Child: An Agent of Reform in Divakaruni’s Oleander Girl

Authors

  • Dr. Ritu Agarwal Associate Professor, J. Z. Shah Arts & H. P. Desai Commerce College, Amroli, Surat.

Keywords:

Child, compassion, survival, self, reform

Abstract

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni through her novel Oleander Girl (2013) touches not just on the issues plaguing the modern world but tries to reflect, through a child’s voice, the need for acceptance and solidarity amongst different communities. This paper points to the fact that children, though often taken to be ignorant, are far more mature and understanding when it comes to maintaining relations. Their innocence, purity, simplicity and virtuousness know no boundaries of caste, class, race or community. This novel project the relationship of Pia-Missy, the young sister of Rajat, and her relationship and bond with the Muslim chauffeur Asif Ali who treats her like her younger sister as an example of Tagore’s words “Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls” (Gitanjali, v. 35). This paper brings to light the way children surpass the narrow mentality and are agents of reform in a world marred by distrust and disloyalty.

Author Biography

Dr. Ritu Agarwal, Associate Professor, J. Z. Shah Arts & H. P. Desai Commerce College, Amroli, Surat.

Ritu Agarwal earned her Doctorate in English from Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat. She also has a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching English from CIEFl, Hyderabad. She has presented and participated in various national and international conferences and has been involved in teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. She has also represented India in UK / Wales as part of the Group Study Exchange Program sponsored by Rotary International. Ritu is currently working as an Associate Professor at J. Z. Shah Arts & H. P. Desai Commerce College, Amroli, Surat and has more than 25 years of teaching experience.

References

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Davies, Máire Messenger. Children, Media and Culture. McGraw-Hill Education, 2010.

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. Oleander Girl. Penguin, 2013.

Green, Connie R., and Sandra Brenneman Oldendorf. Religious Diversity and Children’s Literature. Information Age Publishing Inc., 2011.

Knuth, Rebecca. Children’s Literature and British Identity: Imagining a People and a Nation. Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2012.

Prout, Alan. “Culture-Nature and the Construction of Childhood.” The International Handbook of Children, Media and Culture, edited by Sonia Livingstone and Kirsten Drotner, Sage, 2008, pp. 21-35.

Rahman, M. “The Globalisation of Childhood and Youth: New Actors and Networks in Protecting Street Children and Working Children in the South.” Youth, Citizenship and Empowerment, edited by H. Helve and C. Wallace, Ashgate, 2001, pp. 151-168.

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Published

01.04.2024

How to Cite

Agarwal, R. (2024). Child: An Agent of Reform in Divakaruni’s Oleander Girl. Journal of Teaching and Research in English Literature, 15(2), 23–28. Retrieved from https://journals.eltai.in/index.php/jtrel/article/view/JTREL150204

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 2 (2024): April

Section

Research Articles

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