“Games at Twilight”By Anita Desai

The story is about a little boy, Ravi, that has a big family. One hot day in India, the children were desperate to go outside to play. But their mother didn’t let them go out beacause it was really hot. Finally they conviced their mother and they went out. They played hide and seek. Ravi, wanted to win, so he hide in the shed, a scary and terrifying place which it’s open once a year. After many hours hidden, he decides to go out but he realises that his siblings forgot him and forgot they were playing that game. In the end, Ravi felt insignificant.

“They wailed so horrendously that she actually let down the bolt of the front door so that they burst out like seeds from a crackling”

Plot

Anita Desai was born on the 24 of June, 1937. She was born in Mussoorie, north of Delhi. She is an Indian novelist.She began her literary career in 1963 with the novel Cry, the Peacock. She has published several novels and collections of short stories and books aimed at children. In her works are recurring themes tensions in the family or the alienation of the Indian middle class women. Her most recent novels have also explored other subjects , such as anti-Semitism in Germany, the disappearance of traditional customs or Western stereotypes about India.

Meeting the author

Protagonist: Ravi, is a child from India. He has a very big

family, and he is one of the youngest of the family. He wanted to win the game because he had never won any and he thought of victory. He spent practically the whole story hidden in the shed to win the game. But finally he gets disappointed because his family forgot him and the game they were playing. “He […] smiled to himself almost shyly at the thought of so much victory, such laurels”

Antagonist: Raghu, He is one of the brothers and he is like the leader of them. He is an overbearing and egocentric teenager. . “’I know I have to, idiot’, Raghu said supersiliously kicking him with his toe.”

Protagonist vs Antagonist

Colours play an important role because:

At the beginning they are useful to describe the setting and how hot it was. They make it easy to understand the oppressive heat.

In the middle they describe Ravi’s feelings of fear. It also make an atmosphere that make us concentrate of what he is thinking of, winning the game.

At the end Ravi goes out and sees the children’s faces. Their faces were pale and shadows of the trees colours represent emotions and feelings of the characters. So, in this moment, Ravi felt dead for the others and the children thought that he was a ghost.

“It grew darker in the shed as the light at the door grew, softer, fuzzier, turned to s kind of crumblinng yellow pollen that turned to yellow fur, blue fur, grey fur.”

Importance of the colours

The concept of death in the story is explored at the end of the story. The Twilight games are connected to death and the passing of time. We can see this in the funeral game that the children play after Ravi reappears. While the children are playing this death game, Ravi experiences a kind of death. He realises he is not important and this happens at Twilight that is the end of the day, which can symbolise death. “’The grass is green, the roses red; remember me when I’m deadx4…’”

“Death”

If I were Ravi my feelings would be:

I can’t believe how cruel my siblings were. How could they forget about me? The worst thing that I can’t understand is how could she, my mother, didn’t even ralise there was a kid missing. Am I so irrelevant? Why is this happening to me and not to Raghu? He is a real bad person, I’m not. He is the overbearing.“But he had been forgotten, left out an he would not join them now. The ignominy of been forgotten”

Empathysing with Ravi

Desperate/Playful: At the beginning of the

story, the kids were very excited about going to play outside, but, it was too hot to be playing under the sun. So, their mom didn’t let them play. Finally the kids were so desparate to play that they conviced their mom. And when Ravi has to find another place to hide, he feels desperate and he fibally finds the shed. “’Please, ma, please’, they begged.”

Tones

Triumphant/Scary: Both tones are really

relevant in this second part because Ravi was very terrified inside the dark shed with many kinds of insects. Trumphant because there he thought about winning the game, something that he had never experienced and he was sure he would be victorious. “But the shed smelt of rats, ant hills, dust and spider webs”

Tones

Humiliating/Disappointing: When he went out

the shed, he felt humiliated because when he shouted ‘Den’, the others looked him in a strange way and they didn’t pay attention to hime and he also felt disappointed because he thought he would win and finally nobody cared about him and they forgot him and the game. “’Don’t be a fool,’ Raghu said roughly, pushing him aside, and even Mira said, ‘Stop howling, Ravi […]’”

Tones

Reality vs Fantasy: Reality means or is refered to the

whole story because it’s like a true situation possible to happen. But fantasy is related when Ravi is inside the shed and he thinks the chance he has to win. He imgines a lot that moment, and he was very excited about wining. So it is fantasy because he imagined it but it never happen. The reality is the desilution that he got at the end, when he goes out and he discovers that he didn’t win the game. So, he gets really disappointed and sad because he notices that none of his siblings realise he wasn’t there. “He would not follow them, he would not be included in this funeral game. He had wanted victory and triunph-not a funeral”

Themes

Allienation and Insignificance: Both words describe Ravi.

Allienation becuse he gets away everyobne to hide. But he spends hours there without going out and being apart. It also means how his siblings make him feel allienated. They forgot him and didn’t pay attention. So, they influence in him being like that. At the end, when the kids are singing the song about death and he decides not to play, he allienates himself. And refered to insignificance, his family make him feel that way. As they are a big family, they don’t care or realise if one is missing. Children also take advantages of Ravi being one of the little ones. The episode of the shed, also make him feel insgnificant to everyone “He lay down […], crushing his face into it, no longer crying, silenced by a terrible sense of his insignificance”

Themes

Camila Kos & Jimena Timpanaro

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