Breaking Shells and Seeking Lives: A Study of Female Protagonists in the Select Novels of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Abstract

Our society is full of paradoxes and contradictions. This society considers female as a peripheral member, both in her parent’s house as well as in her husband’s. Throughout her lifetime she is searching for her own identity and this leads to her insecurity. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a world-acclaimed author, born in Calcutta. She has published literary works of various genres like poems, novels and short stories paving new ways for understanding of human issues in the world. Divakaruni has attracted readers’ attention with her poetry and fiction dealing with problems of Indian emigrants. Her Sister of My Heart and The Vine of Desire discuss the tormented psyche of Indian women and give alternative understanding of South Asian diaspora. Divakaruni’s major themes are centred around her desire, to investigate the identity of Indian American women and the multiplicity of experiences gained through like geographical, cultural, psychological, and emotional spaces that continue to shape and reshape it.