Games At Twilight | Games At Twilight

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. 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.