Ickapoo desires love. Love leads to marriage. But it is not a cultural norm. It is a divine union and divine matrimony. Social norms fail. Divine will does not fail.
In Anita Desai's Fasting, Feasting, the trappings of a traditional Indian family on its women are made clear. Uma falls short of the traditional definition of a woman in an Indian family as one who is marriageable and domestic. She is clumsy and plain, does not excel in her studies, and becomes the victim of two annulled marriages, unlike her sister Aruna who manages to achieve success as a woman through marriage to a man who is highly eligible, rich and good looking. The plight of an Indian woman is thus made clear through Uma's story—by convention, Uma falls short of how the traditional family defines a woman, because she i
