Deterritorialization And Traumatic Experiences Of The Protoganist In Oleander Girl

The paper aims to analyse the novel Oleander Girl and explore the plight of the protagonist Korobi, a young girl who goes to America in search of her identity which she believes to have lost in India due to her parent’s cohabitation. Since her mother’s live in relationship with an Afro-American could not be solemnized in India due to the intervention of her grandparents, she has to bear the brunt as a child born out of wedlock. The mystery of her birth is known to her only when she goes in search of her father to America. The main reason of her visit to America is to find out her identity as to whom she was born. During her endeavour to trace her father, she comes across situation which question her identity and her whereabouts which in turn bring forth inexplicable woes to her. The author, Chitra Banerjee attempts to expose that America though a land of freedom has not assured any safety to Korobi until she metamorphoses herself to be one like an American uprooting her true identity as an Indian. Now her transformations both physically and mentally instils confidence and she succeeds in locating her father. Korobi so long believed that knowing about her father would help her in quenching her thirst to establish her identity but in vain. Her father does not manifest any paternal instincts towards her. Though disappointing, Korobi learns to pursue her life as a transformed new woman bearing a new identity by re rooting in an alien land.