This assignment focuses on the lives of dalit women in patriarchal society with reference to Baburao Bagul’s short story “Mother”. The story projects the life of a dalit woman who was oppressed by both caste and gender. Through the life of the mother in the story the author shows the universality of her experience among all the dalit women. Dalit women were marginalised among an already marginalized class. The dual oppression of caste and gender creates an intensity of oppression which becomes unbearable for a dalit woman. The oppression of dalit women begins from their own family norms. Their violence begins in their own homes. The husband in the story, who was unable to take care of the family, becomes suspicious and physically abuses his
…show more content…
The author talks about the problems faced by the dalit children. The caste consciousness is forced in the children in their very young age. The upper class boys in the school says “don’t touch Pandu”, they also made fun of his mother by verbally abusing her. The society projects his mother as a prostitute and this brings a misunderstanding between the mother and the son. The women in the community say, “How could a poor widow’s son be allowed to wear new clothes for the festival?”(418) these comments make him feel depressed and he alienated himself from …show more content…
The society betrayed her by projecting her as a prostitute. Her husband betrayed her by his suspicion and by physically and verbally abusing her. She lived for her son unfortunately in the end he too betrayed her by believing the rumors about his mother created by the society. She is depressed and her unfulfilled desire for the past ten years makes her to give herself the overseer. The story has a tragic end where the son leaves the mother. She tries to run to her son but she was not allowed to go by the overseer. The final image of the mother who is caught in the inescapable hold symbolically shows the predicament of all dalit women who find themselves caught in the tyrannical hold of both male patriarchy and the caste system.
Bibliography
Sharmila Rege. “Dalit Women Talk Differently: A Critique of 'Difference' and Towards a Dalit Feminist Standpoint Position.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 33, no. 44, 1998, pp. WS39–WS46. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4407323. Tharu, Susie. “The Impossible Subject: Caste and the Gendered Body.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 31, no. 22, 1996, pp. 1311–1315. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4404206.
The author talks about the problems faced by the dalit children. The caste consciousness is forced in the children in their very young age. The upper class boys in the school says “don’t touch Pandu”, they also made fun of his mother by verbally abusing her. The society projects his mother as a prostitute and this brings a misunderstanding between the mother and the son. The women in the community say, “How could a poor widow’s son be allowed to wear new clothes for the festival?”(418) these comments make him feel depressed and he alienated himself from …show more content…
The society betrayed her by projecting her as a prostitute. Her husband betrayed her by his suspicion and by physically and verbally abusing her. She lived for her son unfortunately in the end he too betrayed her by believing the rumors about his mother created by the society. She is depressed and her unfulfilled desire for the past ten years makes her to give herself the overseer. The story has a tragic end where the son leaves the mother. She tries to run to her son but she was not allowed to go by the overseer. The final image of the mother who is caught in the inescapable hold symbolically shows the predicament of all dalit women who find themselves caught in the tyrannical hold of both male patriarchy and the caste system.
Bibliography
Sharmila Rege. “Dalit Women Talk Differently: A Critique of 'Difference' and Towards a Dalit Feminist Standpoint Position.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 33, no. 44, 1998, pp. WS39–WS46. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4407323. Tharu, Susie. “The Impossible Subject: Caste and the Gendered Body.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 31, no. 22, 1996, pp. 1311–1315. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4404206.