Cultural Conflicts in the Select Novels Shobha De
Cultural Conflicts in the Select Novels Shobha De
K. PANCHATCHARAM
Ph. D Full time Research Scholar
P.G.
Dept. and Research Centre in English,
Alagappa
Govt. Arts College,
Karaikudi-3
Shobha De, an eminent modern novelists
and journalists, becomes the symbol of highlighting different perspectives of
woman's freedom and liberation. She conceives the extra-marital affairs of
women as the stroke to break the traditional and moral values in society. This
is one of the most important aspects of her feminism. Her women are daring and
courageous in establishing extra-marital affairs to satisfy their natural urge.
These women are not hesitant in using sex as calculated strategy to get social
and financial benefit. Marriage for them is an insurance against social values.
For instance in her novel Socialite
Evenings, Karuna is such a woman who declines to follow the
traditional path. She suggests through her women characters in Starry Nights that, whenever
women, whether circumstantially or ambitiously, flout morality in the name of
their struggle for success in life, they cannot escape disaster and consequent
suffering. And in her novel Strange Obsession,
Shobha De is rejecting and deconstructing man-made images of women and an
alternative female identity is created where a woman sometimes take the role of
man and another takes the role of a ‘free woman’. One might say that gender
identities cannot be changed or exchanged at will. But Shobha De’s women
characters are very good specimens which openly establish that reversal of
roles are indeed possible for women in the present day society.
Women it seemed for the first time
could have control over their lives. The scene was changing even in Bombay.
Women work, women married, women divorced and women remained single (De, SE: 65).
Soon she realized that her marriage was a failure because of her
choice of a wrong person who was “unexciting, untutored” (De, SE: 65).
Men have always exercised enormous power over women through controlling their
sexuality and reproduction. In traditional societies, women had no rights to
take decision on mothering. De’s heroine soars above the patriarchal limits by venturing
rights upon her sexuality as Karuna herself admit the naiveté of the husband
and the denuded anger that made the wives miserable. However, her reproductive
freedom had not made her happy. Realizing her status as a dependent doll,
Karuna, at one time, felt humiliated and considered that she wasn’t ‘wife
material’. So she opted out for her own way. Karuna’s freaking out with Krish
and her pregnancy in the aftermath had brought her dilemma to an end. Her
decision to remain single after abortion opened up new vistas to her life. Though
the inborn motherhood in her confounded her before abortion, her desire to get
relieved from all roots of women’s oppression succeeded at last. She was not
taken back when her mother threatened her with her biological changes in the
features of an unmothered woman:
You
will get a beard by the time you reach forty. And then you will regret your decision
(De,
SE: 106).
Karuna’s reply to her mother that electrolysis was cheaper than
children was an indication of her firm faith in liberation. Comparing her own
predicament with that of her sister, Karuna envied the freedom of her sister
from an unhappy marriage while her own married life was a play of a witness
little charade matching with the life sentence of her mother as a domesticated
wife. Her sister’s daring step ignited a spark into her. The emotional
conflicts between Karuna and her husband before taking up the decision to remain
single affirm the mutual expectations of a man and a woman from each other. The
little patch of independence after divorce gave Karuna the freedom of action.
To her mother’s insistence on getting married to the right one for a secured
life, she replied that she was at peace with herself minding her business. Her
acceptance of her smugness ended up her conversation with her mother as:
International Journal of English and Education
I don’t feel
like complicating my life by getting into a second marriage. I like and respect
Girish. We share a lot of common interest. But I am not sure I’ll make a good
wife to him.Or he is a good husband to me. Perhaps we are both far too selfish
for marriage. I can’t make any sacrifices – not now (De, SE:276)
Crossing the barriers of patriarchy might have given Karuna the
thrill and happiness of a carefree life. It could have brought Karuna on par
with men but her stand does not provide any solution to a woman’s
responsibility as a biological reproducer. Karuna might have gained access to
abortion, birth control and employment and had become totally a liberated
individual. She couldn’t but accept that her single status “isn’t the standard
attitude”. (De, SE: 305) Different feminist theories give varied reasons
as the roots of women’s oppression. Through Karuna, De presents the picture of
an emancipated heroine whose financial independence gives way to social
independence and sexual freedom.
Next, Shobha De’s Starry Nights, the most controversial
novel, is the story of the struggle and survival of a woman in a sex-starved
society. It focused on women’s struggle for recognition and survival and made
them realize that the time has come when they should stop suffering silently in
helplessness. As a feminine novelist and journalist, she has marvelous
understanding of the psyche of women and therefore, she explores the world of
especially urban woman with all its overwhelming problems and challenges in her
novel Starry Nights. In the novel Starry Nights, mainly three women characters,
Geetha Devi, Malini, Aasha Rani, and Sudha’s sufferings have been depicted with
marvelous realism. All these women struggle for their inordinate ambitions with
all their strength in male dominated society. In their efforts to assert themselves,
sometimes they turn the applecart of pharisaical patriarchal order upside down.
