Mukherjee's Jasmine and Plato's Republic Show Elders' Wisdom Helps Raise Children

As seen in Bharati Mukherjee's "Jasmine," D. H. Lawrence's short story "The Rocking Horse Winner," and Robert Hayden's emotionally charged poem "The Whipping," the collective wisdom of the elders of the community benefits the child. Gained through their life experience, this wisdom helps to raise the children of the community. As portrayed in Plato's The Republic, the entire community holds the responsibility for the children because, according to the old African proverb, "it takes a village to raise a child." The extended family alone does not possess enough wisdom to raise the children as content and productive members of society.

According to Plato's Republic, "first among the virtues found in the State [is] wisdom" (97). Plato defines wisdom as the mark of a community "good in counsel" (97). Through "the knowledge of the guardians," the children of the state receive this counseling (Plato 98). Plato sees wisdom as a virtue held by all of the guardians of a state; in the terms of a community, the elders hold the position of the guardians, so they possess the wisdom. The guardians view it as their duty to impart this wisdom to the children. The parents must procreate in order to produce the children, but the children must gain their wisdom through the guardians, for the parents do not possess the required wisdom.

The superiority of the wisdom of guardians over the wisdom of parents runs as a theme through many works of literature. For example, in Mukherjee's Jasmine, the title character receives advice from several influential relatives, including her mother, Mataji, her father, Pitaji, and her paternal grandmother, Dida. Jasmine's family fits the stereotype of a traditional Indian family; most Americans would consider it an extended family. The tradition rural Indian family consists of children, parents, grandparents, and often includes aunts, uncles, and cousins as well. The entire family uses its collective wisdom to decide the best courses of action for the children to follow. However, pitfalls exist. In Plato's opinion, the family "become[s] its own enemy" because it is "rendered incapable of united action by reason of sedition and distraction" (26). Younger members of an Indian family will seldom argue with the elders, for the respect the younger members hold for the elders distracts them from questioning their authority. In addition, the younger members do not want to appear to rebel, for that would result in their being the brunt of the wrath of the elders. Therefore, the younger members of the family hold the word of the elders in high regard.

The advice of Jasmine's family does not always lead her in the correct direction. She illustrates this by revealing her dreams. Announcing to Mataji, Pitaji, Dida, and Masterji, her teacher, that she dreams of becoming a doctor, not a stenographer or bank teller, Jasmine instigates a tempest. "The girl is mad!" exclaims Pitaji after Jasmine's unexpected comment (Mukherjee 51). Jasmine yearns to break out of the mold her family has shaped her into, which creates problems. Due to the "sedition and distraction" present within the hierarchy of her family (Plato 26), Jasmine encounters a metaphorical brick wall.

However, the tireless arguments of Masterji, the protagonist's erudite and wise "teacher[s] of harmony" (Plato 193), rectify this error of parental judgment. The next morning, Jasmine's mother tells her that she needs to "ace her exams" to gain admittance to medical school (Mukherjee 52). Jasmine must then proceed, essentially, "without the knowledge of [her] parents" (Plato 61). She currently surpasses them in knowledge and will soon hold a higher level of wisdom as well. Jasmine shows the signs of being a "golden [child]" born to "silver parent[s]" (Plato 87).

In addition, the topic of marriage comes up for Jasmine. Jasmine's society holds the value of "love before first sight" (Mukherjee 67). Arranged marriages, often without love between the husband and wife, are the societal norm in her rural . However, Jasmine's "resistance against a determinate existence" causes a rift in her family (Leard 115). By diving into a non-arranged marriage, she risks alienating and isolating herself from her family and younger members of the community; Vimla accuses her of "living in sin" (Mukherjee 75). Plato contradicts Vimla, and by synecdoche, the beliefs of much of , for he states, "the man who has the spirit of harmony will be most in love with the loveliest" (Plato 74). Prakash and Jasmine love each other, contradicting the wisdom of the non-enlightened elders of the community.

