Perspective : Gender Bifurcation
Van Dijk says
that “Critical discourse analysis (CDA)
is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way
social power abuse, dominance and inequality are enacted,
reproduced, and
resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. With
such dissident
research, critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus
wants to understand,
expose, and ultimately resist social inequality.”
This study will focus on the
gender imbalance prevalent in the world of Anita Desai, South Asia. For this
purpose Anita Desai’s most acclaimed novel
Fasting , Feasting will be
used as the primary source and Van Dijk’s tri-angular model - society, cognition
and discourse will be applied. The primary purpose of CDA is to ensure equality
by addressing the aggresses of the dominant class by using the
medium of text and talk. This study will also use gender dichotomy as the
macrostructure focusing on word choices , presupposition, us and them,
euphemism, voice/voiceless, resistance and no resistance as microstructure of
the discourse.
In Fasting ,Feasting , the intention of the author manifests itself right
from the title itself. It draws an unfelt line between the two classes , groups
or segments liable to exist in her world. One of them is destined to fast
without raving and ranting and the other to relish, savor and feast forever.
This piece of novel is a story of poor and defenseless Uma who finds
it hard to stand against the odds of life. She is made to believe that she needs the help of male members of the
family to enact anything. In other words, she is dependent on males for her survival. The prevalent discourse of
the society depicts her such a dunce that
she is unable to make use of her intellect to perform anything useful. It is
how the discourse takes control of the minds of people and thus hegemonic thinking
becomes part of a social cognition. In this process the voice of the
fair sex is controlled , administered
,monitored and suppressed to achieve ulterior motives. The women in traditional
societies are fed to be mere attendants and always be at the beck and call of
the males. They are supposed to do the domestic chores and rest of domestic
works only. While heroic deeds can only be performed by their male
counterparts. In such societies a decent girl is the one who is meek , docile
,delicate ,submitting, submissive and subservient.
A
family of five members has been
depicted in this novel. These are Papa , Mama , Uma , Aruna and Arun. Through the depiction of this small
family ,the writer has presented the attitude of the entire society towards the
female children in the family. It exposes the psyche of the parents who show bias in their treatment
towards children of different sexes.The mental
make- up of both Papa and Mama can be easily understood in the
following lines “the son of a tax inspector with one burning
ambition to give his son the best available education”(p.4) “Mama said ‘in my day , girls in the family were not
given sweets , nuts , good things to eat .If something special had been bought
in the market , like sweets or nuts , it was given to the boys in the family”(p.4).Thus
both Mama and Papa are the product of a society where us and them binary
between boys and girls is already established.To be always at the back seat,
lined up next to boys and serve them with a little margin of error is the sole
lot of girls in the writer’s region.
Papa remains critical of many
things especialy to the service of female members given to the males in the
house. “His jokes were always directed at others, as they were quite ferocious
under cover of the geniality” (p.5).The “others” here must be the females
around him. The hegemonic belief demands the women to keep on doing things
desired by men and on top of it willingly accept the criticism.
Then the issue of voice is of prime importance in a
conventional society. Females are often silent listeners to the dictations
given to them by their males. In this regard , taboos are often set where the
best line of behaviour on the part of women is to speak less and say ‘yes’ to
whatever is said by the male partners. “If Papa gave his opinion of their local
member of parliament or the chances of government in the next election , Mama
said nothing because he had spoken for her too”(p.7) Thus Mama needs not speak
because it is the natal right of Papa to be her voice . But, the CD
analyst might question this ‘right’ that
who gave him this right to be her voice. This seems to be nothing but
self-concocted notion of the naturally privileged possessed dominant class of males.
It is a society where the birth
of a son is a symble of good fortune . It can make Papa jump and leap ‘over
three chairs’.He can play “leap-frog
like a child in elation while chanting ‘ A boy … oy! Arun at
last!”.(p.9) This society can pay respect to a mother only when she gives birth
to the ‘prince’ of the house-- a boy. As
soon as Arun is born , Mama gets a completely new status and position in the life of Papa. She indeed
has become an inseparable item of Papa’s social life. She is there with Papa to
every function , to every event with her
“chin lifted a little into the air , she looked around her to make sure
everyone saw and noticed.”(p.14) The key question here is that if Papa express the same amount of happiness
at the birth of his daughters. Similarly , why did Mama not acquire the same prestige at the
birth of Uma and Aruna, and what if Arun had not born. The mind of cd analyst
does not acquire peace unless a satisfactory answer is sought for such
questions.
