CHAPTER – 1

A critical Analysis of Anita Desai’s Fasting Feasting and Shobha De’s

Starry Nights.

During the last two and a half decades a large number of women novelists in

Indian Fiction in English have attracted a great deal of attention and expected

favorable comment from their readers.Traditionally the work of Indian women

writers has been undervalued due to patriarchal assumptions about the superior

worth of male experience. But these women writers wrote about the enclosed

domestic space, and women’s perceptions of their experience within it.

Many Indian women novelists have explored female subjectivity in their

novels. Most of the women wirters of 1990s, produced novels which revealed the

true state of Indian society and its treatment of women. They generally wrote about

the urban middle – class society that they know best. Many of these writers such as

Anita Desai in Fasting Feasting and Shobha de in starry Nights use social Realism

in their novels.
 “Realistic is the label we apply to those novels that seen to provide a

convincing illusion of life as we normally thinking of it. Readers who are just

beginning to study novels often feel most comfortable with realistic novel

because they appear relatively straight forward. The realistic novel can seem

like a clear window and as readers we can become fully involved with the

characters and events…….” says John peck.

(HSLLTC, P.119)

Indian novels keep literature on the progressive frontline of social

changes. The writers of the third strand were recreating in fiction, the social and

political chronicles of their times, one among them is Anita Desai. In her

psychological novels Anita Desai presents the image of suffering women

preoccupied with their inner world, and also she writes about the status of women

in a male dominated society.

Through the portrayal of such characters, she makes a contention for a better

way of life for women. Her novels have Indians as their central characters, and she

alternates female, centered and male-centered, narrative in her novels especially in

Baumgertner’s Bombay and Fasting, Feasting, She is concerned with the fate of

immigrants and how they distance themselves from seeing the reality of life in

India. When they themselves view India from outside.

 Anita Desai’s novels are not populated by heroic characters. In many of her

works Desai has highlighted the tensions among the family members and

estrangement of middle-class women.In Fasting,Feasting Desai beautifully

describes the life of a middle – class family in Indian society and also a middle

class family in American society. In this novel. She tries to recapture the aspects of

two distinct cultures.

Fasting, Feasting as it is implied in the title itself, vividly shows the central

theme of the novel i.e. contrast between two cultures, the first one, Indian culture

which is known for its religious and longstanding social customs representing

‘Fasting’ and the other one American culture which stands for splendidness,

epitomizing ‘Feasting’. These themes are introduced effectively through the

characters, Uma and Arun in this novel.

The first part of the novel titled ‘Fasting’ is represented through the life of

Uma and Anamika. It tells how Uma, who is clumsy, unlike her sister Aruna, lives

under the demanding rule of her parents Mama Papa. They treat her like an unpaid

servant at home. Uma has to do all the household works. Her Mama always

expects her to do household works. Uma has to do that works without delay. She

got a chance of escaping from her sufferings of home at time of her marriage. But

uma’s attempts to leave home and marry create a disaster. Uma’s Mama also

works hard to get her married, and settle well in life.

 “Mama worked hard at trying to

dispose of Uma, sent her photograph

around to everyone who advised……”

(FF – 88)

But it is always returned with comment like,

“We are looking for someone taller/

fairer/more educated for sanju/

Pinku/Dimpu……………..”

(FF – 88)

Two attempts at getting her married end in disaster-in the first, a family

compulse her father into giving dowry and then breaks off the engagement,

keeping the money. In the second she actually gets married, but to an already

married man. When her father realizes this later, he brings her back and gets her

divorced-Divorce which is supposed to free women from the bondage of marriage,

infact brings in more troubles because of the rigid social conventions. This is the

nature of arranged marriages which produces this painful comedy like uma’s

married life.
 After this, at the age of forty, she gets an opportunity to work in a hospital

but this simple job is quashed by her parents.Through uma’s life Desai portrays

the status of women in the middle-class Indian family.

Anamika the another important woman character in this novel. She is a

cousin to Uma. She won scholarship to oxford. But after her marriage she spends

her entire time in the kitchen. Cooking for a very big family that eats in shifts.

“First the men, then the children, finally the women”

(FF – 71 )

She herself eats the left over food in the pot before scouring them out.

Anamika’s husband is a typical Mama’s boy. Her mother – in –law always ill treats

her and finally after a miscarriage which is followed by a brutal beating, they come

to know that she could not bear children, the family ties her up in a nylon saree,

pours kerosene over her and burns her to death.Through the life of Anamika, Anita

Desai represents the life of middle-class women in contemporary Indian society.