Similarly, in D. H. Lawrence's short story "The Rocking Horse Winner," the influences of the family are not moderated by the temperance of the wisdom of the community, and therefore the child, Paul, suffers an untimely death. According to Plato, temperance is "the order or controlling of certain pleasures and desires" (100). However, Paul's nameless mother singularly lacks this quality, for she has "all the advantages, yet she [has] no luck" due to her infection with a longing for money (Lawrence 290).

This longing for money teaches Paul that money will provide happiness. A lack of money at his house engenders a lack of happiness. Ergo, ample money will create happiness. Uncle Oscar senses Paul's yearning for happiness and decides to teach Paul how to make more money. Oscar takes Paul to the horse races, in order to teach him the art of betting. The guardians in Platonic society would disapprove greatly of this, for it violates the virtue of temperance.

Plato provides another way of defining temperance: "obedience to commanders and self-control in sensual pleasures" (60). There are no "commanders" in this microcosm of society at large. Through Paul, "the protagonist of this haunting story," the reader learns the truly frightening things that occur when a family worships money as a god ("The Rocking-horse Winner" n.p.). In addition, Paul has not yet begun his education, for he begins studying at "Eton . . . in the following autumn," foreshadowing the fact that he will never receive that education (Lawrence 298). Because Paul has not yet learned wisdom from elders outside of his family, powerful elders of his family, such as Uncle Oscar, can easily influence him, causing Paul to fall into the deadly trap of greed.

Robert Hayden's poem "The Whipping" serves to illustrate how the failures of one man must be offset by the wisdom of the community. In this poem, the narrator does nothing except recollect "woundlike memories" (Hayden line 12). Instead of helping the boy whom the old woman whips, the narrator instead choose to recall his "writhing struggle" as a child to escape the "fear worse than blows that hateful words could bring" (Hayden 14, 15-17). Based on the history (the narrator was also whipped as a child), we can assume that the boy will be whipped again, for without the support of the community, the child will suffer.

Only one non-participant observes the whipping: the narrator. His actions provide no condolences for the boy; recollecting painful memories does nothing to soothe or stop the pain that strikes others in the present. He lacks wisdom, the most important virtue in Plato's mind (97). In addition, the hypocritical old woman also deserves to bear some blame. While exclaiming "her goodness and his wrongs," she determinedly chases the boy "in spite of crippling fat" for the sole purpose of striking him with her stick (Hayden 4). She does not stop until "the stick breaks in her hand," inflicting a great deal of pain on the boy (Hayden 10-11). He will eternally remember this beating as a "writhing struggle" of the abuses he endures as a child (Hayden 14).

If the community does nothing to prevent the boy from bearing further whippings, he will turn into a concealer of his past, just like the man observing him. The adults in this community use corporal punishment to deny their own inadequacies and the "lifelong hidings" which they hold in their hearts (Hayden 23). The entire community needs wise guardians to help raise the children, for the possibility of producing better children exists. After all, in Plato's Republic, "a golden parent will sometimes have a silver son, or a silver parent a golden son" (87). In The Republic, all of the guardians raise the children, so the overall wisdom of the community holds more importance than the individual wisdoms of the children's parents.

Therefore, the entire community must raise the children. Without the influence of all of the elders, the child's parents often raise him with an incorrect value system or abuse him. The influences of wise members of the community save Jasmine from an undesirable career and a loveless arranged marriage. However, the lack of positive influences of the wisdom of the community has effects on the child as well. By the end of "The Rocking Horse Winner," Paul lives for only one purpose; he must choose the winning horses. He dies, but he leaves his family wealthy. In "The Whipping," the narrator recalls his own pain and suffering but does nothing to protect a boy from the anger of an old woman.

Raising wise children perpetuates a wise community. Imparting the wisdom of all the elders of a community to the children creates children who grow up possessing wisdom. Ergo, they, as the new elders, will be able to pass their wisdom on to the next generation of children in the community. In the words of Plato, "And thus the whole state will grow up in a noble order" (90). Hence, the wisdom of the elders provides the key to a golden society. Through its ancient introduction in The Republic and more contemporary illustration in Jasmine, "The Rocking Horse Winner," and "The Whipping," the concept that the community contains the key for raising the child still holds its accuracy today. It truly does take a village to raise a child.