University of Management & Technology

Department of Applied linguistics

Mphill in Applied Linguistics

 The Author
Title
Plot

Characters and characterization

Themes: major and minor

Literary Review

The Author: Bapsi Sidhwa

Born on August 11th, 1938 in Karachi.
Belongs to the Parsi community, Zoroaserian, a distinctive minority

who left Iran for South Asia to avoid the religious persecution.
A polio victim at the age of 2, that is why she was educated at home

till the age of 15 by an Anglo-Indian lady

She was married at the age of 19 with a Bombay businessman but

got divorce.
Later she got married to a businessman of Lahore.
Afterwards she graduated from Kinnaird College, Lahore.

The Author: credentials

An active social worker with great concern for the women around
Part of womens delegation to Iran and Turkey in 1970
Volunteer for many social work organizations

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.

Currently she is teaching at the University of Texas, Houston.

The Author: publications

Some of the notable novels of Sidhwa are:
The Crow Eaters(1978)

story about the life and fortunes of Parsi junglewalla family in British India.

The Pakistani Bride (1983)

the story of a Pakistani girl adopted by a pathan during partition

The Ice Candy Man(1988)

story about the change in the lives of the ordinary people before and after the partition.

An American Brat (1993)

the story about the conflicts of value systems and cultures on personal and social plane

Acknowledgements
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
Her most famous novel Ice Candy Man has been turned into a film

called Earth 1947

 This is the first novel by a woman novelist from

Pakistan in which she describes about the fate of

people in Lahore and entrancing partition of India

through the eyes of a precocious 8 years handicapped
Parsi girl.

THE TITLE
Original cover
Published in 1988
3rd novel of Bapsi Sidhwa

Named after a character

who is a Muslim street vendor.

Character-oriented title ___

metonymic title
Retained for only Indian

editions

Title changed in 1991

Publishers feared that an American

audience might mistake the unfamiliar

name for a drug pusher.
So the title was changed by Sidhwas

American publishers Milkweed

Editions,1991
The new title rendered dominant

theme and collective political reality of

the Indian sub-continent.

Lenny is an eight year old Parsi girl who leads a comfortable life with
the four members of her family before the Partition of India in
Lahore. Lenny regularly goes for walks with her Hindu Ayah Shanta.
Sidhwa introduces the readers to characters like Shanta the Ayah,
Imamdin the cook, the Ice-Candy-Man Dilnawaz and Hassan Ali, his
cousin brother.
At the moment, people in undivided India are seen engaged in the
Quit-India Movement, and on the other hand, the Muslim League
motivates the Muslim Community to raise a demand for a separate
nation for the Muslims. Often the slogans of 'Pakistan Zindabad' are
heard in the streets but the communal harmony is intact.
One day, riots break out in Lahore in a locality far away from Lenny's
house. This leads to the killing of innocent people on both the sides.

The news of bloodshed spreads like wild fire. The All India Radio also reports about
cases of violence from different parts of India. Soon the entire Punjab province is
seen burning in the fire of hatred and communal violence.
Dilnawaz, the Ice-Candy-Man waits for his sisters on Lahore railway station. When
the trian arrives from Gurdaspur, everyone on the plateform is shocked to see the
ghastly sight.
The Train is loaded with mutilated bodies of Muslim passengers. This shocks
everyone and the friendly Dilnawaz turns into a person possessed with a frenzy and
a desire to kill the Hindus.
He also abducts his friend Shanta, the Ayah of Lenny and later takes her to low
market of Lahore, a locality of bad women. Ice-Candy-Man loved Shanta from the
core of his heart but now she is a Hindu for him. Vengeance has transformed him
into a killer and a beast.
Later with the belp of Lenny's relatives, Shanta is rescued and she reaches the relief
camp at Amritsar. The ice candy man also follows her there.

Major characters:
1.

2.
3.
4.

Lenny, the narrator

Shanta, her Hindu Ayah
Dilnawaz, the Ice Candy Man, A Muslim
Godmother, the grandmother of Lenny

Minor characters:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Imamdin, the cook

Hassan Ali, his cousin brother
Lennys mother
Papoo, the daughter of Mucho, the sweeperes
Ranna, the friend of Lenny
Admirers of Ayah
1.
2.
3.
4.

Hari, the high-caste Hindu

Moti, the out-caste Gardner
Masseur, beloved of ayah
Ice candy man

Characterization in Ice Candy Man is perfect

with astute insight into human behavior and
human nature.
Most of the characters are round characters.
Reality based character who show their

aspirations, emotions, moods, frustrations and

nonetheless their attitude to life influenced by
social and personal turmoil.

Lenny: the narrator

the child-narrator Lenny is introduced through the verses of Iqbal from

his 'Complaint to God'

Lenny lives on Warris Road. And she is lame, introvert and helpless.
Her narration starts in her 5th year and ends after her 8th birthday.

It is to note that Bapse was 9 years old at the time of the Partition of India

(1947) and at the age of 2 she encountered polio which affected her
throughout his life
Lenny is like the persona, voicing the urge of the author, that CHAUCER

has adopted in his Prologue to Canterbury Tales.

This persona acts being the part of the readers consciousness.

