Quest for Identity: A Study of Shobha De’s Starry Nights

Indian Writing in English has a galaxy of women writers like Kamala Das, Anita Desai, Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sehgal, Arundhati Roy, Bharati Mukherjee, and Shobha De, who have successfully portrayed the varied images of women in Indian society. They have shown Indian women’s situation in society. Shobha De, a versatile woman writer has aptly raised a strong voice against the exploitation of women in Indian society. Her novels primarily aim is to reveal the truth in Indian society. The present paper studies Starry Nights (1991) and points out the ugly reality of the lives of women. Women are looked down upon. Though they are faithful and hardworking in their family their existence remains unrewarded. They find themselves at the margins in families as well as in society. Starry Nights reveals the truth of Indian Bollywood where women are treated like commodities. The paper observes and analyses the changing mindset of Indian women who are ready to defy the set norms of the society that limit their existence. The paper confirms that the women depicted in De’s Starry Nights are the agents of social change who try to find out their own identity in the society.