Nectar In A Sieve

In Kamala Markandaya’s novel, Nectar in a Sieve, the woman of great courage, Rukmani, is forced onto the commencement of a fast changing India caused by an increase in economic activity, urbanization and centralization of power. Rukmani resists and then is forced to conform to changes in her environment. Unlike those around her who threw their past away with both hands that they “might be the readier to grasp the present,” Rukmani “stood by in pain, envying such easy reconciliation” (Markandaya 29). Markandaya writes about Rukmani’s attempt to recover the aspects of her rural life that she cares most about, revealing her adoration for a traditional rural life and her belief that all women enjoy amicable, personal relationships with their outer

However, like those who follow all other critical theories, feminist critics have multiple different opinions on all of the issues their specific criticism study’s. In fact, some feminists call their field “feminisms” in order to emphasize the variety of points of view of those who follow and offer ways of thinking that challenge the accustomed tendency to believe there is a single point of view that is ruled over all. Many of those new to the study of feminist theory, both genders, have decided, before being willing to open up to multiple points of view, that they “are not feminists because they don’t share whatever feminist point of view they have found the most objectionable” (Tyson 83). Feminists have observed the belief that men are superior to women being used, in order to “justify and maintain the male monopoly of positions of economic, political, and social power.” Or, to keep it simple, to strip women of their power by denying them the educational and occupational opportunities of obtaining economic, political, and social power. That is, “the inferior position long occupied by women in patriarchal society has been culturally, not biologically, produced” (Tyson

Being so young and married at twelve, Rukmani experiences her own development (physical, emotional, sexual and psychological) through her work in the garden and the growth of her vegetables. Planting pumpkins for her first time is a moving process for her. In the passage describing the pumpkins, the most shocking part was not the satisfaction with herself or pride she feels, but the pleasure that the growth brings out of her. “Pumpkins began to form, which, fattening on soil and sun and water, swelled daily larger and larger and ripened to yellow and red, until at last they were ready to eat, and I cut one and took it in. When Nathan saw it he was full of admiration... “One would have thought you had never seen a pumpkin before,” I said, though pleased with him and myself, keeping my eyes down. “Not from our land,” said Nathan. “Therefore it is precious, and you, Ruku, are indeed a clever woman.” I tried not to show my pride. I tried to be offhand. I put the pumpkin away. But pleasure was making my pulse beat; the blood, unbidden, came hot and surging to my face” (Markandaya 10). Markandaya describes Rukmani’s pleasure in such an upfront and open way. The use of symbolism through nature does not convey sex as natural, it conveys relationships of pleasure/connectedness. This suggests the idea that the fertility of nature is linked to the maturation Rukmani experiences sexually.. This