In Camera

Yay for Daddy issues! Oh, wait...

Now, I have my own daddy issues. Everyone does at least to some extent. Leila, she may not have the worst issues, but the relationship with her father is left open for interpretation. He comes to her trial, but I'm not sure he's there for the right reasons. I think he only went because it effected him. He was not there for her. His first thought is that it will look good for him. She was a 'hero' for standing up to the government and by default he was awesome.

As soon as he heard that she was raped, he lost his pride in her. He automatically talks about how she is a disgrace to him and how he will never be able to do anything again.

I have a hard time feeling bad for the father or seeing him as a good person. His gut instinct is to protect himself and not his father. He is not a paternal figure that I like. I mean, my ideal father is either Jethro Gibbs from NCIS or Qui-Gon Jinn from Star Wars. Both characters sacrifice themselves for those that they love. The father in In Camera is not sacrificial. He doesn't show fatherly love as I think he should. I don't like him.

Punishment for Picking the Wrong Partner

Tagore has a tendency to write as a woman as shown by No. 27. This to me shows a tendency for appreciating women more than was normal in his time. In Punishment, he is harsh to the strong female character, but like a hero, she is able to overcome and get the final world in.

In Punishment, Tagore is rather fair to both genders. There is a sympathetic character for both genders, but also the ones that you can't really feel sorry for. Radha, sort of deserves my pity, I mean, she may have been a smart ass, but hey, everyone has their moments. I'm not going to lie, if I got stabbed in the head every time I said something sarcastic, I would have been killed millions of times over. Chandara, she did have a dry sense of humor, but it was different. Chandara liked to pick many times rather than blow up like Radha did.

Chandara didn't deal with stress well; she cried all afternoon and had a tendency to tease her husband. Her coping mechanism was probably the best of the four, however. Radha and her husband Dukhiram both explode, which, as shown in the story, leads to bad things. There is a difference between the two of them though. Radha uses words and emotions while Dukhiram is violent. Chandara is manipulative, and Chidam is just kind of there. It is mentioned that he picks at Chandara like she does, but it is in a loving way. I see Chidam as a sort of giant teddy bear. He could act cross with Chandara, but she had him wrapped around her finger.

Chidam is easily manipulated I think, which is probably why he and Chandara weren't at odds like Dukhiram and Radha were. Dukhiram and Radha were both headstrong, rambunctious people, who would have done well in relationships that weren't with each other. Chidam proves he is manipulated easily by the ease with which Dukhiram convinces him to turn in Chandara. It's his wife for goodness sakes, can't he figure that out? But then she has him so wrapped up around her, she makes him feel horrible for even trying to back stab her.

Moral of the story is, make sure that you are a good match for your partner and don't be Dukhiram or Radha, who are loud and obnoxious, but if you love your partner, you darned well try to keep them.