*Research Scholar, Department of English, Anna University, Chennai, India
**Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai, India
Online published on 1 June, 2016.
The purpose of this study is to understand and appreciate the thematic concerns of the two novelists about the oppression of people in different forms in two different countries. Bhabani Bhattacharya, an Indian novelist, has predominantly written about class struggles, which are widespread in the Indian society due to the caste system and colonization. His novel He Who Rides a Tiger deals with Kalo, a lower caste ironsmith who is convicted for stealing bananas but overcomes his problems when through his deceptive plan to adopt an upper caste life style. John A William, an American novelist, has primarily focused on the life of black people in the white dominated American society. His novel The Man Who Cried I Am portrays Max Reddick, an accomplished journalist who reflects on his tribulations and triumphs in a racially divided society. Although the two novels share common themes such as social division, exploitation and discrimination and the struggle to overcome these social ills, they are very different in the way their protagonists struggle through their lives for living a decent and dignified life.
American Black Fiction, Indian English Fiction, Caste, Race, Sociology of Literature, Comparative Literature
