Abstract
The paper examines the psyche of women characters in the novel in the wake of Pluralistic Trauma theory. It analyzes ‘Thangam’, the widower who is objectified by the upper class landlord Paramjothi Udayor. The author analyses how patriarchy becomes diluted as it down the social ladder in this book about inter-caste sexual encounters. P. Sivakami is a good narrator of factual information. The protagonist, Kathamuthu, is a charismatic Parayar leader who intervenes to aid Thangam, a Parayar woman who has been beaten up by her upper caste lover’s relatives. This research aims to evaluate Thangam’s and her community’s domination and oppression, both of which are forms of violence. Thangam, a childless widow who worked as an agricultural labourer, was raped while at work by her upper caste landlord, and she keeps quiet about it., which leads to reoccurrences by people who see this as a case of caste persecution.
Keywords: marginalization , pluralistic trauma theory, objectification, women
Introduction
The Grip of Change (an English translation of P. Sivakami’s Tamil book Pazhaiyana Kazhithalum) is an uniting voice of the oppressed community’s struggle of youth who are enthusiastically questioning patriarchal dominance. The novel begins with Thangam’s narrative and finishes with Thangam’s story. Gowri’s determined choice to remain single after failing to find a solution to patriarchy. WhileThe beauty of narratives coming from the body centricity of The Grip of Change can be observed when reading it. Thangam, the corpse of a Dalit lady, bears witness to the Dalit women’s problems and abuse. Thangam’s body is explicitly linked to fertility by the author, allowing her to confront her triple marginalization at the hands of societal structure, power relations, and patriarchy. Her portrayal of a Dalit widow from the proletariat is excellent. Thangam, a Parayar woman has been savagely assaulted and roughed up by her upper caste lover’s family. and the tale begins with her frenzied screaming. Thangam’s story is shaped by her widowhood, her brothers-inpersecution law’s when she refuses to bow to them, her Hindu landlord’s exploitation, and an assault on her by a caste Hindu man, among other things. Her request for a part of her husband’s paternal land is denied on the grounds that she has no children with him. Her fertility was called into doubt, and she was tied to the land. Her in-laws refused to give her a piece of the land, but tried to take advantage of her vulnerability as a widow.
Redefining Female Characters
It’s important to note Thangam has concerns with her own caste, which dictates her social place as a childless widow. When Kathamuthu is having an affair with Nagamani, a widow from the higher caste, she wins a legitimate place in his home by marrying him. In the case of Thangam, on the other hand, ParanjothiUdayar considers her as a mistress and uses her to satisfy his need. The caste angle addressed by P. Sivakami of Hindu man’s patriarchal mentality, is involved in this case. When society learns of the clandestine connection, the same guy refuses to acknowledge his relationship with Thangam. The following phrases demonstrate his rage, pride, and resilience: ‘Ungrateful whore! Even if she was hurt, she was hurt by the hand adorned with gold! A Parachi could never dreamt of being touched by a man like me! My touch was a boon granted for penance performed in her earlier births! And then the dirty bitch betrays me! How can I face a world with my name thus polluted?’ (P. Sivakami, The Grip of Change, p. 31) He is gnawed by the idea that his opponents will exploit his indiscretion to get votes in the upcoming election. If there had been another issue, he would have dealt with the situation with money and power. Paranjothy Udayar’s wife, Kamalam, collaborated with her husband and dispatched her brothers to beat Thangam, and has no feelings for her. She merely tells him to go about his business as usual and asks, “Can’t you manage the police?” (p.34). Here, it is clear that the violence against the Dalit widow is not a major worry for anyone; instead, the Police case, caste concerns, and false pride are more important to everyone. It’s vital to emphasize Kamalam, a woman from a higher caste, and her lack of sympathy for the predicament.
Thangam’s gruesome tale is the first of its kind. The Dalit woman and her landlord are in a power struggle, an old tale retold. He kept an eye on her while she was working in Paranjothy Udayar’s crops. He was getting ready to take advantage of her, thinking she was his servant. Thangam isn’t a princess or the daughter of a minister, and she doesn’t even have a husband. He discovered her to be a defenseless poor widow to whom no one will come to her aid. As a result, he made it a habit to satisfy his lust whenever he could. The sexual violence she experienced on the first day depressed her for the rest of her life. Thangam’s violent story is the first of its type. The DalitPower Women’s Relationship She had gone three years without being touched by a man, and she despised surrendering to the lust of the odious old guy. She sat alone in the meadow, sobbing with rage. There was no other option for Thangam.
P. Sivkami questioned the vulnerability of Dalit women throughout the narrative. She allows her character to awaken at the appropriate time and be aware of the violence she is subjected to. Her audacious approach has even taken Paranjothi Udayar by surprise. Thangam had always struck him as a poor, vulnerable widow whom he might buy with his modest resources. He hadn’t anticipated Thangam going to such measures as to file a police report. Thangam even goes so far as to beg Kathamuthu to take her case to court over her husband’s part of the land. Thangam’s bravery in the first matter gives her the strength and motivation to continue.
It is said Thangam is drawn into the relationship by Paranjothi Udayar in the narrative, and Thangam dislikes it. The author successfully refutes the sexist assumption that a man’s supremacy must never be questioned and that the burden of proof is always placed on the woman. Despite this, Thangam, with the support of Kathamuthu, in Udayar’s situation, overcomes such violence directed at her and her body. Her tutor Kathamuthu, on the other hand, tries to use her as a third alternative for sex option while also teaching his two wives a lesson. She made it plain in his initial try that she has true brotherly sentiments for him, despite her fear of opening her shame-filled eyes. She stays at Kathamuthu’s house, where her body and money have made her the household’s dominant figure.
