The Zig Zag Way by Anita Desai - Essay Example

The Zig Zag Way by Anita Desai Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts 31 May 2009 Search of identity in Anita Desai’s ‘The Zig-Zag Way’ Eric, the main character of the novel has portrayed as one searching for his lost identity or roots, confronts with a critical juncture and becomes passive. One sees Eric traveling abroad to Mexico and painfully realizes his incapability in protesting against the hard realities, which rooted out his familial relations. When Eric goes to Mexico in order to discover the history of his Cornish grandfather, a former miner of Sierra Madre, one sees him enchanted in the magic spell of Dona Vera, a hacienda baroness. The luxurious and magnanimous life of Dona Vera makes Eric suspicious, and he could find some connections between his stories, his grand parents and Dona Vera, that is, the relationship between the living and the dead. When Eric starts to Mexico with his girl friend his father reminds him that he was actually born in that country. Eric finds some relations between the silver mines and his past. It is a novel that attracted the attention of readers to its theme and treatment; and the same confounded critics from naming Desai as the post colonial writer. An overview of Desai’s novels will reveal the different techniques of her narration, keen observation of surroundings and its exuberant presentations. It is common knowledge that the novels of Desai are technically perfect and thematically rich. When one attempts reading of the novel, The Zig Zag Way in this light, one can perceive that this novel accomplishes most of these propositions. Critics and reviewers of the novel attribute it much imaginative coloring, and they perceive seven different reasons for travel: pilgrimage, quest, tourism, research, refuge/escape, employment or immigration. After reading the novel, one feels that the journey of Eric is not pilgrimage or tour, but a quest in search of his lost identity or roots in Mexican soil. The Zig Zag Way revolves around the travels of its central character, a young American named Eric. The other two prominent characters appear in the novel are the enigmatic Dona Vera, and the long dead Cornish miner’s wife, Betty Jennings. As the background of the novel has set in Mexico, readers are capable of getting a clear picture of the 20th century Mexico. The novel often brings the readers back to U.S. and England though its background is set in Mexico. From the descriptions of the novelist, one understands lost relations of Eric who is at present a native of Mexico. As he was a descendent of an American Cornish origin, Eric decides to seek for his identity. An analysis of Desai’s novels reveals to readers of the subject of solitude which she uses commonly. Majority of her characters are outsiders who lost their family ties and are destined to live in a foreign country. They are in their heartfelt attempt to recover from their present state of affairs. Critics regard it as Desai’s dual heritage as half Bengali and half German. It is the same identity crisis which readers feel with Eric, when he travels to Mexico. Desai’s characters often show the tendency of escapism, especially from the trials and tribulations of everyday life. One can also look upon Eric’s journey as an escape from his failure attempt, regarding his studies and unsuccessful endeavor in writing a novel. However he reaches premature domestic bliss his girlfriend, Em. Eric’s quest begins when Em offers him a vacation. His quest for the fulfillment of the identity or roots begins in Sierra Madre, where he inquires to find out more about his grandfather who was a Cornish miner. His grandfather was migrated to Mexico in order to work in the mines, before the Mexican revolution. The peculiarity of Mexico attracts the attention of Eric and he is bewitched with the heat, the strangeness and color of the country. It was one among the motivating factor that seduces Eric to persist his expedition. In her novel The Zigzag way Anita Desai enlightens that country, outlook, history, and tangled lives of three persons. The reader starts his/her journey with the male character Eric, an American educator. The author expresses the major theme through the meeting between Eric and his girlfriend and their journey to Mexico. The quest for searching self-identity reveals Eric’s enquires about his Cornish grandfather who worked in the mines. His searching takes him to reach the house of an eccentric person named Dona Vera. By marrying a Mexican man, she has developed a relation with the mines of Mexico. Anita Desai finds the title through the zigzag movement of workers in mines with heavy. In the web article entitled The Zigzag Way by Anita Desai, Houghton Mifflin gives considerable justifications for the theme of the novel The Zigzag Way. Mifflin remarks, “Learning that porters carried heavy bags up thousands of stairs in a zigzag direction to take advantage of air currents that helped them breathe, Eric ruminates on his own zigzag journey, his effort to enter the past.”(Houghton, 2006).The entire novel shows the zigzag journey of its hero Eric, who travels through his experience by searching his past. The entire novel divides into three sections and in the second part Eric’s searching is concentrating on the mysterious life of Dona Vera Rose. Here the hero Eric became abandoning and shocked by understanding the story of Dona. The third and final section the novel again moves back to past. Here the author reveals the mystery of the death of Eric’s grandfather. The novel ends with an encounter between a ghost from the past; and in this feedback section, Eric look back his own way. His quest for knowing his roots ends with a deep analysis of his past, present and future. Like other novels, Desai expresses her unique crafts through the presentation of human nature and psychology. When reaching the conclusion, one can infer that the quest undertaken by Eric in search of his roots was successful in one phase and failure in the other, especially when regarding the severe mental pain he suffers after the exploration. Eric wins in his attempts to find out his roots which began from his grand father. His keen desire to get revealed of Dona Vera’s character startles him with the realization that Dona attained all her present prosperity and richness by engaging in adultery. The present realization puzzles him, so that he feels it difficult to make up his mind to join with the situation. The great secret revealed to Eric after his quest is the murder of his father that obliterate him too much. Thus, one can see that when Eric wins in his quest, he also reaches in a self revelation of his present status of affairs and it makes him aware of the future. Though Eric’s quest is a success, there is something that remains in mystery to Eric and the readers. Works cited: Mifflin Houghton. The Zigzag Way by Anita Desai. 2006. Pacific Rim Voices. 31 May 2009. http://www.waterbridgereview.org/012005/rvw_zigzag_way.php Read More