In conventional societies, the
birth of male childern sends the daughters packing far on to the back-burner.
More often than not it brings a horrible change in the life of daughters.
Everything
can be sacrificed at the proper nurturing of the newly born Arun. Arun’s arrival proves to
be catastrophic for Uma because it is here that the unending chain of her agonies
and miseries starts. Immediately after
his birth, her mother tries to teach “ Uma the correct way of folding nappies, of
preparing watered milk , of rocking the
screaming infant to sleep….”(p.9) She is fed up with the stack of nappies that
she must take care of and wants to run away to school or using the pretext of
homework. But she is straight away hit by a shocker from her mother , “We are
not sending you back to school , Uma . You are staying at home to help with
Arun .”(P.9) As if it were Uma’s some
kind of a grave mistake to be the ‘sister’. This sentence of Mama fell upon her
skull like a terrible blue lightening .It was not acceptable to Uma at all ,
for life at home already seemed to be a denial and negation. Now she detested
even the wretched weekends because there she got stuck into the trivialities of
life at home. More so the thought of summer vacations was more than a
nightmare.
At times, we
find Uma resisting the atrocities
against her. Her condition is now worse than the ayah changing nappies, massaging the baby by pouring a little oil
and picking him up for hours has made her sick. She resists it saying “But ayah can do this ayah can do that.”(14) She further stresses that the same ayah attended the two elder sisters so why
cannot she do the same to Arun. Mama rejects her pleading saying it was a different case .Thus ‘proper attention’
is something that Arun was born with
afterall he was the son. Papa’s first question on his arrival used
to be
,how much Arun ate
and the answer must have been ‘fair enough’ or ‘precise’ and ‘pleasing’ .The
birth of Arun has glued Mama and Papa
into a single unified bond.
The cd analyst may put up the query why does
the Papa not ask for the amount of food consumed by the two daughters. In the
same way he may ask what is so special with Arun and not with the two daughters
that the relation between Mama and Papa has so suddenly been cemented . It is,
indeed just because the society condones to such petty notions which are
baseless and out-dated.
Then, presupposition is another mode used to ensure
gender roles in this novel. Uma’s willingness is presupposed even making the
most critical decisions of her life. Her engagement is decided in the
Ghoyal family without asking for her
permission .She cannot say ‘no’ to anything decided by her family. Similarly,
no information is shared with her regarding the rupture of her engagement. Her consent is presupposed even finalizing her marriage to Harish and later on
separation or divorce is done without letting her know anything about it . “The
marriage was somehow cancelled, annulled. Uma was never told of the legal
proceedings involved. It was assumed she would not understand…..”(P.43) In such
cases we find Uma voiceless as her screaming and screeching in such cases makes
no inroads into the diehard stance of her parents towards her.
The cd analyst
may raise an objection to the role of her parents who ought to have sought Uma’s acceptance or refusal about
such decisions beforehand. The parents may also be asked if they could decide
such decisions about the life of Arun who could not even be convinced to decide
against going to America. But then he was a boy and decisions could only be
forced , thrusted and imposed upon the girls who “had learnt not to expect
divergences and discouragements “.(p.7)
Another way of
enactment or ensuring the gender imbalance, used in this novel is through
euphemism or eulogising. When Uma is needed by her parents to be engaged at the
service of Arun , her mother cajoled , coaxed and euphemised Uma to make her
agree to leave the school and stay at home , “You will be happier at home . You won’t need to do lessons .You are a big girl
now . We are trying to arrange a marriage
for you .”(p.11)
Thus , the soft
tone of the mother shows to what level this hegemonic order could stoop to
ensure inequality between their own children . Here the word marriage has been
given as if it were a piece of cack . It has been used by her mother as a bait
for Uma to be convinced to her point of view.Later on , the same marriage
brings her utter fall.
Thus, it remains
a characteristic feature through out this novel that both Mama and Papa were one in giving decisions about the life
of innocent Uma. Whether it was the job offer of Dr. Dutt , Invitation of
Mother Agnes or going out with Ramu for a little recreation, both the parents
stood poles apart from the point of view of Uma . They could afford millions to
send their son, Arun to America as he wished so, but found it hard to spend a
few on the check up of Uma from metropolitan as was prescribed by the local
occulist.
In brief , one
may conclude by saying that the novelist has been successful in exposing the
treacherous treatment metet out to the children of opposite sexes. One learns
the lesson that we better strip of the rusty notions of patriarchy and
re-define our model ensuring equal rights for all, especially females of the
society.
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