Until a child is eighteen years old, the parents have full responsibility. They provide a stable and loving environment for their children. As the leaders in a household, caring and loving parents also maintain the bonds that hold the family together. However, absence of loving parental guidance can create tension between family members. Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day shows how war, specifically the partition of India, affects a particular family. The partition of Indian in 1947 created the separate countries of India and Pakistan, consequently ripping families apart. The partition, initiated by India’s independence from Britain, attempted to accommodate irreconcilable religious differences between Muslims and Hindus by forming the Islamic Pakistan. In Clear Light of Day, the Das children’s relationship with their parents causes lasting sibling conflict that mirrors this social and political upheaval of India. The Das parents’ negligent relationship with their children in Clear Light of Day mirrors India’s independence from Britain. Before their deaths, Mr. and Mrs. Das were preoccupied and inattentive to their four children, Raja, Tara, Bim, and Baba. They spent most of their time at the club, playing “their daily game of bridge” (Desai 50). This pastime is so important to them that they neglect to take care of their kids. For example, Mrs. Das tires of “washing and powdering” Baba, her mentally disabled baby, and she complains, “My bridge is suffering” (103). Mr. Das also does not focus on his children and “he [goes] through the day without addressing a word to them” (53). Unfortunately, Mr. and Mrs. Das are unable to ever form a loving relationship with their children because they both pass away. After Mrs. Das falls into a... ... middle of paper ... ... Clear Light of Day highlights how a war affects a family and a nation. In the novel, parental absence escalates sibling conflict, which leads to the characters escapement, ultimately resulting in Bim’s anger. While some readers may think that Clear Light of Day just represents a single family’s struggle, the novel clearly represents India’s struggle as well. India’s independence from Britain consequently leads to the formation of Pakistan and continual religious and political conflict. This novel is an allegory that explains political combat in an accessible way because everyone is part of a family. This novel not only models the reasons for conflict in India but for other nations and even families as well. Clear Light of Day shows how understanding family dynamics and creating strong familial bonds can help reduce conflict and promote peace throughout the world.
All through the times of the intense expectation, overwhelming sadness, and inspiring hope in this novel comes a feeling of relief in knowing that this family will make it through the wearisome times with triumph in their faces. The relationships that the mother shares with her children and parents are what save her from despair and ruin, and these relationships are the key to any and all families emerging from the depths of darkness into the fresh air of hope and happiness.
When Sripathi and his family receive the news of Maya’s and her husband’s fatal road accident, they experience a dramatic up heaval. For Sripathi, this event functioned as the distressed that inaugurated his cultural and personal process of transformation and was played out on different levels. First, his daughter’s death required him to travel to Canada to arrange for his granddaughter’s reverse journey to India, a move that marked her as doubly diasporic sensibility. Sripathi called his “foreign trip” to Vancouver turned out to be an experience of deep psychic and cultural dislocation, for it completely “unmoors him from the earth after fifty-seven years of being tied to it” (140). Sripathi’s own emerging diasporic sensibility condition. Not only must he faced his own fear of a world that is no longer knowable to him, but, more importantly, he must face his granddaughter. Nandana has been literally silenced by the pain of her parent’s death, and her relocation from Canada to Tamil Nadu initially irritated her psychological condition. To Sripathi, however, Nandana’s presence actsed as a constant reminder of his regret of not having “known his daughter’s inner life” (147) as well as her life in Canada. He now recognizeed that in the past he denied his daughter his love in order to support his
Initially, Desai uses the duality of human nature by the two different ages in A Devoted Son. Th...
