Quest for Self Identity in Anita Desai's Two Novels

The focus f this study in the proceeding chapters has been on the quest pattern of the heroines in Anita Desai's two novels. This study can claim a unique stance in that it has attempted a study of the mystique of the feminine, using concepts which have imparted a new dimension to the analysis of female character. Desai's heroines emblematise an individuality which is unmistakably the creation of a skilled artist. In both the novels Desai is concerned with a world where everywhere the corpses will be unambiguously of the hypersensitive, over-reactive feminine. It is important to state that Desai's heroines are much taller shoulders high than the stereotyped, run-of-the-mill elementary feminine. Fulfilment of the quest for self is not the final journey of every protagonist. It is rather that point of completion which stirs activity in a person who is often visited by psychic inadequacy. Quest thus connects him with that vital fulcrum which is ever going and ever renewing process. Quest is not a charted course where every quester may find familiar steps. Rather, every quester has to move into the unfamiliar.