Beyond the Boundaries: A Study of Anita Nair’s Ladies Coupé

Abstract

The debate over the position of women, their condition in their family and society at large, has  contributed in giving them many rights earlier denied. Nevertheless, the basic rights for  women are still not enough to say that their position is equal to their male counterparts.  Although women in general, are said to be in better positions than their earlier counterparts,  but they are still in the marginalized position, because the multifaceted gender patterns work  differently on women of different classes and backgrounds through culture. By looking at the  women characters from two different social backgrounds, this paper attempts to have a better  understanding of their marginalization through Anita Nair’s Ladies Coupé. This paper aims to  study the plight of women who are called privileged according to the societal norms yet, they  are marginalized. In Anita Nair’s Ladies Coupé, the protagonist Akhila, an independent  unmarried woman, goes on a journey alone to Kanyakumari in order to find a place for  herself. The text contrasts the challenges of living alone positing it against the women  surrounded by human relationships. The objective of this paper is to study how human  relationships have become a tool to women’s oppression and also what major role travel plays  in the development and realization of ‘Self’. Human psyche, being largely influenced by  culture, has many a time played a crucial role in victimizing human being themselves,  especially, the women. So, in a way it includes the deep cultural influences on human psyche  that leads to the oppression of a particular group and suggests alternatives to deal with them.