Analysis of The Portrayal of The Female Major Characters in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's 'Sister of My Heart'.

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iii Maranatha Christian University

ABSTRACT

Dalam penulisan tugas akhir untuk memenuhi persyaratan memperoleh gelar sarjana Sastra Inggris di Fakultas Sastra Inggris Universitas Kristen Maranatha, saya menganalisis novel karya Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni yang berjudul Sister of My Heart. Hal yang akan saya analisis dari novel ini adalah karakter dari dua wanita yang menjadi tokoh utama dan cara karakter mereka digambarkan serta tujuan dari sang pengarang menggambarkan karakter tersebut.

Novel Sister of My Heart adalah novel yang bercerita tentang dua wanita India yang memiliki karakter yang berbeda namun memiliki persahabatan yang tak terpisahkan oleh apapun. Shuda adalah nama salah satu tokoh wanita utama dari novel ini. Dia adalah wanita penurut, berasal dari golongan kasta rendah. Sedangkan Anju digambarkan sebagai wanita yang pemberontak, berasal dari keluarga yang berada, serta golongan kasta atas. Anju digambarkan berbeda dengan wanita India pada umumnya.

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APPENDICES

Synopsis of Sister of My Heart

Sister of My Heart is a novel which is concerned with two cousins named Shuda and Anju. They were born on the same day and grow up together in the same house in Calcutta India. People in the surroundings consider them twins because they always get together. They experience everything such as love, joy, and pain. They have to hold the traditional cultures that exist in their family, traditions which give them some limitation.

In this novel, the author tries to portray Shuda and Anju as two different characters and social background. Anjali / Anju loves book, is known for speaking her mind, stubborn comes from a higher caste. Basudha / Sudha comes from a lower caste, a storyteller and dreamer, and is known for her beauty.

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another part of India. Shuda finds herself to suffer from the bad treatment from

her husband’s family. Anju has to follow her husband, who work in America and

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Biography of the Author

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni was born in India 1956. She studied in Calcutta University, B.A until 1976 and after that she decided to go to the United States and pursued her study in Wright State University for Master of Art in 1985. She gets her Ph.D from University of California, Berkeley in 1989.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Out of three literary genres, I decide to analyse novel because it is informative. I can gain a lot of information about the author’s ideas and the issues presented in a particular novel. Novel is described as “a lengthy fictitious prose narrative portraying character and presenting an organized series of events and setting. Every novel is an account of life; every novel involves conflict, characters, actions, setting, plot and themes” (Shaw 257). Novel is the medium the author uses to share his/her experiences or things that happen in their society.

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2 Maranatha Christian University Book Award, 1996 and PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award, 1996).(Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni)

I choose to analyse Divakaruni’s Sister of My Heart in this thesis. Sister of My Heart is an expansion of and variation of one of her stories The Ultrasound. I choose this novel because this novel focuses on the limitation that the Indian women have in their life because of their gender and social background. Through this novel, Divakaruni emphasizes on how Indian women deal with their problems because of their gender, social background, and the treatment of the society.

Furthermore, through this novel, Divakaruni portrays two different female major characters. The first one, Shuda is a woman who comes from a lower caste. She is simply lucky because of her beauty. She is portrayed as someone who holds the tradition and in the end has to suffer from of it. The second one, Anju, is portrayed as a rebellious woman. She comes from a higher caste and is known to be someone who speaks her mind openly although she has to bear the conversations, descriptions, reactions, inner thought and reflections, and also thorough the author’s own interpretative commentary” (66). Therefore, I would

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3 Maranatha Christian University their characteristics are very unique and interesting as they both portray two types of Indian women, who suffer from the society and the oppression of the tradition.

Statements of the Problem are:

1. How are the female major characters portrayed in the novel?

2. What is the purposes of the author in portraying the female major characters in the novel?

Purpose of the Study

Based on the statement of the problem above, this study is conducted: 1. To show how the female major characters are portrayed in the novel. 2. To show the purpose of the author in portraying the female major

characters in the novel.

Method of Research

The method of research I use in writing this thesis is library research. I begin by reading Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Sister of My Heart as the primary

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Organization of the Thesis

This thesis consists of four chapters preceded by Abstract, Acknowledgement, and Table of Content. Chapter One is the Introduction, which consists of the Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study, the Methods of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is the Analysis of the Portrayal of Female Major Characters in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Sister of My Heart. Chapter Three is the

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I am going to draw a conclusion from the analysis in the previous chapter. From the analysis, I can see that both female major characters are from different social backgrounds. Shuda comes from a lower caste that cannot do so many things for herself. She only succumbs to her fate. Shuda only dreams of having a happy family, marrying a good man, having children and being a good wife. Different from Shuda, Anju is portrayed as a woman who comes from high caste. She is completely different from her cousin Shuda. It can be seen from their characteristics and their way of thinking. Shuda is more likely to succumb to the restrictive traditional Indian culture. Anju is rebellious, which is probably because of her family wealth and social position that makes her dare to rebel against the traditional Indian culture.

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Out of their differences, it is also clearly shown in the analysis that Shuda and Anju posses similar characteristics. They are caring persons. I believe that this is one characteristic that helps their life. Their supportive relationship, despite their status and social standing, has helped them to overcome the oppression. Even though they posses some differences on their social background and their portrayal but they have an inseparable friendship. It makes them treat each other kindly. They care to show how much they love each other. In my opinion, the way Divakruni shows their inseparable friendship conveys that, through their friendship, both of them can support each other and change their life into a better one. Anju helps Shuda change her characteristic from being dependent into independent.

Shuda is an interesting character. Her characteristic shows the stereotype of Indian women in general who always obey the rules of the tradition and culture. On the other hand, in the end of the story the readers find that she changes from submissive to rebellious one. She dares to change when problem strikes her. She rebels by running away from her husband and his family, and decides to be a single mother. It makes her become an independent woman. It shows that women also have limitations for their obedience. They also have a chance to have a proper life and not to live control. From Shuda’s characteristic, Indian women can be aware that they have chance to change to be someone better.

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women who can not accept their existence and who have to live under the rules and traditions. It can be seen from Anju’s characteristic. She is known for

speaking her mind. She is an open minded person. She is more likely to accept a new culture. Furthermore, Anju’s characteristic can make other women in India

realize that they can be anything they want.

I think Shuda and Anju represent Indian women, who live under tradition and culture which tied their life strongly. From their story, the readers will realize that even though they live in a modern life, they are still expected to hold the old tradition. Moreover, according to me, from Shuda and Anju’s story, the readers

will know that women always be the victim of the society. They are treated differently because of their gender and social background. They should be inferior because of their gender.

Through the female protagonists in the novel the readers also find that women’s obedience also have limitations. In addition, through Anju and Shuda’s

life the readers can find that one’s condition has impact to someone’s life. One

can change one's condition to be better if one wants to change and is supported by one's surrounding.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary text:

Divakaruni, ChitraBanerjee. Sister of My Heart. California: Anchor Books, 1999. References:

“Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni”. Biography. 2009. 12 Aug 2009

<http://biography. jrank.org/pages/426/Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni> Roberts,Edard V. Writing About Literature. 2003. New Jersey: Pearson

Education, Inc.

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: McGraw-Hill Paperback, 1976

“Sister of My heart: A Novel (paperback)” Sister of My Heart (hard cover). 2006. 7 Aug. 2009

<http://www.amazon.com/sister-of-my-heart-chitra-divakaruni/dp/038548951x>

“Woman empowerment” Indian women 010. 15 Apr. 2010.