The second part, ‘Feasting’ deals with Arun, who is the younger brother of

uma, reaches Massachusettes for his higher studies, and is totally taken back by the

lifestyle of the west. There he stays at Mr.Patton’s house. In USA Arun sees a new

kind of lifestyle, unlike life in India. Through Arun’s eyes Desai presents a picture

of middle class American life, that is utterly dysfunctional. In the western culture
women are the most affected one’s. Mrs.Patton does all the shopping and cooking

to feed the unappreciative husband and son and the daughter. Her daughter

Melanie is a peculiar character. She is a fat girl Who wants to be slim but eats to

fast and stuffing sweets until she vomits.

Arun himself becomes a sympathetic character and his final act of the novel

suggests how far he has achieved his parents aim and how much he has lost. Arun

focus magnificent life in USA but he is not fully satisfied because his father’s

compulsion has forced him to go abroad. So the splendid epitomizing of ‘Feasting’

does not satisfy him.

Fasting, Feasting affirms food as a metaphor for emotional provisions.

Everything centers around food from America, Arun’s letters come just to indicate

his endurance and survival. His messages are weak, bitter, frequently carry

repeated complaint:

“The food is not very good”

(FF – 123)

Arun fails to manifest his identify as an individual, because he caught in the prison

house of his own family’s food habits, he can neither nourish the alien (USA) food

nor develop a sense of belonging with patton’s family that shelters him during his

vacation. The smell of the raw meat being charred over the fire by Mr.Patton steak
is loathsome for Arun conversely, Mr.Patton fails to understand why Arun really

refuses to eat a good piece of meat. While Mrs. Patton sympathises with Arun, and

gives him the Vegetarian food times, particularly tomato slices and lettuce on

bread, Arun finds them detestable too, because he thinks that;

“In America he has developed a hearty abhorrence for the raw

foods everyone here thinks the natural diet of a vegetarian”.

(FF-167)

Hence Mrs. Patton is satisfied with her job of a host, watching him eating

with pride and complicity, Arun ate with an expression of woe and a sense of

mistreatment. Melanie Mrs.Patton’s daughter is also mainly affected by her food

habits. Melanie suffers from bulimia, a disorder in which over eating alternates

with self-induced vomiting, fasting, etc. Her bulimia, along with her mother’s

madness for buying food items to fill the freezer signifies the consumerist society

that she hails from, where excess becomes the disease.

In Anita Desai novels there is an organic relationship between the

setting and character and the point of view.The technique of background

description particularly the description of landscape in most of her novels, apart

from localizing a scene or situation gets projected through a skillful selection of

colour which reflects the mood of the character.

 Anita Desai does not believe in propagandist writing. According to Desai,

writing is a process of discovery. The purpose of her writing is to discover for

herself the truth and then describe and convey it. According to her writing novel is

not meant to illustrate theories or philosophy. Desai’s search for truth, through the

presentation of individuals and the exploration of their psyche, has resulted in the

sensitive portrayal of several interesting characters both male and female. But a

quick glance through her novels reveals that out of eight full-fledged novels that

she has written so far, at least five have women as the central characters. Apart

from having created a larger number of female protagonists, she has also created

men characters who play a vital role like her female characters. For example in

clear light of day Raja and in Fasting, Feasting Arun. Arun is not the protagonist

of the novel, but he is the hero of the second part of the novel. His parents also

decide which of their children should have education and how much of it. When

Mama gives birth to the third baby Arun, his sister Uma is forced to stop going to

school. The parents deprive Uma of the privilege of getting educated by stopping

her from attending school. But Papa takes charge of Arun’s life from his

childhood. Papa would like to give “the best, the most, the highest” (FF -110)

education for his son. Thus through this male character, Desai brings out explicitly

the differences in the brought up of male and female child in Indian society.
 Commonly Anita Desai’s fiction seeks to unravel the complex responses of

middle-class women, to their domestic world. It is a world that has web-like

associations with parents, husband and children. Fasting, Feasting takes on the

intricate, and delicate, web of family conflict as its main theme.

The another important thing is in Desai’s novels marriage does play an

important role but the characters neither seek fulfillment in marriage nor through

marriage. At the some time, it is not an assertion of independence by rejecting

marriage as an impediment to self-realisation. Hence, there is no relevance in their

attitude to marriage. For example Uma and Anamika of Fasting, Feasting, Maya

of Cry the peacock, Sita of where shall we go this summer? All these female

characters lose their self-identity, peace, independence after their marriage.

