Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Feminist Stories
The Feminist Stories
Chapter - IV
a great crisis. The fuels of the world are not inexhaustible and
It is the attitude of the economic planners and rulers that they can
Das especially towards the end of her literary career has written
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ecofeminism.
in the creation of her stories. The comment made by V.C. Harris and
that both covertly and overtly challenged the male order. Yet
The vibrance and dynamism of Kamala Das helped her to cross the
stage, the ecofeminist aspects Kamala Das are also made manifest.
nature, god, the grass and the grasshopper. The life and
nature. (3)
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Subhadramma, the 81 year old lady who lives all alone in her village
doctor, who is well placed in Kerala. The lonely existence of the old
neighbours. But the old woman has her own explanation for not
going to live together with her son or daughter. She has a daily
with rice, chilly stew, and fried bitter gourd. Then she sleeps
for three hours. In the evening she takes broken rice pudding
enjoys the warmth of the love of the villagers. She says that the
schedule and tranquility of her life will be spoiled if she goes to her
not merely because of her schedule that she stays in her own
house. The son and the daughter have severed themselves from
the organic bonds of the village and they are cherishing a utilitarian
growth in the head, the son doesn’t bother to visit his mother and
the daughter is happy that her brother has sent one thousand
dollars for the expenses of the surgery. She however prays for the
peaceful death of her mother. Even the doctor who performed the
surgery couldn’t believe that the old lady could survive the major
her house and to her routine. She is even now, unwilling to go with
her children. She does love her children. She writes letters twice a
month to her son, though he scarcely writes a reply. She lover her
grand children and also she is happy to learn that they are all well
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placed. The old woman is sustained by her life in her house and in
her village. Even the village diety has a key role in her life. The
diety, Bhagavathy, “is the goddess, of the jungle and the temple is
the story should not be unseen. We cannot merely say that the
nostalgia of the author for the countryside is the only driving force
teacher, Moosa, the grocer, the Brahmin priest, the village itself,
created by the author to show how life can be made ecofreindly and
society should form the soil for the growth of the individual.
cohabitation.
Sudheesh, the famous Malayalam short story writer and critic about
and the background of life in these two stories. Man may not
Sudheesh also doesn’t use the term ecofeminism like O.K. Johnney.
She was an innovator in this field and the new arena opened by her
sacrificial role of woman doesn’t actually fetch her any familial and
for the Child Prostitute’ are there stories which approach prostitution
levels. Padmavati, the poor girl who got the charge of her sister and
brother in her early childhood, who had to bring them up, by selling
middle aged woman goes to the shrine of her Lord, to see him, to
offer herself to him, for she doesn’t have anything else to give him.
Even a packet of fruit that she brought for the Lord was snatched
from her by the loafers near the temple. The Lord recognizes her,
consoler her, and embraces her. The story assumes the shape of a
beautiful fantasy at the end. The unrequitted love from the world is
her brothers and also for saving money for the dowry of her sister.
When two brothers got good jobs and when the sister was married
off, she was forgotten by them. Padmavati recollects her past “I was
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Other Stories 25). This aspect of hatred and rejection, the act of
upon the prostitute and her own body becomes a prison for her.
Those who partake in the sin with the prostitute go entirely scot free.
was quite happy, with his rich and beautiful wife and a smart child.
embracing her. Amala’s words, “Those who come here are all
wolves. They tear me. But when I sleep with you, I think that I am
him.
