ISOLATION AND LONELINESS IN THE BETTER MAN AND MISTRESS

Yking books , 2022

Patriarchy serves as the nucleus in almost all the communities in Indian society irrespective of the various social hierarchies. Since ages the Patriarchal system has been so dominant over women to an extent that in the process, they themselves have developed a mindset that they are just born to suffer at the hands of men. Life to them is just to have a mere existence only for the sake of performing duties and responsibilities be it in the form of a mother, a wife, a daughter or a sister. In the confinement of imposed Patriarchal norms, the women have developed a sense of loss of their individuality as a gender. The Patriarchal system is so deeply rooted that it will take years and years to uproot it on the ground level. At least through literature writers are able to express the unexpressed and globalise the issues. Probably Roy’s observances about the society and women have been so minute that she has been able to address the issue so realistically from a female’s perspective. Moreover, Roy’s characters seems so real along with a good story- telling that one can easily identify themselves with all the mentioned issues in real life. The paper seeks to address the pain and sufferance of women in the realm of Patriarchy through Anuradha Roy’s An Atlas of Impossible Longing.

World Journal of English Language, 2022

This paper explores the novel Lonely Marriages that revels the inner psyche of women who search for free-will, as it questions the cultural ego that procreate the gender discernment and prejudices that predominate the country constructed by the representations of ancient mythologies. Such prototypes have been replicated and expected to be followed and obeyed in the ways of life trailing to the dangers of abandonment if not abide by the rules it infers. The paper ventures the consciousness of the female characters who reciprocate the cultural ego, as the writer puts it, to describe the biases shaped against women.

Anita Desai is a powerful and persuasive voice among the Indian novelists cut off from their ethnic roots. A close study of Anita Desai's works reveals her struggle for female autonomy played out against the backdrop of the patriarchal cultural pattern. Her protagonists … are constantly confronted with the stupendous task of defining their relation to themselves and to their immediate human context. (Mehta: 1999:36) The process of alienation and rehabilitation involves a three tier operation, viz, construction, and reconstruction. For example, when a man is ready to migrate, his beliefs, responses, attitudes, behavior pattern, etc, have already had a shape according to the systems of the place to which he or she belongs. This is construction phase. Then, he or she migrates to the new place which has its own life style. So the immigrant has to first deconstruct what is constructed and then reconstruct according to the life pattern of the new place. This three tier operation can also be seen as follows: one, the departure from the root place and arrival at the new one; two, recognition and Reassociation with the new place; three, rehabilitation and reassimilation with the new place. Then, there are three basic factors which obstruct or facilitate the completion of the process of rehabilitation, viz, the scale of sensitivity, the previous Sanskars and the conditions at the rehabilitation phase. In Bye-Bye Blackbird Anita Desai has dealt with this complex problem of alienation. The novel is mainly woven round two groups of characters, viz, Adit Sen, his English wife Sarah, and Adit's Indian friend Dev; and the two Indian couples-Jasbir-Mala, Sammar-Bella. A careful reading of the novel shows that there has been no problem in the process of deconstruction, reconstruction and rehabilitation of Sammar, a Doctor, and his sweet wife Bella; Jasbir, an

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

This paper deals with the study of marital relationship, one of the most complex, subtle and chameleonic human relationship, in the lives of the protagonists in the novels of Anita Desai. Through the depiction of this relationship, the novelist tries to foray into the deep recesses of her protagonists' psyche and reveals their strivings to attain a meaningful pattern of life. Through the depiction of varied kind of protagonists, the novelist tries to show that some of her initial protagonists are quite immature, having myopic vision of life, who reflect rigidity in their personality. This extreme rigidity and egoism creates insurmountable hurdles for them in their inter-personal relations as well as adjustment with the flux of life. Various social customs and traditions which demand sacrifice and adjustment for their part are beyond their comprehension at all. The harrowing despair in their marital relations and lack of recognition in the family and society cumulatively thrusts them into circumscribed zones of isolation. On the other hand, some of her characters are made of strong stuff. They are quite mature and tend to face various vicissitudes of life with a mature, flexible and compromising attitude. Since they have a strong desire to achieve an authentic kind of existence and this zeal makes them flexible to evaluate the pattern of life in totality and eventually, they succeed in evolving a new harmonious pattern life at a higher level of maturity and wisdom.

