Clear Light Of Day Feminist Analysis

Feminist portrayal In Anita Desai’s Clear light of Day

Anita Desai was born on 24th June1937 in Mossoorie, India to a German mother and a Bengali father. Her first book, Cry, The Peacock was published in England in 1963, and her better known novels include In Custody (1984) and Baumgartner's Bombay (1988). She is considered as the writer who introduced the psychological novel in the tradition of Virginia Woolf to India. She is acknowledged for holding a pioneer status of writing on feminist issues (Ostberg, 2000). According to V.Singh and D,Singh, feminism is the ideology of women’s liberation in all its approaches as a woman who recognizes herself and is recognized by others as feminist(2012). Desai touches on feminist issues in her novels and predominately the protagonists in her novels are women.

Clear Light of Day (1980) is a portrait of the Das siblings and their shifting, changing relationships. The novel opens with Tara, the youngest sister’s visit to her childhood home located in the suburbs of old Delhi. Tara gets married and escapes during the country’s partition. Her relationship with her older sister, Bimla, is strained and tensed. Bim is an ambitious, though dissatisfied, college professor who stays behind to look after their mentally handicapped brother, Baba. Raja, their successful older brother, marries into a rich family and leads a glamorous life in Hyderbad (Kinna, 2011). In this assignment I intend to write on the feminist portrayal in Anita Desai’s novel Clear Light and Day and I will be focusing on the two major female characters, Bimla and Tara.

Desai has added a new dimension to Indian fiction in English. Desai is known for shifting the emphasis from the external to the internal world in her wittings. A...

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...omes out as a strong female character that possesses masculine traits such as calmness in the times of crisis, tolerant, emotionally strong and unwavering nature. She is the pillar who supports the family in the times of difficulties. She takes up the responsibilities of the elder in the family. She works and runs the family with her salary. She nurses her ill brother Baba and cares for her old aunt Mira. She takes up the role of a man in the family. In a nut shell, Bim is a strong female character who successfully stands out in a male dominated society. Tara, initially known for her timidity and submissive nature takes a giant leap by marrying Bakul and escaping the family bondages. After her marriage Tara becomes a new individual who perceives herself as a strong assertive respectable woman. Anita Desai portrays Bim and Tara as two strong characters in the novel