Desai’s earlier novels depicts the fusion of the inner and the outer world.

She enters into the mind f her characters and also she shapes the mind of her

characters through the realistic portrayal of her characters.

Uma is different from Desai’s other heroines, Uma’s life also affected by the

people around her. But she is both willing to take a chance with life and at the

same time dedicated to her family. Desai’s Fasting, Feasting may be described as

a “celebration of culture” it despicts the two distinct culture throughout the novel.
 Indian English literature has produced a galaxy of women writers touching

various facts of women’s life. While writers like Kamala Das touch the physical

aspect of human relationships, Anita Desai’s focus is on the psychological one. In

Bharathi Mukherjee it is a question of identity. Thus the movement which had

started as mere “ consciousness” in writers like Kamala Markandaya has now

assumed a more emphatic voice in writers like Shoba De.

Shobha De, the very name evokes a mixed response in the Indian minds.

Shobha De’s association with magazines like stardust, society, celebrity and

Magacity has made heruse of journalistic jargon in her fiction too. There is a

unique sense of freedom, conviction and courage that help her use the language

entirely as her own.Shobha De doesn’t prefer being branded as a feminist. She has

once said,

“I write with a great deal of empathy towards women without waving

the Feminist falg, I feel very strongly about the woman’s situation.”

[The Hindustan times Magazine, 12 February 1995, P.3]

 Starry Nights is Shobha De’s second novel. In Starry Nights the plot and the

characters are largely quite realistic. Aasha Rani is the protagonist of this novel.

Commonly Shobha De maintains that sex plays a vital role in her novels. In starry

Nights also sex plays an important role. According to her,women are being used

as sex-toys by men and Shobha justifies that is the bed rock of all relationships.

Starry Nights is divided into two parts. Each part of the novel has eight

chapters. It is different in its structure because each chapter is named after the

characters. There is an quite difference reveal into chapters titles. For example

‘Kishenbai’ is title of chapter one of the novel. Starry Nights may be described as

“Celebration of Sex”. Starry Nights is surely an out come of women’s liberation

movement. Women indulge in all sorts of pleasure giving activities, but ultimately

they fail to establish their individuality. In this way the novel proves that women

are not bold enough to revolt against male egoism.

Starry Nights portrays the different facets of a woman’s life. The writer

thinks that the only way a woman can reach the ladder of success is “SEX”. That’s

what the heroine of the novel has done. Aasha and her mother in the past had

faced several problems – natural as well as man - made. Her mother makes her act

in blue films at the age of tweleve. Perhaps Aasha thinks exploitation of her own

sex is the panacea for all ills.

 Shobha has portrayed sexual scenes between Aasha Rani and various people

whom she knows. The fictional world of Shobha De is crowded with neurotics,

lesbians, homosexuals, hetreo sexual, gigolos, incests and perverts.

In Starry Night also the heroine never hesitates to have sex with more people

as if it’s a regular routine of her life. Its amazing when she claims that her true

love is on Akshay Arora the famous film star who meets with a tragic end.

In almost all the novels of Shobha De we come across a variety of women

characters from extremely modern, assertive, young and liberated women to

traditional Indian housewives.

The women in De’s fictional world live in opulence and romantic world and

their problems and concerns are different from those of the ordinary, traditional,

middle – class women. Being educational and wealthy, they have an easy access,

to new ways of life exposing women’s independence. De tries to portray them

from one extreme of highly conservative women who accept of the traditional

Indian cultural ethos to the radically modern, uninhibited and assertive women

who challenge the patriarchal view of male dominated society. The woman like

Nisha’s mother in Sultry Days who has to bear the marital infidelity of her

husband, and Maya in Second thoughts who has to lead a secluded, lonely and

charmless life, in spite of her being a qualified textile designer, due to the uncaring
and selfish behaviour of her husband. Suffer due to their subjugated and

marginalized position yet they do not rebel openly. They try to adjust during and

at the times of extreme oppression.

The portrayal of modern women like Aasha Rani, in Starry Nights, Anjali,

Karuna, Ritu in Socialite Evenings, and Meeankshi Iyengar in Strange Obsession

marks the onset of sexual revolution in Shobha De’s novels. These women indulge

in unconventional sexual behaviour to challenge and reject male domination. This

type of bechaviour aggravates their attempt to gain independance and real joy.

