Apr 07, 2003 10:44 AM
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(Updated Apr 07, 2003 10:44 AM)
The Iceman speaketh?. I roam in the city as the Ice-Candy wallah, with an icebox of sweet ice candies. Hounded by little children and their mothers, I bring a little cool relief in the hot summer. The business is good when the day is hot, but I try to save a few for a sweet little child, who is unfortunate to be afflicted by polio, but fortunate to have the lovely ayah. I long for a sight of the ayah all day, I long for a few moments of flirtatious fun, the sight of her draws my attention, like a fly drawn towards a lamp. She is the apple of my eye, but she accepts the apple of another, I have a good mind to massage his body to pulp, but alas he is my friend too. Everytime I see her with him, the fire of jealousy burns higher within me. The anguish of seeing her in his arms, wounds me more than any weapon the world can offer. A lamp can set a palace ablaze, what is one man?s soul before the evil flames? In my foolish rage I destroy the lives of those near and dear friends. I pluck the most beautiful rose from God?s garden, tear its beautiful petals apart in my rage, and I adorn it with fake appendages, believing it to be mine forever.
The ice candy man (icm) is shown in the novel as an extremely passionate character who tries to get the girl he wants by hook or by crook. The novel does not show the love of the icm till the end of the text, when we see the passion that he is capable of. We see the icm as a betrayer when he uses Lenny to betray Ayah to the mob. At this point, the reader would be shocked as the icm till then is shown as a nice person who has some feelings for Ayah. The murder of the Masseur and way his body was put in a gunny bag near Lenny?s house would now seem to be the icm?s deed. Later, in the novel, when Godmother discovers Ayah, and when the icm explains his deeds, one is able to empathise with him but not sympathise with him.
If the novel is a love story, then why is the narrator Lenny? If the narrator was the icm himself, then it would be a propaganda novel of the icm explaining his deeds and the reader would sympathise with him. One would see all the emotional turmoil the icm experiences, but the deeds of the icm are evil, and sympathizing with his deeds is not what the author wants the reader to do. So why not Ayah as the narrator? Ayah would be the other end of the spectrum, one who is unaware of the intensity of the love of the icm, who is raped and ravaged by the mob led by the icm. A narrative from Ayah?s perspective would inevitably make the novel totally anti-icm, which would then mask the icm?s perspective. So, why a child? An adult narrator would be influenced by the ethics and morals of the society, and also by his/her own biases. Also, an adult would probably have not observed the intimacy between Ayah and the Masseur, as the two would not have openly displayed it. Adults are more expressive and feel more secure about their privacy in the presence of a child than in the presence of other adults. A child?s narrative would be more objective than an adult?s without the biases of social and ethical order.
For example, if the narrator had been Lenny?s Godmother, it would have been heavily biased by the ethical disruption caused by the kidnapping of Ayah and the last chapter would not have revealed the intensity of emotions of the icm. The reader would be made to despise the icm for his deeds and his motivations would not have been revealed. There is a danger of choosing a child narrator. A child would not be able to fathom love and sexuality, as he/she would be naïve regarding these matters. In that light, a child narrator would not understand the emotions of the icm for Ayah, or the emotions of Ayah and the Masseur for eachother. The author solves this problem using Lenny?s cousin. Lenny learns about sexuality and the feelings of love from her cousin. Cousin, who is shown to be infatuated with Lenny from the start, helps Lenny understand the meaning of love and emotional turmoil that entails when love is not returned. He also shows Lenny how love can be very possessive. These lessons learnt by Lenny through her personal experiences with Cousin later helps her to empathise with the icm. I particularly liked this idea of the author very much. How is it a partition novel? The novel has the Partition of India in the background of the story. The partition also serves to give the icm a leeway for his heinous deeds.
The novel describes the horrors of the Partition very well and the reader is drawn into the tale. The fears, the insecurity, and the hatred that was bred in the people by the politicians of that time for their own vested interests is very caricatured in the novel. The changing loyalties of the circle of friends who in the end become fiends brings forth the true horror of Partition when friends became traitors. The description of the massacre of Ranna?s village shows how humans behaved like savages, killing their own countrymen. The icm?s sees a perfect opportunity to claim what he thinks is his. The Partition also psychologically affects the icm as his family is murdered brutally on the train. It turns him into a cruel person, he then joins in the fray and kills Hindus, some of them his friends. All in all the icm is very much affected by the Partition and he uses the violence as a machanism to claim Ayah but it backfires.
A sad tale of Partition is shown, where the crimes of the people killed the national spirit and no matter what was tried, it still remains as a deep scar on the psyche of the people. As Jinnah himself put it, ?Pakistan has been the biggest mistake of my life.? Partition of India is truly the sorest point in the sub-continent?s history, when a new nation was born amidst humungous turmoil and violence that later both countries have regretted and will do so for the rest of their existence. So will the icm regret his deeds for the rest of his miserable life.
The Ice Candy man shows us the naked human emotions that are revealed whenever passions run high and it also shows how they can be good and evil in the same person. The novel has a simple narrative, enhanced by the use of humour, which effectively tells us the story of the Ice candy man.
