The Paradise Alms House

The overwhelming focus on the Ramchandin garden appears to be related to the critical dynamic noted by Christine Kim, who argues that Cereus "is typically packaged as post-colonial" (154) and discussed "within the cultural politics of the academy rather than the lesbian feminist politics of activism out of which it emerged" (159). [...] while the destructive effects of colonization on the Ramchandin family are generally recognized, the equally destructive effects of sexism and heterosexism, which are inseparable from and interlocking with those of colonization, are less often discussed.