Written for English 200 (02)
by Laura Melton
December 15, 1999
When one asks a child, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” a usual response is “a fireman” or “a ballerina.” In Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day, however, the young Bim and Raja are somewhat more ambitious; they answer that they want to be a hero and heroine. Later, Bim asks somewhat bitterly, “The hero and heroine—where are they? Down at the bottom of the well—gone, disappeared” (157). Bim has lost track of her heroes; however, Raja and Tara have not. The three siblings have very different relationships to heroic ideals.
Raja is the most obviously hero-conscious character. First of all, he is extremely artistic and idealistic, so he adores poetry, in both English and Urdu. He merely reads and quotes English poets, such as Byron and Tennyson; however, he goes farther in imitating the style of Urdu poetry in his own verses. As Bim thinks,
The poems were really very derivative. On each of them she could clearly see the influence of the poets he loved and copied. There was no image, no metaphor, no turn of phrase that was original. Each was a meticulous imitation of what he had read, memorized and recited . . . . One could see in them only a wish to emulate and to step where his heroes had stepped before him. (168)Raja is not trying to be an original poet on his own; he simply tries to be exactly like his heroes, which he does perfectly. Through the Urdu poetry that he so admires, Raja becomes acquainted with his Muslim landlord and neighbor, Hyder Ali. At first Raja merely has permission to read and borrow the books in Hyder Ali’s library, but increasingly he becomes involved in that family’s household. There he learns to appreciate what he perceives as higher culture, more noble and heroic than in his own home. Especially symbolic of this admiration is the recurring scene of Hyder Ali on his horse, which all the children remember separately. For Raja, the majestic Hyder Ali on his great white horse, preceded by a yelling servant and followed by a leaping dog, inspires awe and respect. Hyder Ali is Raja’s most immediate idol, whom the young man does his best to emulate, first writing Urdu poetry and then planning to go to a Muslim college. That particular plan falls through, but Raja does succeed in marrying Hyder Ali’s daughter Benazir and succeeding to Hyder Ali’s rich estate, so that part of his dream comes through. The way Raja tries to become a hero is not by becoming a hero to someone else, which is more or less out of his own control, but by turning into a replica of his own heroes. In this he does succeed extremely well.
Raja was already, as a youth, a hero to his younger sister Bim. He shared his love of poetry with her, and though she lacked his own artistic sensibility, she tried to participate in it and, above all, admired it profoundly. She imitated him in some ways; her professed desire to be a heroine, for example, was merely because Raja had first said that he wanted to be a hero. Even while nursing Raja through his tuberculosis and annoyed at his petty, nagging complaints,
She felt her exasperation blotted out by wonder at Raja’s ways of thinking and feeling, so different from anyone else’s at that time or day. She could not help admiring what she saw as his heroism, his independent thinking and courage. Raja was truly the stuff of which heroes are made, she was convinced, and yet here he lay, ironically, too ill to play the hero he longed to and, she half-believed, was meant to be. (45)Raja was, unquestionably, Bim’s hero. However, after a letter from Raja, which deeply offends her, she completely rejects him and all his heroic ideals. Even though she had been so completely devoted to him, she now feels rejected herself and denounces his poetry as “terrible verses” (25) and, later, rages about Raja’s giving his son a white pony, merely to fulfill his own obsession with imitating Hyder Ali. Since she received the letter, she has had no contact at all with Raja, periodically rereading the letter in order to reinvigorate her anger. However, at the end of the novel, following pressure from Tara and a rereading of Raja’s poems, Bim comes to peace with both her idealistic view of Raja and her later disillusionment. She neither adores nor despises him; rather, she understands and forgives him, telling him by means of Tara, who has maintained contact with their brother, that she would like to renew contact.
Following the pattern of the younger sibling’s admiration of the elder, Bim would be Tara’s heroine. However, Tara’s heroes are much less clear than either Bim’s or Raja’s. Unlike the others’, they are never clearly stated, and Tara does not seem to admire or emulate any one person more than any other. Of course she has the usual admiration of any younger sister for her older siblings, but that is in no way like the extreme adoration in which Raja and Bim indulge. The closest Tara comes to that is during her and Bim’s adventure of trying on Raja’s trousers. The two sisters, together, search in vain for Raja. Bim, obviously, feels the lack of her companion and idol; Tara follows her, partly through curiosity about her inaccessible brother but mostly because it allowed her to be united with Bim in this quest. Thus, neither one of the elder siblings is truly Tara’s hero; in addition, Mira-masi and Bakul, though loved and respected by Tara and wielding influence on her, do not inspire heroic devotion. Tara really has no heroes; she lacks the idealistic mindset shared by Raja and Bim which drives them to latch onto heroic models. Much more down-to-earth and unimpressed by lofty goals, as a child she wants simply to grow up to be a mother. As Aunt Mira assures Tara, “There, there, you’ll see you grow up to be exactly what you want to be, and I very much doubt if Bim and Raja will be what they say they will be.” The passage continues, “This consoled Tara entirely and turned out to be true as well” (112). Tara’s humble, realistic goals fit her timid, cautious personality better than bold heroism.
The characters obviously have their own personal
heroes, but who is the hero of the novel itself? Plot-wise, there
is no one character identifiable as the sole hero; most of the story is
told through the perspectives of Bim and Tara, but Baba, Bakul, Aunt Mira,
and especially Raja are inseparable from the two women’s histories.
Raja, in fact, though his point of view never appears in the narrative,
is at least as major a character as his sisters. Thus, there is no
narrative hero, unless they all are. So who is the reader’s hero?
I cannot speak for everyone, but mine is Bim, because she strikes a balance
between idealism and reality. Raja is completely out of touch and
gets so carried away by his glorious plans that he disregards the dangerous
political situation which makes his plans impossible. At the other
extreme, Tara lacks dreams, so that she has no goals for herself and needs
Bakul to force her to “be strong” and “execute her will” (17). Bim,
however, has entertained ideals, had them crushed, and finally come to
terms with her disillusionment. Bim is the heroine in Clear Light
of Day.
Work Cited
Desai, Anita. Clear Light of Day. Great Britain:
Penguin Books, 1980.
Professor's Comments:
Fine. Although your conclusion on Bim-as-heroine could use
development--see class--this is a fine and full exploration of the issue
from your own angle. Good use of supporting illustration, and tecnically
perfect. A strong conclusion to the course, in which your work throughout
has been excellent. Best for the future!
This page last modified December 19, 1999.