T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

seeing her problems as an individual. Here it is a differenttype of violence - Ann is leading a life of quiet desperation.The complaints within the story of discrimination against~ndian and other immigrants are balanced by Ann's problems asan individual. Tacit acceptance of "male exploiting female''weakness as part of any culture continues mainly because ofattitudes to the woman's role in the family and society whereman's authority and the rhetorlc of male support have remainedunchanged and unchallenged. The stories in Darkness revealBharati Mukherjee's attempt to present myths about masochistic,crazy, uneducated, low class, minorlty women from India,Pakistan and Canada. Considered more socially vulnerable andphysically unable to fend off attack, these women represent theidealised recipients of paternal caring. Law and orderenthusiasts stress that a major benefit of law abidingsocieties is the protection of its women from crime.In all these episodes involving Jasmine death is aprevailing factor. Yama is the god of death in Indianmythology. Villagers in India invoke him when they see death.They say when "a clay pitcher breaks.. . the air inside it isthe same as outside... .. Vimala set herself on flre because shehad broken her prtcher .... We are just shells of the sameAbsolute" (Jasmine, 15) The myth of the pitcher appears againwhen Jasmine's father is reminded of his Lahore days: "But that