Bharati Mukherjee (1940-2017) is one of the most acclaimed writers of the Indian Diaspora whose novels are impregnated with issues of identity and the yearning for an understanding of the self in an alien land. She is well known for the portrayal of the myriad, complex personal and cultural negotiations that emigrants, especially women have to go through in their arduous journey of life in an alien land. Torn between two conflicting cultures of the homeland and the migrated land, the deformation and the transformation of the identity of women and the predicament of women who need to negotiate through intricate situations to survive in a new world are the primary focus of her novels. She herself seemed to have caught between two divergent cultures, the protagonists' rebellion against regressive traditions of the homeland and their persistent efforts to replace such tradition with a corresponding equivalence of modernity and the temerity with which the protagonists endure the cross cultural negotiations find a place in her novels. This paper attempts to critically analyse the psyche of the protagonist who breaks the traditional shackles of womanhood that is known for passivity, patience and submissiveness. It further examines the agonized psyche struggling to seek an identity in a foreign land, finally succumbing to a total self-alienation.

The Creative Launcher

The research paper aims to explore the relationship between man and woman in the patriarchal society in Anita Nair’s Lessons in Forgetting. The work of Nair in Lessons in Forgetting is an example of feminine writing which portrays the stories of women facing different issues existing in a patriarchal society like gender discrimination, love, betrayal, female feticide, family responsibilities etc. The novel also explains how these women come out of their shells to rebel and live life in their own way. In fact, the works of women writers like Anita Desai, Githa Hariharn, Sashi Deshpande and Anita Nair focus on challenging and rebellious attitude of women against the odds of the patriarchal society. Lessons in Forgetting is a story about grabbing the second chance in life without any hesitation. Meera, the protagonist and other female characters face betrayal from their husband and are bound to think what comes next. The novel is a story of two individuals who manage to overcome their ...

The Literary Herald, 2023

The aim of this study is to spatio-temporal dimensions of diasporic subjectivity by making use of Foucauldian heterotopia ,heterochrony ,power and self-technologies. This study analyses diasporic subjectification in "Bye-Bye Blackbird" by Anita Desai .In consideration of the roots of diaspora,heterotopic diaspora space ,subjectivity ,self and power technologies are put into practice in the analysis of this novel. Anita Desai"s "Bye-Bye Blackbird" is from different generation of writer whose parent has root in India ,and his either immigrated to or been brought up in Britain .The creative work select for this paper is representation of the generation concern of the south Asian Diaspora in Britain .This novel uncover authentic apprehension about diasporic subjectification, and quests for individuality in addition to depicting the major issues in the real lives of south Indian Diasporians. The work examines in this paper include characters from different generations whose understanding of homeland ,trauma of dislocation, perception of the major culture ,sense of belonging ,cross-cultural experience and assimilation into western metropolitan centre are different .In "Bye-Bye Blackbird" ,the first generation diasporian identity crisis ,causes by displacement and separation from their homeland and discussed in relation to Adit and Dev.

Abstract The conventions and moral obligations that list down to rules for women in India are being tarnished with the spread of nuclear families. Women have started becoming partners in decision-making, thereby replacing the authoritative decisions from the head of the family (normally men). The novel Mistress written by Anita Nair portrays the conflicts of a woman who is independent with her mind and yet is forced to live in subjugation. The levels of subjugation entrusted in the bondage of marriage in India and the inescapable concept of ‘helpless’ women are considered in the paper. The paper also deals with the plight of the Indian woman who is caught between modern and traditional stereotyp

"Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it,she stands up for all women."-Maya Angelou Vandana Singh's story 'The Wife' powerfully critiques the 'Family Life' and its darker shades. She questions about the compatibility of married couples, the secured feeling of married women and their emotional attachment which leads them to their exploitation. The present paper titled "Estrangement in Vandana Sigh's The wife" is a study of alienation in marriage. Padma had dreamt of a wood which was rooted inside her and "-making a nest somewhere in the jungle of her mind…" (168) But in reality she is thrown out of her own house. Padma as a wife is estranged by her husband and is fallen in to the well of loneliness. But what is noteworthy is that how she raises on her own and maintains the decorum of her mind and individuality.

