‘Intimate Enemies’ : An Analysis of the Mother-Daughter Relationship in Punyakante Wijenaike’s The Waiting Earth

Abstract

between Sellohamy and Isabella Hamy, the two female protagonists in Punyakante Wijenaike’s The Waiting Earth. The argument presents that cultural values are at the core of the problems between mother and daughter, among which are the preference for the male child, the stress on housework as opposed to education, and the sexual repression imposed on females. The essay will conclude with a deconstruction of the image of Sellohamy popularly seen by readers and critics as the “diriya mava” of patriarchy, and show her more to be Simone de Beauvoir’s “mater dolorosa".