REPRESENTATION OF CHARACTERS OF “FIRE IN THE MOUNTAIN” - ANITA

DESAI

ABSTRACT

Fire on the Mountain, Desai’s fifth novel, has much in common with her earlier short story
“Grandmother,” in which the grandmother, like Nanda, is a product of her experiences and has
become an isolated soul. Like the novel, “Grandmother” concerns the confrontation between an
older woman and a child, except in the short story the child has not, like Raka, withdrawn from
the world. In Desai’s novels - Fire on the Mountain is more memorable for its characters than
for its plot or “action.” In fact, plot is important only in terms of what it reveals about the
characters.Desai focuses not so much on physical appearance—unless it reflects an inner reality
or serves a symbolic purpose—as on her characters’ inner lives. Nanda, the protagonist, is a case
in point, for Desai tells her readers little about Nanda’s appearance but does tell the readers,
through the use of a stream of consciousness narrative technique, much about her thoughts,
values, fears, suppressed hostility, and unconscious need for love. This paper made an attempt on
re-presentation of characters of Fire on the Mountain.

Key words: Carving, Torment, Welfare, Unconditional, Turbulence, Protagonist, Hunger for
freedom, man and woman relationship, seclusion, disillusionment, rebel.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Anita Desai is such an underrated writer. She wrote her books four to five decades too early to
gain the kind of appreciation and recognition that writers receive today. She is one of the very
few Indian authors who wrote in the English language in the 60’s. Her style of writing, her prose
has the ability to carry the reader into a different world all together. It's a beautifully written
novel which made me to traverse along with it. Thinking of a house in hills surrounded by pine
trees, Apricots, cicadas made me happy initially. Even the peace at hill gets disturbed by the
reality of forest fires. Anita Desai let story reveal itself which speaks about Conflicts between
Nanda kaul's inner self and reality, socio and personal issues of three female characters Illa,
Raka, Nanda. Climax line of Raka and title of the story has symbolic significance which is left to
reader’s imagination. Anita Desai has crafted a reality so real that it continues to haunt and grate
on my senses still. This story doesn't scream the truth. It continues in the same stoic pride, the
calm demeanor of Nanda Kaul. Hands down the scariest. Nothing much happens and there are
only a few characters, but they are wonderful characters, drawn against the backdrop of post-colonial
India. Artist of Disappearance, all of these characters seem to rather enjoy their solitude. It is
surprising how these characters draw strength to live from their solitude. A woman living for
family, in servitude all her life. Resentful. Repressed. Isolated. Neglected. No one who actually
gives a damn about her. But she lives with stoic pride. Lying to her that she needs the isolation.
Women bending under the male pride. Taught all their life that it is their duty to look after
everyone. And now she lives alone on the mountain, lying to herself to not give in to despair.
Through the solitary life of Nanda Kaul, her hesitant relationship with her granddaughter and the
discovery of similarities in character. The novel explores the role and lives of women in post-colonial
India, dealing with the reclusive nature of Nanda Kaul which was a result of vengeance of a dutiful
life in her past and the contrasting reclusive nature of Raka, her grand-daughter. The novel is
masterful story-telling set in the quaint hills of Kasauli.

2.0 FIRE IN THE MOUNTAIN - STORY

The three lives of Nanda Kaul, her great-granddaughter Raka and her childhood friend Ila Das.
Nanda Kaul is living her life alone in the hills of Kasauli. Raka is recovering from an illness.
Hence she is dispatched to Kasauli to stay with Nanda. Nanda is unhappy with the intrusion in
her lonely life. Raka arrives at Kasauli. But like Nanda she too stays aloof. She more happy
climbing the mountains and touching the ferns. Then one day childhood friend of Nanda Ila
comes to visit her for tea. Ila is a garrulous lady. She has a piercing voice and is very much
unlike Nanda. She is living the life of penury and has to work hard despite the old age to make
money.The author takes time to build the plot. The story moves ahead very slowly. In the
beginning it is too boring. The descriptions drag and drag. Then Raka arrives on the scene. Her
relationship with Nanda is nothing like expected. This is where the author scores as a writer. You
keep on wondering as to why Nanda doesn’t draw her great-granddaughter closer, make her sit
on her lap and kiss her cheek. The answer is that Nanda is like that and so is Raka. Ila is a
character which is both hilarious and poignant. Like Raka she too adds lot of colors to this story
In a real sense, the structure appears dialectic, with thesis, antithesis, and synthesis
corresponding, in the case of Fire on the Mountain, to Nanda’s tenuous withdrawal, Raka’s
threat to her aloofness, and the concluding death and fire which act as a kind of purification,
bringing self-awareness.

