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

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.