Comment on the structure and techniques used by Anita Desai in Clear
Light of the Day
Clear Light
of Day is divided into four unnamed parts. The division often conveys symbolism
and meaning. Desai takes liberties with chronology and 'there is a constant
intermingling of the past and present with a hint of the foreboding future' in
the novel. (Sali, p. 148). The rst chapter deals with the present time, and we
are introduced to the characters as they are now. The two sisters are reunited
after some years apart. Tara, who is married to a diplomat, is back in India to
attend their brother's daughter's marriage in Hyderabad.
Tara's rst
stop on her journey however, is in Old Delhi to visit Bim in their childhood
home. The second and third chapters deal with the memories of the past, and
through Bim and Tara we are taken back to the years around the partition. The
relationships among the siblings are described here, as well as their
relationship to their parents and their aunt. The political situation in India
before, during, and after the partition can be traced through the characters
and their different experiences. The third chapter also reveals the 2
'predicament of aunt Mira' through a series of events. (Sali, p.148). In the
fourth and last chapter the characters nd themselves in the present again, but
now with a profound realisation which they lacked in the rst chapter. Bim, who
has ;struggled with anger and bitterness, now realises that she has to make
peace with herself and the ghosts from her past in order to live a full and
meaningful life.
Flash back Technique and Memory:
Anita Desai
also makes memory and ashback as the main narrative strategies in her novel
Clear Light of Day. This is a novel about memory: about places and people who
go through change and transformation in an attempt to nd their true identities.
In Clear Light of Day we get to see an upper-middleclass Indian family and
their everyday life. The characters struggle to nd their place in the world,
and with the memories of the past that haunt them in various ways. Desai has
described Clear Light of Day as a 'four 3 dimensional piece' (Sali, p. 6).
Inspired by T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets (1978) the novel shows how time can be
both a destroyer and a preserver, and it also shows 'what the bondage of time
does to By making use of ashbacks and stream of consciousness Desai 'steers her
story and unravels the hidden thoughts and feelings and 5 emotions of her
characters' (Sali, p. 162).
Cry, the Peacock
Her first
Novel Cry, the Peacock (1963) is a poetic novel with dense imagery. Her
descriptions are poetic. Over the last thirty-seven years since the publication
of her novel, Desai’s vision of life has also undergone a marked transformation.
Cry, the Peacock is a novel the theme of which may be described as an
incompatible marriage with the focus on the heroine’s psyche. Since primarily
it is a psychological novel, probing the workings of Maya’s psyche, the
narrative is not chronologically straight. There is a constant to and fro
movement between the past and the present in the mind of Maya. In this novel
she does it by making use of the weird animal imagery which suggests her
disturbed state of mind. Such imagery is to be seen in contrast to the majestic
image of the peacock which is the central symbol of the novel as suggested by
the title. Cry, the Peacock is a psychological study of the hypersensitive,
childless, young protagonist Maya who, haunted by a childhood prophecy of disaster,
kills her elderly detached husband in a fit of frenzy. Finally, she goes
completely mad and commits suicide. This novel uses technique of fantasy. Desai
describes the inner loneliness of Maya and the vision described above tells of
her mental state. It is creditable that in her first novel Anita Desai has
given such inner inquiring of Maya’s psyche. Thus the novel is rich in
technique using language in poetic manner and thus the novelist is able to
explore the psyche of Maya who after killing her husband goes back to her
father’s house at Lucknow and retrogress to her childhood days, lost in her
toys and the happy world of the childhood.
Voices in the City
Desai’s
second novel Voices in the City (1965) is an interesting novel and the title
itself is an example of technique. Some critics have observed that in the novel
the city is important, and is skillfully handled by her, they have compared it
with that of Dicken’s London and Hardy’s EgdonHeath. A striking feature of
Desai’s narrative technique in Voices in the City is her use of the city of
Calcutta. Calcutta portrayed as an oppressive city not only forms the backdrop
to the action but also becomes a character in the novel, exercising a powerful
influence on all the major characters. Desai describes Calcutta at least twenty
times in order to accomplish the difficult task of integrating it into the
plot. In this novel, as in Desai’s most other novels, symbolism and fantasy are
used as significant narrative techniques. The city itself is used as a powerful
symbol. Calcutta conceived as a force of creation, preservation and destruction
is ultimately identified as a symbol of Mother Kali, the goddess of death and
destruction. The city is described in much detail, an oppressive city, a dying
city but all the same exercising a powerful influence on all the three
characters.
Fire on the Mountain
Desai’s next
novel Fire on the Mountain (1977) is a novel in which she makes use of
symbolism. She also makes use of the flesh back technique in narrating the
story. The novel centers around the character of Nanda Kaul. The novel also
makes use of fantasy and it is Nanda Kaul who lives in the world of fantasy.
This novel demonstrates the novelist’s basic technique of fiction as montage.
It is indeed a subtle technique as a process of discovery, a mode of projecting
a vision. In fact it is a craft which cannot be dissociated from the
constituents of the art of fiction, such as the rhythm, the prophecy, the
portrayal of individual and social reality, and the visionary quality of
imagination. This is a distinctive novel primarily because it is a mosaic of
many patterns. In no other novel of Desai’s has this mosaic of the human and
the natural, the past and the present, the individual and the social, the inner
and the outer, the transient and the eternal, been portrayed with such great
power and poignancy. Thus technique becomes a mode of discovery through
contrasted conditions of human consciousness pitted against an apathetic social
reality. Here also Desai employs the technique of presenting two contrasting
characters together so that each is defined in terms of the other. This is the
only novel of Anita Desai in which nature plays such a vital role on the level
of Anita Desai in which nature plays such a vital role on the level of
symbolism and imagery and it has to be accepted that she makes effective use of
this technique to portray different characters. The title itself deals with
nature.
In Custody
Anita
Desai’s seventh novel In Custody (1984) employs that third person omniscient
narrator to tell the story of Deven Sharma, a temporary lecturer in a private
college in Mirpore, a suburb of Delhi. The plot of the novel is intricately
connected with the characters of Deven and Nur. In the beginning it is Deven
through whose action the plot moves but as soon as Murad asks him to interview
the poet, the actions are more controlled by the poet rather than by Deven or
Murad. The central incident of the novel is the interview and all other actions
are related to and subordinate to it. It is true that the main achiever is
Deven but all his Anita Desai’s Fictional Techniques. In this novel also
fantasy is a significant part of the narrative technique. It develops the theme
of adventure. Deven, a weak romantic incapable of facing crises, seeks relief
in fantasy and in the rich promises of Urdu poetry. The title of the novel is
also a significant aspect of the narrative technique. It throws a flood of
light on the message of this novel : in taking somebody into custody, one has
to surrender oneself to the other’s custody
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