They retaliate, revolt and shape their destiny by living for themselves. As
Shobha De’s women don’t believe in suffering submissively, they leave no stone
unturned to reach the peak of joy and success. Struggling hard with hardships,
facing exploitation and defeat at different steps, sometimes with tear-filled
eyes while at other times like a tigress, they challenge the society to turn
the tide in their favour. Brimming with hope and zeal, they lay hands on hope
in starry nights of their life. Their crusade against slavery, oppression and
exploitation is alarming. With powerful strokes of her narrative technique,
Shobha De suggests in Starry Nights that consciously or unconsciously
women have always fought for their identity but in modern times the mode of
struggle has changed. Women break all the barriers to assert themselves but
they still demand that what they have always desired, i.e., protection, love,
care, compassion and understanding. Their journey no doubt is arduous but their
indomitable will and undefeatable spirit compels them to carry on their
struggle.
Starry Nights took the
literary world by storm for its frank portrayal of sex and sexploitation.
Glittering world of Bombay cinema beckons many young girls, bubbling with ambition
and lust for power and self. Before they achieve their goal, they have to pass
through the dark tunnels of
sexploitation and never ending sufferings, which result in loneliness, frustration
and disaster. Shobha De realistically articulates the experience of the
protagonist of the novel, Aasha Rani and other women characters like Geetha
Devi, Sudha, Malini and Rita as manifestation of oppression in the chauvinistic
society; they suffer in their lives at the hands of men in one-way or the
other. First of all, Geetha Devi, mother of Aasha Rani, has suffered a lot as
she was abandoned by her husband to fight with poverty and deprivation with
three girls to rise. She had even to prostitute to continue dance lessons for
Aasha Rani as well as to support the family.
Next the novel beautifully provides Akshay’s wife Malini, who when
cheated by her husband, came out of their homes, cry out loud and sack related
women to win back her lost husbands at any cost. Malini’s marriage, supposed to
provide her with love, care and understanding, is a fiasco as it works only
through sex. Akshay needs sex and also wants variety, therefore loses interest
in Malini who can’t fulfill his demands. Through Malini and others, the novelist
seems to suggest that mostly actors in Film industry are unfaithful in their
family life and therefore their wives have the stories of sadism, mental and
physical cruelty and humiliation to tell. Wives are generally treated as
commodities. Thirdly, Sudha , Aasha Rani’s younger sister, is different from
Aasha Rani in the sense that she is very selfish. As she has no pricking
conscience, she can stoop to any depth to axe her own grid. Once she becomes a
star, she hardly cares hysterical mother and thinks about her family. She never
bothers about heel chair Appa. But she also meets a horrifying disaster due to her
inordinate ambition. She had borrowed heavily to launch a film for herself and
Amar. Out of greed, she manipulated the accounts and reaped tragedy for
herself. Her murder was attempted by setting fire on the road where she could
be somehow saved to be admitted in the hospital with sixty percent burns. She
realizes her mistake at last and confesses:
God has punished me. It is nothing else
but that I deserve it. I have been evil. I have
sinned. I have done so much harm. Just
let me dive (De, SN: 232)
Finally, Aasha Rani, the protagonist of Starry Nights is a
suffering soul since her childhood. The very birth of Aasha Rani was a bitter
agony. In her childhood, deprived of parental love, protection, closeness and
emotional security, Aasha Rani had to face starvation and poverty. Owing to the
lack of fatherly protection, she underwent traumatic experiences at the hands
of her uncle. But she was most mercilessly used by her own mother, who instead
of acting as her savior, furher pushed her into hell to support her family. The
girl, who didn’t want to kill her conscience to break the barriers of morality,
was forcibly made a money making machine in her youth. Tears roll down the
cheeks of Aasha Rani, when she leaves for Bombay. Like a caged bird, she is
forced to perform in porno session. If ever she resisted, her mother cruelly
struck her.International
Journal of English and Education
Before porno session, she helplessly cries, protests and
repeatedly requests amma to save her life. The moments still stand afresh in
her memory. Amma please don’t. Iam
sacred. That horrible man. How can I take off my clothes in front of all these
strangers (De, SN: 53) Ironically,
Aasha Rani is first exploited by her own mother who opens for her gate to hell.
Aasha Rani realizes that the world she had stepped in was very cruel. To sign
for big banners with top most heroes, was possible only if she readied herself
to be used. Ultimately Aasha Rani becomes a perfect film star to enjoy the
blaze of flash bulbs. But she never forgets the shallowness and meaninglessness
of her life, devoid of real joy and contentment. Her aversion for people grows
with each experience in the film industry. Aasha Rani’s marriage proves that it
cannot guarantee love and security to a woman because women are more sensitive,
sentimental, and possessive as well as demanding. At every step of her life,
Aasha Rani falls a victim to the nefarious designs of men as she thinks:
Whichever way one looked at it, there
was a man in the picture. A man using, abusing
and finally discarding a woman (De, SN: 157).
