Analysis Of The Novel Bye Bye Blackbird

1638 Words7 Pages
Desai’s third novel Bye Bye Blackbird was published in 1971 and deals with the marginal spaces that an immigrant is forced to occupy with regard to his culture, ideology and way of life when he tries to settle in a new country. The differences lead to a segregation which is not only physical but emotional. The divide in the psyches of Indians as well as Britishers is explored in this paper in the persons of Dev, Adit and Sarah. This paper explores the marginal spaces that these protagonists inhabit.
Keywords: Culture, ideology, marginal, protagonists, psyches, segregation, spaces.

Marginal Spaces- A Study of Desai’s Bye Bye Blackbird

Desai’s novel Bye Bye Blackbird is an exploration of the relationships between emigrants and natives of a country and at a deeper level, about the changing emotions of human beings according to the time and situations. Change is an inevitable part of any life but very rarely are we prepared to accept them. Adit, Dev and Sarah do not only occupy marginal spaces but also are actively trying to fight their way out of them. This paper is a study exploring the marginal spaces depicted in the novel and the protagonists ' efforts to move towards the centre.
The novel is divided into three parts- arrival, discovery and recognition and departure. The central part of the novel deals with the discovery and recognition of one’s own self rather than something in the outside world. Desai has said in an interview “of all my novels Bye, Bye Black