Child: An Agent of Reform in Divakaruni’s Oleander Girl
Keywords:
Child, compassion, survival, self, reformAbstract
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.
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