Orientalist Gaze in Patricia McCormick's Sold

Abstract

This research explores the orientalist gaze of the writer Patricia McCormick who, while writing about a Nepali woman’s socio-economic condition, dwells on the binaries like one and other, civilized and uncivilized, rational and emotional etc, thereby assigning the negative attributes to the ‘oriental’ third world women. In Sold Lakshmi, the protagonist, is portrayed as dreamy, money-minded, meek and non-resistant woman confined in the traditional norms of society. By taking the case of Lakshmi, the writer not only exoticizes the reality of Nepali women but also tries to generalize the issue to the whole Nepali society. McCormick develops her orientalist perspective by using the American characters to rescue Nepalese women from the brothel. The Americans carry with them the ‘burden’ of rescuing the victims as they come with the promises of safety and freedom. But their project turns out to be a tool of exercising the power over the helpless ‘oriental’ women, thereby creating discourses about them.