iii Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Dalam skripsi ini, penulis memilih novel Everything Happens for a Reason karya Kavita Daswani dan Difficult Daughters karya Manju Kapur. Setelah membaca dan menganalisis novel tersebut, penulis mendapati bahwa Priya Sohni, tokoh utama dalam novel Everything Happens for a Reason, memiliki dua sifat yang tidak berubah dari awal hingga akhir cerita yaitu pandai dan bertanggungjawab terhadap kewajiban yang dimilikinya, namun sifat lain dari tokoh itu mengalami perubahan yaitu yang semula bersifat penurut menjadi seorang pemberontak. Karakter Virmati dalam novel Difficult Daughters berbeda dengan karakter Priya Sohni yang memiliki sifat pemberontak dari awal hingga akhir cerita. Virmati juga digambarkan sebagai seorang wanita yang pandai dan suka melakukan sesuatu tanpa memikirkan akibatnya.
ii Maranatha Christian University Synopsis of Everything Happens for a Reason ... 33
Synopsis of Difficult Daughters... 35
Biography of Kavita Daswani ... 36
Biography of Manju Kapur ... 37
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APPENDICES
Synopsis of Everything Happens for a Reason
Priya Sohni is the youngest of four sisters and lives in Delhi. Being different from all her sisters who are against arranged marriage, she accepts a man, who comes from America and who is a stranger to her, to be her husband.
After her wedding ceremony, she lives with her husband and her husband’s family
in America. She is shocked when her parents-in-law ask her to go out to look for a
job in order to help her husband’s cash flow. As a good wife, she fulfills her parents-in-law’s wish and works as a receptionist.
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Synopsis of Difficult Daughters
Virmati, who lives in colonization era in Amritsar, is the first of eleven siblings. Unlike the other girls in her time, she prefers having education although it is rather difficult because India still fights for freedom from the British Raj. By studying, her mind is opened and she is able to learn about uncommon things in her era, such as the equality between man and woman. After finishing her education, she falls in love with her neighbor, Professor Harish who is an educated married man because he treats her as an equal intellectual.
Then, she has to go through an arranged marriage. She refuses it and confesses to her parents that she falls in love with Professor Harish. Due to this, her parents send Virmati to another city to continue her study. Although they are apart, Harish and Virmati always manage to meet. Owing to Harish’s friend’s support, he makes Virmati his second wife.
Coming back to Amritsar as Harish’s second wife, Virmati is despised and marginalized not only by her own family but also by Harish’s family, especially by his first wife. Living with Harish’s family limits her space of movement. Finally, she decides to stay apart from her husband and move to Lahore to do her exams.
A lot of turbulences happen before the Independence of India and cause disorders everywhere. Harish’s family decides to move to his mother’s hometown, whereas, Virmati and Harish live in the camps. She gives birth to her baby there. After the Independence, Harish is offered to be principle in one of the new colleges of Delhi University. They move to a much smaller house in Delhi.
36 Kong. She states that Mumbai is an emotional home for her as well as her Hong Kong-based parents. Because of it, she has written several books that represent her love and passion about Indian culture. Sometimes, she also brings her own life’s experiences into her books.
In 2000, she moved to Los Angeles. She now lives just outside Los Angeles with her husband and two young sons. Kavita Daswani is currently a fashion correspondent for CNN International, CNBC Asia, and Women's Wear Daily. She has written for the Los Angeles Times and the International Herald Tribune among many other publications and has been the fashion editor of the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong.
At the age of thirty-six, she has written four novels. The first one is For Matrimonial Purposes (2003). Then, it was followed by Everything Happens for a Reason and The Village Bride of Beverly Hills (2004). Actually, these two novels are the same books published under different titles. The next one is Salaam Paris, (2006) and the last one is Indie Girl (2007). In 2010, she plans to release her other young adult work. All her books have been published into seventeen languages.
Source: “About Kavita Daswani”, “Few Men Didn’t Like Me Because I Was
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Biography of Manju Kapur
Manju Kapur lives in New Delhi, where she is a professor of English Literature at Miranda House College, Delhi University. She lives in a spacious house in Lutyens Delhi with her husband and their children. Having graduated from Miranda House, Manju Kapur took her MA in English from Dalhousie University in Canada and went on doing her MPhil from Delhi University.
