Symbolism In Clear Light Of Day

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According to Wikipedia, an epigraph is a phrase, quotation or poem that is found at the beginning of a document. In other words, “An epigraph is a literary device in the form of a poem, quotation or sentence usually placed at the beginning of a document or a simple piece having a few sentences but which belongs to another writer” (“Epigraph”, n.d.). It serves as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example. And use of such quotation at the beginning hint at its theme. In the similar way, Anita Desai, Indian novelist, has made use of two epigraphs in her novel ‘Clear Light of Day’ (1980) from Emily Dickinson and T. S. Eliot. With the use of her excellent nature imagery and symbols in the novel, her epigraph in the starting gives the reader an insight to the theme the novel is preoccupied with.
Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day was set in India’s Old Delhi. The novel weaves the history of partition of India with an upper middle class Hindu family- the Das family. It focuses on their struggles and fragmentation. Also, it portrays the shifting and changing relationships of the Das siblings (Kinna, 2011). The central figure of the family is Bimla Das (Bim) who is an independent woman. Bim’s memories of childhood dominate her sterile existence and thus, replay her memories in the decaying family mansion in Old Delhi. The whole novel circulates around the theme of memory and the passage of time; vividly symbolized by the two epigraphs in the opening of the novel. The sisters in the novel try to reconcile their childhood dreams with their adult lives and resolve the lingering guilt of past family conflicts. Thus, this essay attempts to show the significance and the implication of the epigraphs by Desai in the novel.
As seen in the novel, ...

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...filled at the end for they reunite. Dark with time becomes rich and brighter with time itself, “Although it was shadowy and dark, Bim could see as well as by the clear light of day that she felt only love and yearning for them all” (Desai, 2001). Finally, Bim is able to look beyond the shadowy darkness and screaming silence in her surroundings and accepts that she feels nothing but love for her family regardless of all the battles they went through. Memory and the passage of time act like a treasurer which give Das siblings an assistance to a bright life filled with love, understanding, forgiveness and above all, the importance of familial relationship in all times to come. “Bim, who has struggled with anger and bitterness, now realizes that she has to make peace with herself and the ghosts from her past in order to live a full and meaningful life” (Sannrud, 2008).

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