Motherhood Across Cultures: Kavita and Somer in Secret Daughter
This essay examines the parallel yet distinct experiences of motherhood in Shilpi S. Gowda's novel Secret Daughter through the characters Kavita and Somer. While both women face the loss of children—Kavita forced to give up her newborn daughter due to gender preference, and Somer losing her unborn child to miscarriage—they each find different paths to motherhood. Kavita eventually gives birth to a son, Vijay, in India, while Somer adopts a daughter, Asha, in the United States. The essay explores how cultural context, geography, and family circumstances shape their maternal experiences and their children's upbringings, illustrating that motherhood itself is not a universal experience but deeply influenced by individual circumstances and cultural values.
- Loss and Longing: Babies Taken Away: Kavita and Somer both experience maternal loss, shaped by different circumstances
- Paths to Motherhood: Birth and Adoption: How Kavita achieves motherhood through childbirth and Somer through adoption
- Upbringing in Two Countries: Vijay in India and Asha in the United States develop under different cultural influences
- Motherhood as Individual Experience: Conclusion on motherhood as shaped by individual and cultural circumstances
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- Uses precise textual evidence from Secret Daughter to support thematic comparisons, anchoring abstract concepts of motherhood in specific scenes (Kavita's labor, Somer's miscarriage discovery, the adoption agency visit).
- Balances similarity and difference systematically—the essay acknowledges what Kavita and Somer share (loss, desire for motherhood) while maintaining sharp focus on how geography and culture diverge their paths.
- Frames motherhood not as a single biological event but as a multifaceted experience shaped by circumstances, family dynamics, and societal context.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses comparative character analysis to develop a thematic argument about motherhood. Rather than analyzing Kavita and Somer separately, the writer strategically pairs scenes and experiences to highlight both parallels (the emotional trauma of loss) and contrasts (biological vs. adoptive motherhood, rural India vs. urban United States). This approach strengthens the central claim that motherhood is not universal but shaped by individual and cultural factors.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a thesis that previews three comparison points: loss, pathways to motherhood, and children's upbringing. Body paragraphs then develop each point with alternating focus between the two characters. The introduction and conclusion use the Keats epigraph as a frame, suggesting that motherhood becomes "real" only through lived experience—a technique that ties literary analysis to philosophical reflection on the novel's central theme.
Loss and Longing: Babies Taken Away
As John Keats once stated, "Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced." In Shilpi S. Gowda's book Secret Daughter, there are powerful experiences with pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing. The first display of these experiences is shown through Kavita and Somer: Kavita gives birth to a girl under distressing circumstances, while Somer goes through a miscarriage. Both women experience the profound loss of their babies, though through different means. Jasu, Kavita's husband, desires a boy who can help in the fields and will not burden their family. So Kavita and Jasu put their newborn daughter up for adoption. Somer, on the other hand, loses her baby while pregnant. Despite these different circumstances, both Kavita and Somer share the devastating experience of having their babies taken away from them.
It is not easy for a mother to have her baby taken away, and this is what is similar in Kavita and Somer's motherhood experiences. Gowda infuses the idea of adoption when Jasu forces Kavita to give up her newborn daughter simply because males are the preferred gender. Kavita lies in labor on the sweaty mud floor of the hut, praying that she gives birth to a boy. When she delivers a girl and slowly unwraps the cloth to reveal the newborn, Jasu will not accept her because he prefers a boy. Jasu arrives excited to see his prince but sees a baby girl instead. He rejects her and tells Kavita to get rid of her. Kavita says, "This is our baby. We created her together. I carried her inside me. Let me have one night before you take her" (Gowda 16). Despite her resistance, Kavita must listen to Jasu and give her baby away, highlighting the powerlessness she feels in her own motherhood.
Somer's loss comes through a different but equally traumatic path. Somer is pregnant and works at the same hospital as her husband, Krishnan. As she grabs her medical journal and clutches her abdomen, she runs toward the washroom and sees bright red blood dripping down. Fearing something is wrong, she calls Krishnan. After he arrives, the doctor checks her and tells her she is clear. However, Somer is quiet for the next few days and does not want to discuss her baby or her shattered dreams. She says, "Maybe I'm just not meant to be a mother" (12). Unlike Kavita, whose loss is forced upon her by family pressure, Somer's baby is taken away through miscarriage, a loss beyond anyone's control. Both women, however, experience the same emotional devastation of losing their children.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.