Manju Kapur’s works are famous and characterized by grounded, no-flourishes writing styles. In writing stories and poems, she tries not to stand between the readers and the story. She wants to make the stories as transparent and seamless as possible. She sees that writing is such a solitary activity. She divides her time between her home and the library of the Delhi Gymkhana, where she goes to write and she prefers not meeting anyone. She says that when she starts writing, she has a theme not a story. Then, the story takes shape gradually.
She has written several novels such as, Difficult Daughters (1998), A Married Woman (2002), and Home (2006). These three works have linear plots and the stillness of her prose conceals an acute understanding of social hypocrisies. Despite being yet common, the perception of Kapur’s works is about human foibles. Her first book, Difficult Daughters received the Commonwealth Award for the Eurasian region for the best first book.
Source: “A Meeting with Manju Kapur”, “Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters and
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
I choose Everything Happens for a Reason by Kavita Daswani and Difficult Daughters by Manju Kapur to be analyzed because the works of both novelists deal with Indian women and their tradition. They focus on the limitation faced by Indian women. In her novel, Kavita Daswani tells about “how young Indian girls are trying to break away from their tradition in pursuit of their dreams” (Wands). As an Indian, Kavita Daswani is determined “to represent her
passion and love for the Indian culture” (“Kavita Daswani”). She also wants to
portray Indian women who are trapped between “tradition and ambition” (“Kavita Daswani”).
In this novel, Kavita Daswani also states that “The new generations of Indian women are not just housewives. They are educated and career-minded, which leads them to choose a lifestyle that does not revolve around in-laws and
children” (Seth). In one of the interviews, Daswani strongly argues that her work
2 Maranatha Christian University declares to Indian women that “They are not alone. They don't have to stifle themselves. There are many opportunities to strengthen oneself and still be part of
a traditional family” (“Few Men didn’t Like Me because I was Dark”).
Kavita Daswani’s work is similar to Manju Kapur’s work. “Manju Kapur
speaks, with great narrative eloquence, of the idea of independence” (Rollason). Manju Kapur is really concerned with the independence of Indian women. Throughout her novel, Kapur reveals that women can decide to have education, to choose who will be their husbands and to be independent although they have to contradict the society. The major portion of the novel deals with “how [an Indian woman] is torn between family duty, the desire for education and elicit love” (Sharma). In this novel, Manju Kapur reveals to Indian women that they deserve to get their freedom although they have to be “marginalized and despised by their family” (Rollason).
As Roberts has mentioned, a character is “a verbal representation of a human being as presented to us by authors through the depiction of actions, conversations, descriptions, reactions, inner thoughts and reflections, and also
through the authors’ own interpretative commentary” (66). Therefore, I decide to
3 Maranatha Christian University Statement of the Problem
The statements of the problem as follows:
1. How are the protagonists portrayed in the novels?
2. What are the purposes of the authors in portraying the protagonist in the novels?
Purpose of the Study
Based on the statements of the problem above, this study is done: 1. To show how the protagonists are portrayed in the novels.
2. To show the purposes of the authors in portraying the protagonists in the novels.
Method of Research
The method of research I use in writing this thesis is library research. I
begin by reading Kavita Daswani’s Everything Happens for a Reason and Manju
Kapur’s Difficult Daughters as the primary texts. Furthermore, I gather some
resources and references taken from books and the internet to support my analysis. Finally, I draw some conclusions of what has been discussed.
Organization of the Thesis
4 Maranatha Christian University the Organization of the Major Thesis. Chapter Two is the analysis of the portrayal
of the protagonist in Kavita Daswani’s Everything Happens for a Reason and
Chapter Three is the analysis of the portrayal of the protagonist in Manju Kapur’s
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CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION
After analyzing the portrayal of female protagonists in Everything Happens for a Reason and Difficult Daughters, I would like to draw some conclusions. The protagonist in Kavita Daswani’s Everything Happens for a Reason is Priya Sohni. Some of her characteristics remain the same from the beginning until the end of story. Throughout the story, Priya Sohni is portrayed as a smart and dutiful woman. However, she also experiences a change of characteristic because of her awareness of her own rights. In contrast, all characteristics of the protagonist in Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters, Virmati, remain the same from the beginning until the end of the story. She is portrayed as a smart, rebellious and impulsive person.
27 Maranatha Christian University from India. She becomes a good and dutiful wife and daughter-in-law. One day, she gets rare opportunity to be a journalist. She decides to take the opportunity because she has passion for journalism although her husband’ family does not agree. Her education and experiences cause her to be a critical person who questions many things. It changes her submissive characteristic into a rebellious one.