In India, culture, tradition, and religion have an influence in every aspect of life from the food they eat, how they greet one another, and even how they marry. To Native Indians, there isn 't much that 's more important to them than their family and their culture, as shown by Mr. Kapasi 's surprise at the standoffish attitude of the Das parents(Lahiri, 450). The Das come from America where there is much less emphasis placed on family values and togetherness. The mother, Mrs. Das blatantly ignores her children, focusing instead on painting her fingernails(Lahiri, 451). The father is more concerned with talking to their driver, Mr. Kapasi, about the tour before his wife takes over the conversation clearly taking an interest in Kapasi and his work as a translator and interpreter(Lahiri, 452). The children are rowdy and talk back to their parents while allowing their attention to wander. In India, this sort of behavior, that of the parents and the children alike, would be frowned upon desperately and the entire family may be excommunicated from the community. India parents are taught to be strict, yet attentive to their children. If a child addresses their parent, the parent is obligated to reply to them, even if it is to scold them. Also, children are taught to be respectful of their parents at all times, even after they become parents themselves. A Native-born
The main character is Mrs. Das whom is flirtatious, careless, and needy. She and her husband take their family to see the country India for the first time. The tour guide Mr.Kapsi whom is curious, understanding, and quite aware. He sees something unusual at the beginning of the trip, but does not say anything. As the children continue their site seeing, the husband takes picture with his camera as if he lost in his own world. Meanwhile the wife gets to know the driver instead of site seeing. Mr.Kapsi is aware that the family is not like most Indians which lead him to be attracted to Mrs.Das. It states, “The family looked Indian but dressed as foreigners did, the children in stiff, brightly colored clothing and caps with translucent visors (29). This quote shows the difference in cultural clash as well the difficulty of communication. Mr.Kapsi tells Mrs. Das that he is an interpreter for a doctor which makes her believe she can discuss her personal business without him telling anyone. It states, “He decided to begin with the most obvious question, to get to the heart of the matter, and so he asked, “Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt?”(39) Made the wife realized what she was truly feeling about her mistakes. After the conversation Mr.Kapsi did not look at the Mrs.Das the same way. The unusual
A traditional extended family living in Northern India can become acquainted through the viewing of Dadi’s family. Dadi, meaning grandmother in Hindu, lets us explore her family up close and personal as we follow the trials and tribulations the family encounters through a daily basis. The family deals with the span of three generations and their conflicting interpretations of the ideal family life. Dadi lets us look at the family as a whole, but the film opens our eyes particularly on the women and the problems they face. The film inspects the women’s battle to secure their status in their family through dealing with a patriarchal mentality. The women also are seen attempting to exert their power, and through it all we are familiarized to
Das shows a stereotypical American flaw where she did not care about her children and went and openly started discussing her personal life and also in the process she found guilty for disrespecting the country and the cultural believes, where she believes it or not she still got the Indian heritage in her. Lahiri’s proves us that Mrs. Das is a messy; lazy and over all a bad parent. She simply has no concern for the environment, as she was completely fine after dropping rice snacks all over the floor riling the local wildlife. Mrs. Das simply represents what’s called “Ugly American” who always stands out in the crowd for her own needs and is very narrow minded and only cares about her self. This showed a complete lack of understanding among them shows a complete difference between the family and culture.
A culture where guests are treated as gods, family members live under the same household until death, and have the belief that gods and spirits play the significant role in determining their life all refer to the same topic, the Indian culture; a rich and diverse culture which is very unique in many ways. This culture includes the qualities of various other cultures and it results into a modern and acceptable tradition. Respecting elders, honouring heroes, cherishing love, and following traditions make up the major components of the Indian culture and its followers. Many people believe that this particular culture has a great impact on their everyday lives and are proud to be included in the significant customs. In the novel, Clear Light of Day, we are revealed to the life of a family facing difficulty following the cultures and traditions of India.
India is the center of a very serious problem in the world today. It’s a very diverse place with people from many different religious backgrounds, who speak many different languages and come from many different regions. They are also separated economically. Two of the country’s religious sects, Muslims and Hindus, have been in conflict for hundreds of years. Their feelings of mistrust and hatred for each other are embedded in all those years and will not leave easily. What’s most disturbing is that there seems to be no plan for reconciliation available. There are numerous reasons for this conflict.
