Analysis of Games at Twilight – Anita Desai

Background

Anita Desai is an Indian novelist who was born to a German mother and an Indian father. Though she was born in India and spent her early life there, she moved to the US to work and write there. She has travelled extensively and taught creative writing in several colleges. Many of her works have been turned into films.

Relevance of the Title

The story is about the children of a large family indulging the chaotic games of childhood one summer evening. When they begin, it is not yet twilight. They are let loose into the open when they become insistent; it is too much of an effort for the mother to have them cooped up inside. But as the games wear on, it is twilight. Ravi hiding inside the old shed with the green doors endures the ignominy of having been forgotten by the rest of the children. He is small and insignificant and breaks into easy tears.

Main themes

Childhood and its joys and sorrows are the themes of the short story. Summer and its discomfort are for adults; for children, summer with its long holidays is an unadulterated delight. Games at Twilight has at its centre a large gaggle of children; brothers, sisters and cousins, no doubt come together for vacations. The older ones tend to be bossy, like Raghu for example, or they are motherly and managing like Mira. The little ones Manu and Ravi occupy a no man’s land. If they are meek and lack self esteem like Ravi does, they are in for a distressing time. But they grow up fast enough and take their place in the pecking order. Ravi is seeking position and success but does not find it the way he wants.

Characters

Ravi

Ravi is one of the younger children in the family. He is in awe of his older cousin, the football playing Raghu. Raghu is impatient and a little rough, so to better him in a game of hide and seek would be dream come true for Ravi. Ravi craves for attention and success which have not come his way till now. He feels that today is the day when he can have both. He hides in a place where he feels he will be safe from Raghu’s ‘seeking’ but Ravi hides too well, it would seem. He falls out of the other children’s attention. When he finally appears at twilight teary and distraught, they look at him at though he is a stranger. They have no patience with his outburst; even his mother comes to his rescue with a touch of annoyance. Some summers later, Ravi will be as confident as Raghu but now he is shrinking and meek.

Raghu

He is older than the rest of the kids and so a bit of a bully. He has no patience with the younger ones. He wants all of them to bow to his wishes. Only Mira can put him in his place. The young ones are in awe of him; he is large and his voice is breaking. He is on the verge of adolescence and to the little ones, appears almost grown up.

Plot

The setting is a town in North India which is in the grip of summer. The children in a large family are clamoring to be allowed to play outside. When they are let loose, they decide on a game of hide and seek. Though unwilling, Raghu is to be “It”. The little ones scramble to get away from him. Ravi wriggles into an

unused shed with no thought of how to come out of it and reach the ‘den’. By the time he comes out and races to the ‘den’, it already twilight and his siblings and cousins are fast at another game. Dissolving into tears, he declares himself winner. But to his dismay, the rest of the children have forgotten all about him.

Summary

It is fearsome summer in a town in North India. But that holds no fears for the children in a large family – a gaggle of brothers, sisters and cousins. Bored after being cooped up all day inside the house, they clamor to be let loose. In the open, they decide on a game of hide and seek. Though unwilling, Raghu is chosen to be ‘It’. Raghu is one of the older children; on the verge of being declared an adolescent. He is short tempered and the younger children fly not to be caught by him as soon as the game has begun. Looking for a safe place to hide, Ravi spies the unused shed into which go the detritus of the household – broken chairs and tables and other nameless things. He squeezes through a narrow gap that will permit only a young child to enter – he is safe from Raghu.

It is dark inside and he bumps into unseen objects. Soon, the relief of getting away from the mad scramble of looking for good hiding spots lulls Ravi; he basks in the glory of winning the game against the big bully, Raghu. In the distance, he can hear the screams and yells as Raghu finds the children, one by one. He now smells the wet earth indicating that the gardener has begun watering the plants. Soon it is dusk and shadows lengthen. Ravi suddenly realizes that to win at hide and seek it necessary to elude the ‘It’ and touch the den, claiming victory. He bursts out of the shed, dissolving to childish tears, screaming “den!” His mother too, in a mixture of concern and irritation, tells him not to cry. The children look at him as if they don’t quite know who he is. So much had happened while he had remained hidden inside the shed. Not only had Ravi not won, the others had even forgotten his existence. A terrible sense of his insignificance descends on him.

Metaphorical inferences

Childhood itself is a metaphor for life. The joys and sorrows of childhood come back in later life, magnified beyond comparison. Ravi might at his worst moment consider life to be abysmally bad, but in later life, recall these days with fondness. Or he may still hate them.