Then, I find the most dominant characteristic of Virmati, the protagonist Difficult Daughters, is rebellious. She has shown her rebellions since she was still a youth. It can be seen from her actions, such as, demanding to get education, postponing her arranged marriage to her fiance to finish her school, asking her parents to cancel her arranged marriage, trying to commit suicide, and deciding to marry a married man. All of these happen because there are a lot of restrictions for women. Virmati is a woman who has a great passion to make her dream come true; yet, there are a lot of limitations which prevent her to do what she wants. Thus, there is no other way for her except to break them. She also shows her seriousness by trying to kill herself. She hopes that her death would make her surroundings believe she is serious.
After analyzing the portrayal of the female protagonists in Everything Happens for a Reason and Difficult Daughters, I can conclude that both of them write about women. I agree with what Priya has done. She dares to take the risk to
actualize her aspiration although she has to confront her husband’s family. She
28 Maranatha Christian University to develop their talent and to be considered equal to men. Although Priya becomes a rebel, she changes into a better woman. She rebels by doing positive things and advancing in her career.
I also admire Virmati’s courage to actualize her dreams. She dares to do something which is still rare for women in her era, namely to take a risk and oppose society to do what they want. She is eager for education. She is open to new things. She knows that education is beneficial not only for men but also for women. She learns from other women’s life around her. They are busy with the household matters without ever thinking about themselves. Therefore, she wants to be educated in order to have a better life. She wishes that she can voice her thoughts and do what she wants.
Through the two characters, both authors reveal the struggle of women to show their existence in society. Priya and Virmati are strong women and that is how women should be when they are under a lot of restrictions. Both of them demonstrate that women can actualize their wishes. The protagonists also show that women can do something to have a better life, such as to have an occupation. This would make society admit women’s existence and they would also appreciate women.
The matter which differentiates Priya Sohni and Virmati’s struggle is their
29 Maranatha Christian University From both novels, I learn about women’s struggle. A lot of women surrender when they are prohibited to achieve their dreams; however, the protagonists inspire me not to be a desperate person. They teach me that women have the same right as men to decide for themselves. Women are not only the followers of their husbands but they are equal to their partners. They also have the right to decide, especially if it concerns her family. So, when a woman feels that she is too dominated by others, she has to stand up for herself.
I also learn that a woman can be smart or successful. However, she is still a woman by nature. She has to obey to the norms in the society or in her own family. I think a successful or smart career woman can not abandon her duty as a daughter, wife, mother, or daughter-in-law. Moreover, a married woman should be successful in her career and in her family as well. She has to be able to divide her time between working outside the house and taking care of her family. Besides, she has to be able to give quality time for her family.
Then, I get a motivating idea about education. Education is very important for everyone. Like men, women also have to have education. An illiterate married woman has to rely on her husband. She could only take care of the household matters and most probably she will be dominated by her husband. That is why a woman also has to go to school. She will be educated and be able to have an occupation outside the house. If something wrong happens with her marriage, she can be an independent person. She can earn her own money. She can support herself and her children.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Texts:
Daswani, Kavita. Everything Happens for a Reason. UK: HarperCollins, 2004. Kapur, Manju. Difficult Daughters. London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1998.
References:
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“Kavita Daswani.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 2009. 17 Aug. 2009
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Roberts, Edgar V. Writing about Literature. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2003.
Rollason, Christopher. “Women on the Margins: Reflections on Manju Kapur's
Difficult Daughters.” The Atlantic Literary Review 5 (2004): 177-184.
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<http://www.getcited.org/pub/103423055>
Seth, Sasha. “Everything Happens for a Reason by Kavita Daswani.” The Asian
Review of Books on the Web. 2004. 17 Aug. 2009
32 Maranatha Christian University Sharma, Ram. “A Study of Manju Kapoor`s Novel Difficult Daughters.”
Goarticles.com: The Web’s Largest Free Content Article Directory. 2009. 17 Aug. 2009
<http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1000612>
Singh, Amardeep. “Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughter and Indian Food
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Singh, Jai Arjun. “A Meeting with Manju Kapur.” Jabberwock. 2008. 17 Aug.
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“The Culture of Arranged Marriages in India.” indiamarks.com. Noreen. 2009. 21 Sept. 2009
<http://www.indiamarks.com/guide/The-Culture-of-Arranged-Marriages-in-India/961/>
Wands, D. C. “About Kavita Daswani.” Fantastic Fiction. 2009. 1 Sept. 2009
