Presentation on the Major

and
Minor Themes of Bapsi
Sidhwa’s
novel, Ice-Candy Man
The Author
Bapsi Sidhwa, the author of the novel was born on
August 11th, 1938 in Karachi.
She belongs to the Parsi community, so her account of
the partition is thought to be objective and neutral.
She, like the child narrator of Ice Candy Man, Lenny, is
a polio victim, that is why she was educated at home
till the age of 15. Afterwards she graduated from
Kinnaird College, Lahore.
She was married at the age of 19.
Sidhwa started writing in the 1970s when she was
inspired by the story of a young girl who ran away from
home and was killed by her husband in the Hindukush
mountains. This story was published in the form of her
2nd novel: the Bride.
Some of the notable novels of Sidhwa are: the Crow
Eaters, The Pakistani Bride, Ice Candy Man, An
American Brat, & Water.
About Bapsi Sidhwa
Sidhwa’s work has been widely read and
appreciated. Numerous awards have been
conferred upon her, these include:
The Patras Bokhari award for the Bride in
1985
The Sitara-e-Imtiaz in 1991
The German Literaturepreis award for
Cracking India
A Bunting Fellowship from Harvard
Currently she is teaching at the University of
Texas, Houston.
Ice Candy Man
Ice Candy Man, Sidhwa’s third and most
famous novel, was published in 1988.
The dominant themes of the novel are the
themes of disintegration, dislocation, and
partition.
 The sensitive topic of the Partition of the
Subcontinent serves as the backdrop of the
novel. This partition is one of the greatest
tragedies of our times, the severity of which
has never been fully understood.
Through Ice-Candy Man Sidhwa tries to
present an objective view of this event and
aims at providing an understanding of the
 Overview
 Sidhwa’s keen observation, concern for the common man & his life, and
concern for women and their suppression run though her novel: ICM.
 In order to understand the theme/s of the novel it is important to take an
overview of the novel:
 It is a historical novel written from the viewpoint of an eight year old girl,
Lenny, who happens to be a polio victim.
 The novel records the neutral observations of Lenny of the world around
her and how a political event overshadows her world, causing
disintegration and fragmentation.
 Lenny sees Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Parsees & Sikhs fight for their
land and their lives and is an unwilling witness to the trauma that
accompanied Independence.
 Ayah, Lenny’s beautiful and desirable maid, bears the crux of the
Partition tale becoming, like many others, the victim of her religion.
 The story traces the communal discord that occurred at the time of
Independence. It highlights that external events can unleash animalistic
characteristics in humans, so much so, that they are blinded by prejudice
and selfishness and use religion to justify their beastly actions.
 It is a story about love lost, trust deceived and the subjugation of the
mind by deliberately subjugating the body. It is also a story about
manipulation, redemption, and shrugging off passivity and rising to help
Major & Minor Themes
Major Themes:
 Theme of Partition
 Theme of dislocation and disintegration
 Theme of Communal discord
 Dilemma of the Parsi community
 Theme of Feminism–women as victims & as saviours
 Constancy of desire & its lack of moral legitimacy
 The eternal conflict of moral good & evil in the human psyche
 Neutrality
Minor themes:
 Manipulation
 Intolerance
 Impassivity
 Duplicity of colonialism
 Chaos and confusion
Themes
Theme of Partition:
 The novel examines the inexorable logic of Partition as an
offshoot of fundamentalism sparked by hardening communal
attitudes. It looks at Partition as a means of spreading
disharmony which resulted in frenzy and chaos.
 The novel, written from a domestic standpoint, opens with the
child narrator observing the situation of Lahore at the time of
Partition.
 Her dreams signify the fragmentation of India when she says
“ I recall another childhood nightmare… Children lie in
a warehouse… Godmother sits by my bed smiling
indulgently as men in uniforms quietly slice off a
child’s arm here, a leg there”. This dream comes true
when in chapter 17 Sidhwa writes “ Playing British gods
under the ceiling fans of the Falettis Hotel ,the Radcliff
commission deals out Indian cities like a pack of cards.
Lahore is dealt to Pakistan, Amritsar to India. Sialkot
to Pakistan. Pathankot to India. I am a Pakistani. In a
Theme of Partition
Sidhwa shows us that the Partition leaves even
sane people & friends helpless and
ineffective.e.g the sikhs and muslims living in
Pir Pindo, helplessness of the Hindu and Sikh
friends of the Sethis, and change of religion.
