T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

and to uphold the moral essence.This "hidden strength" urges Mukherjee's protagonists tosuffer and struggle against a society whose conditions aredemeaning and de-humanizing. Mukherjee's characters do notsuffer passively. They are not prepared to accept their fatessilently. Perhaps, back in India (in a male-dominated society)they had no other alternative, but being In America they wereon the threshold of innumerable alternatives and possibilities.They protest anc rebel-covertly, overtly. While Malamud'sprotag0niStS "suffer" and "struggle" to save thelr life andmorallty in order to secure a human status at par with others,Mukherjee's protagonists "struggle" and "protest" to carve outa human identity equal to others. Again, like Malamud,Mukherlee 1s not prepared to concede that humanity and selfhoodhave completely v~rliiihsd from contemporary ssclety. Therefore,although bet pr8:)taqonlsts are the products of a mass , modernsoclety, whereln they are susceptible or vulnerable to humankeaknesses llke sex, fame and fortune and glven a raw deal byunsympathetic social, cultural or political forces, yet they donot buckle under the sense of doon or degradation.Mukherlee is qulte conscious and allve to the baslcpremise sf ;~:e.the pz ivilege c: mdnjuonidn and the right tollve (wherever you are). These attitutes in Mukherjee'scharacters carry them beyond geographlca: and racial boundaries