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-Scholar and gypsy
Pat hated Bombay too hot etc ignorant
-A devoted son
The father was proud of his son achievements
-Pigeons at daybreak
Mr basu was constantly demanding things from Otima(self-importance) Otima was unable to live her life to her full potential
-Sale
The buyers where extremely arrogant and mean
The artist in sale was innocent as all he wanted to do was earn some money selling his art pieces to support his family, however he was treated badly by the buyers.

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- Pigeons at daybreak
Was not able to read the newspaper himself
Heat / discomfort (no electricity / fan)

-A devoted son
He spat out some words, as sharp and bitter as poison into his son’s face
Having to be moved around.

-Games at twilight
It was too hot to play outdoors …after the long day of confinement in the house that was not cool but protected from the sun
Hiding in the shed

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-> Private Tuition by Mr Bose (wealth & education)

Mr Bose- Mr Bose gave his private tuition out on the balcony, in the evenings, in the belief that, since it faced south,the river Hooghly would send it a wavering breeze or two to drift over the rooftops, through the washing and the few tops of tulsi and marigold that his wife had placed on the balcony rail, to cool him, fan him, soothe him.” and “he tiredly intoned the Sanskrit verses that should, he felt, have been roared out on a hill-top at sunrise. “

-> Studies in the Park (access to education)

Suno- All of them stared at me, at the exam I was to take. At the degree I was to get. Or not get.

Waiter - ‘I’m a student, too, ’ he said, ‘sixth class fail. My mother wanted me to go back and try again, but I didn’t like the teacher - he beat me. So i came here looking for a job. Lala-ji had just thrown out a boy called Hari for selling lottery tickets to the clients so he took me on. I can make out a bill.”

Gram vendor- ‘The park’s full of boys like you,’ he continued in that sympathetic voice. ‘I see them walk up and down, up and down with their books, like mad poets. Then I’m glad I was never sent to school,’ and he began to whistle, not impertinently but so cheerfully that i stopped and stared at him.

-> Surface Textures (poverty)

Sheila, Harrish wife-  ‘How am I to go to market and buy vegetable for dinner? I don’t even have enough for that. What am I to feed the boys tonight? The washwoman is asking for her bills to be paid. Do you hear? Do you hear? And we shall have to leave this flat. Where shall we go?’

-> Sale (poverty)

‘Can’t you answer the door?’ she cries. ‘What’s the matter with you? It must be them - this is your chance.’

‘A woman - therefore someone in league with his wife, he thinks, and statures at her lush, unreluctant face and the bright enamelled ear-rings that frames it.’

‘There are pictures to look at, yes, but one lies on the floor with a bundle of rags and some cigarette stubs on it, another is propped up on a shelf with bottles of hair oil, clay toys and calendars before it, and others have drifted off the wooden divan into corners of the room, peering out from under old newspaper and dirty clothes.’

‘Before he knows to, they are at the door, descending the stairs with one backward look at all the heroic mass of colour inside, saying goodbye.’

‘And will you give me an advance?’ he asks tensely. ‘I need money, my friend. Can you give me an advance?’

‘Brother, if I had some with me, I would give it to you - all of it - but since we only came to see,  I didn’t bring any. I’m sorry.’

-> A Devoted Son (poverty, wealth, access to education)

‘At the top of the list, Papa,’ Rakesh murmured, as if awed. ‘First in the country.’

‘Rakesh was the first son in the family to receive an education, so much has been sacrificed in order to send him to school and then medical college,and at last the fruits of their sacrifices had arrived, golden and glorious.’

‘Thereafter his fame seemed to grow just a little dimmer - or maybe it was only that everyone in town had grown accustomed to it at last - but it was also the beginning of his fortune for he now became known not only as the best but also the richest doctor in town.

‘Someone ran up to take his bag from him, others to escort him up the steps.’

-> Pigeons at Daybreak

‘I’m reading right,’ she protested. ‘Think I can’t read? Did my B.A, helped two children through school and college, and you think I can’t read? Blue bulls it says here, blue bulls it is.’

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Plot Structure. So far as the plots of Anita Desai are concerned, they are not so much deliberate contrivances as natural and inevitable outgrowth of the theme and perspective. As the story advances, she seems to be to quietly sliding in her scenes, setting and characters without much of advance preparations. As her forte is the psychic presentation of individual human beings, the narrative is rightly allowed to move freely. But her plots are always simple, neat enough to impede the psychological revelation. Her plot structure therefore, shows a splendid fusion of form expression and spontaneity.

