Presentation Name
juanabonnemezon
"Games at Twilight"
By: Olivia Converti and Juana Bonnemezon
Anita Desai
-an Indian novelist, Writer and professor
-born 24 June 1937 in Mussoorie, India
-She grew up speaking German at home and Bengali, Urdu, Hindi and English outside the house.
-She began to write in English at the age of seven and published her first story at the age of nine
-German mother :Toni Nime, and a Bengali businessman father: D. N. Mazumdar
-he was a student at Queen Mary's Higher Secondary School in Delhi
-Nowadays, she is a Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- she received a Sahitya Academy Award in 1978 for her novel Fire on the Mountain, then, she won the British Guardian Prize for The Village by the Sea.
- She has a child named Kiran Desai
Story:
The story is about a young boy named Ravi, who is misunderstood by his family which makes him feel insignificant. The story started on a boiling hot day. The children were desperate to go out " that they burst out like seeds from a crakling, over- ripe pod," At the moment they went out they decided to started playing ' Hide and Seek,' and Raghu, the older brother, was the seeker. And Ravi was one of the hiders. He couldn’t found a place to hide, he stayed behind a flower pot but he was exposed, then he decided that the garage was a perfect place but it was locked and he couldn't reach the key. Finally the perfect place to hid appeared: it was the shed, where nobody has access but him, he could enter by a hole between the wall and the door. Inside, "it was dark, spooky in the shed," and Ravi stayed there for a very long time, thinking how he will face his victory, all the things he would do by the time he touch the Den. He was not found, but after a while he came out of the shed fast and ran and shouted out, " Den, Den,Den.", his voice was broke with rage and his face full of tears. Everyone looked at him with amazement. His mother came toward him and told " Stop it, Stop it, Stop it, Ravi, Don't be a baby." Ravi made himself think that he won, but no one agreed or did not even bother looking for him. The children were playing another game, and they invited Ravi but he didn’t accepted. He lay down on the grass, crushing his face into it, no longer crying but thinking the terrible sense of significance.
Tones:
* Begging of the story: the tone is playful and desesperate, as the kids really want to go outside and they were exited to play, they did not want to stay inside the house.
* Ravi inside the shed: the tone is scary ( frightened) and also triumphant, he was inside a dark place alone, and in one moment he started to imaginate how he could win the game, he forgets about the fear and he dream to be the winner.
* Ravi reappears: it is about melancholic and humiliating becasue he noticed that nobody remembers her even her mom. When he touch the "hen" shouting and crying everyone swa him in amazment.
Reality vs Imagination/Fantasy:
The reality is the routine of playing everyday with the other children, how scary he feels when he enters the shed ("it was dark, spooky in the shed") and the moment where he appears again at the end of the story where all his fantasy about winning the game becomes into a big disillusionment ("They had begun to play again, sing and chant. All this time no one had remembered Ravi. Having disappeared from the scene, he has disappear from thei minds")
The fantasy is when, inside the shed, he dreams about his victory in the game and the recognition that he would receive for the other children ("To defeat Raghu. thast hirsute, hoarse-voiced football champion- and 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")
Allienation and insignificance:
He alienated himself in the moment in which he decides to hide alone in the shed. And also when he comes out of the shed and the other children asks kim to play, he felt so sad and insignificant that he again decides to alientated by not playing and sitting on the grass alone, thinking about how little he meant for the other children. ("The ignominy of being forgotten—how 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")
Themes
Characters:
Ravi is a little boy, who enjoy playing games with his siblings, he wished to become the winner at the game. He wanted to show how brave he is, going and hiding in the scary and dark shed, but he gets distracted dreaming on how he will become the triumphant.
Then, at the end of the story, he realizes that the other children have forgotten him, they started playing another game without him. "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." In this quotation we can get to know how dramatic he was feeling. It was a very childish reaction. Ravi started crying and laying on the floor shouting. Even his mother didn't remember him. The mom and the other children saw him with amazement.
Raghu: He is the oldest of the children. He was nominated to be "It", to which he protests. The mother has to intervene and they play a game to determine who was going to be It, and Raghu ends up being It anyway. When he is forced into being It, he whines, "You cheated—Mira cheated—Anu cheated—," complaing about why it wasn't fair that he was it. Then, he insists that everyone stay on "the porch—Ma said—Ma said to stay in the porch!" He wants to make his job at seeking easier, and falls back on the "Mom told us to" argument to try to get his way. Later, when he finished counting and sees the small and frightened Manu, he "charged after him with such a bloodcurdling yell" and he kicked him. He has long, hefty, hairy footballer legs, he was a footballer champion and he has a hoarse-voice.
The Importance of the colours
Coulours are very important since they descrive the setting in the story. In this case they show how hot the day was and connected them with Ravi's emotions. At the begging of the story, the colours were very bright because of the extensive heat and Ravi was happy because he knew he was going to win: "They faced the afternoon. It was too hot. Too bright. The white walls of the veranda glared stridently in the sun. The bougainvillea hung about it, purple and magenta, in livid balloons. The garden outside was like a tray made of beaten brass, flattened out on the red gravel and the stony soil in all shades of metal—aluminum, tin, copper, and brass.". Then, when he was on the shed it was dark, black because a lot of conflicts and emotions appear in Ravi, for example he get nervous because started fantasing about the idea of winning the game, he was scared and frightened since the place was full of insects and he didn´t know what was going to happen "Ravi shook, then shivered with delight, with self-congratulation. Also with fear. It was dark, spooky in the shed. It had a muffled smell, as of graves" " He hunched himself into a ball so as not to bump into anything, touch or feel anything". Finally, when he got out of the shed and he appears in fromt of his family, the colours were wispy, dull and pale because of his sadness and anger "he trees and bushes around them stood inky and sepulchral, spilling long shadows across them"
"Death"in the story:
The author explores the concept of "death" when Ravi reappears and he sees that the other children are playing another game, so he experience a kind of death. As he notices that the other kids didn't remember him, he feels he is not important so instead of winning the game and become the champion, he received a "funeral.
On the other hand the concept of death it also in the finally song. Finally the game takes place at twilight which is the end of day, that makes reference to "death" and passing of time.
Video:
