(Q) How does Toru Dutt's poem "Sita" reflect the difficulties of surviving in a male dominated world? OR How is the image of Sita used to reflect the inequalities that permeate the society? A: Toru Dutt's poem "Sita", under the embryo of the cruelty meted out to Sita, highlights the skewed manner in which patriarchy functions. In this particular poem, the metanarrative of Sita acts as a foregrounding of the way in which the present lives of women are no different than the rites of passage that every Sita has to undergo in this hyper-masculine society. The poem begins with the setting of a mother narrating the story of Sita in exile to her three children. If it can be conjectured that one of the children is a male and the others are female, then the mother's narrative acts as a way to inform the male child of the hyper-masculine way in which the society functions and the female children to be cautious about it. As the story is told, the children are given visuals of a dense forest where sunlight cannot enter and a small spot of clearing. It is in such a space that flowers bloom and creepers live amidst strong trees, wild swans glide on turbulence-less waters and peacocks dance near water bodies. What is curious and intriguing about all these images is how a distinct binary of dominant-submissive, active-passive and doer-receiver can be seen. It is herein where the hyper-masculine image reflects through the visuals of the herds of wild deer that an image of productivity is visible through the image of the "waving grain". After giving multiple images from nature do we see the presence of a human life - it is evident from the rising smoke and the presence of Valmiki, who is the "poet anchorite". After establishing the Romantic part of thenature, we find the establishment of Sita, the pained and hurt woman whose sorrow affects the three sensitive children, their heads hung in shame. The sorrow is not only a result of the inequal treatment but it is also a result of the inherent shame that the children are presently privy to. It is at this moment when the narrative is irrevocably stopped- although the speaker doesn't mention whose presence affects such a stop but it can be conjectured that it is the presence of someone who is superior in force and position. In the concluding three lines of the poem, the poet ends with an optimistic tenor where she asserts that although narratives of female oppression maybe thus stopped, it will never completely be erased from such impressionable minds. The poem ends with a question that when again such an opportunity of narrating the cruelty of inequality be told to the children so that theymay be aware of it's predominance and therefore attempt to not be party to such inequality when times come.