Timeline in Games at Twilight. Even the most casual reader is likely to be impressed with this weaving of past and present into a single and unified whole. Desai artistic economy in bringing the past and present is of high order. There is nothing in the present that is not related to past. Every incident of the past and of present is of integral part of the whole and fusion of the past and present has been brought about in a perceptible manner.

Inner Consciousness. One of the most important parts of her style is to use an unbroken flow of thoughts and awareness in waking mind. Desai makes frequent use of flashback technique recalling the past happenings and experiences. This makes their rich internal lives and thoughts vivid and interestingly often in stark contrast to what is happening externally / in real life. There is consistently a lack of action. It enables the quality of a given state of mind to be investigated so completely.

In Desai’s stories action is subordinated to psychology. The central theme revolves around the mental and spiritual development. All he protagonists of her novels develop throughout the course of the novels either towards good (in their minds?) or worse (in reality). Her characters move and change and strive/struggle, however, whether this leads them any closer to their goals is debatable.

Relationships. The theme of Desai’s novels, is human nature and human relationship. Her stories are peopled with men and women relationships in which Desai deals

One of the most distinctive characteristics of Desai’s fiction is lively description of her disenfranchised female characters. They are not the main characters in most of the stories in Games at Twilight. Anita Desai not only portrays clearly her protagonists’ emotions and feelings but she gives the lively description of the events in the novel. Her use of lively words, solid action, visual images arrest the mind as if it were in a painting.

So far as the characterization of Desai is concerned, it is unique. Her characters are neurotic highly sensitive but sequestered in a world of dream and imagination and alienated from the surroundings with consequence of their failure or unwillingness to adjust with reality. They often differ in their opinion from others. Unable to solve the mystery of life, they envelop their sufferings like Bhaiyya (The Accompanist) and _____________ in Surface Textures). Her characters are from every class and age of society. Subsequently the women in these stories are also represented here.

TECHNIQUE

Contrast / Juxtaposition:

His art of contrasting characters can be easily observed again in stories like…

-           Rich vs Poor

-          Materials vs Spirituality

-          Desire vs Reality

To what effect?

One of the most distinctive parts of Desai’s technique is her lyricism. She is often considered as a lyrical novelist as the language used by Desai is of special type. She quotes poems after poems in her novels and words come as spontaneously from her pen as music from a musical instrument. Poetry has been used by Desai as a fictional technique right from the beginning of her career as an author. Her lyrical language (which although often criticized), separates her from other Indian-English writers.

Egs?

The use of symbols is also a very important technique in the novels of Desai. Her novels abound in variety of symbolic situations, episodes, events and characters. These symbols are drawn from human life and nature - trees, birds, animals etc.

Oleander bush in Studies in the Park

Birds and flowers in Sale etc

Another important aspect of Desai’s artistic technique is use of imagery. Imagery lends a poetic and lyrical coloring of the estranged self and enlarges the critical and interpretative horizon of her art. Images in Desai aren’t confined to the world of art but they are scientific images. She makes an unending search for the suitable images to express subconscious. Her imagery is always in character which suits the love plight of her character.

Her novels are based on the texture of a rich and splendid medley of images which is functional rather than decorative. These images don’t conflict or contradict each other but are in perfect harmony and accord with the nature of the character’s alienation.

Egs.

One of the most prominent technique of Desai is to telescope past with present. The technique has been effectively used in The Accompanist. One moment the readers feel that they are moving in the present occurring and at the very next moment they are carried into the past incidents with the mind of characters. This beautiful mingling of past and present can be observed in her novels easily.

Effect?

In The Accompanist, he uses first person narration. Bhaiyya is a narrator and he presents a one sided view of the events and the writer allows the readers to critically examine the actions and reactions of the narrator.

Eg?

Effect?

In stories like Surface Textures and The Accompanist, she discusses the theme of marital disharmony through a series of incidents. Desai has the sharpness and the penetration of vision of extraordinary degree. She cuts things clean and enters the insides of things with perfect ease. She has penetrating eyes into the mental condition of her characters.

