"Time is a destroyer as well as a preserver": Treatment of time in Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day
‘Clear Light of Day’ is one of Anita Desai’s most outstanding novels and may be regarded as one of the masterpieces in the field of Indo-Anglican fiction. This novel is distinguished chiefly by its messages of psychological analysis of unbreakable ties of blood and kinship and the paradox of time i.e. time as a destroyer as well as a preserver. It is a well-known fact that time is a great destroyer. ‘Clear Light of Day’ shows the destruction which time works in the sphere of domestic life and domestic relationship and only to a very small extent in the life of a nation. ‘Clear Light of Day’ deals mainly with the fortunes and misfortunes of the Das family. The passing of the years works havoc with the members of this family. There is, for instance, the case of Mira-masi who has seen the destructive power of time. She was married at the age of twelve and became a widow at the age of fifteen and she died due to excessive drinking at a premature age. Mira-masi died after the deaths o...