The Search for Autonomy: A Journey -Towards Self-Discovery and Empowerment in Shashi Deshpande’s That Long Silence

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the protagonist of That Long Silence Jaya’s quest for autonomy, self-discovery and empowerment in her life journey. The writer imagines exploring her desires, interests, and values. The author exposes Jaya’s ultimate decision to leave her marriage and highlights the challenges and risks she faces. Jaya, an urban, middle-class woman exposed to liberal Western ideas, seeks to free herself from chauvinistic ideas such as the husband as a “sheltering tree.” Moreover, in the texture of a novel supposedly about Jaya and Mohan, several tragedies of subordination are woven as though to form a tapestry.