Children as Connecting Agents to Divorced Parents: A Study on Manju Kapur’s Custody

Abstract

Parents alone can feel and realize the importance of children. A family without a child will never be a family at all. The growth of a family depends on the availability of a child in it. Marital life aims at having children after the marriage. Children decorate their house and make the family a lively one. The word family enjoys its full meaning only when there is a child in it. One who never hears the musical sound of lisping will not appreciate the music sound of any kind. Hence children occupy a prominent role in families which in turn societies. The expression of children has been the subject of many a writer in all the literatures. The presentation varies -the happy family they contribute to the cruelties meted out to and the agencies of evil forces they become -and their expression create a great impact in the minds of the readers. Manju Kapur an Indian novelist of the modern times engages children to draw the deplorable nature they are subjected to. In her novel Custody, the title itself is self explanatory that it presents the repercussions of the custody battle that the parents fight against each other. It becomes a long-drawn-on battle and the children are tossed in the tumultuous legal waves which do not end. The end itself is heartbreaking to them as the brother and sister themselves are legally separated to live under the custody of single parenting. The novelist realistically portrays the Indian domestic panorama of children under the custody of divorced parents. However, the separated children stay as nodal agencies for the connection of their parents.