The psychological effects of the Partition on
the lives of people is also shown in great detail
in this novel. e.g Lenny tears her doll in two
halves after actually witnessing a similar event,
the wails of the fallen women
Sidhwa shows human loss in Partition: “ wave
upon wave of muslim refugees flood Lahore–
and the Punjab west of Lahore. Within 3
months 7 million Muslims & 5 million Hindus
& Sikhs are uprooted in the most terrible
Dislocation
 Dislocation and disruption are very important themes of ICM.
 We see people weighing the options of staying or migrating.
The question of migration loomed large in almost everyone’s
head.
 We see the people of Pir Pindo negating the idea of going by
saying: Where can the Muslim villagers go?... How can
they abandon their ancestor’s graves, every inch of
land they own, their other kin? How will they ever hold
up their heads again? Where will they go? No, he says,
they cannot throw the Mussulmans out
 Almost all the people of India especially the Punjabis were
faced with such dilemmas. Above all, the people, especially the
Punjabis, were not expecting to be uprooted and dislocated.
Perhaps this is another reason why so many of them died
because people could not comprehend the severity of the
situation. I
 I think that nobody can think of any place safer than home, and
when suddenly you are told that this isn’t your home, people
Disintegration
 In the novel the disintegration of Ayah’s circle symbolises the
disintegration and degeneration of society and the
disintegration of society signifies the deterioration of the
characters/ people themselves.
 Members of the Ayah’s circle represent the different religions
of the Subcontinent.
 We see that the characters belonging to the various
communities of India become conscious of their individual
identity but at the cost of the composite culture that evolved
after centuries.
 As the novel progressed, the people who thronged Queen’s
park became aware of their religious identity and only sat
with people of their own religion. It is only Ayah’s circle that
remains intact even when the political rumblings reached
Lahore. However, even Ayah’s allure and sensuousness
cannot keep the circle intact. In fact, the friends she trusted
become her assaulters in the end. This also shows the
deterioration of the characters.
Communal Discord
The novel aptly traces the pattern of communal
discord that occurred at the time of Partition from
somewhat complete harmony to total frenzy and
chaos.
Lenny’s nightmares, especially at the crack of
dawn set a gory and gruesome pattern of
communal discord at the time of partition.
We see a pattern of communal harmony when
Lenny first goes to Dera Tek Singh and sees the
Muslims and the Sikhs sitting together and sharing
their concern over the existing situation. We even
see them vowing to protect each other, should
violence reach their villages. However, during her
2nd visit we see suspicion and animosity in the air.
The rumblings of communal discord reach
Lahore.e.g the dinner with the singhs and the
community
ICM is seen through the prism of Parsi
sensitivity. The beginning shows the non-
committal attitude of the Parsis towards the
event of Partition.
The novel shows the dilemma & choice of the
community. Their leader in Lahore says “
whom do we cast our lot with?”
It is decided that in keeping with the tradition
the parsees of Lahore would follow whoever
so became the ruler of Lahore. Thus the
famous Parsi saying ‘ hunt with the
hounds and run with the hare’
They decide to be neutral.
The novel also highlights the changing
 Feminism
 The novel has a feminine perspective. The female protagonists
are the moral centers, while most of the male characters either
remain apathetic or indulge in destructive violence.
 The novel holds a gynocentric view of reality. ICM subtly
subverts the elements of patriarchy by showing that the female
characters pulsate with a will of their own. The feminine
qualities of compassion and motherhood are dominant.
 Women are shown as being oppressed and used as a
commodity. They are the ones who have to bear the brunt of
the wrong doings done by the men. Revenge is taken by
violating the rights of women. (element of Universality)
 The Ayah is a flame of sensuousness and female vitality.
 The relationship with the cousin upholds the principle of
equality.
 Godmother towers as a vibrant figure. She is a source of
strength and comfort for the needy e.g after Lenny’s operation,
& her role in saving Ayah
 Lenny’s mother starts the healing process by shrugging off her
passivity
Constancy of Desire
The theme of lust and desire is present
through out the novel in the persona of
Dilnawaz or Ice Candy Man.
Just like the other moths he also hovers
around Shanti.
Even though she is Hindu and he a Muslim.
