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Characterization in Ice Candy Man

Article · January 2021

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Hasanat Ahmad
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Characterization definition:

Characterization is a literary device that is used step by step in literature to highlight and
explain the details about a character in a story. It is the initial stage in which the writer
introduces the character with noticeable emergence. After introducing the character, the
writer often talks about his behaviour then, as the story progresses, the thought processes of
the character.

The next stage involves the character expressing his opinions and ideas, and getting into
conversations with the rest of the characters. The final part shows how others respond to the
personality of character.

Types of characterization

There are two types of characterization.

Direct or explicit characterization

This kind of characterization takes direct approach towards building the character. It uses
another character, narrator, or the protagonist himself to tell readers or audience about the
subject.

Indirect or implicit characterization

This characterization is a more subtle way of introducing the character to the readers or
audience. The reader has to deduce for himself the characteristics of the character by
observing his/her thought process, behaviour, speech, way of talking, appearance, and
manner of communication, as well as by discerning the response of the other characters.

Characterization in Ice Candy Man

In Ice Candy Man, Bapsi Sidhwa has given us fine picture of subcontinent, before and after
partition. She highlighted the political, religious and social conditions of that time. She had
deep and lively interest in everyday life and people of all sort living around her. She was keen
observer and has described characters so realistically that we can almost reconstruct
subcontinent through them. She has shown her objectivity and detachment while portraying
the characters.

Bapsi Sidhwa also used the techniques of compare and contrast. Where ever in the novel She
talked about religion and politics there is always contrast between India and Pakistan. Even in
characters she used this technique for instance in the end of novel when Godmother visited
Ayah, she showed her discomfort of living here with Dilnawaz while on the other hand
Hamida never thought of going back to her home.

In Ice Candy Man both implicit and explicit characters are present. Language used by Bapsi
Sidhwa for different characters represents their cultures. For instance, Muslims, Hindus and
Sikhs have their own slogans like “Allah o Akbar” and “Pakistan Zindabad”, “Hai Ram”
and “Sat Siri Akal! Bolay so Nihal!”

Characters

Major characters

Lenny, the narratorShanta, her Hindu Ayah

Dilnawaz, the Ice Candy Man, A MuslimGodmother

Minor characters

Mr and Mrs Sethi, Lenny’s parents Adi, Lenny’s brother

Her cousinCol Bharucha, Lenny’s doctor

Mr and Mrs Singh

Imam Din, CookPapoo, Daughter of Mucho, the sweepers

Rana, Lenny’s friend Masseur, beloved of Ayah

Hari, high caste HinduMoti, low caste Gardener

Characterization in Ice Candy Man is perfect with astute insight into human behaviour and
human nature. Reality based characters who show their aspirations, emotions, moods,
frustrations, and their attitude to life influenced by political, religious and social turmoil.
Most of the characters in Ice Candy Man are round characters.

Lenny

Lenny is the main character of the novel, Ice Candy Man. This novel is based on post and pre
partition scenario. Lenny is the child narrator of novel. She is a girl belonging to Parsee
community. She is five years old in the start of the novel and by the end of the novel, she is
an eight-year girl. She has got a physical defect in her limb because of which her movement
is limited and hampered. Being narrator we can refer Lenny to be sole witness of every event
happening in the novel and thus we have to see every event through eyes of Lenny.

Being a narrator Lenny has justified her observatory skills. She has got great mindfulness of
everything happening around he. She not only gives the physical occurring of events but
along with that she gives us an x-ray disposition of every character, from their physical
outlook to their innermost intentions.

Because of her disability she does not interact with world as normal children. She spends an
inordinate amount of time in adult world of her Ayah. Interacting with adults and watching
their behaviour, allows Lenny to grow up with more knowledge of the world. Her unique
viewpoint allows the novel to transcend her childhood concerns in the depiction of life in
Lahore.

