Published Paper Details:

Problem of communication between the individual human beings continues to occupy her attention but Anita Desai's major concern is with racial prejudices which alienate human beings from each other. She dramatizes the cultural contrast between India and England. East-West encounter is one of the major themes in Indo-Anglian writings but Desai concentrates on the psychological reactions of the persons facing such situations. The writer retraces her footsteps. Once again the problem is that of adjustment between the husband and the wife, the mother and the children. The heroine Sita in her novel feels that she is leading an inauthentic existence. Her husband Raman lives an ordinary life and he doesn't see anything wrong. They cannot understand the ways of each other. Sita feels, totally ignored by her husband and her children. Sita wants to assert herself but she is unable to do so. Her conflict is between 'yes' and 'no' ultimately she compromises. The problem is projected on a large scale. The characters can neither adjust with each other nor with the world outside. For Anita Desai's characters the problem is not of how to earn a living. Their problem is how to live.