The Secret Daughter Sparknotes

Mahasweta Devi’s short story, “Giribala,” is about the life of Giribala, a girl of Talsana village located in India. Born into a caste in a time when it was still customary to pay a bride-price, Giri is sold to Aulchand by her father. From this point on, we see a series of unfortunate, tragic events that take place in Giri’s life as a result of the circumstances surrounding Giri’s life. There are many issues in Giri’s life in India that Devi highlights to readers. First, the economic instability of the village leads to an extremely poor quality of life for the lower, working classes. Next, the cruel role of women determined by men in society is to either satisfy the sexual desires of men or to reproduce offspring who can work or be sold off to marriages. There are also other social norms and beliefs which discriminate against women that will be discussed.

This paper attempts to examine the fictional projections of Indian girls, to see how they emerge in ideological terms. Their journeys from self-alienation to self-adjustment, their childhood struggles against the hypocrisies and monstrosities of the grown-up world, eventually demolishing the unjust male constructed citadels of power that hinder their progress- are the highlighted issues. The point of comparison between the two novels focused on here is the journey of Rahel in The God of Small Things and Sai in The Inheritance from a lonely childhood to a tragic adulthood passing through a struggle with the complex forces of patriarchal society. Both the novels portray the imaginativeness, inventiveness, independence, rebelliousness, wide-eyed wonder and innocence associated with these young girls.

In the typical Indian family, gender construction manifests itself especially in the roles of men and women in the household. As Judith Lorber so aptly put, “gender is a process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities” which in turn, creates the social differences that define a “man” and “woman” (Lorber). It is these differences that are used to construct and maintain an established gender order within the family. In the conventional Indian family, the order is such that the roles of the women in the household revolve around the roles of the men. This structure was something that I saw from an early age in my parents’ marriage. Though my parents defied the Indian norm of the arranged marriage, they still represented the quintessential model of an Indian couple in many other ways. My mother left her job to become a stay-at-home mom when I was about six years old. However, even before she left her job, she was implicitly expected by my father to shoulder most of the housework including cooking, cleaning, and caring for my older brother

Having moved far from the misery of conventional archetypal women of long back, they think that its hard to stay as housewives. They soon find that their endeavors to accommodate themselves to homemaking just add to their sufferings. When they find that surrendering professional roles does not make them in at any rate happy at home, the female heroines look to escape from their domestic duties too. Giving up their roles as wives and mothers, they swing back to their parent's' homes. The parental homes get to be havens for their fretful souls. There they start their quest for knowledge and for an answer for their private hardships.

Gender inequality is displayed in many countries around the globe. In India, the society begins gendering as soon as a child is born. In most cases, the birth of a daughter is unwelcome but that of a son is celebrated. The boys are brought up bold and outgoing while the girls are expected to be at home and do chores. While the other discriminations like economic or social discriminations are present outside the home, but gender discrimination is present outside and inside households. In a familial setup, the father is the head of the family and decision maker. The mother generally performs the ‘home making’. Even if the woman is employed, she is expected to do the domestic chores, in addition to her job. Even though she earns, she does not have the freedom to plan her salary or decide anything.

Kavita 's is unfortunate in her first two pregnancies and is told to dispose of her infant daughters. She says, "At least this baby girl will be allowed to live—a chance to grow up, go to school, maybe even marry and have children. Kavita knows, along with her daughter, she is forsaking any hope of helping her along the path of life. Usha will never know her parents, but she has a chance at life, and that will have to be enough" (S. Gowda 26). This leads Kavita to give up her daughter to an orphanage, as she is terrified that her husband will murder the daughter the same way he did to their first baby, simply because she 's a girl. In addition to that, the emotional struggle Kavita encounters after the birth of her son, is heartbreaking and prejudiced.When she brings her son home and introduces him to her family, she says, "They have showered on me all the traditional gifts, as if this is my first baby, my first child. What about the other times I’ve carried a baby in my womb, given birth, held my child in my arms?" (S. Gowda 65). After giving birth to her son Vijay, her in-laws treat her with more care, she receives more attention and love from her husband, and she feels as her first two pregnancies were ultimately forgotten. This clearly depicts the stigma in Indian culture of women, and daughters not having any value or respect, from the day they are

It’s hard to believe women living in different countries, centuries and even realities can live parallel lives. The authors of The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, Secret Daughter, Shilpi Somaya Gowda and The Rapture of Canaan, Sheri Reynolds, each work to illustrate how their protagonist’s experience oppression due to their gender. The Handmaid’s Tale, set in a dystopian world, tells the story of Offred, a woman who is caught trying to escape and is forced to become a handmaiden for a couple who is unable to conceive. She is forced to become indistinguishable among crowds and fears losing who she is, but never loses sight of her goal to be reunited with her daughter. Secret Daughter tells the story of Asha, a young Indian girl whose mother, Kavita, gives her away before her father can murder her for being a girl. Adopted by an American couple, she grows up not knowing who she truly is, only to find out the biological family she’s always wanted to meet, doesn’t exactly match the picture she has for them. The Rapture of Canaan, follows Ninah, a young girl growing up in a community governed by the religion her grandfather created that allows for nothing. Ninah finds herself struggling with what she does and doesn’t believe and looks to her friend James for guidance. Falling pregnant, Ninah does all she can to sustain herself while facing the wrath of her family. Although each of these women suffer within an oppressive patriarchal structure, they find ways to assert their identities as fiercely loving mothers.

