Monkeys by Punyakante Wijenaike 10/7/2015 2 Comments About the Author Punyakante Wijenaike, one of Sri Lanka's best-known English writers, was born in Colombo in 1933. Her writing is recognized for its simple yet powerful style, which holds the reader's attention. She published her first collection of short stories, The Third Woman, in 1963. Since then, she has published six novels and four collections of short stories, with more than 100 stories published in newspapers, journals and anthologies locally and internationally as well as broadcast in Sri Lanka and on BBC. Although she has spent most of her life in Colombo, she initially used rural villages as her theme, only later turning to urban themes. Her writings highlight, "the tyranny of a community or a group towards its weaker members." Her 1998 novel, An Enemy Within, uncovers "the masks that tend to hide the reality of present times." Her novel Giraya was adapted into a teledrama. She was awarded the Woman of Achievement Award in 1985. The rank of 'Kalasuri Class 1' (literary achievement) was conferred on her by the Government of Sri Lanka in 1988. In 1994 she won the Gratiaen Award for her novel Amulet and in 1996, the Commonwealth Short Story Competition for Radio along with a joint winner from Sierra Leone. The Library of Congress has ten works by her. Taken from - http://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/punyakantewijenaike.html Summary Punyakante Wijenaike’s “The Monkeys” is an innocuous short story which deals with a kid monk’s reciprocation with a monkey herd which frequented his ashram. This kid monk — who, as per the dogma, is subjected to rigourous Buddhist training, and is made to abstain from worldly comfort — finds solace in feeding and playing with the kid monkeys in the vicinity of his retreat; and things go smooth until, one day, the monkeys follow the monk to the ashram and create havoc. Subsequently, the abbot of the ashram reprimands the kid monk and “corrects” him, while re-orienting the little fellow in the path of renunciation. Theme Its theme is A child who is yearning for love and freedom who has nothing to sacrifice for his love. The little novice is deprived of parental love and care from his childhood. There is no one to give him love: may be compassion and understanding: but not love. So he seeks love from the monkeys. Thus the theme is brought out. The child is yearning for love and freedom which are his fundamental needs. http://www.mediafire.com/view/f7ry4p26swlxw84/monkeys.pdf Discuss the role played by the little Samanera. Punyakanthi Wijenaike, in her prose, untold s the character of a mischievous child who was gifted to the hermitage at the age of six years. This story is woven around him showing us an innocent child who had deprived the love and affection of parents. His immature nature doesn't permit him to understand the disciplined life. Therefore he was drawn to the nature automatically which he keeps it as secret. "No one in the hermitage knew about his daily meeting with the monkeys" He might not have understand what a disciplined life is. He had to spend amid many restrictions which can't be followed. When a person put on a robe, he must be more patient, and disciplined. But the little samanera seems not to understand what an ordain life is. It's because he's having contacts with the monkeys which he mustn't do. To our knowledge a six years old child seeking love from adults is quite natural. Therefore this samanera too tries to find the lost love even from the monkeys. "When he touched the monkeys and they touched him, he touched love" His contact with the monkeys is so strong that it was very difficult for him to forger them . He was eagerly waiting for the leisure hour between twelve noon to one o'clock to meet monkeys. Punyakante Wijenaike shows us the child who isn't matured enough to understand the life style of a monk. We see a small child who is unable to get up at 4 o'clock and attend the duties assigned to him. He has to attend meditations even though he doesn't like them. What he's thinking even during the meditation is his contact with nature. "He found it difficult to keep his mind on his breathing, knowing that in a little while, he would witness glory of the sunrise over the hills" Yet he couldn't keep his meeting with the monkeys as a secret after their invasion the hermitage compound. When he feared and the other priests smiled at the invasion of the monkeys. The chief priest become very tactful in advising the little samanera. There we see a Samanera who is very obedient and listens to the advice given by the chief priest. At the end we notice a change of the small samanera that he gave up the meeting with monkeys. The fact is that he was made understand by the chief priest how fortunate he was to born man. So that, the small samanera plays a significant role starting as a mischievous, playful child and later becoming and understanding as a disciplined Samanera.
