Abstract:- Anita Desai, one of the best known contemporary women writers of Indian fiction in English has added a new dimension and flavor to the contemporary Indian English fiction and has a significant place due to her innovative thematic concerns and deals in her fiction with feminine sensibility. She is a keen observer of the society. The Cry, the peacock (1963) is faithful description of psychosomatic growth of a female character, which cannot cope up with the practical world of the husband and feels dejected.

Feminism refers to any ideology that seeks equality and rights for women, usually through improving their status. Feminism is rooted in ending men’s historical power over women. Feminism is a range of political movements, ideologies, and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve political, economic, personal and social equality of sexes. This includes seeking to establish educational and professional opportunities for women that are equal to those for men. The present paper attempts to probe Desai’s expression for her pre occupation with the modern ideal of building the society free from male domination. The study also means to investigate the role and contribution of patriarchal values towards the misery, suffering, loneliness and unhappiness of women or other psychological, social and economic problems experienced by them. The present research work will undertake a study of feminist awareness in Anita Desai’s novel ‘CRY THE PEACOCK’, with the objective to highlight the place and plight of women in a world governed by patriarchy.

Feminism used to describe a political, cultural or economic movement to establish equal right and legal protection for women. The paper analyses feminine awakening in the words of Anita Desai. She shows the women who is oppressed, suppressed and self determining with their spatial existence.  She tries to explore the psychological state of her women characters. In the novel, CRY, THE PEACOCK she represents the theme of consciousness and sensibility of women in contract with the men and their sufferings on their basis of emotional and physical repression. By the role Maya, Anita caries a new aspect of feminist publishing. Maya is an enthusiastic young lady who experiences both the expectation and the reality of her material life which is faced by every woman in the world.