Fire On The Mountain Analysis

Introduction: Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain was published in 1977 as the seventh novel in her literary career. In western countries, in the mid of 1970s there, a new ‘ism’ was originated, i.e., Feminism. So there onwards, many theories are coming up on feminism and it became an important genre in literary criticism, especially in the western countries. The scholars’ attitude towards women in a given period reflected the status of women in western society. Along with attitude of the scholars, the personification of the author’s attitude towards women, feminist point of view of the early theories or ideologies mainly concerned with the sub-ordinate status assigned to women in a phallocratic culture. Women status is set by men and also far from their rights in a patriarchal society. It means man dictated woman. The woman’s role has restricted to a dutiful wife and mother. Especially, Indian woman has given prominence to

In Fire on the Mountain, it is possible to interpret the concept of exile as a feminist motif. Desai delves deep into the psyche of Nanda Kaul, who, apparently, prefers stillness to movement, aridity to creativity, and solitude to society. This mental tension had culminated and atrophied over the years into an almost fanatical desire to be left alone. As Nanda Kaul recalls,
“Looking down, over all those years she had survived and borne, she saw them, not bare and shining as the plains below, but like the gorge, cluttered, choked and blackened with the heads of children and grandchildren, servants and guests, all restless surging, clamouring about her.” (FOM: 17)
Nanda Kaul’s family life had, obviously, not given her any sense of fulfilment or happiness. Her grim realisation of all those wasted years when she was compelled to ‘act’ out her role of the ‘envied’ and ‘gracious’ wife of the Vice-Chancellor chilled her even now. When her husband’s minions complimented her, her