IDENTITY CRISIS IN THE NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES OF ARUN JOSHI

Abstract

Man struggles to maintained self as a whole. Unfortunately, his survival becomes possible but it is incomplete. Somewhere or the other, man has to make compromises if he wants to hold his ground. He holds his ground but on the way sacrifices a lot. His identity becomes jumbled and crisis ridden. He losses his self somewhere in the battle of survival. Ultimately he succumbs to the pressures of society, culture and psychology. His battle for survival leads him to a ground which threatens to make him lose his identity. The individual faces the crisis of identity because his purpose of life and relevance of existence seem to fail. The tensions and traditions engendered with the changing ethos and disturbing demands of love, society and culture contribute to the sense of the loss of identity. The quest for identity brings no fruitful results. On the contrary, it shakes the foundation of a human beings very existence. He is no more the master of his destiny and external and internal forces active snatch away the harmony of his life. He is unable to hold on and hence falls apart. As a result the strongest problem which comes before us is survival, it is matter of great concern today and man has to put up a continuous and unrelenting struggle in order to keep up with the pace of life. Joshi hits hard at all the directions which lead men away from survival. Thus Joshi’s work becomes a fine study of survival, identity and its crisis.