During the Cold War, many regional conflicts occurred and were noted as the significant battles which later led to decolonization. One of the regional conflicts were India and Pakistan fighting for their independence. In 1947, India was released under Great Britain’s control and gained its independence. However, the country was divided between Muslims and Hindus, which share different religions. Muslims wanted church and state to become unified while Hindus wanted a separation of these two establishments. Since these two ethnic groups disagreed, it was difficult to create a new government. Therefore, India was divided into two nations: India for the Hindus and Pakistan for the Muslims. Hindus and Muslims were racing to the border in order to get to their nation state which led to killing 500,000 people due to rioting. Although, Mohandas Gandhi, an Indian National Congressman, wanted to obtain peace between these two religions. Pakistan refused the H...
Inseparably linked to the moment of India’s independence, Saleem Sinai, born at the exact moment of that independence, has to live with the several consequences of this coincidence. Children such as Saleem are called Midnight’s Children and are endowed with unusual gifts and telepathic powers. While following Saleem’s life story, Salman Rushdie gives not only every personal event in the life of Saleem but also a historical overview of an independent India. Therefore history plays an important role in Midnights Children and is worth examining more closely. This essay will specifically focus on the ambiguity of history and in which way this ambiguity comes forward in Salman Rushdie’s novel. As Rushdie says in his essay Imaginary Homelands “reality is built on our prejudices, misconceptions and ignorance as well as on our perceptiveness and knowledge” (25), this suggests that the history in Midnight’s Children is not only a matter of facts but also a matter of personal
Indian-Canadian director Deepa Mehta 's film based on Salman Rushdie 's novel Midnight’s Children is a clear example of a post-colonial work. Midnight’s Children follows two children, both born at precisely midnight, on the exact day that India gained independence from Great Britain. Shiva is born to wealthy parents, while Saleem enters the world as the son of a beggar, but a nurse switches the two boys at birth. Throughout the film, the narrator, Saleem, explains both families’ histories, and in doing so, combines personal narratives with that of India itself. The birth of the “midnight children” represents the birth of a new, independent country. The film rejects the version of India created through British colonization and provides a view
Ricardo Pollack is distinguished as a director because of the documentary, Partition: The Day India Burned (2007). The documentary itself discusses the detrimental consequences of the withdrawal of Britain's reign from India in 1947, which led to the forced relocation of men, women, and even children across newly defined border lines, along with violence, rape, and murder. The film makes it argument through dramatized reconstructions and witness testimonies, which offer personal insight into the horrors of the partition and conjure up feelings of sympathy and remorse. The film intends to make an educated public more aware of how an ethnically diverse nation was tragically divided and its effects on civilian lives. This is a secondary source with primary sources because it is based on witness testimonies and an actual historical event, but offers its own evaluation on the issue through dramatized reconstructions of the event. This source is quite useful and relevant to my project because it offers more than just the historical facts pertaining to the event. It offers a more narrow perspective of the broader, general history; thus broadening the scope of my research.
Urvashi Butalia in her book, The Other Side of Silence, attempts to analyze the partition in Indian society, through an oral history of Indian experiences. The collection of traumatic events from those people who lived through the partition gives insight on how history has enveloped these silences decades later. Furthermore, the movie 1947 Earth reveals the bitterness of partition and its effect of violence on certain characters. The most intriguing character which elucidates the silence of the partition is the child, Lenny. Lenny in particular the narrator of the story, serves as a medium to the intangibility created by the partition. The intangibility being love and violence, how can people who grew up together to love each other hate one another amidst religion? This question is best depicted through the innocence of a child, Lenny. Through her interactions with her friends, the doll, and the Lahore Park, we see silence elucidated as comfort of not knowing, or the pain from the separation of comfort and silence from an unspoken truth.
... Pakistan to surrender during the Indo-Pakistani War helped the Bengalis establish a sovereign state for themselves. The distribution of the racist pamphlets against the minorities showed Shiv Sena's chauvinistic and fascist regime. Indira Gandhi's corrupt government, socialist regime and her controversial scandals such as giving her son's company government money and the 1971 Nagarwala scandal were also revealed. All of these political events influenced the background of the novel and the characters’ everyday lives. .