His desire and the ways of getting hold of
Shanti throw light at his selfish character and
seem immoral especially because he is
married. His own wife is kept within the
boundaries of his village.
ICM keeps on changing his professions but his
persuit of Ayah is constant.
He doesn’t mind bringing unhappiness and
 The Eternal conflict between good
& evil
Moral good and evil are in eternal conflict in the
human psyche.
External events serve to unleash the evil inside
men if they sway towards that side, just as they
may bring positivity if men are good themselves.
ICM’s desire is constant but lack of restraint and
inherently good qualities unleash the beast inside
him when he witnesses the arrival of the death
train from Gurdaspur.
The description of Ranna’s village shows the
animalistic characteristics of men. In the same way
ICM, blinded by religious hatred and revenge turns
into a cruel man who derives sadistic pleasure and
satisfaction in killing Hindus and Sikhs.
As opposed to him we see Masseur trying talk
Neutrality
The author adopts a neutral and objective tone
that helps in highlighting the theme of neutrality.
We see that the common man is neutral but he is
swayed by religious and political differences.
The Parsi community remains neutral and we see
Lenny’s aunt and mother helping all their friends.
The Masseur also holds an objective view and
many times diffuses tensions inside the group.
This signifies that had there been no neutral and
objective people then there would have been
complete chaos.
Manipulation & Betrayal
The transformations and transmogrifications of
ICM signify his manipulative nature.
He tries to lure in people, just as he lures
Lenny to tell him about the whereabouts of the
Ayah.
His character represents the manipulative and
cold nature of politicians, especially his role as
a pimp.
Manipulation gives rise to betrayal: Ayah is
betrayed by all whom she trusted, ICM, the
butcher and even Lenny– though
unconsciously.
We also see manipulation by the leaders and
Religious intolerance
‘ one man’s religion is another man’s
poison’—this is exactly what happens in the
text.
As the Partition progresses, we see religious
frenzy and hatred. Even the people who
throng the Queens Park sit with people of their
own faith and show intolerance towards other
religions.
There is zero tolerance as religion is used as a
tool to carve out the divisions.
Even the Ayah’s group collapses when
religious differences stare the members in the
face.
Many people changed their religions to
Impassivity
Initially we see the impassivity of the Parsees, but it
was shrugged off by many of them. This is also
highlighted when she doesn’t feel any pain when
she was being dismembered in her dream.
The impassive and nonchalant attitude of the
politicians is highlighted in the text. The power
hungry politicians don’t care for the common man.
We also witness the impassivity of the British
government and then the independent
governments of the two new nations.
 ‘ it’s strange the English Sarkar can’t seem to be doing
anything” “ I don’t think it is because they can’t,I
think it is because the Sarkar doesn’t want to.”
Lenny’s dreams also signify the lack of concern by
the authorities to check the barbarism at the time
of Partition.
Duplicity of Colonialism
By showing the relationship between
Godmother and Slave Sister Sidhwa conveys
or warns that the exploitation manipulation
and suppression of one individual by another
is not confined to a male-female relationship,
it can exist between a female-female relation
ship.
Feminists are being made aware of the
dangers replicating the patriarchal principles.
Even though Godmother is a beacon of
courage, strength and hope, we see her
misusing her powers.
Chaos and Confusion
 Chaos, confusion, and mayhem become the order of the
day when men throw way sense and logic. This chaos comes
with a very heavy price.
 We learn that all passions whether religious or amorous are
capable of bringing out the best and the worst in human
beings. Religious hatred led to communal violence.
The Process of Healing
 Amidst this chaos and confusion we see hope in the persons
of the Sethi women. They start the healing process by
reaching out to those who were abandoned for no fault of
their own.
 When ICM realizes that he will never be able to get Ayah’s
love, he also starts on the path to moral good. This is where
the novel ends.
 Sidhwa ends by initiating the healing process and points out
that the only way to heal wounds is to overcome them by
forgiving and reaching out to others who may have gone
through worse.
Conclusion
Thus we see that the harrowing event of the
Partition brought dislocation, disintegration,
chaos with itself.
The novel written in the present tense, deals
with these events from a domestic standpoint,
creating a realistic picture with a strong
element of universality.
Central to the novel are the themes of
migration, manipulation, feminism, and
submitting your soul to external events.
