Volume : V, Issue : III, March - 2016

EXPEL AND CULTRAL ISOLATION IN BYE, BYE, BLACKBIRD

Dr. Dipti H. Mehta

Abstract :

 ‘Bye, Bye, Blackbird’ makes a heroic, although unsuccessful attempt to present the gamut of emotions of Indian immigrants in England. All the Indian “types” are present-the Madrasi, the Bengali, and the Punjabi. The inevitable Swami selling yoga, the third rate musician and his woman with the inevitable pan-box. There are also the expected English characters- the Millers and the Roscommon with their unconcealed dislike for the Asian immigrants, the sentimental English woman, Mrs. Moffitt whose ambition is to start an Indian Club and arrange weekly get-togethers where the ‘spiritual’ Indians may ‘spiritualize the materialistic English.’ Mrs. Desai ings something new to the Indo- Anglican novel. Instead of portraying characters in terms of the environment, or defining an individual in terms of his social or caste functions, Mrs. Desai creates character and the milieu is significant only in so far as it enables the reader to value the character. Additionally, the precise artist that she is Mrs. Desai presents each character as an unsettled mystery. In addition to all these characters there is the English woman with an Indian husband. Two of the three main characters are very talkative Dev and Adit Sen. They talk and talk and talk. There is a great deal of argument, attitudinizing, mouthing of hatred for England, expressions of love for England. Then have pages of depictions of English life- of the life in the metropolitan and the life in the countryside. In spite of all the lavishness of its local details, the novel does not make any clear impression on the mind of the reader. Mrs. Desai’s forte- her uncanny ability to probe into the minds and hearts of her characters, both major and minor is missing in this work. The three main characters, Dev, Adit and Sarah occupy a lot of space, or her pages in the novel. They are shown talking, ooding and occasionally ‘doing’. But they remain vague and unconvincing

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Article: Download PDF    DOI : https://www.doi.org/10.36106/gjra  

Cite This Article:

DR. Dipti H. Mehta EXPEL AND CULTRAL ISOLATION IN BYE, BYE, BLACKBIRD Global Journal For Research Analysis, Vol: 5, Issue : 3 March 2016

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