Language

The sentences in the story tumble out in short staccato bursts. They are interspersed with long winding ones that describe the setting of the old bungalow that bakes slowly in the heat. There long descriptive passages that conjure pen pictures of the surroundings.

Important quotes

1. 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.The children in the story had been kept shut in the house, against their will, to protect them from the searing heat of the Indian summer. But now as afternoon turns to evening, they coax and cajole their mother to let them into the open. The mother knows it’s hopeless to argue. Once in the open, there are the usual arguments of what to play.2. “I know I have to, idiot,” Raghu said, superciliously kicking him with his toe. “You’re dead”, he said with satisfaction, licking the beads of perspiration off his upper lip, and then stalked off in search of worthier prey, whistling so that the hiders would hear and tremble.The children have decided on a game of hide and seek. It has fallen on Raghu to be ‘It’ and though unwilling, he proceeds to seek out the others who have hidden. It’s the younger ones who are easy prey for Raghu as in their confusion to go left or right, they land in front of him. Raghu who is one of the older children in the family is rather a bully and the young ones know they can’t win against him.

3. It was an insect – Perhaps a spider – exploring him. He squashed it and wondered how many more creatures were watching, waiting to reach out and touch him, the stranger.Ravi had chosen to hide in the unused shed with a green door. It was seldom opened and filled with the detritus of the household – broken chairs and tables, old buckets and such like. He had never been inside when it was lit up, much less in pitch darkness like now. The smells emanating from inside suggested rats, mice and mould. Ravi was glad he had got away from Raghu but also terrified by the spooky insides of the shed where nothing was visible. There was something crawling along the back of his neck. Tentatively he put his hand up to touch it. It felt like a spider; he squashed it.4. To defeat Raghu – that hirsute, hoarse-voiced football champion – to be the winner in a circle of older, bigger, luckier children – that would be thrilling beyond imagination. He hugged his knees together and smiled to himself almost shyly at the thought of so much victory, such laurels.Hidden inside the shed, safe from the large bossy Raghu, Ravi is already savoring his victory. Raghu can never come inside – for one thing he was not small enough. Ravi did not often win at anything. He was small and was often overlooked. He did not get enough attention and this he thought would be the chance to make up for all that. The other children were older, but nevertheless, he would be the winner.5. The mother rose from her basket chair and came towards him, worried, annoyed, saying, ‘Stop it, stop it, Ravi. Don’t be a baby. Have you hurt yourself? Seeing him attended to, the children went back to clasping their hands and chanting, ‘The grass is green, the rose is red…’Inside the shed, Ravi slowly becomes conscious of time passing by. There is the small of wet earth indicating the gardener hard at work. There is the dimming of light and through the crack in the wall he can see the lengthened shadows. The shrill shouts of his siblings and cousins are also muted. Suddenly Ravi realizes that to be declared winner at hide and seek, one had to touch the pillar unchallenged. Ravi bursts out of the shed and races to the pillar calling out ‘Den!’ He is so overwrought, he bursts into tears disturbing his mother who in a mixture of annoyance and concern comes to pacify him.6. He lay down full length on the damp grass, crushing his face into it, no longer crying, silenced by a terrible sense of his significance.Ravi’s dreams of glory and victory were dashed as the game had long before got over. He had missed his chance while day dreaming inside the shed. When he charges out declaring himself winner, the children are mystified. They don’t quite know what he is talking. For a little while they don’t even know who this wild creature is. For Ravi, this is the most unkind cut. He has always been conscious of his insignificance but to have it flung at his face like this is more than he can bear.

Questions

1. Why does Ravi have to abandon the plan to hide inside the garage?2. Why is the shed with the green door a good place to hide from Raghu?3. Why is Ravi so desperate to win this game?4. Raghu is a typical overbearing adolescent. Do you think so too? Support your answer with quotes.5. When does it dawn on Ravi that victory is a long way away?

