Hello and welcome to the Discourse. ‘Fasting, Feasting’ is a novel by Anita Desai that was published in the year 1999. The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for fiction in 1999 and was judged the runner-up. The novel offers a contrast between two different cultures and that contrast is silverlined by the title ‘Fasting, Feasting.’ Fasting represents the Indian culture known for its pious and longstanding customs. Feasting, on the other hand, represents the American culture suggesting opulence and sumptuousness. Despite this difference, the problems faced by individuals and society as a whole in both cultures appear similar.
The novel's themes include the importance of individuality and autonomy and how family ties can be suffocating for an individual. The novel hints at the ills of Patriarchy and the ill-treatment of women in both cultures. The author also offers a contrast between two religions (Hinduism & Christianity) and describes both of them as restrictive and oppressive for women.
Characters of Fasting, Feasting:
Uma is the central character of the novel. She is the eldest daughter of a conservative Indian family. She has faced discrimination for being a girl since her childhood. She is middle-aged now and single. She has "frazzled" grey hair and spectacles. Uma seeks freedom against family control. She wishes to explore the world. She is delighted when she gets a chance to travel with Mira-Masi. Aruna is Uma’s younger sister. She too faces similar discrimination but she is prettier than Uma and she is rebellious. She gets her way often because she has many prospects for marriage, unlike Uma. She marries a man of her choosing and moves to Bombay, where she lives a sophisticated life. Arun is the youngest child of the family. He was born late in his mother's life but was considered a blessing because he was a boy. He is a weak, sickly child. Mira Masi is a distant relative of Uma. She was widowed at an early age and then she turned spiritual and devoted her life to worshipping Lord Shiva. She tries to help Uma. Mother Agnes is the principal of Uma’s school. Her parents decide to stop her education and Uma begs Mother Agnes to help her but Mother Agnes refuses to help her out. Papa is the father of Uma. He is a successful lawyer. He is taciturn, rigid in his thinking, and strict in his treatment of his daughters. He is immensely proud to have a son. Papa is highly influenced by British culture and embraces many traits of Western life. He despises Arun for being vegetarian and wishes him to play cricket, and use the English language. Mama is Papa’s wife. When she was sixteen years old, her father married her to Papa. She is happy to be the wife of a successful influential man and remains subservient to him. At times, it appears she is more patriarchial than Papa. Dr. Dutt is a family friend and doctor. Like Mira Masi, she realizes the troubles of Uma and tries to help her by involving her in social work but Mama and Papa oppose her. Anamika is Uma’s cousin and daughter of Bakul Uncle and Lila Aunty. Like Mama-Papa, her parents are also patriarchial. Anamika is a beautiful girl and a brilliant student who won a chance and scholarship to go to Oxford University. However, her parents insist that further studies are useless and marry her to a rich and educated person. Her husband turns out to be sadistic and abusive. Her in-laws too torture her and she succumbs to death. Mrs. Joshi is a friendly neighbor of the family. Her husband loved and cared for her. But she had a spiteful mother-in-law like Anamika’s but she survived with the help of her husband. Ramu is Anamika’s younger brother. He is sickly and is hunchbacked. Arvind is Aruna’s husband who loves her. Aisha and Dinesh are Arind and Aruna’s children. Mrs. O’Henry is the wife of a Christian missionary in the U.S. Mrs. Patton is her sister. Mrs. Patton is a generous and kind woman but she doesn’t care much about her family. She is more worried about how she looks. Mr. Patton is her husband. He is a generic suburban father who likes to watch sports and BBQ. He is gruff, self-interested, and intolerant of any perceived threat to his authority. Rod is their son and Melanie is Mrs. Patton’s daughter. While Rod is friendly to Arun, Melanie is hostile towards him. It turns out that she is addicted and bulimic.
Summary of Fasting, Feasting:
The story of the novel is told from a third-person omniscient perspective by an anonymous narrator and the narration shifts between the past and present tenses. The novel is written in two parts.
The story begins in a small town in India where Uma and her younger sister are growing up in a traditional middle-class family. Both go to a convent school. Arnua is younger and prettier than Uma. When Aruna was born, her parents were disappointed because they wished for a son. Their parents, Mama and Papa are very restrictive and try to control their daughters in every way possible. They try to teach them domestic, traditionally feminine skills. Uma takes little interest in marriage or household chores. Though she is not a brilliant student, she likes going to school because it allows her a bit of freedom against her controlling parents. However, she continues to fail in her exams. Her parents always wished to have a son and when Uma’s mother gives birth to her son Arun, Papa insists that Uma must stop going to school and help her mother in taking care of the house. Uma tries to resist and runs away to the convent school, seeking the help of Mother Agnes. However, Mother Agnes shows her inability to help her because of her failing grades. Uma suffers her first seizure and falls on the floor. She is brought back to the house which becomes a jail for her. Because she tried to run away to the convent, her parents became more restrictive and cautious. They blame the convent school and Mother Agnes for trying to convert their daughter to Christianity. Aruna continues to go to school though she too is not a brilliant student. Uma’s cousin Anamika is everything that Uma isn’t. She is a beautiful girl, a brilliant student beloved by everyone.
As they grow old, Anamika continues to excel in education and gets the opportunity to go to Oxford University, but her parents, Lily Aunty and Bakul Uncle don’t allow her to go. Instead, they marry her off to the wealthiest, most educated man they can find. Anamika’s husband turns out to be a sadist and cruel person. Uma learns that Anamika’s husband and her mother-in-law often beat her for no obvious reason.
