Giving voices to suppressed groups or individuals is recognized as a preoccupation of contemporary writing. Discuss contemporary works which you have studied with this preoccupation in view

Authors Avatar

Giving voices to suppressed groups or individuals is recognized as a preoccupation of contemporary writing. Discuss contemporary works which you have studied with this preoccupation in view; say how successful the attempt is and how you respond to it in each case.

Two transcendental novels set in different countries first written in two dissimilar languages, yet both depicted the oppression of individuals as a preoccupation of contemporary writing. In Margaret Atwood’s superlative novel The Handmaid’s Tale the protagonist is confined in the puritanical system of the rigid Republic of Gilead. In contrast, Tita from the periodical novel Like Water for Chocolate is restrained by her tyrannical mother’s pronouncement to conform to tradition.

One of the social concerns dealt with in Laura Esquivel’s novel was the restriction of marriage of women if born the youngest daughter of the family. In Like Water for Chocolate, the protagonist, in falling in love with Pedro and born as the youngest child of the De La Garza family, was destined to live a miserable life. Her flood of tears that had cascaded down when she was born symbolized a sorrowful life. The birth room-the kitchen, foreshadowed the strong ties that Tita’s life were to have with the kitchen and food, ‘it [kitchen] is a source of knowledge and understanding that generates life and pleasure.’-Laura Esquivel Tita struggled to appease Mama Elena’s propriety that was revealed through the symptoms and illnesses caused by Tita’s food in her attempt (if not purposefully) to ruin her sister Rosaura’s wedding. ‘Everyone there, every last person, fell under this spell … that seized the guests [of Rosaura’s wedding] and scattered them across the patio and the grounds and into the bathrooms … collectively vomiting … wailing over lost love.’ 

Join now!

It is natural to think that a birth mother would have her child’s best interest in mind. On the contrary, however, Mama Elena treated tradition as a far more important issue than her daughter’s welfare. There was no love present in Tita and Mama Elena’s relationship. In one of Tita’s outbursts, she screamed at Mama Elena, ‘I know who I am! I am a person who has a perfect right to live her life as she pleases. Once and for all, leave me alone; I won’t put up with you! I hate you! I hate you, I’ve always hated ...

This is a preview of the whole essay