Everything's Arranged

1351 Words6 Pages
Everythings’ Arranged (Siew Yue Killingley) `Everything's Arranged' by Siew Yue Killingley is basically about an arranged marriage practiced by the Indian communities. The story is centered on Rukumani, a young maiden from the Ceylonese Tamil community whose family has settled in Malaya. This concept of arranged marriages are highly considered and respected by the Indian and Ceylonese families as they are considered as a dignity and a symbol of family honour. Siew Yue Killingley used cultural criticism in Everything’s Arranged as its main literary theory. Cultural criticism is a school of thought that looks at how movies, music, literature, art, politics and much more define a current culture. In this short story, the background of Indian culture is well depicted and portrayed. Similar to the criticism, this story shows the Indian culture that believes marriage as a spiritual thing and hence. It makes sex as an issue that cannot be mentioned at home while the girls should not also be in love before marriage. The story is amazing as it exposes us the real Indian culture that has been truly practiced by them. This culture has its own values and quality as it can avoid the communities from involving in social problems like premarital sex. To a certain extent, this culture contradicts to modern culture because nowadays people tend to choose their own spouses. There are various behaviours being portrayed through many types of characters in this short story. Rukumani, the protagonist is studying at the university and has fallen in love with a guy named Devanayagam, also from the same community as she is. Rukumani's parents are very old-fashioned in their ideas about marriage. The only one type of marriage which is accepted by them is the arranged marriage. They strongly believe that a man and a lady can never fall in love with each other before marriage. Rukumani’s
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