The two novels by an Indian author that I have chosen for my ISP were very popular among the readers; the novels are Fasting Feasting and Desirable Daughters. The Indian girls face problems regarding the poor prejudiced Indian society. The marriage dowry becomes main issue, as well as the cultural tradition and their views. They suffer from social pressure and restrictions.
First of all, the girls in both novels entrenched with the marriage dowry problems due to lack of money and power. The marriage gets cancelled which was fixed earlier, by reason of dowry. For example, in both novels the main characters Uma and Tara gets rejected from marriage proposals as father of both grooms demands for extremely high dowry. They undergo tremendous discomfort as their marriage gets cancelled and their parents thought that they have brought shame on the family. At the other side, the family which is not afford to offer dowry were not given importance as dowry considered as a prime custom in the society. For instance, Uma and Tara become over-aged and very few proposals were brought up. They suffer a lot, as the society view them as unmarried over-aged girls. In this way, dowry in India plays a vital role in failure of marriage proposals.
Secondly, the Indian society and their view is shown here very narrow minded that results in shame hang up on the family. In Fasting Feasting, “a young woman with no employment, who has been running the house for her parents for so long. I feel sure you would be right for the job” (p.142). This shows that Uma is not allowed to go out with anyone or to help in convents school; her parents think that it would be shame on their family. Also, in Desirable Daughters Tara does not want the world to find out that her son is gay. Tara says, “It’s so easy for you to say, but so hard for me to believe. This needs to be changed, Rabi” (p.101). Tara is worried about what people will think about her once they find out that Rabi is gay. In this way, she feels that Rabi should change things because of societal problems.
At last, the actions and pressure on the girls causes problems in life of characters due to society rituals. In Desirable daughters, social pressure was the cause of divorce between Tara and her husband Bish because Tara felt that coming from a middle class family; she wasn’t fit to live with a billionaire like Bish. For example, Tara says, “It does not look good that I am always demanding Bish for money” (p.70). It illustrates that Tara does not feel good about her financial dependence on Bish. She feels that because she is from a middle class family and isn’t as educated as Bish, people feel sorry for her. Moreover, in Fasting Feasting Uma was forced to quit her study only because of the birth of her baby brother. Her mother said, “What is the use of going back to school if you keep failing, Uma?”, “you won’t need to do any lessons; you can help me look after Arun” (p.22). In this way Uma is restricted, her parents make her live against their wishes and brings unhappiness in their lives. So, the social pressure with restrictions make the life miserable for the characters throughout the both novels. In conclusion, I would like to say that poor and narrow-minded society of Indian culture forces the children to suffer. All the characters, besides girls are responsible for the creation of such society. Could it be possible for you and me to live with such restrictions or in this environment?
