Feminist Perspective in the Novel of Kiran Desai 'The Inheritance of Loss'

Talking about woman is always interesting. Talking about the issue of feminism is also never end in our life. As stated by Tyson in Critical Theory Today: Friendly User Guide, feminism is any aspiration to make women’s status equal to men’s status. Those who have this aspiration are not women only, but also men, such as Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher (1588-1679), and Aristophanes, the playwright of Lysistrata (411 BC).

“Such people believe that feminists should just concentrate on getting women an equal crack at the dough and forget all this nonsense about pronouns! For many feminists, however, the use of the pronoun he to refer to members of both sexes reflects and perpetuates a “habit of seeing,” a way of looking at life, that uses male experience as the standard by which the experience of both sexes is evaluated.”

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In the beginning feminism was only an aspiration, not an ideology or movement. So, when did it become an ideology or movement? Some say that it started from the struggles of women (Women’s Rights and Suffrage, 1888), but some say that it started in the 1960-s/1970-s. Before the 1960-s/1970-s, it was still the embryo, but not feminism as an ideology or movement. It was in the 1960-s/1970-s when a French Feminist, Helene Cixous (1937-?) made a clear-cut difference between women’s bodies and writings.

Kiran Desai is an author who wrote great novels. One of her works is The Inheritance of Loss which also talk about feminism.

In Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, feminist perspective is shown through the main character, Sai, when She falls in love with Gyan, her mathematics tutor. Although Gyan is from a lower class, this does not stop Sai from falling in love with him. In India, most marriages are arranged, so falling in love is not considered a prerequisite. In her everyday life, Sai speaks to the judge and the cook as if they were equals. Sai is a feminist. She is strong and ambitious. She is open-minded about the world around her.

Desai's feminist perspective also highlights alternatives to the kind of fate Nimi, the wife of Judge, endures. In the story, Noni, a spinster, tells Sai, Jemubhai's grand-daughter, that if she hopes to escape the fate of so many before her, she must choose her life for herself.
"Listen to me...if you get a chance in life, take it...You must do it on your own, Sai."

Towards the end of the novel, Sai deciding to do just this, as she begins to envision the possibilities the world can accord her. As evidenced in the novel, Desai's feminist voice rings clearly, and she speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves.

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While for the character of Biju, the perspective becomes different. Biju is actually antifeminist. In his point of view, Biju still thinks that Indian woman should not have an ambition about choosing the couple of marriage. As a culture, Indian woman should have a husband from Indian also, not western. Here, we can analyze that Biju doesn’t want Indian woman destroy the custom of Indian.