Devastation of Sanctity in Cultural Institutions: A Thematic Study of Whelan’s Homeless Bird ABSTRACT The paper makes an attempt to expose the gruesome reality of annihilation of sanctity in cultural institutions such as marriage, education and religion through Gloria Whelan’s novel Homeless Bird. These institutions crush women’s individuality and drive them to a subservient status rather than provide security to them. They intensify sufferings to women instead of ensuring happiness to them. Whelan represents women’s predicament as a widow through the character Koly. Koly, being a girl, is prevented from getting educated and has been given to a sick boy in the name of marriage. After becoming a widow, she undergoes many misfortunes which indeed hinder her empowerment. Whelan, the American writer who has been inspired to write an Indian story, recommends remarriage and education for women like Koly who have lost their husbands at a very early age. Keywords: Marriage, Education, Religion, Child Marriage, Dowry, Widowhood, Remarriage …show more content…
Gloria Whelan, an American author has made out a case for emancipation of women, who they think are subjected to all sorts of invidious discriminations. Even though people have accepted modern means of living, improved our lifestyle, Indian values and beliefs still remain unchanged. Gloria Whelan’s Homeless Bird has therefore become a sociological study of the Indian women for whom Women Liberation Movement is still a far cry, as they hold a mirror up to the social and cultural institutions like marriage, education, religion that crush their individuality and drive them to a subservient status. These institutions, instead of ensuring the happiness of individuals, intensify their suffering. In these institutions, it is the victim who suffers while the victimiser walks away with
You are lucky, Little Bird, for you have wings. But you must learn to master them. Look at the baron’s hawk there on her perch. Just because she doesn’t flap her wings all the time doesn’t mean she can’t fly. ”(Cushman 83).
Dorothy Allison’s purpose in Panacea is to show that insignificant items like food can mean much more than a meal to some people. According to Allison, food can trigger thoughts and emotions in people. She goes about showing this by using imagery and a pathos approach to emotionally link thoughts to food. In the real world, this idea may be seen in a man whose reminiscence of his passed away grandfather is triggered by eating a particular flavor of ice cream.
Humans themselves enacted the most infamous eradication of human life in the history of man. One race has always viewed itself as being the supreme breed. Dehumanization is defined as “[the] failure to attribute feelings or qualities of mind to humans” (Yang, Jin, He, Fan, & Zhu, 2015). By dehumanizing all others, people justify their actions in saying that these things are not human, therefore, they do not feel and think in the same manner. Nazi Germany used this tactic to eradicate the Jews from their country and justify immoral scientific experimentation.
They tend to seek help in their campus administrators and they do not provide resources, support that will help the victims, instead, they ask blaming questions. The administrator is more interested in what the victim was wearing and how drunk they were. Victim blaming is when a victim of a crime is held responsible or blamed for the harm being committed. These victims are quickly blamed for their offender's actions and live in fear of running into their offender again on campus. Approximately about 88% of women do not report; victim blaming has caused a silent effect in which women are embarrassed by reporting.
Many people have different cultures that can result in having many cultural conflicts. In the book Homeless Bird, by Gloria Whelan, the protagonist Koly has many conflicts due to her culture. Some of Koly’s conflicts are that she did not know if she would like her husband, and her Sass left her in the city. The first conflict that I noticed was that Koly did not know if she would like her husband.
There is a sharp contrast between shame and self-acceptance. One must psychologically determine which they will let dictate their actions. Shame tends to impede one’s own progression of this self-acceptance. This is an apparent feature in Dorothy Allison’s “Trash”, as she navigates between the two interchangeably by giving the reader a taste of her personal life. In this autobiography she allows the reader to delve into the personal and dark times in her life.
In India it had come to conclusion that 47% of the girls are married before they turn 18. The author Gloria Whelan is trying to raise awareness and show what really goes on in a situation as a child bride in the book Homeless Bird. Koly represents thousands of young girls in India who are subjected to difficult lives as child brides because she is poor, and therefore, an easy target for exploitation, Yet, despite almost impossible odds, she fights hard I win her independence. Poverty was a real challenge for Koly and all children suffering being a child bride.
Throughout the novel, The Kite Runner, Hosseini was able to provide various ways in which cruelty had been exposed to each character. Cruelty can cause betrayal which later on creates guilt for many and satisfaction for others. Assef, a perpetrator, proved that it is possible to be cruel from childhood to adulthood. As well as Amir, a victim who had proved that it is possible to be cruel from childhood but transformed into a loyal and compassionate person throughout adulthood. Most children don’t really understand what cruelty is, the reason being is because they don’t know what they’re doing until they become old enough to realize it.
Koly in Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan reminds me of Matilda in Matilda by Rhold Dahl because they both insist on learning and reading even though their families are against it. In Matilda, her family is against her learning because they are all more interested in money, food, and TV. Therefore, Matilda was unhappy with her life, so she chose to live with Mrs. Honey because she treasured education just as much as Matilda. On the other hand, Koly’s family is against her getting an education because of cultural reasons. Using what I know, I predict that Koly will become forlorn with her new life and husband, which will lead to her running away from home to get an education.
Gloria Bird VS Sherman Alexie Gloria Bird’s Turtle Lake and Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” are two stories written by Native American authors. When reading these two stories, one would not make any type of connection between them. Both are unique in their own way, but if he or she looks a little closer the similarities and differences become clear. To begin, both of the stories are distinct in their own way.
Birds... They’re part of nature and are seen everyday. People watch them, study them, and love the beauty of a their songs. But what if the numbers grew greater? Then what if the songs they sang turned into violent screams of terror?
Both Kalyani and Shripati are forced into a loveless marriage by her. It is a clear dig at the conservative society where marriage and son are the only things that matter. Through the portrayal of the second generation pair, Kalyani and Shripati, Deshpande depicts the predicament of women who are confined in the framework of traditional marriage and lead a life of self-denial and suffering. Kalyani’s life is an example of forced incompatible arranged marriage in which a woman has to suffer endlessly. Even if marriage fails in giving happiness of any kind to woman, it is preferred because it gives a security and a sense of dignity to woman in society.
Government Arts College for Women, Thanjavur. Abstract: Identity crisis or search of identity has received an impetus in the Post-Colonial literature. Man is known as a social animal which needs some home, love of parents and friends and relatives. But when he is unhoused, he loses the sense of belongingness and thus suffers from a sense of insecurity or identity crisis. In the field of Indian English Literature, feminist or woman centered approach is the major development that deals with the experience and situation of women from the feminist consciousness.
The disadvantage of this approach is the fact that it does not focus on the victim instead it justifies the offender’s actions by regarding them as patients and victims of dysfunctional societies Restitution
Do you think Odessa is the Caged Bird or do you think Miriam is the caged bird due to men telling them what to do? In the “ Long Walk Home” Odessa and Miriam are women but Odessa is a woman of a color. Miriam’s husband is a racist he and his brother. They don’t want MIriam becoming one of them or helping them. During the bus boycott Miriam picks up Odessa every other day.