Summary: Psyche Of Human Traits

CHAPTER 2: Psyche Of Human Traits

Desai 's protagonists are generally caught in a web of painful circumstances, their struggle and the outcome of which is usually the basis of the novel. The struggle, one can readily see is not without purpose and the aim is to achieve the sort of harmony that generally eludes them whether it is the harmony in marital relationships between parents and children, the harmony with society or between the inner and outer life of the characters. The problem invariably in each case, is the difficulty of adjustment in conjugal relationships, of building bridges, of bringing together or harmonizing and taking a holistic view of one 's situation. The major concerns of Mrs. Desai are loneliness, depression and alienation.

Structurally ,’THE CRY OF THE PEACOCK’ it is divided into three parts. The First part, introduces us to Maya. Here, the narrator wins our sympathy for Maya and makes us believe that her husband is cold and indifferent towards her. Whereas Gautama appears to be shrewd, calculating and extremely matter of fact about the gravest matter, Maya seems to be innocent and extremely sensitive. An incident (the death of their dog, Totto) which proves traumatic to her means nothing to her husband. There is such a vast difference in their attitude and nature that one cannot but expect a painful incompatibility between them. In the Second part, Maya elaborates the root cause of their incompatibility. We are told of her past life and her encounter with the albino astrologer who had once told her that either she or

Desai 's novel, ‘VOICES IN THE CITY’, is a powerful attempt at the exploration and analysis of the dark recesses of the consciousness of its three characters Nirode and his sister Monisha. Both of the main characters in the novel is oppressed by the hollow and meaningless existence in Calcutta. Both of them is greatly affected by it and finds themselves imprisoned in the cell of isolation, with no hope of escape from