the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

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children -- and Walker's Meridian -- the contrast 1s
glaring.
3.4.1.3. The confrontation between Mrs Hill and Meridian on
the issue of Meridian glving up the child, throws light on
the difference between the passlve feminine attitude and the
conscious emerglng femlnist actltude Mrs fill1 condemns her
daughter as a 'monster' for glving up her child She tells
Merldlan that she ralsed SIX chlldren though she never
wanted to have any Merldlan, though she relects her own
chlld, takes up the cause of the Wild Child and other
chlldren Motherrng, for her, extends beyond the
Constrlct~ons of famlly into a collective, soclal function -
whlle she falls as a personal mother, she succeeds as a
social one.
3.4.2. Whereas in Merldlan, the oppressive effecr of
motherhood is more psycho-social than biologlcal, in Saru,
the averslon to motherhood can be traced back to both
biologlcal and soclal factors In The Dark Holds No
Terrors, Shashl Deshpande strlps off the ha:o around
motherhood, revealrng the palnful reallty that lles at the
core of becoming a mother Motherhood as experience, Saru
comprehends, is a far cry from what has been lngralned ln
her by soclety -- "the miracle of motherhood" (DH 1471,
does not really happen
Like other Deshpande protagonlsts,