following one’s orders or keeping inferiors in place or any other English notions. Mrs. Moore is Christianity in its purest form, without the dogma acquired throughout the centuries and embraced wholeheartedly by her contemporaries. As even the philanthropist missionary Mr. Sorley says, “We must exclude someone from our gathering, or we shall be left with nothing” (38). Mrs. Moore feels a spiritual connection with all of humanity that is alien to her English companions.Aziz forms an unusually deep attachment to Mrs. Moore almost instantly. He feels an affinity for her that is difficult to explain; it is rooted, though, in the pronouncement “Then you are an Oriental” (23). He says this after she reveals that she does not logically judge people, but only knows whether she likes them or not. Aziz, however, is viewing Mrs. Moore through the same dichotomy that he instinctively hates, but within which has been trained to operate. There is no such thing as an Oriental in the absolute, and no viewpoint that defines one. For convenience’s sake, Western civilization has created an Other as counterpart to itself, and a set of characteristics to go with it. Aziz has been raised in a world of “us” and “them”, and meeting an Englishperson with the perspicacity to see through these illusions is a remarkable occurrence for him. He recognizes that she is not “them”, and bound by the idea of categories, automatically makes her “us”. This distinction, though, does not diminish the traits that Mrs. Moore does share with the Indians. Her belief that God is the good within us, manifested through human loving actions, is akin to Godbole’s assertion that “All perform a good action, when one is performed . . when good occurs . . . it expresses the whole of the universe” (177-178). The universality of her ideas, the sense of God within and around and above an...