In De’s novels women consider “sex” as an effective weapon in the power

game of relationships. Sex no longer remains realated to the body rather it stands

for power, women explore the power potential of sex in man-woman relationships.

Ritu in Socialite Evenings uses sex to control her husband. Like that in Starry

Nights, Aasha Rani uses her sexual power, instead of any ability for good acting,

to win a worthwhile place in films. In her Sisters Mikky uses sex to attract Binny.

These women believe that their body provides them with a special power to protest

against male dominated society.

 Simon de Beauvoir has given a full length commentary on the plight of

women today.

“The women of today are in a fair way to dethrone the myth of

feminity; they are beginning to affirm their independence in concrete ways;

but they do not easily succeed in living completely the life of a human being.

Reared by women, within a feminine world, their normal density is marriage,

which all still means practically subordination to man; for masculine prestige

is for from extention, resting still upon is solid, economic and social

foundation”.

Many of De’s novels depict the male desire that dominates in matters,

related to sex and also, women’s role is limited to that of an object. Their own

desires and feelings are not taken into consideration, unconcerned about women’s

feelings and taking their responses for granted men treat these women as lifeless

objects. For example in Starry Nights Aasha Rani is sent to man, named as

Sharma.The way he behaves and commands her shows his authority over her, are

showed in the following lines.

“He had pulled her roughly on the bed and said

‘kapdey ultaro… seeing hesitate he snarled…”

(SN.P.27-28)
 These men not only use less dignified language, when talking about women

but also show disregard for women’s desires. Their only concern is self-

gratification.

Another important aspect in Shoba De’s feminist understanding of life and

marriage is that both can play a positive role in life. Shobha De’s only concern is

that marriage should provide mutual love, equality for both, happiness and a stable

companionship. But after the marriage husband’s unlimlted power helps him to

have his wife to a subordinate position. Different women characters in De’s novels

often show disregard for marriage and have extramarital relations hips and indulge

in outrageous behaviour, for example, in Starry Nights Aasha Rani’s exploitation

by men in the showbiz and her husband Jaime’s desertion of her does not curb her

desire to live a life of her own. She decides to rebuild the film studio at her father

and finds solace in being a dutiful mother to her only child, a daughter.

Lesbianism is the other major thing in Starry Nights. Lesbianism is a

psychological perversion. It should not be a past of feminism. At least in the

context of India, it is entirely unacceptable. It is an attempt to corrupt our Indian

culture. In Starry Nights, Shobha De brings to light how women themselves are

exploiting their own sex and how they sexually abuse themselves, through the

relationship between Aasha Rani and Linda. There is also reference to show how

Aasha is sexually abused by the Thai girls.

 In Starry Nights there is another face of women portrayed by Shobha De in

the form of Aasha Rani’s mother who instigates her daughter to use sex to become

a successful heroine.

De’s simple language reveal her serious concern with human communication

and interpersonal relationships. De has changed, moulded and added her own to

the existing forms and uses English language by throwing away the conventional

use of pure and standard language.

The language used by De, despite its lexical and grammatical aberrations,

suits her characters. Different characters use the language according to their social

status and professional requirements. An interesting example of De’s use of

language can be observed in “English lacd with Hindi”, as used by a professional

in the film world.

“Myself Kishenbai, producer, actually speaking assistant

producer, Madamji, I am on look out for new talent. I am

knowing, everybody…. South Indian girls are good. No

hit – pit, of faltu nakhras”

(SN P.7)
 where as De’s creative use of Hindi words into written English makes some

typical regional expressions like ‘Sadela lagaoing’, ‘Innuvoru dam addi’ and

complete sentences in Hindi.

“Lubna begum ab budhi no gayi hai”

(SN P.57)

Create problems in understanding her fiction to some extent. But her clever

use of the english language becomes a highly suitable medium for showing the true

colours of her characters. A study of De’s this novel yields new perspectives on

the expanding literary horizon of the contemporary Indo-English fiction.

In Fasting, Feasting Anita Desai has tried to make the narrative look more

than merely a story of a particular woman by bringing in discussion on culture by

giving occasional glimpses of the day-to-day life, yet the novel really does not go

beyond the limited personal world of Uma’s and Arun’s problems. Whereas in

Starry Nights, the uneven division of power between sexes is accepted neither as

natural nor inevitable.