Games at Twilight | Games at Twilight

At a glance:

Author: Anita Desai First Published: 1978 Type of Plot: Psychological Time of Work: The 1970's Setting: A large city in India Principal Characters: Ravi, Raghu Genres: Short fiction

Subjects: 1970’s, Children, Twentieth century, Alienation, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, Asia or Asians, Brothers, Reality, Fantasy, India or East Indian people, Boys, Games, Summer, Heat

Locales: India

The Story

This title story in Anita Desai's acclaimed collection Games at Twilight, and Other Stories (1978) deals with a universal theme of children at play and their fantasies and disillusionment. Desai begins the story objectively from the third-person vantage, but as the action progresses and the tension mounts, she skillfully shifts the narrative focus to the consciousness of the central character, Ravi. The story is remarkable for its insights into child psychology, powerful evocation of atmosphere, vivid imagery, and symbolic use of setting.

The story opens on a hot summer afternoon in an urban house in India. The children who have been kept indoors all day to escape the oppressive heat of the sun feel confined and suffocated, and when they are finally unleashed, they thrill with joy and excitement and decide to play a game of hide-and-seek.

Raghu, being the eldest, is chosen to be “it”—the seeker. All the other children run helter-skelter to find a suitable hiding place. Ravi hides behind the locked garage. When he hears his little brother crying because he has been caught by Raghu, he panics. As Raghu's whistling and the thumping sound of his feet grow louder, in a moment of fright Ravi suddenly slips through a small gap into an abandoned shed next to the garage. From this moment on, the narrative filters through Ravi's consciousness and the reader is brought into the deepest reaches of his psyche.

Though the shed is dark, damp, and spooky, littered with discarded pieces of junk and infested with moths and crawling insects, Ravi finds it a welcome haven. His initial fear of darkness disappears the moment he entertains the thought that no one can possibly find him there. Raghu whistles and whacks his stick in vain around the garage and then moves away. Ravi feels exultant at the thought of not being discovered. In his imagination, he begins to savor the new sensation of his victory over Raghu and the thought of being recognized as a champion in a group of older, bigger children.

He becomes so absorbed in his fantasy that he loses track of time. At twilight, as darkness engulfs the shed, he suddenly realizes that, according to the rules of the game, he has to clinch his victory by dashing to the veranda and touching the “den.” To rectify his mistake, he darts out of the shed and rushes toward the house to proclaim his victory. To his great anguish, however, he discovers that the game of hide-and-seek has long been over, that no one has even cared to remember that he was missing, and that now the children are engaged in another game, totally oblivious of his existence. With tears in his eyes, he cries out at the top of his voice to assert his existence and his victory, but no one pays attention to him.

In the last climactic scene, Ravi decides to withdraw from the children's game completely, and in a quick flash of intuitive understanding, he accepts the reality of his situation. Hurt and humiliated, he suddenly becomes aware of his strong sense of alienation, powerlessness, and unimportance.

Themes and Meanings

Because “Games at Twilight” deals primarily with children at play, its main theme is fantasy versus reality. This theme is symbolically reflected in the title, as the word “twilight” suggests an interplay of light and shadow, blurring the distinction between reality and fantasy. Dealing with a crucial stage in the psychological development of a self-conscious young boy, the story derives its strength from an imaginative application of two postulates of Sigmund Freud's well-known theory that a child's play is motivated by a

single wish to be “big and grown up” and that every dream or fantasy is a wish-fulfillment, generated essentially by the desire to correct unsatisfying reality.

Ravi is clearly unsatisfied with the reality of his present circumstances. A sensitive and imaginative child, he feels acutely the inferiority of his status as reflected in the rude and aggressive behavior of his older siblings. On more than one occasion, they remind him that he is nothing but a baby. At the onset of the game, when he proposes that Raghu, being the eldest, become the seeker, a scuffle ensues between them, and Raghu tears his shirt sleeve. He is tired of being kicked and shoved around by his big brother. When he cannot reach the garage key hanging on the nail, he wishes he were big and tall, but he is helplessly aware of the reality that it will be years before he can reach that stage. Similarly, when he thinks of running around the garage if pursued by Raghu, he painfully realizes that his short legs are no match for Raghu's “long, hefty, footballer legs.” It is with this frame of mind that he crawls into the shed.

Ravi's retreat into the dark shed is symbolic of his entry into the dark recesses of his unconscious self. As he ventures into this unknown territory, he is surprised at his own audacity. Released from the oppressive fear of being captured by Raghu, he begins to indulge in a fantasy of self-victory, power, and recognition. He clings to his fantasy so long that he overlooks the ultimate requirement for victory.

