect. This deeper language is more difficult for anyone to understand because it’s more sincere and can connect emotionally rather than just verbally.

The primary characters of the book, Piya and Kanai, study various languages with natives in the Sundarbans. Kanai experiences language change more than the other characters because he can speak six different languages. He thinks this is the best for him and gives him a sense of superiority, but the locals make him realize that his six languages mean nothing if he can’t feel and connect with them or speak the language of the Sundarbans, which encourages people to come together and form sentimental connections. One instance of Kanai’s humility is with Moyan on page 132, when he was trying to flirt with her and asked her why she was still with Fokir. She replied that he wouldn’t understand, but he thought he could understand anything because he speaks six languages. However, he later learned that he doesn’t speak the most crucial language, which is the one that deals with feelings and emotions, or what some people refer to as the language of love.

Fokir is another character who deals with the issue of language. He is the antithesis of Kanai in that he is a man of few words and is frequently more silent, but he chooses to use his actions as a language and is more interested in what he can accomplish than what he can say. Piya also experiences this because she works in an area of India where not everyone can speak the same language as her. However, she discovers that she doesn’t need to understand what is being said in order to communicate with them because she can use the language of body language and visual cues, which can be more powerful than any other language.

This demonstrates how the various characters go through their own conflicts with the idea of language, which can be expressed in a variety of ways and is understood by people in a variety of ways, but they all learn that speaking one language or many languages is insufficient because you can always just stand and recite; however, nothing ensures that you are actually understanding the deeper meaning of it, which is a language everyone can eventually relate to.

When you understand what literature is and how it is used, you continuously realize new things and also learn new things. Literature is pervasive and has a significant impact on everyone’s lives. There are countless genres that provide the reader with a detailed and possible future, leaving them wondering and ready for what can come next. Literature is not only used to read about what happened before us but it is also used to read about what could happen after us. 

The news is frequently constrained in the amount of information it can disseminate, unlike the author of a book, who is required to confirm the accuracy of the information he is disseminating. There are many novels, writings, and books that discuss the world as it is in greater detail than any news source. Authors like Katherine Boo, Naomi Klein, Linda Sue Park, George Friedman, and many others have written about the real issues facing the world with empathy and care for their readers. This connection develops during reading, which encourages readers to continue reading and then see life differently as a result. Just like every other author who ventured to write about these highly contentious subjects and is not prepared for what can result from it, these authors have received recognition for writing about racism, climate change, and other topics that are very controversial in today’s society.

Since literature is such a potent tool, not everyone is initially interested in it. However, in my opinion, reading a book can broaden your perspective more than watching a movie version of it can. Additionally, doing so puts the book and its characters in your perspective and fosters a stronger emotional bond. Reading about current issues and future issues is also very helpful since it broadens your perspective and helps you see how little things you do now may seem to be, but they add up until you lose control of them. Similar to when we first began the class and we discussed slow violence and the issues of climate change, global warming and all of its effects are a problem now and for many years and are still ongoing but are overlooked because they are seen in our daily lives, such as the Canadian fires that were also spread and the air we breathed for about a week was contaminated in the 200-300s level of air quake.  Floods, among other things, have an influence on people, but as they pass, these problems are forgotten.  

It is very evident how these novels shape one’s concept of climate change after reading and evaluating the three novels by Nixon, Lemenager, and Ghosh, in which there are numerous opinions on the subject. On Rob Nixon’s concept of “slow violence,” he discusses climatic changes, such as toxic drift or climate breakdown, etc. which we all experience in our daily lives due to various types of weather changes, but we often overlook how they relate to the idea of slow violence. Slow violence is not believed to be violence that can damage a person immediately; rather, it is the development of a major issue that frequently goes unnoticed since it is not immediate. In Slow Violence the following comment by Rob Nixon caught my attention: “Falling bodies, burning towers, exploding heads, avalanches, volcanoes, and tsunamis have a visceral, eye-catching and page-turning power that tales of slow violence, unfolding over years, decades, even centuries, cannot match. Stories of toxic buildup, massing greenhouse gases, and accelerated species loss due to ravaged habitats are all cataclysmic, but they are scien- tifically convoluted cataclysms in which casualties are postponed, often for generations.”(pg5) This comment caught my attention because no one has ever put an end to climate change and it is a bigger problem that can’t be resolved by one or two people and will affect many, this stood out to me because it gives the reader a visualization or helps put the readers in perspective and lets them think back about all these life-threatening events or events that can also happen in the future.

The recent wildfire in Tenerife, Spain, which was fueled by the wind, heat, and low humidity levels and resulted in widespread damage to the island’s flora and fauna was talked about on social media and in the news where they posted pictures, videos, etc. and people can see them but then think, “Well, it’s not here.” One sentence that caught my attention in Stephanie LeMenager’s “Climate Change and the Struggle for Genre” was “For those reading is restricted to sources chosen to bolster an already decided vision of the real, the news will not “happen,” as it does for those of us who still enjoy the surprise of turning a page, either on a screen or in print, to the extent that this chapter anticipates the possibility of surprise might entail by reading what they have not curated so closely as to exclude any inconsistency in ideology or worldview” ​​I enjoy reading books and everything that goes along with them, including the suspense, the plot, and the “saying one more page and ending the whole book” moment, so this caught my attention. While reading about climate change, people may notice it and connect, just like when they read other stories where they can empathize but without realizing it can happen anywhere and at any moment. This is an example of how literature can be used to spark readers’ interest and draw in a larger audience because, once they start reading, the action, suspense, or even the setting may compel them to continue and intrigue their curiosity about what might happen or how to change our relationship with the natural world to benefit future generations.