Concept of war and patriarchy in Ice Candy Man
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This document provides an analysis of Bapsi Sidhwa's novel "Ice Candy Man" through a feminist lens. It discusses key themes of the novel such as patriarchy, the oppression of women in patriarchal societies, and the impact of war and political violence. Specifically, it analyzes the characterization of the female protagonists Lenny and her Ayah Shanta, and how they represent challenges to patriarchal norms. It also examines how the novel depicts the violence and human costs of the partition of India through the experiences of the ethnic minority Parsi community in Lahore. Overall, the document argues that Sidhwa uses "Ice Candy Man" to portray women's issues and provide a "gyn
Concept of war and patriarchy in Ice Candy Man
- 1. By: Maria Aleem & Anam Sultana CONCEPT OF WAR AND PATRIARCHY IN ICE CANDY MAN
- 2. FEMINISM
- 3. • Feminism is a cultural, political and intellectual movement. • It recognizes the fact of oppression of women • It is the belief and aim that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men • Themes explored in feminism include discrimination, stereotyping, objectification, oppression and patriarchy.
- 4. Simon de Beauvoir says: “Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female – whenever she behaves as a human being, she is said to imitate male.”
- 5. In her novel The Pakistani Bride, Sidhwa depicts poignantly the exploitation of women in patriarchal society as, “Women the world over, through the ages, asked to be murdered, raped, exploited, enslaved, to get importunately impregnated, beaten up, bullied and disinherited. It was an immutable Law of nature.” (Page, 226).
- 8. • significant testament of a gynocentric view of reality • feminine psyche and experiences are presented with a unique freshness • Sidhwa turns the female protagonists into the moral center • male characters either remain passive or indulge in violence. • The female characters in Ice candy-Man pulsate with a will and life of their own.
- 9. Theme of Patriarchy • Ice-Candy-Man was published in America under the title of Cracking India in 1991 • potent voice among the modern feminist writers • The only Parsee woman to write on the theme of partition • focuses attention on the rapidly changing scenario in her Parsee polity and culture
- 10. • Deals with the partition crisis, the Parsee milieu, and the problems of Asian women and theme of marriage. • This novel highlights feminist concerns about women’s issues, particularly their experience of victimization and suppression within patriarchal societies
- 11. • Its protagonists are mostly women and each of them represents a way of life that either colludes with the premises of patriarchy or else challenges the patriarchal repressiveness in the most unassuming manner.
- 12. CHARACTERIZATION
- 13. • Ice-Candy-man presents female psyche • The female characters are aware and very much confident of their individuality like Lenny, her ayah Shanta, her mother and god mother • In a patriarchal society all the good qualities are associated with males and all the weakness is with female but in Ice Candy man all the strong qualities are associated with female
- 14. Lenny
- 15. • Lenny, the narrator in Ice-Candy-Man is also the center of the novel, retaining her independent identity in diverse situations. • Lenny is the daughter of a Parsee gentleman and she suffers from a limp in one leg. She lives in a close and compressed world.
- 16. • She is a keen observer. Her physical movement is restricted due to her infirmity. It is only her Hindu Ayah Shanta who is her true companion. When Shanta is abducted, she feels herself Ayahless and alone in the world.
- 18. • The lameness of the narrator – protagonist is suggestive of handicap, a woman creative writer faces, but when she decides to wield the pen, because writing is an intellectual exercise, is considered a male bastion, outside the routine of women ; submissive domesticity. Her recuperation symbolizes the over – coming of the constraint on the intellectual activity of writing by Bapsi Sidhwa
- 19. • By making Lenny the narrator of the novel, the novelist lends weight and validity to the feminine perspective on the nature of surrounding reality. • In the novel Lenny’s cousin remains cousin throughout the novel without any identity. It shows equality of gender. Lenny is strong enough and wise that she doesn’t allow him to take advantage of her disability who wanted to manipulate her sexually but could not.
