Breaking Patriarchal Codes to End Suppression of Women: A Study of Chitra Divakaruni’s Novel Sister of My Heart

In the Paper, I argue that the preservation of patriarchal codes in society leads to the suppression of the freedom and liberty of women. These unwritten but strictly enforced patriarchal codes act many a time as invisible barriers between women and progress. Patriarchy limits women to the roles of mothers, wives, maids and even to objects of consumption. Patriarchy does not prefer to see women as independent individuals, working professionals, entrepreneurs or human beings with personal goals and desires. Every opportunity that makes women free from the clutches of patriarchy is strictly sabotaged, denying freedom, restricting mobility and disallowing financial independence in the name of family honour and legacy, marriage, and women’s duties and responsibilities to family and society. This has been the way of patriarchy to control and make women subservient to men. So it becomes obvious to break the regressive and many times violent patriarchal codes to end different kinds of violence against women. Chitra Divakaruni is an eminent Indian novelist, who has discussed such important issues in her novel ‘Sister of My Heart’. A close study of the novel will be helpful in exploring the issue of gender-based violence in patriarchy. In the novel, women characters suffer a lot of physical and psychological violence in the patriarchal social order, and the attempt women characters make to come out of such oppression is a beacon of light to women.

Keywords: Patriarchy, Women, Violence, Freedom, Oppression