Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7, University of Hamburg (IAA), course: 1b Literatturseminar: Indian Female Gaze, language: English, abstract: Monica Ali s psychological novel of formation is a collection of different kinds of emotional strains and traumas. Each character is afflicted with emotional problems, especially the main character Mukundan Nair who is tortured by his mother s death even after many decades. Bhasi has experienced a sad love story but he has managed to recover from that, has started a family and has become a healer. First of all, I will give a definition to the question: what is The Better Man ? Then, I will explain explain Mukundan s betterment. Whereas Mukundan s friend Bhasi has been able to sever his connections with the past, Mukundan is absolutely unable to refrain from his past. In chapter 2, I will explain Mukundan s transformation by analysing the confrontation with his trauma and naming the signs of Mukundan s betterment. However, there is also a time in which Mukundan behaves very selfishly. That selfishness, though, is the factor which ultimately contributes to Mukundan s emotional recovery. It is worth mentioning that Mukundan becomes able to establish a deep friendship and a good relationship. For the first time in his life he is deeply in love with a woman and it is not merely an affair basing on superficiality and sexual intercourse. In that context, the the reader will find an explanation in 2.3 of how even a short period of disturbed narcissism can serve as a mainspring with regard to a psychological cure. And the last chapter will deal with the question, if Nair s work is a psychological novel of formation novel?
