The Sunshine Cat by Kamala Das - Summary
The poem "The Sunshine Cat" penned by Kamala Das, one of the prominent modern Indian poetess. She wrote in both English and Malayalam language. Her works have been translated into numerous languages such as French, Spanish, Russian, German and Japanese. She is also known for her open depiction of female sexuality through her works particularly her autobiography, My Story.
In the poem, the readers are introduced to the grief and agony of the narrator. She displays distrust towards the people to whom she turned for want of help her but all they did was to use her in the context of "being kind to her". Her husband who was indifferent to her feelings, she admits he didn't abuse her but he totally ignored her need for emotional support. He was merely a "watcher" and seems to work out the thing called marriage by continuing the status quo.
She confesses that all those men from whom she expected love used her to quench their sexual thirst, she calls them "the band of cynics". The imagery of the description of hairs on the men's chest and its smell shows the sexual relationships with those men. Soon she comes to know about their fake promises to love her, they take a U-turn and tells her that they can't love her but they can be "kind to her". Her yearning for love leads her to be entrenched in several illicit relationships that didn't help but exacerbate her loneliness and distrust.
They drove her insane and all her relationships end with her being left weeping on the bed. She lost her sleep. He wants to escape from her agony and intends to build "walls with tears" to confine her from the ruthless world. Her husband, still, unconcern with her condition, prevents her going out by shutting her in her room where books are his only companions. The only outside sight she gets is of "a streak of sunshine" which she personifies as "a yellow cat". But when winter comes, "the cat of sunshine" disappears. When her husband returns after his work, he found her cold and "half dead", now she is so lifeless that no men would come to her.
In the poem, the readers are introduced to the grief and agony of the narrator. She displays distrust towards the people to whom she turned for want of help her but all they did was to use her in the context of "being kind to her". Her husband who was indifferent to her feelings, she admits he didn't abuse her but he totally ignored her need for emotional support. He was merely a "watcher" and seems to work out the thing called marriage by continuing the status quo.
She confesses that all those men from whom she expected love used her to quench their sexual thirst, she calls them "the band of cynics". The imagery of the description of hairs on the men's chest and its smell shows the sexual relationships with those men. Soon she comes to know about their fake promises to love her, they take a U-turn and tells her that they can't love her but they can be "kind to her". Her yearning for love leads her to be entrenched in several illicit relationships that didn't help but exacerbate her loneliness and distrust.
They drove her insane and all her relationships end with her being left weeping on the bed. She lost her sleep. He wants to escape from her agony and intends to build "walls with tears" to confine her from the ruthless world. Her husband, still, unconcern with her condition, prevents her going out by shutting her in her room where books are his only companions. The only outside sight she gets is of "a streak of sunshine" which she personifies as "a yellow cat". But when winter comes, "the cat of sunshine" disappears. When her husband returns after his work, he found her cold and "half dead", now she is so lifeless that no men would come to her.