Review: Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai

The Damage of Gender Inequality in Nectar in a Sieve Nectar in a Sieve, a novel by Kamala Markandaya, tells the tale of a woman named Rukmani and the numerous tragedies and challenges she faces in life during a sudden phase of modernization in India, brought on by imperialism. In the novel, Rukmani, born wealthy and well learned, is married off at 12 years old to an older man, a poor tenant farmer named Nathan. Following this, the book goes on to chronicle the struggles she faces, such as poverty, famine, illness, and the death of many loved ones. Because women are considered inferior to men, this causes further hardship (in already difficult circumstances) in Rukmani’s journey. One of the first examples of how sexism leads to further misfortune in Rukmani’s life, is the expectation that women get married at a young age to be a submissive and obedient wife.

"Raising a daughter is like watering your neighbors’ garden.” That quote from a Hindu proverb.is referring to is how in some cultures when a daughter is old enough to be married, she leaves that family and joins her husbands'. So, raising a daughter in those cultures is seen as helping another family. Unlike females when a son is born he will stay and take care of the parents as they age. This son preference can lead to some countries committing gendercide. The act of gendercide is the mass killing of people because of their sex. Gendercide is a horrid trend that is due to the son preferences of many countries. Parents in Countries such as china and India have been killing there daughters. In India 25 percent of girls die before they can reach puberty. Also, 200 million women are missing because of being killed at a young age. There are many cultural causes of gendercide. The first is that boy babies are valued far more then female babies. Male children can carry on the family name, take care the parents when they get old and are less "expensive" to raise. In India there is a dowry system where in order for a woman to be married, the bride’s family must give gifts of money, land, livestock or other expensive items. This can put I strain on poorer families who cannot afford to pay a dowry or richer families who do not want to spend that type of money. So , when they have a girl child they either get an abortion or kill the child to save money. There was a Indian mother that

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth is comprised of eight short stories about different Indian families’ struggles in America, many of them going through the immigrant experience. The conflicts are with friends and family, and also with themselves, as each of them attempt to find their own identity along with fitting in with the rest of society. One of the causes of these struggles that because the families in the stories are mixed in terms of generation. Many of the adults in the stories were first generation immigrants from India, while many of the children were raised in the United States, which is the second generation. This led to blending of culture and at the same time, clashes between the immigrant mentality of living and the American mentality of living. In Unaccustomed Earth, Lahiri demonstrates to the reader the important influence of environment, specifically culture and how it impacts parental teachings, on the personality and development of an individuals’ identity, and how the actions and development of characters can affect one’s family and friends; the impact of environment and culture is shown especially by the characters and stories “Hell-Heaven” and “Hema and Kaushik”.

The passage in Fasting, Feasting, by Anita Desai, Arun is out of his comfort zone going to the beach. Arun from the very start, starts making excuses to not go to the beach. He also, does not want to be anywhere close to Melanie While they walk to the beach. He complains about the noises of the wilderness and how horrible they are. He does these things because he does not feel comfortable in these places he has never been before. He talks about how his hands are sweaty and his hair on his neck raises. He also, wonders why people live in such close area to the wilderness. The story says “The town may be small and have little to offer, but how passionately he prefers its post office, its shops, its dry-cleaning stores and picture framers to this creeping curtain of insidious green…(Desai). This complaining about the wilderness is most likely due to the fact that he has most likely stayed in town most of his stay in America. He has adapted to the town he has probably only really seen.

2. In the novel, women in Annawadi don’t have lots of freedom and rights. They are mistreated and every family living in Annawadi dislikes each other because they are corrupted by greed and money. Even in the urban slums, women like Zehrunisa and Asha wouldn’t have more freedom because women can’t have a voice for themselves unless they have connections to other, more powerful people. Other women dislike and spit hate at Zehrunisa and Asha because they are more successful than them, rather than trying to work with them to be successful together. Since the people in Annawadi are so corrupted by money, they disregard for others wellbeing and resort to fighting or trash talk each other. For women, they are a burden for parents because of marriage and dowry. That is why mothers and fathers want their daughters to be perfect, with no scars or anything that would prevent them to get married. All the engagement is determined at a young age, so girls can not find love for themselves. “Meena’s future in-laws might not come to hear that they’d chosen an impetuous bride.” (Boo 188). When Meena, a young Annawadi girl, tried to commit suicide with rat poison because she hated the life she was living, her brother beat her up because now there would be less chance for Meena to get married. Rather than the townspeople helping Meena, the were ashamed of her and worried for her reputation than her health. In my view, the freedoms that the women in Annawadi lack is a voice. The women cannot

Aylene was born in Pasadena,California on February 21, 1998. She had a rough life growing up. Aylene’s parents were divorced when she was five years old. Her dad was a successful reporter on the other hand, her mom was more distracted with what the society thought of her even though they weren't together anymore.The dad paid more attention to his job than he did to his daughter, because he tried to give them a better life than he had when he was younger.

