Nadine Richters

Does Mukundan in Anita Nair's novel The Better Man become a better man? Nadine Richters

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7, University of Hamburg (IAA), course: 1b Literatturseminar: Indian Female Gaze, 13 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Monica Ali's psychological novel of formation is a collection of different kinds of emotional strains and traumas. Each character is afflicted with emotional problems, especially the main character Mukundan Nair who is tortured by his mother's death even after many decades. Bhasi has experienced a sad love story but he has managed to recover from that, has started a family and has become a healer. First of all, I will give a definition to the question: what is "The Better Man"? Then, I will explain explain Mukundan's betterment. Whereas Mukundan's friend Bhasi has been able to sever his connections with the past, Mukundan is absolutely unable to refrain from his past. In chapter 2, I will explain Mukundan's transformation by analysing the confrontation with his trauma and naming the signs of Mukundan's betterment. However, there is also a time in which Mukundan behaves very selfishly. That selfishness, though, is the factor which ultimately contributes to Mukundan's emotional recovery. It is worth mentioning that Mukundan becomes able to establish a deep friendship and a good relationship. For the first time in his life he is deeply in love with a woman and it is not merely an affair basing on superficiality and sexual intercourse. In that context, the the reader will find an explanation in 2.3 of how even a short period of disturbed narcissism can serve as a mainspring with regard to a psychological cure. And the last chapter will deal with the question, if Nair's work is a psychological novel of formation novel?