The writer focuses on the doctrinal society of India while Koly’s story proceeds, and often makes commentaries on the foundationless social boundaries through character conflicts. As religious socities go, it is natural for the society that surrounds the main characters can resort to ironically unorthodox actions. These dogmas lead to the creation of many conflicts, especially in the novel. A problem that emerges in the beginning of the story that acts in the role of the core of Koly’s journey is child marriage.

In spite of the fact that the story is particularly about a West Indian mother's "sex preparing" her youthful little girl for her approaching female household part, it could be about any family, about any culture, and about any pre-adult girl's association with her mom. Its objectives, restrictions, mandates, cross examination, "how to's" and allegation propose the all inclusiveness of mother-little girl connections and the certainty

This joint family, like any social organization, must face problems such as acceptable division of work, relationships and specific family roles. These familial relationships are managed on the basis of a secular hierarchical principle. In fact, all Indians owe respect and obedience to the head of the family, who usually is the father or the oldest man of the family community. In The Gift of a Bride: A Tale of Anthropology, Matrimony and Murder by Nanda and Gregg, it is explained that, “females [are] placed under the perpetual guardianship of first their fathers and elder brothers, then their husbands.” (Nanda & Gregg 22) Thus, all the spending decisions, studies and profession, or marriage, are exclusively the responsibility of the father after the possible discussions with the other men of the family. Age and sex are the basic principles of this hierarchical system. The eldest sons enjoy greater unchallenged authority than their cadets. Of course men have more authority than women, but older married women have an important role within the family. In fact, the authority of a woman depends on the rank of her husband inside the group. Traditionally, the wife of the patriarch rules over domestic affairs and has considerable power over the other women in the community, especially her daughters- in-law.

As an Indian housewife, there were certain limitations for women in society. These limitations were primarily found in the upbringing of the children. Gauri, after coming to America, sees her duty as a mother to Bela limiting her to all the freedom she could have in society.This restriction on freedom is made apparent when Gauri contemplates, “When she was with Bela, even if they were not interacting, it was as if they were one person, bound fast by a dependence that restricted her mentally, physically” (Lahiri 163). Lahiri characterizes Gauri as a person who sees her dutiful actions as a negative aspect of life, as she describes her motherly actions as a physical and mental restriction. Lahiri is able to harness this type of characterization of Gauri to generalize that American society instills a new mindset in individuals such as Gauri. These individuals see the lack of restrictions America offers and as a result become transformed. Later on, the transformation goes as far as to show the incapability of Gauri to fulfill her duty when said, “ With her own hand she’d painted herself into a corner, and then out of the picture altogether” (Lahiri 232). The withdrawal that Gauri feels from her family as a result of the new options she now has in America shows the influence society’s freedom has in shaping a character. The abundance of freedom is what causes the inevitability of transformation in Gauri. This is shown when Gauri considers her option in the free country, “requesting an application for one of the doctoral programs...Without Bela or Subash, her life might be a different thing...Disorientated by the sense of freedom, devouring the sensation as a beggar devours food.” (Lahiri 174). Despite of the new options Gauri now gets to choose from, she welcomes the opportunity, comparing her desire to a beggar for food.

Using the elements of fiction and truth a mass amount can be gained from understanding how women fit in with the government/patriarchy. From novels comparably, A Passage to India and A Handmaid’s Tale, these two reflect different times: a realistic time of Indian Imperialism and a Utopian fantasy that could indubitably become the future of tomorrow. How do they correspond with the role of women? Both either represent or differ from the true, unseen representation of women amongst the power of the elite, against the suppressors of the minority, and the

In Chapter one Mathangi Subramanian describes how she went back to India in 1999 when she went was nineteen. She describes how even though she was nineteen her grandmother was asking “ Mathangi when are you going to get married” and her mother tells her grandmother “ that I always told her and her brother that they should be independent”. This story remind me of my own mother who raised me and my siblings to be independent and that we should only marry someone if we are in love. She wanted us to focus on our education and the things that we love such as running, reading, and dancing. Many young girls are not taught independence at a young age, but pressure to get married before they become “too old”. In addition, in this article Subramanian

Matriarchies can give a sense of independence to women, along with a feeling of harmony within the community. In India, the patriarchal system is prevalent in most of the states. However, in the states of Kerala and Meghalaya, the matriarchal system is strongly established. As narrated by Timothy Allen, Patricia Mukkum, the well-respected editor of Shillong’s daily newspaper, admits that their societal norms have given her ample opportunities to be both a mother and a successful career woman (Allen

2003). To understand the status of the Indian women it is important to understand the history