Role of Women in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide

Abstract

Amitav Ghosh, the Indian born writer, is now universally acknowledged as a postcolonial and postmodern writer. Apart from presenting the contemporary socio-political events of southeast Asia, another unique feature of Ghosh’s novels is the way he presents his women characters. In novels like The Shadow Lines, The Glass Palace, and The Hungry Tide, the women characters are indeed exemplary. They seem to be fully conscious of their socio-political condition, and play significant roles not only to make their lives beautiful but also to enlighten and empower the entire community. They are desperate to make a mark, to create a separate identity for themselves, to create an example to be followed by the rest. The purpose of this paper is to show how the women transcend their abilities and challenge the gender roles of the society by their remarkable determination, indomitable spirit and astonishing endurance.