Cycles of Suffering: Exploring Pain and Resilience in Aravind Adiga’s Between the Assassinations – “Day One (Morning): The Railway Station”

S. Austin Sweety
Research Scholar in English Reg. No. 19123154012018,
Research Centre: Department of English, S. T. Hindu College, Nagercoil.
(Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli-627012, Tamil Nadu, India.)
Email: austinsweety.1@gmail.com

Dr. V. S. Shiny
Research Supervisor, Associate Professor of English,
Department of English and Research Centre, S. T. Hindu College, Nagercoil.
(Affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli-627012, Tamil Nadu, India.)

Abstract
Aravind Adiga’s Between the Assassinations discusses the struggles faced by the people who are marginalized by caste, religion, socio-political norms and cultural conflict in postcolonial India. This paper analyses the sufferings caused by caste and religious ideologies and experienced by marginalized children in a fictitious city named Kittur. Through the life of Ziauddin, the protagonist, Adiga portrays societal issues such as poverty and exploitation. He also highlights the cycles of suffering that emerge from starvation and child labour. The protagonist serves as a milk supplier, works in a restaurant, and a porter, showing the inequalities and discriminations which shake his existence. Life portrayed in the railway station reflects the current scenario of social life. Here, the attempts taken by the marginalized are not to succeed but to survive. The protagonist suffers to establish an identity and dignity in a society that often devalues him. He endures everything and tries to justify everything, showing the psychological agony of marginalization. This clearly reveals that violence operates through physical suffering and social exclusion. The paper delineates both individual and collective trauma of the oppressed and the brutal injustices based on structural norms.

Keywords: Marginalization, Existence, Violence, Poverty, Resilience, Identity.