We've all tried to pin down Usha's character in class, but safe to say she's that one character in the novel who it is hard to pin down. She shows agency as a female (deflecting Baa's advances when out with Kikli and trying to find Burki), and she shows a deep affinity when talking to Maa about her husband's roving eye, talking to her woman to woman, and saying that she knows that look in a man's eye, that she recognizes it. She never figures largely in the narrative as part of the plot or action, but she is always at the back of Maa's mind, so that the reader is never allowed to forget her presence.
Usha has so far presented herself as self-sufficient and unshakeable. She never betrays any feeling of inferiority, as can be seen by the complete comfort with which she talks to Maa about her family and background. But there is a mystery surrounding her too. We are never allowed inside her head. Moreover, Maa doesnt like going to Usha's kitchen-bedroom area because its always dark or mellow, even while everywhere else is bathed in sunlight.
When I first came across Usha in the novel, this self-sufficiency and inscrutability reminded me of another memorable female character I'd read. In Pinter's play The Homecoming, the character Ruth, the only female character in the play, uses her sexuality to completely overthrow the male set-up at her husband's house. The Homecoming is a play, and it is written by a male, Harold Pinter. Yet, the character of Ruth he devises is so impenetrable that her very presence poses a threat to the domestic (or patriarchal) set-up. Given that we are reading a novel about different types of femininity, and that too written by a female Fehmida Riaz, it is interesting when juxtaposed against this completely different literary work. Ruth is commanding and shows a cool disdain for the people around her. Usha would seem to be her antithesis in this respect, as she attracts attention mostly due to her looks rather than by any force of personality, but in both cases it is (whether blatantly or not) a use of one's sexuality. They are both also sufficiently independent of the action going on around them so that they seem like outsiders; beings who are marginalized due to their gender (and doubly marginalized in Usha's case due to her caste and subsequent social status). But we since we never get inside Usha's head, and neither does she propel the action towards any specific direction, we don't know what Usha's stake is regarding her own sexuality. It is a question that we can ponder while reading the novel.
Usha has so far presented herself as self-sufficient and unshakeable. She never betrays any feeling of inferiority, as can be seen by the complete comfort with which she talks to Maa about her family and background. But there is a mystery surrounding her too. We are never allowed inside her head. Moreover, Maa doesnt like going to Usha's kitchen-bedroom area because its always dark or mellow, even while everywhere else is bathed in sunlight.
When I first came across Usha in the novel, this self-sufficiency and inscrutability reminded me of another memorable female character I'd read. In Pinter's play The Homecoming, the character Ruth, the only female character in the play, uses her sexuality to completely overthrow the male set-up at her husband's house. The Homecoming is a play, and it is written by a male, Harold Pinter. Yet, the character of Ruth he devises is so impenetrable that her very presence poses a threat to the domestic (or patriarchal) set-up. Given that we are reading a novel about different types of femininity, and that too written by a female Fehmida Riaz, it is interesting when juxtaposed against this completely different literary work. Ruth is commanding and shows a cool disdain for the people around her. Usha would seem to be her antithesis in this respect, as she attracts attention mostly due to her looks rather than by any force of personality, but in both cases it is (whether blatantly or not) a use of one's sexuality. They are both also sufficiently independent of the action going on around them so that they seem like outsiders; beings who are marginalized due to their gender (and doubly marginalized in Usha's case due to her caste and subsequent social status). But we since we never get inside Usha's head, and neither does she propel the action towards any specific direction, we don't know what Usha's stake is regarding her own sexuality. It is a question that we can ponder while reading the novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment