Easterine Kire’s Son of the Thundercloud (2016) : A Review ।। Dr. Hasnahana Gogoi

The first Naga writer to publish her book of poetry and novel in English, Easterine Kire is undoubtedly one of the greatest literary voices hailing from the North East India. A poet, novelist, short story writer, and writer of children’s books, Easterine Kire writes mostly about the traditional Naga society, the culture, politics and the gradual changes that the society has been through. Currently settled in northern Norway Kire has contributed a lot towards preserving and reviving the Naga oral literature and folktales. Her book When the River Sleeps (2014) won The Hindu Literary Prize in 2015. Along with many other literary accolades, Kire was awarded the Governor’s Medal for Excellence in Naga literature in 2011.

Son of the Thundercloud (2016) is one of Kire most remarkable novels which is full of wisdom. Recipient of Tata Literature Live! Award in 2017 and Sahitya Akademy’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar in the year 2018, the novel tells a mesmerising story based on the oral folk literature of Nagaland. An allegorical representation of the human society, the novel unfolds before us a mystical world that is filled with spirits, tales and myths. However, Kire presents that make believe world in the fashion of a storyteller engaging the readers in a way that they believe in and accept what they experience during their journey with the characters in the story. The novel shows us that there has always been a connection between the myths and the present life and that the latter is a result of things done in the past. In fact, the story seems to endorse the principle of causation and its role in the universe.

The opening of the novel is interesting as it begins with a prologue that tells the readers a folk tale about a tiger widow and the fatal fate that her husband along with their seven sons had met with. Then in chapter one, the novel introduces one of its main protagonists, Pelevotso or simply Pele who was born and destined to fulfil what was prophesied in the folk tale. Having lost every member of his family and all dear and near ones in a great famine Pele leaves his village and starts a journey without any destination and that’s how he becomes a wanderer. Pele meets the strange sisters, Kethonuo and Siedze, who tell him that they were four hundred years old and that they had been living on ‘hope’. Pele hears strange things from the sisters who accompany him to the village of the Weavers to visit their younger sister, Mesanuo. To Pele’s surprise, Mesanuo turns out to be the tiger widow from the folk tale who gives birth to a son after getting impregnated by a raindrop. Her son, Rhalietuo was born to avenge the death of the tiger widow’s husband and their seven sons. Interestingly, Pele becomes a part of their life. Rhalie grows up to be the ideal child who, with the help of the spearhead that his aunts gave him kills the spirit tiger and thus fulfils the prophesy. But he does not live long as he falls prey to the evils of those who considered him their rival and they kill him showing utmost cruelty. His mother too succumbs to the grief caused by Rhalie’s death. Thus, Pele plays his part in the fulfilment of the prophesy but after the death of Rhalie and his mother he leaves for another lone journey, again without any destination.
The interesting opening endows the novel with an allegorical feature. The significance of the folk tale lies in that it is not a single story happened to a particular individual but one that repeats itself throughout generations as the novelist tells us: “Oh, it happened a very long time ago. And it will happen again.” (10) This only tells us that history repeats itself and man has to face what he earns for himself. If he doesn’t learn from life’s lessons he will dig his own grave and that’s what happened to the people in the novel once and that is again going to happen in the days to come. Thus, the tale may stand as a hint about the things to come in the future.
The novel is about a simple story but the novelist has narrated it in such a way that it leaves an everlasting impression on the minds of her readers. Kire deals with the common human instincts, both the strength and weaknesses of the human heart and tells a story that can be told and heard generation after generation. What the novelist has observed regarding human feelings and their results is pertinent to note here: “when you hate someone, you are really hating yourself and hurting yourself.”(141) When Rhalie is killed because of his goodness, his killers showed the evil sides of themselves which is going to harm none but themselves. Thus, the novelist touches upon a few very important aspects like the folk beliefs and the people’s aversion from those. The storytellers were killed and the people started forgetting all the stories and thus coming a long way from their culture. The oral literature which was internalised by the people in the past is now forgotten and thus people as a community have been far away from their own roots and culture. This only is leading the society towards a dark future and Kire’s novel gives a hint at that. Thus, the novel plays a prophetic role as it warns the human race regarding their future.
Another important aspect about the novel is its ecocritical perspective. Kire, in a way, offers her observation on how far removed man has been from Nature, his origin. The way man himself is the cause of his own destruction, its again man himself who is responsible for the death of all forces of Nature that are essential for human lives. Here, Nature includes the myths and beliefs of the people as well as the folk culture and oraltradition. All the main characters in the novel represent some of Nature’s quintessential elements. Rhalie represents all the virtues of mankind as his mother says, “He loved everyone, even those who harboured evil against him” (144) whereas the people  who killed him represent the evil and dark sides of the human mind. As such, the novel deals with the story of good vs evil and the triumph of the latter. Rhalie, the embodiment of all virtues kills the spirit tiger and saves mankind but the people in return killed their saviour and thereby merely affirming their own destruction. This is also suggestive self-destructive or suicidal motive of the human community.
However, the novel ends with an optimistic note. Kire seems to offer a resolution to the destruction of the human race as she focuses on ‘hope’, ‘love’ and ‘compassion’. When Rhalie dies, Pele asks Mesanuo to rename the village and she changes the name from ‘Peace’ to ‘Compassion’. This renaming of the village is very significant as it stands for not only Rhalie’s compassionate heart but also a solution to save the ecology and the novel ends with this message of ‘compassion’. Thus, Son of the Thundercloud offers both cultural and ecological lessons for the human race to learn. Kire plays a prophetic role as her novel stands as a reminder of the possible results of the self-destruction of the human community. The novel can be read as a warning regarding the future of mankind but and at the same time, it also suggests resolutions to the problems that the human race has created for themselves and Nature. However, this realisation endows the novel with a fable like feature as it ends with that moral. Thus, the novel tells us a common story in the most uncommon and fabulous way.

References:
Kire, Easterine (2016). Son of the Thundercloud. Speaking Tiger.