Exploration of Trauma and Identity from Anita Desai’s Cry the Peacock

Abstract

The science of behavior and mind could be considered as psychology. And the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena as well as feeling and thought can be considered as psychological study. Anita Desai was an Indian writer. Her effort was to communicate to the world about Indian woman’s bitter experiences. A woman’s inner self, her agonies, her desires and her pleasures are depicted in her works. She honestly depicted Indian womanhood in her fictional works. Anita Desai holds a preeminent position as a contemporary Indian feminist novelist, with her major novels symbolizing the universal feminism of her hypersensitive, poignant knowledge, erudition, and inner psychological power regarding the real and natural everyday affairs of familial, societal, and economic dealings as minutely impacted. Her work Cry, the Peacock explores the psychological study of how a young, sensitive married woman named Maya is tragically damaged by marriage. In this novel, the central character assails through a strait of darkness, thoroughly confused and puzzle about her future. Alienation or disorientation plays a major part in all of Desai’s protagonists and her mastery lies in redefining the very concept of ‘Alienation’. Desai’s tendency to dive into the psychological compartment of human nature makes identical as a novelist.