Games At Twilight Short Story

Everybody experiences loss of innocence at one time or another, whether it is during the teen years, in college, or at a first job. But, sometimes, this loss happens too early. In the short stories “Games at Twilight” by Anita Desai and “Journey” by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, the loss of a child’s innocence is expressed differently. In “Games at Twilight”, loss of a child’s innocence is demonstrated through the realization of an individual’s insignificance in the world, whereas in “Journey” loss of innocence is communicated through the realization of sudden responsibility due to tragedy. In “Games at Twilight”, the main character, Ravi, loses his innocence when he realizes that he is insignificant in the world. In “Games at Twilight”, Desai reveals a loss of innocence through first establishing the main character’s childlike nature (a desire to play), and then having Ravi realizing that he is unimportant to his friends, and in the world. Desai first reveals Ravi’s juvenile nature through his pleas to let him play: “’Please, ma, please.’ They begged.” Even though it is too hot, humid, and bright, Ravi wants to play outside with his cousins. Additionally, Desai suggests that Ravi has not yet lost his innocence when his biggest worry is being found during a game of hide and seek. But, when Ravi comes out of hiding, Desai uses the phrase, “he had disappeared from [his cousins’ mind], clean”. Ravi had been hiding for so long that he was convinced that his cousins would be worried