However, Aasha Rani does not display a new sensibility to enable
her to protest against male chauvinism. Grilled in the mill of sexploitation,
she lets herself be crushed in the multiple sex encounters. In Starry Nights,
Shobha De articulates bitter realities of the life of women like Geetha Rani,
Malini, Sudha and Aasha Rani through varied facets of feminism in keeping with contemporary
feminist critical theories. With the advent of feminism, each and every female
oriented subject has become an issue of contemporary literary debate. Earlier
the concept of woman was centered on the stereotyped images of maternal caring
and emotions. Now it has been proved that this is not the whole truth.There is
the other side of the picture too, in which she has been projected as murderer,
criminal, etc. Shobha De’s novel Strange Obsession is a strong case
where we have specimens of a woman who is the victimizer and another who is the
victim. In Strange Obsession, Amrita, the heroine of the novel, aspires
to be a supermodel. In order to fulfill her dreaming aspiration she decides to
shift from Delhi to Bombay. In the beginning of the novel, Amrita has been
projected as an ambitious girl completely governed by her reality principle of
the instinct. She aspires to be the subject. On the other hand, Amrita is
oppressed by the rule of Minx, a woman who refashions herself in the novel and
presented as a materialistic, lusty and liberated figure. It is ironic that Amrita,
the responsible young lady becomes a mere tool in the hands of Minx almost
throughout the novel. Initially she was one who believed that she was a
supermodel who would be able to beat anyone in the field. She took pride in her
beauty and was almost crazy about her dress. She was an attractive, ambitious
and glamorous model who was lucky and blessed. She was centre ofattraction even
when she was very young. Her meeting with Minx turned out to be a turning point in her life. In the earlier stages,
Amrita used every opportunity to show her disgust at Minx when she began to
chase Amrita like a bloodhound No
matter what tricks you try, you’ii never be able to fool me. I hate you …..Did
you hear that? Hate you! Hate you! Hate you!
Amrita had repeatedly tried to make clear her position that women
having love affairs with women were something unusual and abnormal. But Minx
was never in a mood to listen to her whenever she tried to “sermonize”. Minx
tried to get Amrita’s sympathy by concocting incredible stories as to how she
was ill-treated even by her father in the most unbelievable way. Minx continued
to harass her and she laid a trap from which she was never going to escape. Under
the influence of libidinal instinct Minx forces Amrita to develop a strange
relationship with her which turns Amrita’s life into nightmarish. Her
unwelcomed relationship with Minx turns her into no sex. She neither gets both
the name and the fame of the first sex nor does she remain the second sex. She
ends into nothing. Her psyche is in control of a lesbian who appearsto be more
tyrannical than a man. Minx has changed Amrita’s life completely. She is
completely frustrated and wants to leave her ambition and go back to her place.
Amrita’s attitude has finally laid the foundation of their
friction. She does not get emotional satisfaction. She always feels guilty of
this hollow relationship. She wants to overcome of this situation. She dreams
of a male who will perform the role of savior. Whenever she gets a chance to
meet a male she starts assuming that she would very soon be out of all
thiskinky game of Minx. Now the subjective instinct of Amrita’s character
appears to be taking a turn into objective instinct. She fails to overcome of
common feminine attitude which desires nothing but a male. Ultimately Amrita’s
parents decide to take her out of this situation by arranging her marriage with
Rakesh. When Amrita leaves Minx finally, Minx fails to adjust withthe
circumstances. Her obsession towards Amrita turns her into psychoneurotic.
Shobha De describes her pathetic condition. “Minx resembled a ghost: her hair disheveled, her clothes grubby and
torn, her expression ravaged her words crazed. She ‘d lost not less than ten
kilos and her slim figure looked wasted skeleton, I can’t live without her” she
said and collapsed on her door step”. Minx fails to achieve anything in
the world and her mysterious story ends with her death under unknown tragic
circumstances. Her obsession towards Amrita has made her sinner which is
redeemed only with her death. In the struggle between the first and the second
sex, Amrita fails to revive her identity as a woman. She appears to be self
defeating psyche because she fails to preserve the value of her own identity
and behaviour.
REFERENCES
1. De, Shobha. Socialite
Evenings (New Delhi: Penguine Books, 1989)
2. De, Shobha. Starry
Nights (New Delhi: Penguine Books, 1992)
3. De, Shobha. Strange
Obsession (New Delhi: Penguine Books, 1992)
4. Dodiya, Jaydipsinh. The
Fiction of Shobha De: Critical Studies. New Delhi: Prestige
Books, 2000
5. Prasad, Amar Nath. Indian
Women Novelists in English. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers
and Distributors, 20011
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