Women Characters In Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Oleander Girl

Thanjavur.
Abstract: Women’s empowerment can be defined as the changing perception of how women feel about themselves. It can also be viewed as a force which gives women the courage to shed off the feeling of inferiority. Women are empowered to such an extent that they take charge of the environment in which they live. Empowerment points out to woman the need to fight for her rights and privileges in order to lead a comfortable life. This paper proposes to analyze the empowerment of women characters through emotional hardships in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s oleander girl. Oleander girl is a quest of a young Bengali woman and her journey to find her identity. The story involves women from three generations- Korobi the youngest, Korobi’s mother Anu, and Korobi’s grandmother, Sarojini. Each generation has some unique womanhood experience to share. There is a constant clash between Korobi’s traditional upbringing and her longing to belong in …show more content…
Throughout her childhood Korobi has longed for her parent’s love whom she has never seen even. The only knowledge she had gathered about her parents (informed by her grandparents) was that her mother Anu Roy died while giving birth to her and her father who was a lawyer died in a car accident before three months to her mother’s death. Though Korobi wanted to know much about her parents she could not explore as it would be painful to her grandparents. Korobi is engaged to Rajat Bose who belonged to one affluent Bengali family. He loved Korobi very much and her arrival in his life changed him into a responsible man taking interest in family business. So, Rajat’s parents were happy to accept her though she did not match with their modern way of