IASET, 2021

Kamala Das is one of the most prolific and controversial poets and writers of the post-colonial era in Indian English Literature. Her writings have been viewed more in terms of sexual connotations than for their literary merits. Most of the studies on Kamala Das have been centered round on her love poems and man-woman relationships as love has been considered as the most dominant theme of her poetry. Since she writes with the feelings, emotions and sensitivity of a woman and her world and voices her anger against the patriarchal design of the subjugation of women, she has been branded as a Feminist Poet. No woman poet ever before penned her feelings so candidly, intensely and intimately of her subjective experiences as she did in the creative genres. It led her to stand in the category of Confessional poets. However, these are merely the tips of the iceberg. Very few attempts have been made to understand the 'loneliness' of the woman in her writings which unfortunately form the big mass of the iceberg that has remained unexplored. Loneliness is a predominant theme in the poetry of Kamala Das. The present paper explores it alongside her own explorative female consciousness. She raises her consciousness and seeks to live intensely and honestly on her own terms.

International journal of applied research, 2017

The books of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni highlight Indian-born females conflicted between old and new world morality and ethics. These female characters' change personalities commonly to show up at a last meaning of their self-hood. These ladies develop various methodologies to state their uniqueness and act autonomously with a feeling of opportunity and conviction. She gives more significance to female characters. In her books she has investigated the physical and mental strains and the torments to which the migrant ladies are oppressed. She has spoken to ladies as effectively maintaining and forming class, social and sexual orientation structures inside the network, home and marriage. The quest for personality is a significant component we find in the outline of her female characters. She manages the lives of ladies both at home and abroad. In any event, when they visit abroad they face a similar gender issues. For them an unfamiliar land has not yet changed their status much. A few people battle against this downside and cut their character and departure the drudgery. Her book 'Arranged Marriage', is an assortment of short stories. It manages clashes emerging out of affection, accounts the absorption and resistance that Indian born young ladies and ladies in America experience as they balance old loved convictions and astonishing new wants. The assortment has eleven short stories, and most of the stories manage the immigrant experience alongside the sociocultural experience that an Indian encounter when moves towards the west, which is a significant subject in the mosaic of American Indian culture. The creator dexterously recounts anecdotes about immigrant Indians who are both present day just as caught by social change, who are battling to shape out their very own character in an obscure land. The book tends to issues, for example, bigotry, interracial connections, financial uniqueness, premature birth, and separation.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD 2013) reported that, during the past three decades, there has been a steady rise in the number of international students studying outside their countries of citizenship. Those figures rose from 0.8 million in 1975 to almost 3.7 million in 2009, and to 4.1 million in 2010. There is an associated growing body of research that explores the experiences of international students in general; some exploring the experiences of married international students studying abroad with their families (see Arthur, 2004);but little exploring the experiences of married students studying abroad without their families with them (Wa-Mbaleka, 2013). Wa-Mbaleka and Joseph (2013) uncovered a phenomenon they termed “the married-single phenomenon,” referring to married persons who were studying abroad without their spouses or children. This narrative study documents the experience of one female doctoral student while studying in the Philippines without her family. Data was collected through extensive and repeated interviews, oral and written, formal and informal, an examination of the participant’s retrospective journal, and participant observation. The findings do not show differences between how this married-single woman coped with loneliness and isolation and the strategies reportedly used by other international students in previous studies.

Abstract Githa Hariharan in her first novel The Thousand Faces of Night and Kamala Das autobiography My story transcends the gender stereotypes and as they skirts the multifarious world of intuition a woman practices in contrast to a Female society which takes the subservient and peripheral position by the authoritative potential of male in the whole history of human civilization, whether colonial or post-colonial aeon. These two works gives an insight into of life where they transcends the typical gender stereotype image of the society and has unambiguously elucidated every concern related with gender that clearly indicates the establishment is still locked into the

2018

Edmund Fuller remarks that in our age “man suffers not only from war, persecution, famine and ruin, but from inner problems -------a conviction of isolation, randomness, meaninglessness in his way of existence”. The paper will discuss and analyse theme of alienation in modern literature in general and Indo-English literature from different angles. It will be contextualized by referring profusely the works of renowned Indian writers. Nuances of the word alienation will also be discussed thoroughly. Alienation forms the subject of many psychological, sociological, literary and philosophical studies. It is a major theme of human condition in the contemporary society. After two World Wars, existentialism got currency all over the world. The chaos, disorder, annihilation and fears and frustration on the one hand and the crumbling traditional values and old-world views including loss of faith and God and trust in man along with anguish and anxiety, estrangement and loneliness rendered the...