Women’s Quest for Selfhood: A Feminist Reading of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Sister of My Heart and The Vine of Desire

Abstract

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's specialty is the challenges women face in finding and reclaiming their selves as wives, mothers and, most significantly, human beings in contemporary Indian culture. Sister of My Heart and The Vine of Desire are realistic books, both with a mythology, folktales and fairy tales about India and the Hindu faith.  The story of this novel explores the struggle and suffering the characters go through as they skillfully negotiate between the conventional and the modern worlds and how these individuals develop as a result of striking a balance between their long-cherished beliefs and unexpectedly modern aspirations. This research article intended to examine various hegemony, patriarchy and other issues in the Eastern and Western contexts. It also shows the conflict of a woman trying to find her own existence by creating her own identity.