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- Title
Desires and Conflicts in Female Bonding in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Novels: Sister of My Heart and Vine of Desire.
- Authors
Nagajothi, K.
- Abstract
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, an avowedly feminist writer of the Indian diaspora in the US, excels in probing the unplumbed depths of women's sensibility. Sister of My Heart examines the emotional bond and the tension between the desires, which the women characters, Anju and Sudha go through in the process of their growth. Despite their closeness, they have different personalities and approaches to life. Sudha discovers a dark secret about her father's betrayal from her aunt Pishi and suffers from a guilt complex which tests her relationship with Anju. She even sacrifices her love for Ashok in order to prevent her cousin's match in a traditional family from breaking up and renounces herself to an arranged marriage. Marriage entails not only their first separation but also their first rivalry with each other, a rivalry not of material possessions but of heart. Cracks appear in their relationship as Anju goes to America and Sudha enters a loveless partnership in India. The pregnancies of both women bring increased pain and a new relationship between them. The Vine of Desire is a sequel to Sister of My Heart. Anju and Sudha reunite after a year of living separate lives. At first, the women are overjoyed to see one another and their bond seem strong enough to suggest that each woman's unselfish goal is possible. Anju's startling realization of her husband Sunil's passionate obsession with Sudha shatters any illusion and causes a seemingly irreparable rift between them. Tormented respectively by guilt and bitter jealousy, Sudha and Anju individually grapple with both their inner pain and the outside pressures of frenetic, impersonal city life in America as they journey towards independence. Thus, the creator and her creation face up to standards laid down, boldly and create new spaces and voices for themselves.
- Subjects
FEMALE friendship in literature; DIVAKARUNI, Chitra Banerjee, 1956-; SISTER of My Heart (Book); VINE of Desire, The (Book); INDIAN American women; FEMINIST authors
- Publication
Language in India, 2015, Vol 15, Issue 1, p128
- ISSN
1930-2940
- Publication type
Article