Novel Review: Two Virgins
Kamala Markandaya
By: Erick Granda-Ocampo
1. Title:
Two Virgins-The title is a representation of the pureness, and honesty a women should have. Also the two protagonists who stick side by side.
2. Author:
Kamala Markandaya (1924-2004)
Cultural Fiction Writer- Writes from the eyes of several different lifestyles in India and the daily struggles that come with living in India
Born and raised in small town, Chimakuti, India. Where she learned the Hindu traditions and culture.
Novels show the lives women live while living in India, and also how social class change does to a person.
Two Virgins(1955) is the sequel to her first book, and has received several recognitions due to her work.
3. Major Events:
No village name, but in a small rural village with houses made out of mud.
Shavani is a bride at the age of eleven, who at first could not bear a child after her first daughter.
Goes to a white healer for help, then bears three healthy sons, later her daughter had the same problem, but her husband does not wait and leaves her.
Soon foreign workers come and build a building then just leave, only to return months later to build several more, and give employment to the village’s men.
The village soon turns into a noisy town, making Shavani upset.
Soon the two sons leave to go work, leaving Shavani with Ravi and their daughter.
The daughter becomes pregnant while trying make some money as a prostitute.
Ravi becomes very ill, and Shavani gets a job that helps support her family, but after receiving her paycheck, she finds Ravi face down on the mud.
4. (a) Major Characters:
Shavani- Shavani is the protagonist and narrator; we watch her mature from a nervous, young bride of eleven to...
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...ave her was a curse, instead of a blessing.
9. Literary Merit and Opinion:
This piece’s literary merit is based partially on its historical significance. The novel had evidence of both selflessness and caring worldviews. this serves as one of the first examples of Shavani’s “care for others .” Any reader would find the language and plot challenging at times, but the representation of caring, judgment, and hardship are will always apply to the world, regardless of the time or place. In the beginning struggled with the language and the plot, but as the problems and rough patches appeared, so did my interest in the book. The ending was very shocking. Shavani’s daughter turns out pregnant from being a prostitute, and then she is forced to live with her parents in shame and disappointment.
10. Markandaya Kamala. Two Virgins. New York:Penguin Group, 1956
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Ramamoorthy, P. “My Life is My Own: A Study of Shashi Deshpande’s Women” Feminism and Recent Fiction in English Ed. Sushila Singh. New Delhi: Prestige, 1991.
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