The novel’s central theme is the society’s double oppressive structures, with a focus on patriarchal repressive processes that result in the objectification of Dalit women. After a decade, Book Two is a return to the novel. The author’s notes reaffirm the narrator’s, protagonist’s, and author’s singularity. Even though they are hazy, memories defy factual rearranging, and a philosophical dimension emerges. The author deconstructs and problematizes the produced pictures, representations, narrative mode, characterization, the writing process, and finally authorship itself in this section.
Retrospection and rumination produce conflicting portrayals as well. Both portions of the work’s non- linear development move from memory to memory, reflecting the author’s complex psychological journey. The author’s conceptual map becomes unstable due to the author’s confusions about intertwined emotional and behavioral patterns and formations of erroneous remembrances, which are expressed throughout the novel and with more significance in The Author’s Note. Retrospection and rumination produce conflicting portrayals as well. The non-linear The Book Two-Gowri:Notes Author’s concentrates on Gowri’s mind, as the title suggests. It is clear that Gowri was the narrator’s double, just as Clarrissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith were in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. The two persons in Woolf’s work resemble or are almost identical in many physical, emotional, and symbolic features, both on the deep and superficial levels; nonetheless, they differ in various qualities. However, in Sivakami’s work, they are identical, with the exception that a curtain or gap between them is purposefully erected in front of the readers. Mrs. Dalloway is practically an autobiography and may be classified as an autobiografiction since it has so many autobiographical components, especially in psychological description. Stephen Reynolds (1881-1919), a British novelist, short story writer, and critic, created the word in 1906. He defines it as follows: A man, usually of an introspective nature, has accumulated a large body of spiritual experiences. He feels that he must out with it;cacothes loquendi is upon him. He invents a certain amount of autobiographical detail, or (which comes to much the same) he selects fromnhis life the requisite amount of autobiographical material, adding perhaps a quantity of purenfiction, and on that he builds the spiritual experience, with that he dilutes it, and makes it coherent and readable. The result is autobiografiction, a literary form more direct and intimate probably than any to be found outside poetry. (Reynolds 28) The author is perplexed by clashing visions when she returns to the novel or her own experiences. She’s explaining herself while also questioning and dissecting her views, characterization, and even the writing and composition process. The oneness of Gowri, the narrator, and the author is declared in the first pages of the Author’s Notes; the entire Book 2 explains this singularity beyond all questions. As the author points out, her memories survive as fragmentary images due to time blurring them, much like the burned bricks that remain as vestiges of the destroyed Indus valley civilization.
C. S Lakshmi notes: The act of writing is always accompanied by doubts, hesitation, despair and anguish. In the process of writing itself there is embellishment, exaggeration and selection. One is constantly holding back certain things and allowing some other elements to gain priority. Writing is not about truth but about experiencing truth in many different ways. Writing cannot reflect reality but it can enhance, diminish and obliterate reality. Sivakami‟s sequel to the novel is about this process of writing, about choosing some and leaving out others, about deep -lying hatred that can alter truth, and about life experiences that change perspectives. (199) The author is perplexed by clashing visions when she returns to the novel or her own experiences. She’s explaining herself while also questioning and dissecting her views, characterization, and even the writing and composition process. The oneness of Gowri, the narrator, and the author is declared in the first pages of the Author’s Notes; the entire Book 2 explains this singularity beyond all questions. As the author points out, her memories survive as fragmentary images due to time blurring them, much like the burned bricks that remain as vestiges of the destroyed Indus valley civilization.
Conclusion
In general, The Grip of Change gives the sense that the incident was treated as a man-versus-woman issue by the upper caste, while the lower caste gave it a caste slant by the lower caste. However, Thangam, a Dalit third-world woman, continues to face problems everywhere. Violence in the physical, emotional, psychological, and religious senses is no longer an issue. Women have been subjugated by patriarchal hands for generations. Thangam’s triple aggression is justifiable in the narrative, raising the problem of dangerous thinking. The societal system obviously violates the caste is her natural right. She is seen as a slave by the Hindu community, and patriarchy treats her as second-class citizen. The reader is given a suggestion towards the end of the book that women’s positions in society are evolving, and
that patriarchy’s duties must evolve as well. And, in the end, Gowri has shown to be the embodiment of such shifts in the novel.
Works Cited
Lakshmi, C S. “Once Upon a Time There Was a Novel”. Appendix. The Grip of Change.By P. Sivakami.Orient Longman, 2006. pp. 198-201.
Nair Pramod, The Politics of form in Dalit Fiction: Bama’s Sangati and Sivkami’s The Grip of Change. International Journal of Gender Studies. 2011. Reynols,Stephen.“Autobiografiction”.blogs.kcl.ac.uk/maxsaunders/autobiografiction/transcription- ofreynolds-essay/. Accessed on 14 April 2021. R, Aparna. (2018). Expression and Suppression of the Self in Sivakami’s The Grip of Change. SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH, 6(11), 23. Retrieved from https://ijellh.com/OJS/index.php/OJS/article/view/5353 5. Sivakami,P. The Grip of Change. Chennai: Orient Longman Private Limited,2006.
Somkuwar, Pratibha. Unjustified Justice in the Grip of Change. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL). Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2014, PP 19-22.