Another distinctive feature of Desai’s writing is the use of native words to create Indian atmosphere. It shows her deep love for Indian culture; she employs many Indian words in the novels like

She is also impressed by onomatopoeic words like _____________________________________. Desai’s skill in the sentence-construction seems to be breaking down in the later novels. Sometimes she uses rhetorical skill at several occasions. She is no doubt a great artist with technical dexterity. In her writing a beautiful presentation of structure, texture, technique and language is found.

CONCLUSION

Being a subjective and psychological novelist, she is often forced to peep in the inner recesses of the psyche rather than in the outer spectacle of the world. She is more occupied with somber than the frivolous side of life. An undercurrent of irony, satire and sarcasm often surfaces in the pages of her novels and speak of their minimal presence in the artist’s genius.

developed the art of psychological novels in Indian writing in English. Life is all motion and all motion leads to destruction, so the source which activates human beings also destroys them. All the characters in the novels are striving towards a proper vocation.

Desai’s novels present a kind of paradox between activism there is no success leads ultimately to the destruction of the original impulse.

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So it had gone all afternoon and, by holding out the bait
of pineapple cake, his favourite, Mrs Fernandez had the boy
dressed in his new frilled shirt and purple velvet shorts and
new shoes that bit his toes and had him sitting quietly in
church right through the long ceremony

why he was perspiring so. Yes, the collar of the frilled shit was a bit tight and the church was airless and stuffy but it wasn't very refined of him to sweat .

Of course all the wittle boys in her row seemed to be in the same state - each one threatened or bribed into docility.

Their eyes were the eyes of prisoners, dark and blazing at the ignominy and boredom and injustice of it all.

Nearly over now, Victor. In a little while we'll be going to tea - pineapple cake for you.

Victor hadn't much faith in his mother's promises. They
had a way of getting postponed or cancelled on account of
some small accidental lapse on his part.

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quotes
‘Is it true you are leaving us, Bina? How can you be so cruel?’ And if it were a woman guest, the words were that much more effusive. It was all heady, astonishing.
‘Why are you leaving us so soon, Mrs Raman? You’ve only been here— two years, is it?’
‘Oh, I wish you were staying, Mrs Raman,’ cried the Commissioner’s wife and, as she squeezed Bina’s arm, her fragrant talcum powder seemed to lift off her chalky shoulders and some of it settled on Bina who sneezed.”
Have you started packing, Bina? Poor you. Oh, are you having packers over from Delhi? Oh well then it's not so bad.'

it was a farewell part of bina moving out
the dark humour is where nobody in the party cares about her but was just acting up such that she could “leave happily” and also to give her face
bina was always annoyed at the commissioner wife for her sarcasm

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-suno’s mom gave him milk before the exam as she cares for him
-suno’s father expects good results from him and ask him to study hard
-suno’s mom is always chopping and slicing and the pan of oil hissing this shows that suno’s mom is always cooking for the family
-suno’s uncle brings him milk and tells him to study for his exam
-family ensures that suno is always studying and expects him to do well for his exams
-suno’s family are overly concerned about the exams instead of suno

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Quotes:

everything was still curtained and shuttered in a way that stifled the children, made them feel that their lungs were stuffed with cotton wool and their noses with dust and if they didn’t burst out into the light and see the sun and feel the air, they would choke.

they wailed so horrendously that she actually let down the bolt of the front door so that they burst out like seeds from a crackling, overripe pod into the veranda, with such wild, maniacal yells.

The children, too, felt released. They too began tumbling, shoving, pushing against each other, frantic to start. Start what? Start their business. The business of the children’s day which is— play.

he called out, "Only in the veranda—the porch—Ma said—Ma said to stay in the porch!'' No one had stopped to listen.

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quotes
“Then he shivered all over. Something had tickled the back of his neck. It took him a while to pick up the courage to lift his hand and explore“
He hugged his knees together and smiled to himself almost shyly at the thought of so much victory, such laurels.
that when he flung himself at the white pillar and bawled, "Den! Den! Den!'' his voice broke with rage and pity at the disgrace of it all, and he felt himself flooded with tears and misery.
It took them a minute to grasp what he was saying, even who he was. They had quite forgotten him. Raghu had found all the others long ago

ravi hid inside a dark and eerie tunnel such that he will not be found by his older brother raghu so he “sacrifice” himself to stay in the tunnel even tho is scary and many creature there are.
the tragedy came when ravi heard no sound and decide to come out of it but there was no one, he thought he had won he game but as he runs back, no one remembered it, it was all this fun and a sense of success turns to insignificance and misery.

