Oppression Of WomenIn An Indian Society
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The oppression of women has been a controversial subject for centuries. The belief that women are inferior to men has wrongly deprived women of the rights they are entitled to as human beings. One would expect in this day and age that this problem of male dominancy should cease to exist, but unfortunately it still seems to be alarmingly present in many third world countries. In the two novels The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy and Tamarind Mem by Anita Rau Badami, the authors depict the lives of women who have been greatly distressed as a result of their Indian culture and beliefs that discriminate against women and recognize them as unintelligent and incompetent beings of less importance. Through the stories of their lives, the authors show the great effect this inhibiting factor has played in shaping their destinies and as the fundamental cause of their oppression.
The lives of four women are carefully unravelled to the reader in the two novels. Tamarind Mem tells the story of Kamini and her mother Saroja and The God of Small Things of Rachel and her mother Ammu. Using the perspective of both child and mother, the authors are able to reveal the oppression that consumes the mature and the young by illustrating their rebellion towards society to escape the domination.
Ammu's life shows great pain suffering at mercy of her relatives whose acceptance of cultural beliefs sadly eclipsed filial affection. As a child, she is introduced into a world in which men have power and women are secretly bitter...