The clash between fantasy and reality is dramatized at the end of the story. Ravi's ironic correction of his unpleasant situation results in his disgrace and disillusionment. In an archetypal sense, his final resignation, his mood of quiet rebellion, and his decision to withdraw from children's play altogether suggest his awakening into reality and perhaps some kind of realization that he has acted irresponsibly and that to grow up he must pay the price for his daydreaming.

Another theme in the story, as in many of Desai's other fictional works, is alienation of the individual. This theme stems from Ravi's feelings of insecurity and inferiority. He believes that no one takes him seriously or treats him with respect. What hurts him the most is his painful discovery that he has been completely forgotten and left out by his own family. At the end of the story, he feels as if the children are singing his requiem in their mournful chant at the funeral game. His final decision to withdraw completely from children's games is strongly indicative of his acute sense of alienation.

Just as Ravi's fantasizing is an act of unconscious rebellion against the unpleasant reality of his situation, his acceptance of alienation as the human condition is a first step toward the process of individuation, which will eventually lead him to maturity.

Style and Technique

Desai is a consummate artist known for her distinctive style and rich, sensuous imagery. Her diction is highly formalized and sophisticated. In her own account, though writing comes to her naturally, she works consciously, laboriously, and meticulously to impose a design on the chaotic raw material of life. She regards writing as a process of discovering the truth, which is, for the most part, hidden beneath the surfaces of what people see, say, and do. Because her professed interest in fiction has always been a psychological exploration of the human mind, she does not give much importance to the plot. Instead, she reveals the interior landscapes of her characters’ minds.

In “Games at Twilight,” Desai provides a psychological exploration of the protagonist's mind by delving into his childhood fears, emotions, perceptions, desires, and thought processes. Her narrative strategy of shifting the omniscient point of view to the limited third-person vantage allows the reader to gain leisurely insights into the inner workings of Ravi's mind.

A distinctive aspect of Desai's style is her use of graphic description and vivid imagery. The story contains a number of memorable descriptions. The opening paragraph describes the oppressive and suffocating environment in the house. The second and the third paragraphs dramatize the impact of searing heat outside by painting a verbal picture of listless life in the garden through a series of visual images and vivid similes. Her microscopic description of the dark shed is meticulous in concrete details. Finally, her evocative and poetic description of twilight is characterized by soft and sensuous imagery appealing to all the bodily senses.

The setting of the story is not only descriptive but also evocative and symbolic. Desai uses many details of the setting to evoke an atmosphere of intense and oppressive heat, which serves as a symbolic background to rising human conflict. The setting also forms an integral part of the action. The garden, the shed, the veranda, and the lawn, all play an important part in shaping the action of the story.

Themes, Atmosphere and my favourite character in the story "Games at Twilight" by Anita Desai

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Q1.Discuss the theme of childhood as presented in "Games at Twilight" by Anita Desai. A1. In "Games at Twilight" Anita Desai has the ability to portray childhood in all of its excitement and exhilaration, innocence, vulnerability, and even heartached. The theme of childhood is one that encompasses all of those attributes, and is shown through the children themselves as they play a common and well-known game of hide 'n' go seek. Childhood is exciting--you can sense the children's excitement as they are freed from the confines of the hot house and let out into the air to play. Desai writes, excited to be outside and free to play. Excitement and exhilaration is also seen in Ravi as he finds an excellent spot to hide, and imagines his victory; he "shook, then shivered with delight, with self-congratulation" at his spot, and that the bully Raghu didn't find him. Childhood is filled with innocence and vulnerability also; note the poor child that gets caught by Raghu, who ends up in tears as Raghu kicks him. ...read more.

Middle

Did you ever cram into a spot and get super nervous as whoever was "it" got closer and closer? Did you feel the burst of speed and adrenaline as you raced as fast as you could to the home base? Did you ever hide in your spot and imagine the victorious triumph you would have if you weren't found and ended up winning? And if not, have you ever felt ostracized and left out by friends? If so, then it is easy to feel for Ravi. He experiences all of these emotions, and then at the end, as he is super excited to have been the winner, and realizes no one cares, he is devastated. Desai describes his feelings very well: "The ignominy of being forgottenâhow could he face it? He felt his heart go heavy and ache inside him unbearably. He lay down full length on the damp grass, crushing his face into it, no longer crying, silenced by a terrible sense of his insignificance." How can you not be moved by his despair? ...read more.