3.0 THE CHARACTERS

Desai's treatment of women characters and her comments about them also indicate that feminist
analyses of gender, sexuality, subjectivity, and colonialism. Anita Desai exhibits a strong
inclination towards the existentialist interpretation of the human predicament. In particular, she
voices “the mute miseries and helplessness of married women tormented by existentialist
problems and predicaments. In most of the novels of Anita Desai the pearl of the character of
alienation do exists in almost all the jewels of the novel. The special glow for this pearl of
alienation is given by the author in the novel than all the other gems of the characters in the
novel. She highlights the inner realities of personalities exhibiting alienation. “Fire on the
Mountain". The novel mainly deals with the loneliness and isolation as well as the resultant
anguish and agony in the deserted life of an old widow.

3.1 Nanda Kaul:

The novel narrates the story of Nanda Kaul who live in Carignano, a desolate and haunted house
in Kasauli, away from the world. Nanda Kaul is the wife of Mr. Kaul, the Vice-Chancellor of
the Punjab University. When the novel begins, Nanda Kaul is living in Carignano, far from the
madding crowd. She is leading a life of isolation and introspection. She shuns all human
company. Even the postman’s arrival to deliver the letter is frowned upon by her. The novel
begins with the incident of Nanda Kaul standing all alone under a tall pine tree in Carignano. The
description of Nanda Kaul by the author reveals that in spite of her age she is elegant, graceful
and a kind of beauty gleams in her. She was introduced as a lady who has withdrawn herself
from the clutches of all duties and responsibilities. She has distanced herself from busy plains,
chained love of her members of the family, blaming society and she relishes and rejoices the
loneliness. She feels happy to live in company with silence and nature. She enjoys the moments
of the gentle breeze embracing her. She knits her thoughts with loneliness and silence. It is right
to express that the thoughts merge with isolation and silence to make these magical moments
memorable. The author focuses on the nature and psychology of the protagonist through the
description of the landscape. The landscape is used to reflect symbolically the mindscape of
Nanda Kaul. This reveals that the author has used the effective technique of using nature to
represent symbolism and imagery of characters.

The author reveals the root of her past life which resulted in a craze for her secluded life in
Kasauli. Her memories of past unpleasant, unhappy, burdened tasks are unfolded from her
painful memory. She was busy all the time with thankless and endless household work. The
memories go in ripple to recall the busy life which she had in those days. Sewing, sweeping,
cleaning, supervising cooking, issuing instructions to the servants, taking care of three children,
receiving the husband’s guests, streams of visitors and bearing with their unshameful flattery.
Recollection of her past brings her no sweet memories but only the painful memories of child
bearing, many confinements and endless child rearing along with all sorts of annoyance,
exhaustion, humiliation and the compulsion of keeping the posture in spite of all the exacting
demands and her husband wanted to appear elegant before the guests. We could clearly
understand her frustration, and feeling of emptiness and vacuum of unfulfillment in her life. Her
life as the wife of Vice Chancellor was meaningless and unsatisfactory. To the outer world she
enjoyed the comforts and social status of the wife of a dignitary but deep down she felt lonely
and neglected. She was dutiful wife attending to the needs of her husband and the children. But
the relationship between the husband and wife was unhappy. Although her busy schedule lacked
warmth and understanding, she carried on because of her obligations to her husband and
children. Her extra martial affair with Miss David was one of the reasons for their unhappy
bonding of married life. Emotional deprivation is at the root of Nanda Kaul’s disillusionment
with human bonds. Her husband did not love her as a wife and treated her as a tool needed for
the efficient running of his household. Her husband’s frequent visits to Ms. David troubled her
which could have been the reason for her disillusionment. She had been a silent victim
undergoing the pain, stress even after knowing the illegal relationship. She had been under a
complete control in the hands of her husband. The author has clearly sketched the traumatic
married life of Nanda Kaul. The life of Nanda Kaul represents Indian women on a whole who
live their life for the children, husband, family and the society. Therefore their wishes, desires,
talents are buried deeply in the hearts of the women.
Anita Desai is the best reader of thoughts of women. She vividly captures the hidden tear in the
corner of the eyes of the women and the pen of the character which has drawn the tear in the eyes
of the women. The news of the arrival of the granddaughter upsets her. Her life at Carignano can
be rightly compared to the surface of the river which is very clear and it reflects isolation. The
arrival of the granddaughter is like a stone thrown on the surface of river where her isolation is
disturbed forming ripples. Here the author introduces another character, Raka who prefer to live
a deserted life. Psychological experiment of the writer in the novel can also be seen on the
portrayal of Raka’s character. Psychologists attach great significance to the parent-child
relationship, because, according to them the patterning of emotion takes place particularly during
childhood.

