A Feministic Perspective in Anita Nair's The Better Man

Anita Nair explores the women's world in her novels. Her novels are embedded in the Indian culture and setting. The writer explains the agony women face in the modern India. Anita Nair was born at Mundakottakurissi near Shoranur in Kerala on January 23, 1966. Anita Nair portrayed her imaginary village as Kaikurissi in her first novel The Better Man. Nair's love for her native place Kerala is echoed in her novels. Besides writing novels, Anita Nair is also a writer of poetry, prose, short stories, essays, articles, book reviews, travelogues, crime series and non-fiction. Her first novel The Better Man is the exploration of inner conflicts of Mukundan. Even though the protagonist of the novel is Mukundan, who is a retired government servant (Assistant Works Manager); the novelist also depicts a few female characters who are victimized by the tyranny of the men in the family. His mother Paru Kutty asks Mukundan to take her to the city in which he lives to escape his father's tyranny, but he abandons the idea. Her father married another lady Ammani. He feels guilty for his act as her mother died falling from the stairs. Her mother's accident might have been a plan of her father. Anjana is another female character not comfortable with her husband; Ravindran who treats her brutally and hardly shared his thoughts and plans with her. This research paper titled 'A feministic perspective in Anita Nair's The Better Man' explores the trauma of Anjana and Mukundan mother Paru Kutty who tries to break free from the restrictions of male-dominated family. Keywords: Anita Nair, The Better Man, beloved, menacing, furious, tyranny, inner conflict, male-domination.