Invention and Re-invention of Self in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The Mistress of Spices.

Abstract

This paper aims to highlight the theme of self-identity, identity crisis, isolation, dislocation of women, the quest for treasure, search for a home, loneliness, nostalgic experience, marital dissonance assimilation, search for respectable life and alienation. In the globalization, everyone wants to move out of his or her native soil for a better living. In travel, they often undertake a journey to discover themselves. In Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The Mistress of Spices, Tilo, the protagonist of this novel, leaves her homeland in the hope of integrity and a better life. In the host land, she undergoes homelessness. Later she rethinks about her own lives as women and instils in them the confidence and strength to go ahead. It also shows how she explores her identity after facing several physical and mental encounters. It depicts the representation of different myths, magic and history, related to spices. It also evaluates the importance of spices in a socio-cultural perspective in the life of the protagonist.