T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

1975,56) He believes that art celebrates life and gives us ourmeasure.In Malamud's novels, the element of protest is alwaysparadoxically implicit or indirect and it is very effectivelyprojected in the context of the novel. Particularly striking ishis sense of protest at the Jew's suffering, which is highlycontrolled, never assuming alarming proportions. Violence isalways hlnted at as a way out, but is never resorted to insolving the Jew's problems in America. But Mukherjee's writingsare marked by a protest that becomes more and more direct,explicit and very specific. Violence 1s not only hinted at,but resorted to increasingly as a way out of achieving acoloured identity in Amerlca. Mukherjee's writings arecharacterised by violent protest and trace the progression ofher coloured consciousness. This progression of herconsciousness becomes a movement from a state of despair to asense of ethical totality thereby showing a continuous movementtowards affiramtion of her own coloured identity.Mukherjee reverses conventional connotations of"blackness" and "whiteness" glven by the malnstream Americanwriter and arrlves at new interpretations to the metaphysics ofcolour. In America, the colour equation matters, especially foran immigrant. White colour is not equal to black or lightercolours. Especially for the new comers the colour of the skin