- 20. Shanta (Ayah)
- 21. A major part of the novel’s discussion is cent red on Lenny’s Ayah Shanta. She is a Hindu girl of eighteen and everything about her is also eighteen years old. Though she is employed with considerate masters, her condition is that of an unprotected girl whom everybody treats only as a sex object. Looking at Ayah, Lenny also becomes conscious of her sexuality.( pg. #3)
- 22. • Ayah is a flame of sensuous pleasure • She is fully aware of her sexual charm and uses it without any inhibition to fulfill her desires. • She is so powerful that no admirer can afford her anger. • Flirtatious but aware that no one can advantage of her • Loyal to the family she serves and extremely protective of Lenny
- 23. • Later on she is abducted, raped and became the mistress of Ice candy man who makes her a dancing girl and forces her to change her religion • Ayah remains firm and decisive and gets away as soon as she gets a chance.
- 25. • Lenny’s mother , faithful and submissive • Lenny’s mother and aunt play heroic role of fighting for the lives and properties of Hindus (ref to Train to Pakistan) • God mother, whose character is very close to protagonist, has extreme love for ayah, deals with ice candy man and rescues her.
- 26. Theme of War • It is worth noting that Bapsi Sidhwa herself was a young girl in Lahore in the years leading up to Partition and witnessed the historical events of the time. • Through the first-person account of a seven-year old girl, Lenny, we feel the unease and insecurity experienced by this ethnic and religious minority group –the Parsis. (69)
- 27. • different communities and religions lived in peace and harmony socially, culturally and religiously. people belonging to different communities interact with each other on a normal, human level and live like friends. (p. 19)
- 29. • Sidhwa uses Hindu Ayah Shanta as a symbol for India. Sidhwa makes the Muslim protagonist, Ice Candy Man, disgrace, shame, humiliate and ruin Shanta (India). Led by Ice Candy Man, the Muslims abduct and manhandle Ayah (India) while she is in a condition of shock and trauma at the hands of her one time lover (183).
- 30. • Sidhwa associates Partition with evil and destruction. (135)
- 31. Ice Candy Man depicts the greatest migration in the human history as a result and price of the Partition. Sidhwa is sad that as a result of population exchange, Lahore is stripped off its diversity and variety in addition to the emotional vacuum created by this phenomenon (175).
- 33. Sidhwa projects yet another price of Partition in the form of train massacres. She presents the train massacres as the most horrible association of the Partition of India for dwellers in Punjab. The Muslim protagonist of Ice Candy Man is expecting relatives from Gurdaspur, instead he meets with mutilated bodies and the bags full of breasts cut off from Muslim women (149).
- 34. She uses the fire as symbol. Both Hindus and Muslims in equal proportion contribute to the fires of Partition. The fires ignited by the Partition spare nothing, the buildings, the human beings, the history, the heritage, the relationships, the humanity and human values; all are eaten up and consumed by the fires of the Partition. Either part (India and Pakistan), is left poor and stripped off its past. She portrays the Partition as a human tragedy on an unprecedented level and proportion (p. 137, 139).
- 35. Conclusion The analysis of the political leadership during the Partition days by Sidhwa is subjective and at times seems even prejudiced. Despite it, the final message of the novel is clear and unambiguous. It rejects the two nation theory and suggests that religious, social and cultural differences are artificially created and exploited by unscrupulous people. She also suggests that power should be used for the good of the people and to suppress the evil.
- 37. Sidhwa is conscious of the collective loss suffered by the Hindus and the Muslims in the form of their lives, homes, dreams and above all hopes for future, as a price of the Partition.
- 38. In her interview with Julie Rajan, she comments on the main theme of Ice-Candy- Man: I was just attempting to write the story of what religious hatred and violence can do to people and how close evil is to the nature of man. Under normal circumstances people can be quite ordinary and harmless; but once the mob mentality takes over, evil surfaces. Evil is very close to the surface of man.
- 39. In this novel, Sidhwa projects through Lenny’s mother that women should have a purpose in life besides domesticity which should be developed by them to the best of their abilities. Hence, the novel ends on a positive note. Women strive to come out of their plight and finally move forward from their degraded and tormented state to start their lives a fresh.
- 40. Thank You