THE ICE CANDY MAN

Presented by:

Roll no. 100884006

University of Management & TechnologyDepartment of Applied linguistics

Mphill in Applied Linguistics

The Author

Title

Plot

Characters and characterization

Themes: major and minor

Literary Review

The Author: Bapsi SidhwaBorn 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: credentialsAn active social worker with great concern for the women

around

Part of women’s 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: publicationsSome 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 Ice Candy Man

THE TITLEOriginal 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

Sidhwa’s American publishers

Milkweed Editions,1991

The new title rendered dominant

theme and collective political reality

of the Indian sub-continent.

PlotLenny 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.

CharactersMajor characters:

1. Lenny, the narrator2. Shanta, her Hindu Ayah3. Dilnawaz, the Ice Candy Man, A Muslim4. Godmother, the grandmother of Lenny

Minor characters:5. Imamdin, the cook6. Hassan Ali, his cousin brother7. Lenny’s mother8. Papoo, the daughter of Mucho, the sweeperes9. Ranna, the friend of Lenny10. Admirer’s of Ayah

1. Hari, the high-caste Hindu2. Moti, the out-caste Gardner3. Masseur, beloved of ayah4. Ice candy man

CharacterizationCharacterization 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 reader’s

consciousness.

Lenny as an observer and commenterLenny sees change and partition as ‘ blood dimmed

anarchy’

‘the whole world is burning. The air on my face is so hot…I

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

Ayah’s vacant eyes.

One man’s religion is another man’s 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 Mana keen popsicle vendor

a pretentious Sufi, with copper wiring wound

around his neck and chest, who claims he is Allah’s

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 GodmotherA social worker having al latest news and info about

everyoneInfluential lady who helps everyoneAccounts for Bapsi’s own social persona as a social

worker.Helps Ayah in the same way as Bapsi once helped a girl

in realSymbolizes 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/devicePrecocious Parsi girl__ Lenny 8 years old

with a handicapped foot

Purpose was to provide a scope for

objectivity, un-biasness and to avoid an

air of propaganda

Bapsi wanted to show the narration free

of ethnic and religious bias. So she

adopts a child’s truth-infected 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.

Narration

8 years old girl

Parsi

Handicapped

victim of polio

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 ThemesMajor Themes:

Theme of PartitionTheme of dislocation and disintegrationDilemma of the Parsi communityTheme of Feminism–women as victims & as saviorsConstancy of desire & its lack of moral legitimacyThe eternal conflict of moral good & evil in the human psycheNeutralityTheme of Communal discord

Minor themes:ManipulationIntoleranceImpassivityChaos and confusion

Theme of PartitionThe 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’.

DislocationDislocation 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 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”

Disintegration In the novel the disintegration of Ayah’s circle symbolizes 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.

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.

FeminismThe 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 Lenny’s operation, & her role in saving Ayah

Lenny’s mother starts the healing process by shrugging off her passivity

The fallen women are the victims and Lenny’s female relatives are saviors.

We see women as sacrificing their lives for the honor of their families.

Symbolic incidentsThe 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

ConclusionThe 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.