The novel "Shadow Lines" by Amitav Ghosh, debates a picture of symbolism and realism, that covers both time and space. The title itself "Shadow Lines" is a good example for showing us the symbolist and the realist elements. The story begins with the presentation of the family and friends of the nameless narrator, who in one way or another, seems to be a so called "outsider" who sees everybody's good points and bad points from another point if view, distinguishing between good and evil. Going further on the novel's plot we can say that the reader is catapulted from one place to another, also from one time to another, starting from the image of a cosciouss family and by the next moment showing the reader for example riots that takes place on the streets. We can say that the novel is a so called novel of exploration, as I said further, in a very short sequence of time the reader is shown more than one place which involves several actions.
Ghosh uses Shadow Lines as a way of telling us that the way we view ourselves is not necessary the way others see us, and until we, the reader, cannot get into a deeper understanding of ourselves, we will remain in the "shadow" of our enlightenment.
The author Amitav Ghosh was born in Calcutta in 1956. He grew up in Bangladesh then in East Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iran and India. "The Shadow Lines" is his second book, which was published in 1988. This book opened up, enlightened our lives and not only, to know how it is to live in India, with the entire family under one roof, along with all the joys and pains that that can bring. .
The story starts about thirteen years before the birth of the narrator, and ends on a night proceding his departure from London back to Delhi. This end I think is a semnificative one, as we can know Gosh is a humorous writer. Single words hide a wealth of meaning, for example, Ila's mother as Queen Victoria; Also when grandmother finds out that her old Jethamoshai is still alive, and that he is living with a Muslim family in Dhaka.
