Justified and Ancient

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Justified and Ancient The British short story JUSTIFIED AND ANCIENT, which was published in 2000, is written by Simon Lewis. The story takes place in a small Indian mountain village near Delhi. The main theme of the story is globalization and the relationship between the rich west and the poor Third World countries. This relationship shows in the relationship between the characters in the text. Our main character is a typical Westerner. His name is Lee; he is white, tall, has a ponytail, smokes, watches MTV and is very materialistic. Lee lives with his girlfriend and her child from a previous marriage. Lee does not care to see the rich culture of India, all he wants is to buy some cheap cannabis. When Lee is about to buy the drug, he proves that he is no experienced drug dealer. He thinks that he can easily cheat the Indians and he trusts the president of the village to be unintelligent. What really happens is that Lee gets cheated. The villagers are not stupid and the president is a clever businessman, who has an agreement with the local police. The president sells drugs to naïve tourists and the police commissioner arrests the tourist and confiscates the drugs and gives them back to the president. The president of the village knows that the tourist believes him to be stupid and he takes advantage of this. The villagers disapprove of this kind of dishonesty, but it is thanks to this that the city prospers and that a doctor can come twice a month. The villagers are therefore in a dilemma. Their culture wants them to be an honest people, but by being dishonest their children get a chance to live. When Lee has bought the cannabis he ventures out in the village once again. In the beginning he bought some biscuits, which has proven to be revolting. When he sees a couple of children playing around, he feels sorry for them, and therefore he gives them the
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