AMBAI'S SQUIRREL SUMMARY

Ambai’s (b.1944)”Squirrel” falls under the category of “non-conformists” when speaking of women writing in Modern Indian Literature. Ambai’s “Squirrel” (translated from Tamil by Lakshmi) rebels in their own way against the existing system. Ambai voices strongly about Feminism, through a completely different style of narrative. Women, who refuse to accept the prevalent codes, question the injustice, assert their individuality, and demand the right to seek fulfillment, are grouped under the title of “Non-Conformists. And hence, Ambai falls into “non conformists”.

A study of the women characters in this story establishes the point that the writer has shown admirable psychological insight while creating her women character. The novelistic concern is to probe, analyze and develop deeper into the secret recesses of her as women and present her in flesh and blood. She has been successfully able to strike a sympathetic cord with their women characters and with their psychological reactions and responses, broodings and frustrations.

Ambai’s “Squirrel”, the rebellion is more in narration and content than in plot. A writer will have his own vision which may be peculiar and unique. Her perspective changes according to her experiences of the world in which she lives. A writer is apt to be more sensitive to the disturbing day-to-day happenings and changes around him/her, and tends to react and respond intensely. The works, more often than not, contain and reflect the experience and vision of their creator. As Joseph Conrad puts it, “in truth every novelist must begin by creating for himself a world great or little in which he can honestly believe. This world cannot be made otherwise than in his own image”. This is exactly what happens in Ambai’s “Squirrel”.

The protagonist, in the story, is a feminist sympathizer. The story is based on her one expedition to a library, which is full of feminist writing. And how she feels and perceives it. The terrible condition of the books, and one final declaration at the end, that because of not being able to maintain them, they would be burnt. The books here, as much a character themselves as is the protagonist. There’s a squirrel, which serves as a bridge between the “transcendental and the real”, or rather the “dream and real” for the protagonist. The character of the squirrel is highly suggestive. The squirrel stands for the inner world of the narrator. The transition between dream and reality and vice versa is made through the symbolism of the squirrel.

 “Squirrel” though is rebellious as a whole. The basic theme is a “sympathizer of the victim”. There is a strong feminist voice in the latter, whereas the former lacks it. The latter consciously reflects the brutal condition of feminine writing while the former, unconsciously rebels against the repression in act. The part, the squirrel plays in “Squirrel” characters are catalytically in nature. But simultaneously, “Squirrel” voices about feminism and male suppression. And here too, the story doesn’t end here. The story begins from and continues to its author, Ambai, the strong feminist voice of dissidence, as Venkat Swaminathan puts in “The Written Wrath of the Dispossessed” (Many Indias, Many Literature) - “A firm assertion of the individual dignity of a female does not have to end up in sacrifice of feminine graces. Should it? In Ambai, the artist, it hasn’t”.

Ambai’s “Squirrel” is the style of narration which makes the books and authors in the “Squirrel” are the lively, fleshy characters themselves. “Squirrel” is hardly over until one analyzes the narrative style.

“A story conveys what the author perceives and comprehends of the world around. In other words, a story represents the writer’s vision of life as it faces him. Though the story gets its sustenance from the story it intends to tell, its success depends on how it is narrated and also what else it conveys.  The caliber of the story is judged as much by  what it conveys as by how it is conveyed. And as she continues- “At the same time, it need not be a vehicle to carry on the propaganda or criticism of dogmas and ideologies. It should be a living thing that has, what E.M. Forster calls, “the intense stiflingly human quality”.”

Hence in this story, we can see the importance and significance of the narrative style. It’s the narration “Squirrel” that transcendental place between dream and reality, enlivens up each book and author into a character of its own, and also heightens the sensation.

In conclusion, summing up that the “women voice” has secured a place of its own, and this had been achieved through their characters. When England was in the throes of feminist movement, English feminists expressed their resentment at the treatment meted out to women. Mary Wollstonecraft, a feminist, declares in her spirited work “A vindication of the Rights of Woman”, “I here throw my gauntlet, and deny the existence of sexual virtues not excepting modesty. For men and women, truth, if I understand the meaning of the word must be the same … women, I allow, may have differed duties, but the principles that regulate the discharge of them, I sturdily maintain, must be the same.” This strong wave of sexual consciousness thrashed the shores of Indian Women Writing, and the outcome is one and many Ambais and Chughtais. Sitaram Jayaswal says- “The role of the writer is to feel the pulse of the society, know its sickness and suggest such cures as are in consonance with his culture.” This is exactly what has been done by Ambai. And, lastly, as again story reveals the variegated facets of women in modern India and as such reflect the fully awakened feminine sensibility.And this exactly has been made possible though the character Ambai’s “Squirrel”.