28 pages • 56 minutes read
Anita DesaiA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
There are many of examples of similes within this story to help readers visualize scenery, actions, and events. In Paragraph 4, the author describes the children leaving the home to play outside, saying, “[T]hey burst out like seeds from a crackling, overripe pod,” an image that captures the energy and desperation felt by the children as they flee the house to play outside. Describing the scenery around the outside of the house, the narrator says, “[T]he garden outside was like a tray made of beaten brass, flattened out on the red gravel and the stony soil in all shades of metal” (Paragraph 5). This image conveys not only the colors of the desiccated foliage but also the effects of the extreme heat on the living things subjected to it.
The author relies heavily on the use of imagery to convey emotions and ideas. Throughout the story, the sensory experience of the setting is closely connected to the characters’ thoughts and feelings. The story begins, for example, with a detailed description of what it feels like for the children to be inside the house on a hot summer afternoon:
By Anita Desai
A Devoted Son
Anita Desai
Baumgartner's Bombay
Anita Desai
Clear Light of Day
Anita Desai
Fasting, Feasting
Anita Desai
Fire on the Mountain
Anita Desai
In Custody
Anita Desai
The Artist of Disappearance
Anita Desai
The Village by the Sea
Anita Desai
The Zigzag Way
Anita Desai
Voices in the City
Anita Desai