The Sanctuary of Female Vulnerability: The Degrading Thought Process -A Rumination on The Grass is Singing

Doris Lessing in her novel The Grass is Singing has delineated the ultimate ordeal for a woman to live in a conformist society where the non-conformist thoughts get choked almost all the time blemishing the milestones of self-discovery in each and every turn. A difficult childhood with incompatible parents galvanized Mary's indifference of marriage. When she was burgeoning in her truer self some outsider force influenced her course of life. Her victimized thought got manifested and incurred sufferings all the way through her life. Her imagined emancipation through marriage became the ultimate servitude of her soul. In a state of subjugation, it is always difficult to create right choice by right thoughts and Mary is the burning example of such failure. At the end of the novel, she finally perceived a precious realization that no one could offer her sanctuary but only herself. The status “married” or “a mate” cannot evaporate life's all uncertainties, rather in the uncertainties self is discovered or destroyed. For Mary, self was destroyed as she was not indulged with any more chances after discerning the utmost truth of life. Beneath a mere veneer of colonial situation, this novel has focused on the failed journey of self-discovery.