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Indian feminism in Indian english literature
summary of mother daughter relationship in manju kapurs difficult daughters
summary of mother daughter relationship in manju kapurs difficult daughters
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The status of women in India has not enhanced much even after six decades of Indian Independence. Repression and enslavement still compel her to lead a regulated life. However, education has come to the aid of women to move forward and they have endeavored to liberate themselves from the domination of men. In this context it is interesting to note that the last decade of the twentieth century witnessed a world of change in the literature produced in India in the English language. The novels of R.K.Narayan in 1930s presented Indian society in its traditional form. In his early works Narayan assigned man a predominant position to women. But in the recent past one finds feminine consciousness has led to a social change where search for an identity and independence for women took place. Women writers have presented the world in a different perspective, through which one can understand the aptitude of human accomplishment. They have discussed the role and status of women in Indian society and their issues and difficulties at different phases of time. In the process, they have examined social, cultural ethos against which they have been brought up and the image that has been carved for women in the society. Their works portray the conflict of women to assert their individuality. Moreover, education has assisted them to raise their voice against maltreatment and suppression. The first novel Difficult Daughters 1 by Manju Kapur was published in 1998 and it has been bagging many laurels since then. Difficult Daughters won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for the Best First Book Category in the Eurasia region and was also shortlisted for the Crossword Book Award in India... ... middle of paper ... ...that her rights are confiscated by Virmati. Virmati feels free only in the presence of Harish. She finds herself an untouchable in the house. Once Virmati ventures into the kitchen but that is followed by a hue and cry: “…..but there had been such weeping and wailing that day, such ritual rinsing of every pot and pan to wash away her polluted touch, that she felt intimated. It was clear that not an inch of that territory was going to be yielded. ” (230). Thus Harish says, “Poor thing, you have me, let her have the kitchen.”(230) REFERENCES 1. Manju Kapur, Difficult Daughters, 1998. London: Faber and Faber, 1999. (All textual citations in the article kept in parentheses are from this edition of the novel.) 2. Mehta, Sangeeta. “Women’s Odyssey of Liberation In Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters.” Contemporary Vibes 5. 17 (Oct – Dec 2009): 12 – 13.
Women play a key role in this novel in many ways. In the case of...
The oppression of women commonly occurs in Patricia McCormick’s novel Sold. Lakshmi, the protagonist, and many other women are impacted by the cultural beliefs in India. Lakshmi is a thirteen-year- old girl from Nepal who loses everything she knows because of her stepfather’s greed. She lived in a small village with her mother who does housework and takes care of her little brother while her stepfather gambles at the tea shop. Desperate for money, Lakshmi is sold into prostitution by her stepfather with her believing she is going to work as a maid. Lakshmi moves to India and reaches the prostitution house, known as “Happiness House”. There are many women and young girls close to her age at the house who got trapped like Lakshmi. Mumtaz is the head of the Happiness House and the one who paid for the girls, so their debt to her is the price that they got bought for. They earn their money as sex slaves and some girls spend years trying to pay off the debt. Lakshmi does the same for months and realizes that it is a common practice in India and because it is a norm, many women and young girls are affected by this. In “Sold”, the Indian culture discriminates against women when looking at gender roles,
Jane Eyre, A passage to India, and The Tempest all hold within their covers’ stories of women or girls who knowingly and unknowingly affected the lives of men they were involved with. However, the females’ range of influence does vary between the books due the writer’s opinions of the female sex. The strength and influence of women did and will continue to have an affect on the men they are surrounded by as well as our society as a whole.
Be that as it may, Deshpande makes gender central to her writings. Her works deal not only with ordinary women in ordinary, urban situations but stem from a firm belief that our lives are to a great extent governed by gender. Women she feels, have not participated in the process of word-making; the stories myths and legends in our Puranas, epics and kathsa have been written by men. Deshpande feels that women never start with a picture of themselves on a clean slate, their self-image honed by the hegemonic influences of myths, movies and current-day soap operas. She sees herself as a writer whose writing comes Deshpande’s real concern is to explore the root cause of the fragmentation and dichotomy of her characters and to observe what happens
Through Updike’s descriptions of the girls, you can see how critical he is of women. They are merely “wives, sex objects, and purely domestic creatures” (Kakutani, par. 1). While not trying to make his portrayals of women purposefully sexist or patronizing, Updike still presents this view to the reader (Updike 7). He typically gives “magazine cliches about the woes of being a housewife” and “noisy diatribes about piggish ways of men”, rather than giving the reader “an understanding of their conflicts as women” (Kakutani, par. 9).
Elizabeth Gaskell’s, Wives and Daughters is centered on the main character Molly Gibson. She’s the daughter of the local town doctor Dr. Gibson. The premature death of Molly’s mother, forced the father to be both parents to the young girl. Over the years, the father and daughter duo managed to build a bond that was strong, loving and caring.
