A Dilemma of Identity: Exploring Bodily Identity Crisis in Animal’s People

Abstract

 Our societies or social groups are defined by the ideas, belief’s that we share and have in common. We see society as something that binds people together. But from the studies of structuralists like Claude Levi-Strauss and Edmund Leach, combined with arguments of others, exposes that societies are actually based on ideas of homogeneity and identity, through generations and how one is alienated if he/she is different from the main stream. This paper titled ‘A Dilemma of Identity: Exploring Bodily Identity Crisis in Animal’s People’ explores in depth how Indra Sinha’s novel, Animal’s People shows how an individual suffers to form an identity for oneself due to his twisted body structure that resembles the body of an animal, how he is alienated from the society and how it is reinforced by the people around him. This thesis explores whether the protagonist of the novel is finally able to create an identity, whether he is successful or not.