Exploring the Formation of Women’s Identity and Subjectivity in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Before We Visit the Goddess

Abstract

This research is carried out to explore the formation of women’s identity and subjectivity in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Before We Visit the Goddess and how men have played an immense role in directing women to value their identity. In designing the study, it was assumed that no matter how modernized the society and the extent rebellious women have become, they still seek the paternal denomination over them. The researcher put forwards the finding where men have a vital role in making the identity of the female character in a novel and every female character quest for the fatherly figure, which the author herself shows by ending three-generational women chain with the born of a baby boy at the concluding part of the novel. Besides these, research also unfolds the other factors such as displacement, in-betweenness, and cultural shift responsible for establishing women’s identity in this text. In this novel, three women Sabitri, Bela, and Tara, who have the ambition to have a good life, later suffer from their life partners and are left alone to struggle in life. All of them are detached from each other, struggle a lot, and finally understand the value of womanhood and get reconciled.