Lenny as an observer and commenter

Lenny sees change and partition as blood dimmed anarchy

the whole world is burning. The air on my face is so hotI

start screaming: hysterically sobbing. How long does Lahore

burn? Weeks? Months?
The moonlight settles like a layer of ashes over Lahore.
Can the soul be extracted from the body? commented on

Ayahs vacant eyes.

One mans religion is another mans poison
India is going to be broken. Can one break a country?

THE ICE CANDY MAN, Dilnawaz

The story of the novel revolves around this central character. He belongs to bad market of

Lahore,. His mother had been one of them and his early years shaped his personality according
to his tastes.
He is a jolly and friendly person. He is a gifted poet, rather poetic in his interaction with others.

He would recite a couplet from Urdu poetry whenever required.

He is an ardent lover of the Hindu Ayah of Lenny. He is a regular visitor of Lenny's house for

Ayah's sake.
In summers, he sells ice-candy and in winters, he becomes a birds-man who sells sparrows and

birds.
The first half of the novel presents the Ice-Candy-Man as a jovial and life-loving person. He is

known for his warmth and good-nature but one incident transforms the peace-loving ice-candy
man into a selfish man and a savage.

The Ice Candy Man

a keen popsicle vendor

a pretentious Sufi, with copper wiring wound around

his neck and chest, who claims he is Allahs telephone

the fanatic leader of a mob, who deceivingly betrays

his love
a poet, reciting Urdu verses to woo the Ayah
A bird-seller

The Godmother
A social worker having al latest news and info about everyone

Influential lady who helps everyone

Accounts for Bapsis own social persona as a social worker.
Helps Ayah in the same way as Bapsi once helped a girl in real

Symbolizes the feministic supremacy and strong influential

status of women in British Indian society.

Sidhwa presented her as a fascinating personality with a one-

and-a-half-room adobe, covered from head to toe in khaddar

attire, a shelter for Lenny and many others
Possess a penchant for Sharp wit

Narrative Technique/device
Precocious Parsi girl__ Lenny 8 years old with a
handicapped foot
8 years
old girl

Purpose was to provide a scope for objectivity, unbiasness and to avoid an air of propaganda
Bapsi wanted to show the narration free of ethnic

victim
of
polio

Narration

and religious bias. So she adopts a childs truthinfected tongue which also creates space for

idyllic romances.
She takes in account her own limp in leg caused
by polio and uses it as an armor against the
pretentious world through the voice of Lenny.

Handicapped

Parsi

Themes
Sidhwa's novels themes diverge from traditional to contemporaneity.
Overview:
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 those who most need it.
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.

Major & Minor Themes

Major Themes:

Theme of Partition
Theme of dislocation and disintegration
Dilemma of the Parsi community
Theme of Feminismwomen as victims & as saviors
Constancy of desire & its lack of moral legitimacy
The eternal conflict of moral good & evil in the human psyche
Neutrality
Theme of Communal discord

Minor themes:

Manipulation
Intolerance
Impassivity
Chaos and confusion

Theme of Partition
The novel looks at Partition as a means of spreading

disharmony which resulted in frenzy and chaos.

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 exchange of population known to history.
Punjab has been divided.

Dislocation
Dislocation and disruption are very important themes of this novel

We see people weighing the options of staying or migrating. The

question of migration loomed large in almost everyones 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 ancestors 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

Disintegration
In the novel the disintegration of Ayahs circle symbolizes the disintegration and

degeneration of society and the disintegration of society signifies the

deterioration of the characters/ people themselves.
Members of the Ayahs circle represent the different religions of the

Subcontinent.
As the novel progressed, the people who thronged Queens park became aware

of their religious identity and only sat with people of their own religion. It is only
Ayahs circle that remains intact even when the political rumblings reached

Lahore. However, even Ayahs 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.

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.
Women are shown as being oppressed and used as a commodity.
They are the ones who have to bear the burden 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 of Lenny 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 Lennys operation, & her role in
saving Ayah
Lennys mother starts the healing process by shrugging off her
passivity
The fallen women are the victims and Lennys female relatives are
saviors.
We see women as sacrificing their lives for the honor of their families.

The fight of police commissioner at dinner table on trivial

foreshadows the communal riots between the Hindus and
Muslims.

Queen Victoria's statue in the park impose the English Raj

in the park.
The leaving of The Ice Candy Man to Amritsar, is not only
an example of self-sacrifice but also symbolic of a future
rapprochement between the two warring communities
the Muslims and Hindus.

Review

In Ice-Candy-Man, I was just redressing, in a small way, a very

grievous wrong that has been done to Jinnah and Pakistanis by

many Indian and British writers. They have dehumanized him, made
him a symbol of the sort of person who brought about the partition
of India.
Sidhwa, an interview with David Montenegro

Throughout, the novel sustains the vitality of Lenny's world with a

series of wonderfully comic scenes. Highly recommended for all

libraries.
J. Sudrann in Library Journal

Sidhwa's triumph lies in creating characters so rich in hilarious and

accurate detail, so alive and active, that long after one has closed
the book, they continue to perform their extraordinary and wonderful
feats before our eyes."
Anita Desai in Dawn

"no other novel catches as this one does India's centuries-old

ways of living with religious difference before Partition.observer

Conclusion
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.
The harrowing event of the Partition brought dislocation,

disintegration, chaos with itself.

Central to the novel are the themes of migration,

manipulation, feminism, and submitting your soul to

external events.