Comparing Bharati Mukherjees The Tenant and Susan Minots Lust Essay

Comparing Bharati Mukherjees The Tenant and Susan Minots disposition The protagonists in both Bharati Mukherjees The Tenant and Susan Minots crave are extremely wakeful both have many sexual relationships with little emotional link and no commitment. While the two protagonists display many of the same behaviors and often have similar motivations, their reasoning and reactions sometimes differ. The Tenant and zest declare oneself two different perspectives into the social expectations that would tame someone to be so irresponsible with their relationships. Both Maya, the protagonist of The Tenant, and the unnamed protagonist of Lust have many relationships in the course of the stories. These relationships are characterized by a lack of depth, commitment, and emotional involvement. Maya has slept with married men, with nameless men, with men little to a greater extent than boys, but never with an Indian man (106). Lust goes through the diverse sexual exploits of the main char acter, who views sex almost as a manners she explains that If you go out with them, you sort of have to do something (292). The reasoning nooky the promiscuity of both women is rooted in the desire to rebel against the cultures in which they were raised and, at the sam... ...least aware of the effects on herself. The Tenant and Lust are insights into the minds of two women who have similar motivations, but react otherwise to the same behavior. Their backgrounds and their emotional reactions give hints to why they choose to live the modality they do, and why they feel it is appropriate or necessary. For both women, their motivations all lead back in some way to social expectations, although one cleaning woman is trying to conform to them and the other is trying to defy them. Works Cited Meyer, Michael, ed. The Bedford initiation to Literature. New York Bedfort/St. Martins, 1999.