Clear Light of Day Literary Elements

Novel

Delhi, in 1947 (during partition of India), and in 1980

Third-person omniscient narrator, with multiple POVs

Tone: meditative, nostalgic, poignant, sympathetic, gloomy
Mood: nostalgic, dreamy, contemplative, sad, restless, dreary

All the children are protagonists, and there are few, if any, actual antagonists (one might argue that the concept of time is a kind of abstract antagonist)

The major conflict is between Bim and Raja: they are not on speaking terms due to Raja's blind hero-worship of Hyder Ali and his abandonment of his siblings.

The climax occurs at the point when Bim screams at Baba and declares that he is to live with Raja henceforth. This is a turning point for Bim, who realizes the frustration she has been building inside her for all these years.

Bim narrates to Tara that she dreams of Aunt Mira running naked towards the well. This foreshadows the guilt inside Aunt Mira for being responsible for the death of their cow and the calf.

N/A.

1. Multiple allusions are made to the Partition of India in 1947.
2. Multiple allusions to Urdu poets and Islamic ideologies are also made.
3. Bim quotes T.S. Eliot multiple times, especially his "Four Quartets"
4. "an eternal, miniature Sisyphus" (2) references the long-suffering mythic figure pushing a boulder up a hill
5. A man at the school is dressed "like a figure from a cartoon in Kipling's days" (127), referencing the fame colonial British author

The most prevalent imagery is of the Indian summer. The heat is described to be scalding and blinding. Almost every event in the book is described in relation to the heat and the dust.

N/A.

There is a parallel between the Misra sisters and Bim. While they don't have mutual admiration or respect for each other, they are tired of taking care of their households and being the person who sacrifices for the sake of their family, in a quite similar fashion.
There is also a parallel between Bim and Aunt Mira, both spinster aunts who sacrifice a lot for their family.

N/A.

1. "It looked accusing, too, as if it held them responsible" (72; the Alis' house).
2. "The empty house across the road breathed at them" (62).
3. "In the shaded darkness, silence had the quality of a looming dragon. It seemed to roar and reverberate, to dominate" (13).