Riya as a Radical Feminist in Chetan Bhagat's Half Girlfriend

Abstract

This thesis attempts to highlight the feminist attributes of the main female character, Riya. The major focus is on patriarchal domination and Riya’s revolt against male dominated society. Through the love affairs between Madhav and Riya Somani, Chetan Bhagat presents Riya as a radical feminist. She revolts against the patriarchal domination upon females to establish a society that allows freedom of choice for females and keeps males and females on the equal footing. The research started with the argument that Riya's rebellion against patriarchal system of gender discrimination and female exploitation is based on radical feminism. With this argument the main problem in course of the research was what activities Riya executed to attain her goals and how and why she acted that way. The study has found a lot of grounds to support the argument with evidence for the solutions to the problem. Therefore, the study has concluded that the activities done by Riya are all based on radical feminism as they are oriented towards the eradication of the patriarchal exploitation rather than just reformation of it. Radical feminism has been used as the tool of analysis.