Frustration to Suffering: A Reading of Anita Desai’s Where Shall We Go This Summer

Abstract

In Where Shall We Go This Summer? Anita Desai writes on the boredom and loneliness experienced by a married woman when she feels ignored and unwanted. It is a crucial period when one feels the dilemma of existence. The children grow up and become independent, while husbands are increasingly busy with their routine work. In this novel the searchlight is inward focusing on the mental make-up feelings of Raman and Sita which bring out the mental trauma to the two caused by their different attitudes.

B. Ramachandran Rao points out: Sita and Raman represent the eternal opposition between the passion and the prose of life. Raman, the husband, says that “great yes” and follows the path of honour and social success. Sita says “no” and, although she is not destroyed by life, she is compelled to arrive at some kind of a compromise with life. Anita Desai examines the issues of familial ties from the view point of a woman who is ill equipped of seeing anything beyond the family and the limited arena of domestic ties.