Fasting, Feasting

What do you learn about MamaPapa (their attitudes and beliefs) from Part One of Fasting Feasting and how far do you think they are responsible for the way their children's lives turn out to be?

In Part One of Fasting Feasting, MamaPapa was seen to have a strong preference for sons over daughters, a strong opposition against women going out to work instead of staying at home to take care of the household as well as a strong opposition against any forms of religion. While their attitude and beliefs had largely controlled their children’s behaviour, and shaped their lives, it has not detered Uma from attending the religious activities. Hence, MamaPapa’s attitudes and beliefs had only laregly shaped their children’s lives and not fully controlled their children’s lives.

Firstly, it could be seen that MamaPapa have very strong beliefs that sons are better than daughters, which leads to the family hierarchy. When Mama had a late pregnancy, she wanted to terminate it because of the sickness that it was causing her but Papa commands the pregnancy to be accepted as there might be a chance that it may be a son. This shows the biasness of Papa towards sons, whereby he feels that two daughters are not even equivalent to a son. Furthermore, when Arun is born, Uma was forced to quit school so that she could take care of Arun. Even with Papa’s educational background and his support to send Uma to the convent school, he did not oppose when Mama pulled Uma out of school. This then reveals his favouritism for sons over daughters, which is so great that it even enables him to compromise on Uma’s education for the sake of his son. This belief that MamaPapa have towards sons then compromises Uma’s education, which has a huge impact on her future. Even though she was failing all her subjects in school, the act of forcing her to quit school to take care of Arun was entirely depriving her of a chance to excel in her studies. This then dismisses the chance of her attaining a