Amala had become a T.B patient and as Amala said, she had
her the second time. She also confesses that she is unable to
recognize any one’s face. This face of the women marginalized from
But there are not many comments noted about this story. The
merely ‘fancy
in the story, also pregnancy, abortion, death and such bleak realities
The respect for the past, the concept of the continuity of life
for the exploitation of the resources of the earth and enjoyment. The
the heroine takes her husband to her ancestoral house. The house
has been deserted by all and the senior members of the family are
grandma, uncle and all other members of her family. Her husband
was born and brought up in the city and he admits that he doesn’t
have the colourful childhood of his wife in a village. The house itself
flowers was seen in the courtyard of the house and the fragrance of
the flowers is there in the sanctity of rustic life and also in the mind
of the narrator. The writer underlines the need for preserving this
and the details of the reminiscent night spent there, there is not
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much of action going on in the story, the entire progress in the story
also.
and to her lover, after being in the city for over thirty years. She is a
famous writer and she has wealth and fame very much at her
reality for her and also it is symbolic for her diseased and frustrated
her with a worshipful attitude. But as the lady lays bare the pitiable
by rote. Yet the entire life was a performance without grasping the
her husband was also an urban dweller, with all its sophistications.
She now admits that she longed for a life in the village and to follow
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the pattern of life of her family in the village. “Society will have a
conventional style of life set ready for us. Life will be a failure, if we
the city. Life becomes a struggle for the achievement of them. The
village life are effectively contrasted in the story. Also, the city
women. It seems that the city is more andocentric than the village.
story written in the early part of the literary career of the author in
for this story at that time. But when this story is now approached
with the environmental yard sticks, it does have its relevance. The
always did the same monotonous job in the bank, “like a circus dog
misfit for the post and at the end of the story, Naryanankutty decides
to resign his job and to quit the city to his ancestoral village. A
an escape from the target bound and ambition driven life in the city
the story.
which deals with issues comparable with that are in “Walls”. Retired
without a clear idea about the time, and without wearing his glasses,
he goes out for his morning walk, alone, even, without his dear dog
domineering influence of the family of his wife in his life, his country
justice to his own mother and family etc. haunt him. He walks further
beside, and the vision of girls bathing the pond. Ammini, his
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He is led to his own old house, his mother appears young and
cheerful and also his uncle and the dead dog are seen there. He
recognizes that,
the wet soil, the mist, chirping birds and all in this village,
After his marriage, he had come to meet his mother only thrice. He
like the huge house that he built in the city, where he was getting
…to live in the village where I was born, to live in that house
for at least two weeks, to bath in the pond, to eat the special
the portrayal of the longing in the human mind to liberate itself from
tub and bathing in a pond beside a temple are two entirely different
provided a cultural and ethical milieu for man and no one can
God”, “Holy Cow” and “Holy Book” (The Sandal Trees) are three
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Should the individual live for the religion or should the religion
exist for the individual? Should a man sacrifice himself for the
answers. The boy defied god by saying that he won’t kill his mother
for the sake of religion. The starving boy in “Holy Cow”, who
competed with a cow for a banana skin from a rubbish-bin and the
hungry boy (in “Holy Book”), from whose hand, the ‘Holy Quran’ fell
down, are all instantaneously killed for their offenses. These victims
themselves and also for all other category of organic and inorganic
beings.
of a city bred woman back to the lap of nature. Ammu and her
They are not at all exposed to the warm and loving touch of the soil.
Though they are deeply in love, Ammu couldn’t tolerate the totally
nurses him back to life. This disease is given as the symbol of the
rotting influence of urban life. After his cure, Ammu and Biju visit the
uncle’s son. They stay in Appu’s house. Appu is one of the most
in the city and has come to the village to nurse his ailing mother.
in the village and doesn’t want to go back to the city for his job.
in the life of the village. The village becomes an extended home for
him with not only human beings, but also the animals and plants
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and the entire nature. When Biju finds the smell of cowdung
practiced by Appu. The fertility of the soil and the fecundity of nature
arouses basic feminine instincts in Ammu and the city bred woman
attitude in her towards nature and towards Appu that she decides
not to go with Biju to the city. The comment made by K.S Ravikumar
worth quoting:
This story gives the vision that femininity blooms in the organic rural
taking the readers to hear the call of nature, to which the feminine
preservation, protection and the care about posterity are very often
world. Man should also be able to hear the call of nature, the