Examining identity crisis in Samina Ali’s Madras on Rainy Days

Abstract

An identity crisis, a term devised by Erik Erikson, is a phase of rigorous study of different means of looking at oneself. Modern Indian English writers have been in the pursuit to restore order and meaning in their lives, especially the women. Women writers have presented their women protagonists as the one who are taking control of their lives, eventually, with or without the support of their family. Samina Ali is one such writer, who explores the identity of her characters in a Muslim community. The novel, Madras on Rainy Days determines the identity of a contemporary Muslim woman protagonist, Layla who is torn between her liberated life in the USA versus her controlling life in India. She faces several difficulties as she cannot be her independent self. She’s forcefully married to Sameer, whose real identity is revealed later by the end of the story. In search of her own home and identity, Layla chooses to stay in India as a brave and enlightened single woman rather than moving out to free America with her gay husband. This paper tends to discover in the text that how a character deals with the fluctuating notion of identity, by breaking free from the shackles of the dominating society.

Keywords: Examination, Identity, Women, Self-expression, Modernization, Liberation