LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 22:5 May 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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‘Silence as Discourse’ in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's
Sister of My Heart

V. Rajesh, M.A., M.Phil., (Ph.D.) and
J. Jaya Parveen, M.A., M.Phil., PGCTE (EFL), Ph.D.


Courtesy: www.amazon.com

Voice is not the ultimate source of empowerment. At times, silence speaks more than spoken words. Silence occurs when people go through physical tortures, verbal abuses, sexual harassments, or emotional blackmails. Speaking, articulating, screaming, moaning, shouting, discussing, arguing, etc. are the different forms of ‘voice’ while blinking, blabbering, stammering, muffling, gagging, tongue-tied, mute, etc. portray ‘silence’. Normally interests, issues, and identities of women are silenced by various factors like culture, family, children, financial burdens, etc. Their silences can be viewed as forms of oppression and resistance. Every event of oppressive silence is a possibility of voice. This paper tries to analyse the power or powerlessness of silences, reasons behind silences, and meanings within silences in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Sister of My Heart.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Sister of My Heart is an intense, powerful book about the close relationships that women form with each other. (Handschuh, 2011) The novel deals with Indian traditions, parental expectations, adolescent love, chastity, women slavery, etc. According to Julie Rajan (2000), “Divakaruni has an uncanny way of rescuing the South Asian clichés from their superficiality. She is able to divert the reader's focus from the cliches through the beauty of her writing. Her poetic language, elaborate descriptions, and symbolism really do place the otherwise cliché themes on a higher level”. The novel is highly appreciable for its poetic language. However, silence acts as discourse in many of the events.

In Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Sister of My Heart, Anju and Sudha are cousins. Sudha is admiringly beautiful. Anju is bold but not as beautiful as Sudha. The friendship between them is really amazing. Sudha has the confidence of telling everything to Anju without having the need to explain. Anju's 'unblinking eyes' and 'tiny smile' reveals that she understands Sudha's words perfectly. Anju admires Sudha for her beauty, beliefs in magic, demons, gods, and falling stars, and art of storytelling. She knows that Sudha will hold her hands and stay with her even when she wants to kick the world for its stupidity. (Sister of My Heart, 30)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

V. Rajesh, M.A., M.Phil., (Ph.D.)
Vice-Principal, Velammal Vidyalaya, Chennai
rajeshv.ph.d@gmail.com

J. Jaya Parveen, M.A., M.Phil., PGCTE (EFL), Ph.D.
Asst. Professor (English)
Chevalier T. Thomas Elizabeth (CTTE) College for Women, Chennai
jayaparveen@gmail.com
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