Human Existence Precedes Essence in Amitav Ghosh’s Novel Flood of Fire

Abstract

         Amitav Ghosh in his novel Flood of Fire with the assistance of factual descriptions of the world creates an appealing life picture before the eyes of the readers, which presents various sorrowful, unaddressed issues that is continuing from the distant past and is causing distraught in the present world. His concentration on human suffering elevates the existential thought with which man tries to frame meaning in the discourse of life. Ghosh’s novel Flood of Fire is a thought-provoking novel in which he writes of human existence that precedes essence. In both the fields of science and moral, the freedom which the human mind recognizes, leaving behind the essence of the past, brings out new truths. The truths which the human mind approves are born from their own consciousness. The present paper focuses on the element of existentialism, where the human existence precedes essence with freedom. The novel clearly delineates the misconception of this notion in the present modern world. Ghosh cautions on human freedom bound with autonomy and insists on responsibility and authenticity which at instances is replaced by selfishness and greed.