T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

those values whose absence from our society is the cause ofhis/her predicament and ours.It is factuous, therefore to say that recent fictionis devoid of values. The 'ethic' which the new heroprojects is inductive; it is defined existentiallyby his actions and even more by his passions. Thisaccounts for the shifts and evasions, the ironiesand ambiguities, the self-made quality of hismorality. (Hassan 1962,6)Mukherjee deprcts the problems faced by the Indian andother Thlrd World lmmlgrants who attempt to assimilate intoNorth American life styles. She focuses upon sensitiveprotagonists who lack a stable sense of personal and culturalidentity. These characters get victimised by racism, sexism andother forms of social oppression. Much of Mukherjee's fiction1s informed by her personal experiences. In her first novel,TheDauahter Mukherjee presents a satirical portralt ofIndlan soclety from the perspective of Tara BanerjeeCartwright, a young expatriate who 1s not yet accustomed toAmerican culture yet is estranged from the moralsand Valuesof her native land. Returning to India to visit her family,Tara who 1s married to a North Amerlcan is shocked byCalcutta's poverty and squalor amidst politlcal uprisings. Thebook's strength and orlginallty come from its author's subtleuse of her herolne. Unable to adjust to her earlier ethos as acompassionate Indian, the reader gradually discovers that it is