Fasting feasting study notes As in other novels

Fasting feasting: study notes

As in other novels and short stories by Desai, the focus of Fasting, Feasting is on family relationships and how these determine the fate of the characters, particularly the female ones. The title also calls attention to the rituals of food and eating habits which the novel links to the main theme of family relationships. Food becomes almost an obsession for the characters in the book and their attitudes to it almost come to define them. For example, we can link the word "Fasting" in the title to the character of Uma, as she is left without any intellectual or educational nurture by the conservative values of her parents and, at forty-three years of age, still finds herself living with them and without a life of her own. The word "Feasting", instead, has been applied to her brother Arun, because he has always had the possibility to get the best opportunities and the second part of the novel describes his life in the U. S. , whose society is described by Desai as one of excess. "Different lives, " Desai claims, "are parallel lives". This sentence can guide us through the two parts of Fasting, Feasting as continuous parallels are drawn between Uma's Indian family and the Pattons, the American family where her brother Arun stays at in the U. S. The women in both families, for example, tend to be bossed around by the male characters. Uma's fate, described through the word "fasting" in the title, is mirrored by that of her American counterpart, the Pattons' anorexic daughter, once again with reference to food and eating habits/disorders.

Plot summary • Uma lives with her mother and father in India (Mama. Papa as if they were one person) • Papa is in control of everything. • Mama becomes pregnant and Uma is removed from education to look after her little brother, Arun. • Everything is then about Arun getting the best future possible.

Plot summary • Uma is ‘married’ twice, but on both occasions she and her family are rejected by the groom – the first is only after the Dowry and the second is already married and again, after the Dowry. (Dowry = money given by brides family to grooms family as mark of respect/thanks).

Plot summary • The first part of the novel ends with Uma still living at home but trying to gain a little more independence from his disapproving family.

Plot summary • The second part of the novel is about Arun in America. • The food, the rituals of buying food, the family dynamics. • Arun is happy being alone. • The Americna family he lives with are just as damaged as his own Indian family.

Plot summary • Mrs Patton is a vegetarian but does not want to tell her husband this as he is in charge of the family (like Papa) • Mr Patton keeps buying meat for the family, even though only he and his son, Rod, seem to eat it. • Melanie Patton, the daughter, is bulimic and has major issues with food, preferring to eat candy all day instead of vegetables and meat.

Plot summary • Rod is a fitness fan and regularly goes jogging. • Arun exists in this world, observing all that goes on around him, much like Uma did in India. • The novel ends with Arun leaving the Patton family and returning to his college dorm.