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GROUP MEMBER
The BrideBy
Bapsi Sidhwa
TOPIC
AUTHOR
*BORN ON AUGUST 11, 1938, IN KARACHI, PAKISTAN.*SIDHWA WAS BORN TO PARSI. * BA from Kinnaird College for Women in Lahore in 1957*She was two when she contracted polio *She describes herself as a "Punjabi-Parsi-Pakistani”.
famous Quote:
"I feel if there's one little thing I could do, it's to make people realize: We are not worthless because we inhabit a country which is seen by Western eyes as a primitive, fundamentalist country only. . .I mean, we are a rich mixture of all sorts of forces as well, and our lives are very much worth living."
The Crow Eaters (novel) 1978
The Bride (novel) 1981
Ice-Candy-Man (novel) 1988;
An American Brat (novel) 1993
MAJOR WORK
*Bapsi Sidhwa is an acclaimed Pakistani writer, whose focus is on women’s experience in the time of Partition in India.*In her humorous style, use of Urdu word, irony, use of black comedy. She presents her characters in the light of universal foibles and follies, making the effects of large-scale social, political, and economic upheaval personal and poignant .
STYLE
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Book: The Bride
Author:Bapsi Sidhwa
Publisher: Penguin Book India
Written in: 1981
Language: English
INTRODUCTION OF NOVEL: “THE BRIDE”
1.Ziaton(Protagonist)
2.Qasim(zaitoon father)
3.Carol(American girl)
4.Sakhi(zaitoon husband)
5.Nikka pehelwan(friend of qasim)
MAJOR CHARACTER
Arbab(Qasim father)Afshan(Qasim wife)ARehsham khan(Qasim father in law)Sikander&zohra(Real parents of zaitoon)Nusrat(Zaitoon friend)Miriam(Nikka wife)Shahnaz(Dancer)Misri khan(Qasim cousin)Major MushtaqFarukh(Carol husband)Asihiq(Military men)
MINOR CHARACTER
Zaitoon’s story has three divisions:
PROTAGONIST
Childhood. Marriage fixing episode . Voyage to the hills, and her struggle for existence and survival.
Zaitoon is a child of partition time. At the age of four she loses her parents.
She is brought up by Qasim, who adopts her, and grows up in Qila Gujjar Singh, Lahore.
Qasim fixes her marriage at sixteen with Sakhi. He is the son of Qasim’s cousin, Misri Khan.
Miriam, Mushtaq and Ashiq try to convince Qasim about the differences of the Punjabi andKohistani cultures, and opine that the marriage would be a complete failure.
Zaitoon also shows here strong unwillingness, but Qasim is determined and threatens to kill her if she does not agree.
Zaitoon’s agony starts at the next day of marriage. Her husband, a tyrant figure,beats her even at a slightest issue.
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The Bride deals with the repression of women in the Pakistani society.
INTRODUCTION
The novel is based on a true story narrated to Sidhwa when with her family, she stayed at an army camp.
The novel reflects conflict among man, woman, nature.
The central story is of Zaitoon’s. Carol’s story is its foil. Nikka’s story of his rise from a Panwalla to a strongman of Lahore is also captivating.
.
The reader encounters some smaller stories of Sikandar, Zohra, and Qasim earlier in the novel.
In the novel, the girl is not killed; she safely crosses the bridge.
. It shows tension among different cultures as well.
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*Sidhwa’s strong characters are women.
*The Bride deals with the repression of women in Pakistani society
*She criticized the brutality of the tribal code of honors and the ruthless customs of their daily existence.
A FEMINISTIC ANALYSIS
The term ‘wife’ in our society, Sidhwa reveals, is not a fixed and closed term.
TheWomen of the household have an unfixed, unlimited, ambiguous, and always changing set of rules to observe.
Men, either they are husbands, fathers, or brothers are the generators of those rules.
Words of ‘shame’, ‘honor’, and ‘social position’ have meanings only for women.
Men are free of such moral and religious bonds.
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Kamala Edwards has observed that:
“Sidhwa is a feminist and realist. One sees in her women characters the strength of passion, the tenderness of love, and the courage of one’s convictions. They struggle to overcome the hurts of time and escape the grip of a fate in whose hands they are often mere puppets.”
CRITICS VIEW
Zaitoon is a symbol of human spirit which struggles against all odds but exists with integrity.
She is a representative of the strength of a woman, in fatigable, Unyielding and irrepressible .
The Pakistani Bride is a stunning novel based on passion, lust, cruelty, murder, power, and sensuality, written in a highly engrossing manner to keep the readers glued to the very end.
CONCLUSION