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Waiter, gram seller and B.A.student-characters that show Suno education is not worth dying for. Muslim couple-life it’s short.

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- Rakesh showed his love for his mom when his mom tells him which girl to marry and he married her
- Rakesh showed his love for his dad by feeding him pills and helping him watch his diet so he wouldn't get sick easily

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In this story the relationship between husband and wife is much better and it is evident that he loves his wife a lot.
Quotes:
his wife had placed precariously on the balcony rail, to cool him, fan him, soothe him.
Both of them seemed bound together and held down in some deeply absorbing act from which he was excluded.
He would have liked to break in and join them
He wanted so much to touch her hair,

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The wife is constantly in the kitchen. Has little to no say in anything and does not really have the best relationship with her husband

Quotes :
troubled face.
she is so artless, so completely without any vestige of imagination, and so completely unlike his wife.

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Games at twilight
The accompanist
Pineapple cake

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The Accompanist - ‘ But he did not take anyone else, he chose me. He gave me my destiny, my life. Could I have refused him? Does a mortal refuse God? ( Spiritual Vs material )
The Accompanist - ‘It is true I made little money on these concert tours of ours, enough to take care of my father during his last years and his illness.’ Material - Money

Material - money ( corruption of money)
Spiritual - gods ( holy and pure )

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Devoted son - Son was successful, father was disappointed

Sale - artist was disappointed that no one buy his painting

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Mr Basu’s wife, Otima Basu is the more dominant character and is one of the more dominant females in the whole book. She has POWER.
Quotes :
said, ‘are you ready to listen to the news now?’
`I am reading right,’ she protested.
He knew there was no stopping her now.

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game in twilight
tuition with mr bose
the farewell party
studies in the park
devoted son
pineapple cake

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Sale
Pigeons at day break
Private tuition with Mr Bose

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“ I am in the mood now,' he cries. 'I am always in the mood, don't you see? Tomorrow, tomorrow I will have it ready. I will bring it to your house. Give me the address!'
They laugh. The engine stutters to life and there is a metallic finality in the sound of the doors being shut. But he clings to the handle”

“The artist steps back to let them go. As they drive out of the lane and the smoke smudges and obscures the tail-lights, he hears his wife come out on the stairs behind him.”

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- Mrs Fernandez prefer having a girl instead of her son

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games at twilight:
Ravi wanted victory sand triumph but he had to play a sad and dark game of funeral.  Feeling a sense of disappointment and silenced by a terrible sense of his insignificance

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sale:
artist wanted to sell painting

tuition with mr bose:
mr bose wants to spend time with family but he’s stuck tutoring

Studies in the park:
suno - wants to escape from everything

games at twilight:
Ravi - wants to win and be celebrated
-> won but felt worthless

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- the artist is desperate to sell his works so that he can support his wife and son
(love vs pressure / responsibility)

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Devoted son - ‘He won a scholarship. He went to the USA (that was what his father learnt to call it and taught the whole family to say—not America, which was what the ignorant neighbors called it, but, with a grand familiarity, ‘the USA’) where he pursued his career in the most prestigious of all hospitals and won encomiums from his American colleagues which were relayed to his admiring and glowing family’

‘Old Varma nodded with melancholy triumph. ‘That is how he treats me—after I have brought him up, given him an education, made him a great doctor. Great doctor! This is the way great doctors treat their fathers’

SALE

- ‘Brother, if I had some with me, I would give it to you - all of it – but since we only came to see, I didn't bring any. I'm sorry.
‘I need it.'
‘Listen, when you bring the picture, I will give you something, even if I don't want it, I will give you something - in advance, for the one we will buy. But today, just now, have nothing.’
The artist steps back to let them go. As they drive out of the lane and the smoke smudges and obscures the tail-lights, he hears his wife come out on the stairs behind him’

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Ravi refuses to join in this “funeral game.” He thinks that he wanted victory and triumph, but instead he had been forgotten. He wonders how he can face this humiliation, and he lays on the grass face down, overwhelmed by the understanding that he is insignificant.

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- Suno’s mom gave him milk for his exams as a form of love
- Suno’s mom also cook for her children
- she asks how Suno is doing for his exam
- Suno goes to the park and saw a loving couple