Women are classified into different categories. If you are able to have a baby, you are valued higher than other women. Unfertile women are referenced as “unwomen”. Throughout the book, it is evident that there are a few unorthodox characters.

Another experience of such prejudice can be perceived in the actions of the mother of Vorn, a boy within the clan. She encourages her son to give orders to Alya she believes that he is learning to behave “just like a man”. The composer’s use of verbatim in this line encapsulates the strong sexual bias held against women within the tribe as well as supports the stereotypical roles of males and females. Furthermore the composer demonstrates another representation of gender stereotypes in the actions of Iza, the woman who adopted Alya. In a conversation between Iza and Creb, Iza expresses her concern for Alya’s future. She states that “she’s not attractive” and asks “What chance will she ever have to mate? What will happen to her when she becomes a woman? If she doesn’t mate, she will have no status.” The composer has clearly again expressed the tribe’s attitudes through the repetition of rhetorical questions. This underscores the towns gender stereotyping as Iza demonstrates a clear concern that Alya will not fulfil her role in society. Together, these three experiences of gender prejudice and a clear male bias reveal to us a holistic understanding of the attitudes encountered when entering into a society of sexual injustice, such as Ayla’s world.

Another supported claim that attributes to this idea of inequality and gender relations is the insights from three indigenous scholars living in India, which I had the privilege of looking in depth to their encounters. They were able to infer that female fetuses are often at times killed off and men are always subject to be the dominant figures in societal practices. They have provided insights that advancement in technology has provided a way that women wouldn’t be treated like valueless customers, but rather provide population control incentives such as nation-state prosperity. (Dube, R., Dube, R., & Bhatnagar) This will be a future planning strategy that might undermine well with the current situation of this issue at hand today.

Most of the stories, especially the tenth story of the fifth day, have misogynistic statements. In this story, an old woman tells a married woman that “women exist for no other purpose than to...bear children” (472). This contributes to the limitation of female ambition and the worth with which women see themselves.

According to Robert Kenner, creator of documentary Food inc., the agriculture business produces food that is unhealthy to the environment, along with non domesticated animals. Environmentalist and author Wendell Berry states in his paper From The Pleasures of Eating, “When food, in the minds of eater, is no longer associated with farming and with the land, then the eaters are suffering a kind of cultural amnesia that is misleading and dangerous.” Today, humans find the most effortless food options to go about their daily lives, hence all the processed, microwaveable foods. Unless consumers take a larger part and responsibility in the economy of food, the “cultural amnesia” will continue to mislead and be dangerous.

     Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife is the story of a relationship between a mother and daughter that is much more than it seems. This touchingly beautiful narrative not only tells a story, but deals with many of the issues that we have discussed in Women Writers this semester. Tan addresses the issues of the inequality given women in other cultures, different cultures' expectations of women, abortion, friendship, generation gaps between mothers and daughters, mother-daughter relationships, and the strength of women in the face of adversity. Tan even sets the feminist mood with the title of the book, which refers to a woman in Chinese Mythology who cared for a selfish man who became a

Fasting and Feasting is a novel written by Anita Desai that narrates the story of the protagonist, Uma, and her family’s life. The novel is divided in two parts. Part one deals with Uma’s life in India until the tragic death of her cousin Anamika, and part two tells the story of Uma’s brother, Arun, as he spends his summer with the Pattons, a typical American suburban family. Throughout the novel, Desai explores the theme of family life and uses the novel’s two settings, America and India, to compare and contrast the values and customs that constitute each respective culture’s family life. At first glance, American and Indian families are foils of one another because of the relationships between the family members that composed them. As

The social values and customs of nations throughout the world differ greatly from one another. When a fictional young women named Uma left America and traveled to India for a family member’s wedding, she discovered these differing customs first hand of America versus India. As she spent time exploring India, she learned more about her true roots and how they differ from her current life in America. Along the way, she developed strong opinions about the differing values of the Indian people and how they compared to those back at home. The main character, Uma, in the short story “Devadasi” by Rishi Redd, experiences examples of gender roles and cultural norms that are unexpected and seem unfair to her throughout her

The low status of women and girls is due to cultural beliefs and the material cost they represent to their families. Vanaja Dhruvarajan says that there is a belief regarding the nature of men and women: "Men are ritually pure, physically strong, and emotionally mature; women, on the other hand, are ritually pollutable, physically weak, and lack strong willpower" (30). Because of these