Conflicts and Collective Resilience in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s One Amazing Thing

Abstract

Conflicts afflict all mankind but inflict spice to life and literature by breaking monotony.“In literature a conflict is a literary device characterized by a struggle between two opposing forces” (Master class). Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s One Amazing Thing is a novel about the strife for life of a group of people from diverging ethnic backgrounds converging and bonding in a common ground of space being struck by a natural disaster. The nine characters assembled in an unmentioned US city’s Indian consulate for processing visa to India range from a teenager to septuagenarian and are exposed to conflicts either external/internal or both. Their plurality of races convinced one of the characters Uma, a student of literature to ponder over the ambience as “a mini UN summit” (4). The dragging process in the embassy, waiting after 3 pm for a 9 am appointment made Uma to speculate about her fellow applicants and doubt the integrity of the employees in the embassy.