Additionally, Hosseini characterizes what females endure when society is pressuring them to create difficulties in a relationship. A female in an Afghan culture is always brought down and does not have any opportunities to prove what they are capable of to their families. As of this case, Pari is not given the chance to assist her
The world before her is a film of hope and dreams for Indian women. We examine two girls with different paths but one goal in common, empowerment. This term conveys a wide range of interpretations and definitions one of them being power over oneself. Both Prachi and Ruhi manifest a will for female empowerment but both have distinct views on how this is achieved. Prachi believes the way to achieve empowerment is through her mind and strength, while she still confines to tradition views of Indian culture. Ruhi desires to achieve female empowerment by exposing her beauty in a non-conservative way while maintaining her Indian identity.
In the novel, A Passage to India, E. M. Forster expressed this male dominance during the 1920’s by writing, “He took no notice of them, and with this, which would have passed without comment in feminist England, did harm in a community where the male is expected to be lively and helpful” (Forster 52). They say that to be female is to be passive, agreeable, timid, emotional, and conventional. The feminist theorists’ argument of a male-centered society is definitely present in Forster’s novel, where he reveals cultural, economic, and educational factors within the patriarchal society of India that limit women. In Forster’s novel, A Passage to India, Forster exposes derogatory stereotypes of women to uphold the view of women during the time period.
The paper proposes to examine the woman’s discourse with reference to post feminist perceptive in the novels of two different novelists,Margaret Atwood and Shashi Deshpande belonging to different countries,different social backgrounds and different cultures.
Harish comes to meet her and furthermore to seek after her. He succeeds in convincing his adoration for Virmati. For the first time they enjoy physical joy. She conceives soon and has to abort the child by selling the gold bangles given to her by her grandfather. After this occurrence she again decides to cut her relationship with him. She goes to Siramaur, a hill station in Nahan to be a pricipal of Pratibha Kanya Vidyalaya. She teaches family household and English Literature to class IX and X. Virmati very much enjoys being in Nahan. It is most likely her best period. There she enjoys a free life like a honey bee and tastes honey of her life. Her Her search for identity ends here. She needs to manage everything by herself. Here she has no friends and family. She achieves the status of female autonomy. Virmati finds in Nahan a 'room of one's own'. Veena Singh states that, "in Virmati there struck the head and the heart, physical and moral, Virmati gives way to her heart and body" (Singh 168). But destiny has written something else for her as Harish comes here to meet her. She meets him secretly at nights. The trustee of the school finds out her guilty so she needs to abandon her job as she has lost employees' confidence. She decides to go to Shantiniketan , but on her way she meets a friend of Harish. He calls Harish at her home. She marries Harish and becomes
In Kamala Markandaya’s novel, Nectar in a Sieve, the woman of great courage, Rukmani, is forced onto the commencement of a fast changing India caused by an increase in economic activity, urbanization and centralization of power. Rukmani resists and then is forced to conform to changes in her environment. Unlike those around her who threw their past away with both hands that they “might be the readier to grasp the present,” Rukmani “stood by in pain, envying such easy reconciliation” (Markandaya 29). Markandaya writes about Rukmani’s attempt to recover the aspects of her rural life that she cares most about, revealing her adoration for a traditional rural life and her belief that all women enjoy amicable, personal relationships with their outer
“The End Of Men”, Hanna Rosin throws light on how Women have overcome obstacles, having nothing but pure determination and put men into a state of worry. Tambudzai, Lucia and Nysha from
Today, for the most part, women are seen as equal to men. Women are given the same opportunities as men and an equal chance at getting a job as men. In today’s society, women do not just have one role and that role and that being to have kids, but they can pursue any career they wish. However, it was not always this way. According to feminist theorists, western civilizations were patriarchal which means that the society is dominated by males. The society is set up so that the male is above the female in all cultural aspects including family, religion, politics, economics, art, and the social and legal realms. The patriarchal biases of gender between male and female say that a male must be active, dominating, adventurous, rational, and creative. In the novel, A Passage to India, Forster expresses this male dominance by writing, “He took no notice of them, and with this, which would have passed without comment in feminist England, did harm in a community where the male is expected to be lively and helpful” (Forster 52). They say that to be female is to be passive, agreeable, timid, emotional, and conventional. The feminist theorists’ argument of a male centered society is definitely present in the novel A Passage to India. E.M. Forster reveals cultural, economic, and educational factors within the patriarchal society of India that limit women. In E.M. Forster’s novel A Passage to India, Forster exposes derogatory stereotypes of women and portrays women as inferior to men to uphold the view of women during the time period.
Indian Writing in English has a special status in English Literature owing to its treatment of women characters. Short stories help the writers to project select characters in an impressive way to the readers. In Indian context the status of woman in a society and her treatment is very different from those of her European or American counterparts. Women are depicted both as a good and evil in literature by various writers. However, in no literature is a women stereotyped as was done in Indian literature. Away from the mythical stereotyping of women, Ruskin Bond portrayed his women in a different way. The female characters of his short stories range from a small child to a grandmother. These characters are as powerful as men and have left a strong impression on the readers. I have chosen following eight short stories for the critical analysis of Ruskin Bond’s Women in this paper.