What Is The Theme Of Silence In Post-Colonial Literature

In the short story “Two Kinds”, Amy Tan uses the narrator’s point of view to share a mother's attempt to control her daughter's dreams and ambitions. Tan`s short story is an example of how differing personalities cause struggles between a parent and child. Children often fall victim to a parent trying too hard or expectations being too high, and in the case of "Two Kinds," we see Jing Mei’s mother trying to live her life through that of Jing Mei. The outcome of her mother’s actions soon leads the narrator into feeling tension within herself, and between herself and her mother.

When one reads Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s “The Interview”, it is very clear how gender roles are predominate within the family that is portrayed. Using this family as an extension to represent all of India, Jhabvala gives us some insight into the daily lives led over there. The story is told through the eyes of an upper-class man who is completely dependent upon his family, specifically his brother and the women in the house. This essay will examine the male and female roles that are presented in this short story, how they parallel each other, and the deeper meanings hidden within the text.

Anita Nair’s “Ladies Coupe” has narratives by six women characters who by chance meet in a train ladies coupe that Akhilandeswari alias Akhila boards in. all the women speak of the repressive forces of a patriarchal India. Though they are from different community or cultural, all women share pain in different means. The novel is a ‘bildungsroman’ either narrating the childhood to adulthood life or the characters liberation by developing confidence to shun the web of patriarchal metaphors.

An analogy has been drawn about how she was in the past and how is she now. She was a carefree person, demanding love in her life, wanting to take care of her children and become a house wife and now she works as a schoolteacher, has become a responsible person concerned about her husband and child, struggling for her son’s life, bearing tantrums of her sister-in-law and living in a small house in a small city. On the other hand, Komal, sister-in-law of Anjali is a character shown who seems to be frustrated from her life from the time she has lost her husband. The book has depicted another face of an Indian woman, who lives her entire life following the customs that the society has decided for a widow. Anjali tried to make her first marriage successful by taking care of small things like making her husband, his favorite cardamom chai and best of meals while Prakash’s second wife Indu was never concerned about any of his likings and gave priority to her own personal

On the day of wedding her name was changed from Jaya to “Suhasini”. Two contrary characteristics Jaya means victory and Suhasini means soft and smiling. Again Jaya is at the verge of remaining in silence without raising her voice. She adopted the strategy that silence and surrender should be the main trait of an Indian woman. The tips given by Vanitamami for a good wife became a foundation of Jaya’s silence married life. She accepted Mohan as a sheltering tree and satisfied with her role as Sita and even she compare herself with Gandhari. Silence becomes a symbol of patience and endurance. Her Ajji taught her to wait, the waiting game.

The narrator, a young girl named Nea, starts the story in the middle of action. She told that she stabbed a man with knife at eleven years old in order to release her older sister, Sourdi, from the man. “I charged and stabbed the man in the sleeve” (9). This situation is not only a introduction of this story to the readers, but the further explanation of the events explains each of the characters involved in this story. The main character of this story is Ma, who willing to sacrifice Sourdi’s happiness in order to please the man in the society. Next, Sourdi is another main character in this story. She has beautiful face that attracted the attention from admirers throughout this story. Then, Nea is also main character in this story. She is impulsive young girl who reacts in rash to protect her sister from the men that can threaten their relationship.

First, this novel showcases acts of caring for family and friends, during a rough time for all the Indians bringing them closer into one community. The protagonist Sabine displays acts of caring among her friends and family. For instance, near the end of the novel, Sabine helps her mother’s friend, Lalita, despite having a sour relationship with her. Sabine saves Lalita from being arrested by lying to a military officer, thus making Sabine a more confident and brave person. Sabine faces her fear of the military and gains the power she

Finally, Jayanti’s first exposure to the world outside her Aunt’s house and the events that lead after, changes who she really is,

Inadequate communication between two individuals can result to impromptu complexity that can generate further problems buried within the relationship. Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “Hills Like White Elephants”, depicts an American man and women undergoing a vivid and sensible conversation whilst waiting for a train to Barcelona. The prominent theme throughout this anecdote is the problem of communication that can be illustrated via the elements of realism and metaphor. This is evident from beginning to end through Hemingway’s choice of language and structure that inhibits complication, conflict and miscommunication between the two unnamed characters. Communication is a fundamental issue that can be related to the diverse gender relations,

After analyzing the novel “Sold” and discussing for the first novel study, some topics exhibited were the unfair treatment of Lakshmi and women in general, how poverty and the environment severely affect people’s lives, and also how unfortunate many people’s lives are. Furthermore, a significant key point that is continuously expressed throughout the book is how men and society would treat and perceive women differently, and how men held a higher form of power and status because of their gender. Throughout the book, we see the complicated relationship between Ama, Lakshmi, and the stepfather. To further explain, a question from the discussion, asked by Alessia “Do you think Lakshmi’s stepfather will stop gambling and change his ways?” A further

Jayanthi subconsciously decided to follow the “bad girl” attitude because she wanted to control her own personal identity and not have it control herself. Specifically, she said “I’m liberating myself…I’ve been repressed for so long and I’m just going to let it out, I don’t care” (Bell, 34). Her identity would be created because she would feel that as Leslie Bell’s explained “…could feel herself to be different from these stereotypes” (Bell, 35). This demonstrates how Jayanthi created her personality as a rebel and went against her culture to form her own identity. Going against one’s culture is splitting in that it splits someones upbringing and a definition of who they are supposed to be by set by their families rules versus as an adult, what they get to decide as an individual. This split in her personality manifested depending on how she feels. Meaning, she could go from following her parents’ advice to vice versa depending upon her emotional status. Specifically, when she got confused, she would say “I need to settle down. I need to find a partner and I’m not seeing anybody now, so I better do it my parents’ way…” (Bell, 33). So depending on her emotional state that decided what type of personality, she had so when she felt like she didn’t have an identity, she acted as the “bad girl” in order to have that identity

The novel Siddhartha written by Hermann Hesse is a philosophical novel that explores the journey of life and to enlightenment. This is done through the narration of the life of a young boy – the eponymous Siddhartha by a third-person omniscient narrator. My goal in this essay is to explore the role of the most important female character in Siddhartha, Kamala.

The chief attraction for Virgil is of Jaya because she is the only person in that house capable of procreation and genuine emotion. There is a passing reference to a seer’s prediction that she would never become a mother. As prophecies are often equivocal, the curse on Jaya may be in fact indicative of her husband’s impotence. The illicit relationship with her brother-in-law must be seen as the manifestation of her irrepressible yearning to become a mother. Though her mother-in-law always finds fault with her sexual transgressions, she is the only character in the play who is true to herself. She desperately protests against the encroachment of colonial coercion and urban mechanization that enter in the form of the Guards and Agents. Her thirst for motherhood remains unquenched by the sham finger-play of her pitying brother-in-law. She is the only person who stands her ground in spite of the devious argumentations and warnings of Virgil. And she alone is fully conscious of the present condition: “It is not really a life any more. We’re just spare parts in someone else’s garage –” (34T).

Spivak‟s essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” became a real voice of some women. Spivak differentiates between "speak" and "talk" and show how women of the third world may talk but speaking is more active in which two people try to communicate things face to face.

The two heroines share a harsh background; they both have had a rough childhood and are searching for a way out of their misery. Their lives are centered around the strategies that contribute to their rise. When writing this essay I was mainly interested in exploring how even the characters with smaller roles could affect the outcome, could shape the path the heroines followed towards their rise, but also wanted to analyze all the aspects through characters contributed to the liberation of the heroines.