Scars That Shine: Trauma, Migration and Power of Female Hope in Girls Burn Brighter of Shobha Rao

Abstract

This paper analyzes how the factors of trauma, migration, and human trafficking influence the lives of women in Shobha Rao’s Girls Burn Brighter. The shared experiences of the characters Poornima and Savitha illustrate how patriarchal values, the caste system, and poverty combine to confine women to areas where their bodies become controlled by factors of exploitation. This research paper holds important value as such suffering pervades the lives of women all across the world today. The paper elucidates how the effects of trauma have the ability to transform the identities of such characters while hope sustains them in these zones of exploitation. Based on text analysis, it could be asserted that instances such as “Every moment in a woman’s life was a deal, a deal for her body” (Rao 193) reveal the extent of gender-trauma inflicted upon these characters; however, these also reveal how women have become conscious of it. The wounds of these characters reveal not only pain but also zones of hope, hope that sustains them.