The Dynamics of Resistance and Resilience in The Celestial Bodies: A Thematic Exploration

The Celestial Bodies, the recipient of the International Booker Prize (2019) is written by the Omani Author Jokha Al Harthi. This novel tells the story of several women, especially three sisters, Mayya, Asma and Kawla, and Mayya’s husband Abdallah. All the women in this novel are oppressed somehow or the other purely on the basis of their gender. The patriarchal society plays a key role in keeping them oppressed for a very long time. But these women ultimately find their voice through their strong will, education, and surprisingly, some through marriage too. The female characters of this novel are expected to be meek and obedient wives to their husbands, a notion that they break towards the end. “Gender Based Violence” need not be in the form of physical torture. It can also be a strong form of patriarchal oppression which keeps them from exercising their will and freedom. “Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience” (Wollstonecraft 34). These women gradually gain the strength to resist the wrongs and portray different forms of resilience like silence, higher education, divorce, setting up a business etc. Abdallah, traumatised by an overbearing patriarchal father, also finds multiple outlets to let go of his physical and mental trauma. An in-depth analysis of this novel shows women from different social strata fight back the severe patriarchal society through their own forms of resistance. Resistance and Resilience play key roles in character formation in this novel.

Keywords: Celestial Bodies, Patriarchy, Resistance, Resilience