3.2 RAKHA

A strange creation, is Raka probably what Anita Desai is doing, in fact, is trying out her talent,
pitting individuals one against the other, and watching the result. There isn’t much of a story in
the classical sense, and while this could be very dangerous in terms of novelistic achievement,
here, believe me, it works. The reader feels drawn towards the very unusual story that is made up
by the coming together of these three beings, with their unfinished and bottomless personalities.
Desai has that great talent: characterization comes first, the story is only secondary. Unlike
Nanda Kaul, Raka, though she is not directly oppressed, does not try to escape this harsh
experience and memories but goes deeper into it – she visits the rare places in the valley, such as
the Monkey Point, a place which is not frequented by anyone: „No one ever come here but Raka
and the cuckoos that sang and sang invisibly. These were not the dutiful domestic birds that
called Nanda Kaul to attention at Carignano. Raka searches for the meaning of existence of life
in her own way. Her childhood has hardened her into a girl who has courage enough to chant “I
don’t care-„don’t care-! Don’t care for anything!” It seems she is searching for something,
probably for the meaning of existence. She has not known life to be anything, other than what
she is going through, yet, she tries to keep going on her own, in isolation. Though a child, Raka
could have questioned the ways of her father, instead of quietly watching it and being affected by
it .

3.3 ILA DAS

Ila Das is the third female protagonist of the novel. Unlike Nanda Kaul and Raka who are central
to the story, her role is only marginal. Nonetheless, Anita Desai has projected yet another aspect
of the existentialist philosophy through her character. There is another depiction of human being
in this world who is at the peak of miser and meaningless existence. Ila Das puts up a battle
against the dictates of the society. Her struggle is in a way greater than Nanda Kaul‟s. She tries
to cross social boundaries. Apart from fighting to free herself from the constraints of the society,
she fights for the entire women population. She may have been aware of the consequences
because it is quite unnatural that brave acts of women are tolerated by men. She stays faithful to
her cause, but is unable to reach the freedom she was fighting for.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Anita Desai has added a new dimension by writing a novel like 'Fire on the Mountain' to the
Indian fiction in English probing deep into the bottomless pit of human psyche, she brings the
hidden contours into much sharper focus. She has procured an important place for herself in the
Indo-English fiction writings by shifting the refrain of her fiction from outer reality to inner
reality and by carrying the flow of the mental experience of its characters. It is true that Desai
has her limits but she compensates her material in intensity what she lacks in variety. Desai's
unquestionable existential and psychological concerns have distinguished her from other novelist
of her generation. This way, Fire on the Mountain deals with the loneliness and isolation as well
as the resultant anguish and agony in the deserted life of an old widow. It presents Anita Desai’s
the tragic view of life, in which innocent people are bound to suffer endlessly and pay price of
for their goodness. The novel becomes the emblem of destruction and purgation, the destruction
of an unkind world of many Nanda Kouls and Ila Dases, of unequal situations in which women
suffer from the slings of misfortune, social inequalities and injustices committed on them by a
savage society of men. Desai's protagonists like today's modern women explore their
relationships in a quest to seek meaning in their life. Evidently it shows that modern Indian
woman have also embarked on a quest to find the true meaning of life. The character of Ila Das
gives us the message of making untiring efforts for human welfare. She is herself in abject state,
yet she has pity for the poor people of that village, Kassuli. She was fighting against the
reactionary religious forces at the risk of her life and met a martyr’s death.
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