International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN (Online): 2319-7064 Impact Factor (2012): 3.358 Volume 3 Issue 5, May 2014 www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY Attaining Selfhood through Disillusionment in ‘That Long Silence’ Parul Yadav Amity School of Liberal Arts, Amity University, Haryana, India Abstract: In India girls are supposed to be the alien's wealth and must be sent off to some stranger's house. An identity of a woman is always screened with an anxiety, which you experience when you feel vulnerable and insecure, because of the norms of patriarchal society. Though woman is divided between her natural and cultural roles, both of them still assign only a submissive, secondary and marginal role to her. Shashi Deshpande’s novels represent the contemporary woman's struggle to define and accomplish a sovereign selfhood. The problem of identity, the contradiction of being both oneself and fitting a traditional role as a 'good daughter', 'good wife' or ' good mother’ occurs frequently in writing by women. Related to this theme is the propensity to define oneself in terms of others. That Long Silence's Jaya's sense of her identity is never certain. She is deplumed between Jaya, herself and specially her juvenile self, told by her father that she could accomplish something in the world. This paper is an attempt to depict Women's struggle, in the context of coeval Indian society, to find and preserve her identity as wife, as mother and most important of all as mortal being. Keywords: identity, suppression, silence. Individual, realistic 1. Introduction Every very human being is the product of many cross- cutting, multi- layered identities. For instance, a vital part of my identity is defined by my gender. But I am also (among other things) a daughter, a sister, a college teacher, a writer, a Punjabi, a Hindu, a resident of a particular neighbourhood, and citizen of India. Most identities (e.g., those based on nationality, religion, language) are acquired or mutable. A few are fixed and immutable, such as biological parentage. Identity based on native land, village or locale where a person is born and reared are also fixed. [Madhu 250] These lines by Madhu Kishwar express the relevance of identity for a human being. A person takes step in carrying out to attribute a source of identity if he or she comprehends it as suppression especially in those conditions when this identity comes in a way of personal, social and economical well being. A woman intentionally conceived of identity as a woman only on that elite juncture when she is recognized or experienced the difference of impairment because of her gender. If a woman seems to be immured because of her gender, society is holding accountability in this regard to fit snugly that identity level on them, as, “Motherhood, which is an enriching experience for many women and a key component of their self- identification often becomes a terrible burden for women under current societal pressures. Too often, young girls, who are not yet ready for marriage are forced into marriage and early motherhood. Too many women cannot decide for themselves when and how many children to have. A woman denied control over her own identity as a woman for want of any prospect of escape from her oppression”. [Madhu 251] Shashi Deshpande’s protagonists are those women who are struggling to find their own voice and are continuously in search to specify them. She is wreathed with state of affairs and keyed the troubles as the juncture of identity amidst growing laissez-faire conventions of conduct, love of the existential as well as realistic beliefs and modalities of manifestations which had, if not deracinated altogether at least jolted disadvantageously the fine-spun sapling of conventional Indian society. The identity question Shashi Deshpande deals with is as old as human cosmos. Ever since man became cognizant of his self he made pace towards accomplishing it. Obtaining identity need not be likened with existential genuineness. Her characters are concerned with their 'selves' and they determine to be honest to themselves. Being true to one's self (not as being true in the sense that nature, culture demands of you) is the wisdom that Deshpande's protagonist learns. Culture allows woman to be a daughter or a sister in her parental home and to be a wife and mother in her husband's home. In accession, she has to play a professional role if she is a working woman. Above all, nature arrogates her, a sex- based role wherein she is limited biologically. Though she is divided between her natural and cultural roles, both of them still assign only a submissive, secondary and marginal role to her. The note of dissent against women's existing attitude in society, found its expression in her novels. The suppression and exploitation of women is viewed here in her novels from a woman's point of view. Deshpande's novels are committed to a purpose; they portray women struggling against iniquity done to them and then trying to establish their own identity in the male prevailing society. Women being sensitive, intelligent, career-oriented middle class woman of changed time feel asphyxiation and cooped (encaged) in the male defined codes of life. The consciousness of changed time and the socio-cultural modalities and values that has given them defined roles lead women to the conflicts, psychic and moral dilemmas. In the novel, The Long Silence which gives an impression of being autobiographical Deshpande writes about the life of Paper ID: 020132070 1413