Conclusion

Desai writes that being indoors "made them feel that their lungs were stuffed with cotton wool and their noses with dust and if they didnât burst out into the light and see the sun and feel the air, they would choke." So the story opens with this feeling of tense restlessness, of being oppressed and wanting to be elsewhere. But then, as the children are let out, the atmosphere changes to one of ecstatic giddiness; they run free, screaming and jumping, and the mood is one of excitement and joy. The total abandonment and freedom of childhood games is felt in the atmosphere. Then, the atmosphere becomes one of chaos as the kids try to decide what to do, what to play, and who is to be "it" in their game of hide 'n' seek. The, the tension increases again as they struggle to find good hiding places, and as Ravi perches in the garage, that tension increases

until Raghu passes by. Throughout the story, the atmosphere changes moods as quickly as the children change moods, which is often. It reflects beautifully the transient and intense joys and miseries of childhood, chronicalling the moods of it well. I hope that those thoughts help; good luck! ...read mor

This title story in Anita Desai’s acclaimed collection Games at Twilight, and Other Stories (1978) deals with a universal theme of children at play and their fantasies and disillusionment. Desai begins the story objectively from the third-person vantage, but as the action progresses and the tension mounts, she skillfully shifts the narrative focus to the consciousness of the central character, Ravi. The story is remarkable for its insights into child psychology, powerful evocation of atmosphere, vivid imagery, and symbolic use of setting.

The story opens on a hot summer afternoon in an urban house in India. The children who have been kept indoors all day to escape the oppressive heat of the sun feel confined and suffocated, and when they are finally unleashed, they thrill with joy and excitement and decide to play a game of hide-and-seek.

Raghu, being the eldest, is chosen to be “it”—the seeker. All the other children run helter-skelter to find a suitable hiding place. Ravi hides behind the locked garage. When he hears his little brother crying because he has been caught by Raghu, he panics. As Raghu’s whistling and the thumping sound of his feet grow louder, in a moment of fright Ravi suddenly slips through a small gap into an abandoned shed next to the garage. From this moment on, the narrative filters through Ravi’s consciousness and the reader is brought into the deepest reaches of his psyche.

Childhood in ‘Games at Twilight’

In ‘Games at Twilight’ Anita Desai delineates childhood with all its pleasure and power. What sets the story apart is its unique quality of revealing the truth of isolation and alienation through the simple games played by the children.

 Childhood is full of fun. The children in the story are eager to come out and play even in hot humid noon. They fill the silent and deserted garden with laughter and noise. They change the atmosphere of the place in a minute.

 They are very much part of the nature. They play in the midst of flowers and plants. They even enjoy the fruits and feel the beauty of the scent of the soil.

We do meet with child like Mira caring and motherly one. We do find Manu, little and vulnerable one. All these children fight over insignificant things but forget enmity within a minute and start playing. Raghu is the child who is strong, stout athletic. He succeeds in igniting fear in others’ heart. It is he who leads Ravi, the little vulnerable boy to hide himself in the store house where the important episode of the story takes place.

 At first, Ravi is on the top of the world as he succeeds in saving himself from the hands of Raghu. But within a minute fear grips him. The dark and alien atmosphere freezes his heart. The noise of Raghu (from whom he tries to escape with all his heart) gives him a sense of protection. Ravi misses the world outside. He is loaded in a different world, everything outside seems beautiful. When he comes out of the confinement, he finds that everyone forgets him and starts a new game. No one give him the credit of being a winner. This realization of his alienation puts him in greater pain.

Anita Desai’s skillful presentation of childhood truly represents the small events of childhood and through the presentation of different events facilitates her to go into the deeper corner of minds of children

 Describe the character of Ravi

In Anita Desai’s ‘Games at Twilight’ Ravi occupies a special space. He is the one who appears as an enthusiastic child who loves to play like other children even in the hot afternoon He is very little, too little to get the key of garage. He is not athletic and rowdy like Raghu.

 This little vulnerable boy, hides in the shade to save himself from the clutches of Raghu. He discovers a different world there, a world full of surprise and fear. He misses the world outside, he wants to mix himself with the crowd. The fragrance, the chanting allure him to come out and join but the fear of getting caught by Raghu, keeps him inside the alien place for a longer period of time. He is lonely and scared, but the very idea of triumphing over Raghu gives him a feeling of self congratulation. At last, he comes out but he feels that he had not been missed by his parents or friends: Everything is going on well without him. There is no space for him anywhere. This realization makes him feel helpless.