Aency in Helen Benedict’s Sand Queen

Abstract

Analyzing Helen Benedict’s Sand Queen(2011), the present research claims that agency plays a vital role in shaping and articulating choices of the people even in the most uneven of the times like the war. Making a detailed study of two of the characters in the context of Iraqi war, this paper attempts to see the ways in which their choices arenegotiated in the critical time. Kate is an American soldier in the prisonguardguard. Kate who became friend withs Naema, an Iraqui medical science student.This study focuses on the way people face their bad times during the war. It shows the consequences of war and their effect in the individuality of people involved in it.Benedict presents the real picture of war and its consequence spenalty. By applying the theories of inner psychology as developed by John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and Charles Taylor, this study presents approaches Kate and Naema as the major characters who assert them selves amid the war. Key words: Agency, Free Will, War and Gender, Iraqi War, Arab Women, Choice