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Identity In Shashi Deshpande

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QUEST FOR IDENTITY IN SHASHI DESHPANDE NOVEL
ROOTS AND SHADOWS
M.P.C.V.K.VARA PRASAD
Doctoral Scholar in English
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
A.U. College of Engineering (A)
Andhra University
Visakhapatnam -530 003
Abstract
The paper analyses the novel of Shashi Deshpande in terms of the women protagonists ' search for peace and quest for harmony within and without. This endeavor explores the impediments to harmony in family and society as experienced by the women in Shashi Deshpande 's novel. The women of Shashi Deshpande 's novel indulge in various experiences from passion and emotion finally arriving at a mature understanding of themselves and the world around them.
Identity crisis or search of identity has received a thrust in the Post- Colonial literature. The quest for identity, involves self-definition, which is often central theme of contemporary women’s fiction. This process is both ecological and psychological that breaks upon the path toward female individuation and an understanding of the individual self. Rites of passage are …show more content…

Striking a new environment, Indu marries Jayant, a man of different caste but of her own choice and leaves her parental home. Jayant gives her a feeling of solidity and certainty. Both she and Jayant want to achieve complete happiness, but her marriage with Jayant suppresses her feminity and her human demands. She is physically and spiritually dissatisfied with her husband, who takes her for granted and expects her “to submit’. Her love marriage degenerates into a mere psychological affair and feels that she has abused her body’s sanctity, denial of full experience, satisfaction or happiness. The paradox of the situation is that Indu is not completely happy with Jayant, but at the same time, she cannot live

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