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  • Essay / The Alienated Self in “The Fire on the Mountain” by Anita Desai

    Anita Desai's undeniable existential concern helped her create an embodied aura, with a chiseled style, she differentiated herself from others young generation novelists, she is the only novelist who has some sort of similarity with Arun Joshi. But Arun Joshi still has a gap to fill, to acquire the magnitude of Anita Desai. Engaged in writing novels, she is very practical in her profession. The quest for self in his novels and his obsessive existential concern are highlighted in all his novels. The focus is on her search for a true identity, the sense of loneliness she feels, and how she expresses it through imagery, symbolism, structure, and narrative techniques. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay For Anita Desai, freedom implies freedom as a whole, as the set of ideas that form the background to her conception of human life. There may be nothing really new in these ideas, but Anita Desai continues to work in her novels with a significant difference. In his novels, we recognize that freedom is one with creativity and that only pure freedom can make the world happy. Yet no theory of human nature is new. Anita Desai insists on the responsibility for an act that even seems trivial. Our highest goal fails miserably without positive action and then luck, lack of purpose, or a contradictory goal comes to mind. The madness of Anita Desai's heroines also resonates. Their voices end in madness and again in an action that seems half accidental and half intentional. In much of her novels she has a philosophical formulation, but not the age-old philosophical problems. It describes simply, but adequately, certain phenomena of human life, such as the problem of taste, the question of nature and the origin of values. His preferences can be listed by different vision colors which seem very important in telling us either what this or that man is like, or what men or women are like in general. It projects the situation and creates such individuals without any recourse to ideas of beauty. Rather, they have an integral relationship with what the individual essentially is or becomes. In this regard we have his characters based on existential psychoanalysis. The most significant part of his novels are the dialogues or monologues. Today I focus on one of her most important novels, "Fire on the Mountain", in which she highlights the truth that "A life of undiluted reality or undiluted illusion is synonymous with tragedy. ". In Fire on the Mountain, she delivers a positive message that is very precious in the context of our contemporary society. It gives us the opportunity to try to find a balance between reality and illusion and to give more meaning to our lives. Nanda Kaul and Ila das are such characters whose existential problems remain unresolved. Nanda Kaul thrives on illusion. But when she receives the tragic news of Ila das's rape and murder, her illusion turns into reality. On the contrary, Ila das faces real life. Nanda Kaul, an old woman, has had too many people with her and yearns so much for a quiet, retired life. His fraught past now resembles a positively cloying box of candy. She desperately wants to avoid the familiar obligations that surround her. She wants to free herself from all stifling and irritating implications. So she retreats with determination to Carignano, her hillside home, Kasauli, whereshe hopes to live a period single life, reduced and radiant. She screams in agony, “Have I done enough and am I tired of it?” I don't want it anymore. I don't want anything. Can't I be left with nothing? » Nanda Kaul's cry is nothing more than a cry in the desert, a prayer thrown into the empty air that remains unheard and unanswered. Physically, she is able to withdraw from her hard life of duties and responsibilities, irritation and annoyances, dubious joy and some sadness. Nor can it escape the past, nor help the present, nor predict the future. She is apparently all alone. Her past keeps her chattering in her memory and these memories create uncontrollable feelings in her consciousness. His past is not free from disturbances either. There is Raka, her great-grandchild, and Ila, her old friend and classmate. Raka's arrival makes no difference to Nanda Kaul. She considers her an unwanted guest, an intruder. Nor does Raka feel any less miserable, like a bird in a cage, a wild animal tamed and domesticated. They live apart while living under the same roof. There is a strange living together, everyone feeling and avoiding each other's presence. If the old lady loves living alone, young Raka desires no less but with a certain difference. However, her arrival in Carignano has created a situation for Nanda Kaul from which she cannot escape. Anita Desai describes their loneliness in these lines: "If Nanda Kaul was a recluse by revenge for a long life of duties and obligations, his great-granddaughter was a recluse by nature..." So it seems that they are a couple awkward, neither. of them belonging to the other. Then we have Ila das, a piano teacher turned social worker who also breaks Nanda Kaul's loneliness. His voice is enough to disrupt Nanda Kaul's life. In fact, Ila das is a noble soul who fights against the vagaries of life. She is aware that misery and suffering are inevitable in life. So she always keeps smiling. Ila das is just trying to stop Preet Singh's daughter's disastrous marriage. For her good intentions, she is attacked and raped under the cover of darkness. The telephone news of his death leads to the death of Nanda Kaul. This tragedy leaves Raka completely alone. For Nanda Kaul, the past, present and future are all in ashes. She tried to create a fantastic world of the past, a world of happy families, love, wealth and good humor. Suddenly, the news of Ila das' death tears the curtain and reveals the hidden reality. Fancy manufacturing is of no use. The hidden reality is enough to force Raka to escape and seek his thrill by setting fire to the mountainside. Ila dies leaving his fantasy, while Nanda Kaul sees him. Nanda Kaul discovers how senseless the trade-off between external and internal experiences is. Everyone is once again struck by the lack of waste of human potential. Nanda Kaul's attempt to detect the pattern of events in human existence seems to be an exercise in futility. She tries to detach herself from the world, but the world sticks to her tenaciously. She has had enough of her past and so retreats to a new paradise. But the past, including the memory of her husband's infidelity, continues to attack her. She is angry with Raka but she cannot deny her. She wants to abandon Carignano to him but does not do so. She detects Ila das' voice but she can't dismiss it. When she feels sorry for her, she thinks she should invite her to stay with her but can't. When Ila das dies an unnatural death, Nanda Kaul succumbs to the shock of this news and Raka remains the only survivor. The mountain fire, which we so often make.