Meanwhile, Mama-Papa are trying to find a suitable match for Uma but men show little interest in her, preferring her younger sister. Uma faced three failed marriage attempts including two dowry scams. Finally, a man agrees to marry her. He is of the age of Papa, Uma’s father, and appears reluctant while marrying her. Later on, Mama-Papa and Uma learn that he is already married and has children. He married Uma only to claim the money for the dowry. Later on, he abandons Uma. Mama and Papa give up on trying to marry Uma off and she literally becomes a house servant.
Aruna is now a beautiful grown-up woman who gets many marriage proposals. She chooses Aravind, one of them who is a wealthy businessman from Bombay. She moves to Bombay and the family does not see her often. Uma continues to serve as the house servant while Papa, now retired, and Mama continue to order her around. She has no escape and she finds her own house suffocating. She thinks of writing a letter to someone to vent her frustrations. But she wonders to whom she may write a letter? She has a friend Mrs. Joshi who lives next door. It will be odd to write a letter to her. She may write to Aruna but she is too busy with her married life now when she is the mother of two children. Uma thinks of writing to Anamika but she doesn’t know if she is alive. She thinks of writing a letter to Ramu, her cousin, Anamika’s brother, but she doesn’t know where is he nowadays.
Neglected and confined, Uma tries whenever possible to get away from home. On one occasion, her relative Mira-masi, a religious widow who travels the country freely, tricks MamaPapa into letting her bring Uma with her to an ashram, or pilgrimage house. Mira-Masi tells Uma’s father that Uma’s marriage failed because Lord Shiva wants her to serve him and asks him to let Uma go to the ashram with her. At the Ashram, Uma feels highly spiritual, and one day, while bathing in a river she suffers a seizure again. There, Uma wanders around freely and happily for a month, until MamaPapa sends her cousin Ramu to bring her back. On returning, she continues to suffer again. Other women of the society notice her predicament and try to help her out. Mrs. Joshi and other neighbors invite her to socialize and mix with them but Mama-Papa continues to oppose her going out. Doctor Dutt, a family friend visits their house and asks Uma to begin working with her but Papa strictly refuses to let her go. Mama-Papa becomes so insecure about Uma that when she falls ill and her eyes become painful, Papa refuses to allow her to seek medical care. One day, Uma learns that Anamika is found dead, burnt alive. Nobody knows if she committed suicide or if was she killed by her husband and mother-in-law. Lily Aunty and Bakul uncle visit their house before distributing the ashes of Anamika in Ganga.
Meanwhile, Arun had been a weak child. He had little interest in education but he found school better than his house. Arun prefers vegetarianism while his father tries to force him to eat non-vegetarian food so that he may become strong. Papa is influenced by Western culture and wishes Arun to learn English, play cricket, and learn the ways of modern Western people. Arun prefers calm Indian ways. After much hard work, Arun wins a scholarship to study in America. When he arrives in Massachusetts, he tiredly withdraws, spending his first year in school by himself. When the school year ends, he is forced, by circumstances and his parents’ arrangements, to rent a room in the Patton family home during the summer break. Arun, thrust into yet another family web of conflict and obligation, is forced to confront a uniquely American brand of familial alienation and dysfunction. Arun finds that each member of the Patton family is lost in the patterned daily ritual of mindless consumerism and spiritual alienation. Mrs. Patton is the sister of Mrs. O’Henry, the wife of a Christian missionary whom Arun’s father knows. Mr. and Mrs. Patton has two kids, son Rod and daughter Melanie. While Rod is rude, and boasting but friendly to Arun, Melanie is hostile against him. Arun feels like a fish out of water in the suburbs–he is a vegetarian in a land of carnivores, he does not share anyone’s interests, and many of the American customs seem strange and very wasteful. That summer Mrs. Patton tries to make Arun feel welcome, becoming a vegetarian herself and inviting him to go grocery shopping with her. Her attention makes him feel uncomfortable, as does the strained family dynamic. Arun finds that Mr. Patton is rude, impatient, and always angry at his family members. He is too controlling and prefers to dominate everyone. Mrs. Patton is generous and kind but often succumbs to her husband and hardly cares for her kids. Rod is often away from home as he remains busy in car racing and football. Melanie, on the other hand, is reclusive and has got addicted to overeating. Arun notices that she is suffering from bulimia and tries to inform Mrs. Patton about it but she ignores him. Ironically, while the family freezers and cupboards are overflowing with food, the household is starved of nourishing warmth, love, and genuine community. One day in the grocery store, a cashier tells Mrs. Patton that she looks pregnant. Mrs. Patton becomes obsessed with sun tanning, further neglecting her daughter.
After some days, Mrs. Patton invites Arun to visit a local pond along with Melanie. Arun delightedly enjoys the feeling of escaping himself when swimming. Later, while Mrs. Patton is sunbathing, Arun goes to look for Melanie, who has disappeared. He finds her half-conscious in a pile of her own vomit. Mrs. Patton soon arrives, shocked at what she sees.
Finally, Melanie is admitted to a rehabilitation center. Arun receives a packet full of homemade sweets sent by Uma. He gifts the packet to Mrs. Patton and goes back to his college. Arun spends most of his time alone and isolated and tries his best to escape from Western society but in vain. He learns that families in both cultures suffer similar problems, despite the vast difference.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the Indian English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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