Lenny’s observation has not only made her one keen observer but those observations have
made her a mix bag of emotions. If she loves, she loves with such fervent that surpasses her
all other emotions and same for her all emotions. Her love for Godmother is one of an
exceptional kind where all her pains succumb by just being around Godmother. Lenny has
been operated and in pain but when she sees Godmother, she forgets all her miseries.

“She sits by my bed stroking me, smiling, her eyes twinkling concern, in her grey
going out sari, it’s pretty border of butterflies pinned to iron strands of scant combed
back hair. The intensity of her tenderness and the concentration of her attention are
narcotic. I require no one else.”

Her love for Godmother and Ayah have resulted in an impassioned bond of intimacy. Even
when Ayah was being dragged apart from her, she never thought of replacing Ayah’s place in
her life. These emotions along with her physical restrictions somehow became a significant
reason for surrealistic thinking of Lenny.

Lenny’s narrative contains many such hints towards surreality of her thoughts. Where she
tries to make connection of her unseen world with the reality. At one place while visiting
Lahore with Ayah and Masseur she sensed the unseen presence of Ice Candy Man, she
presents the information which sometimes become difficult to categorize as reality or figment
of imagination.
“He prowls on the other side of the artificial hill behind the peacocks when they
spread their tail feathers and open their turquoise eyes: he has as many eyes and
they follow us.”

Her capacity to reside in a world of magical realism has made her reluctant to accept the
normality of things, she is happy in her own world. She comfortable to be dependent on
everyone and living an uncompetitive life. Her real world is less attracting than her dream
world.

While having a talk on guys with her cousin, Lenny felt least excited and lost her senses in
her fantasy. But I think not for too long Lenny was growing up and it was impossible for her
to remain untouched by the grim realities of life. Hospitality and malevolence she witnessed
during barbarous event of partition was enough to shake one out of her comforts and at one
place we find her saying,

“The confrontation between Ice candy man and Godmother opened my eyes to the
righteous indignation over compassion.”

Lenny’s childhood capacity of quick learning helped her to be in peace with the harsh
factuality of life, she started to know the price of one has to pay to be grown up. Gradually
she was becoming accustomed to the world of maturity and trickery. She is learning the art of
living life as everyone is living and that art has to pay a heavy price in the form of
heartbreaks and losses.

“I have never cried this way before. It is how grown-ups cry when their hearts are
breaking.”

She was maturing and learning how to be a grown up and how to say goodbye to the world of
childhood and innocence.

“When something upsets me this much I find it impossible to talk. It used not to be
so. I wonder: am I growing up? At least I have stopped babbling all my thoughts.”

Ayah

Ayah is also the major character of novel. She is young Hindu woman, age 18 at the
beginning of the novel, named simply “Ayah” the Urdu word for “nursemaid” works as
Lenny and Adi’s nanny. She is of short stature having wheatish complexion. She is described
by Lenny as a very charming, attractive girl gifted with abundant feminine grace. Her beauty
is portrayed to be of that much magnetism that wherever she goes she becomes the eye
catcher for all and sundry.

“Up and down, they look at her. Stub-handed twisted beggars and dusty old
beggars on crutches drop their poses and stare at her with hard, alert eyes.”

Not that she was admired by lower class which Ayah belongs but even men belonging to
gentry, applaud her of her beauty. Because of her exceptional looks she has lot of admirers
and most clingy among them is Ice Candy Man.

Ayah’s beauty would not have been narrated with such admiration if Lenny would not have
so much love for her. Ayah also loved Lenny with core of her heart. They both were each
other’s companion. Without Ayah, Lenny referred to herself as Ayahless.

Ayah in novel is that loving character who can be referred to as the propellant of the novel.
She is individually passive in the whole story but she is the one who is cause of many events
and similarly suffers the effects of many situations in story. She possesses key role in novel.

She is a character which causes restlessness among characters in novel and consequently in
readers. She has love for life and for everything good in life like food, movies, massages and
her best part was her love for gossips for which she even tolerates clinginess of Dilnawaz.
She was gravely in love with Masseur. But with the shift of fate things start turning against
her.

When event is story took drastic turn Ayah became one of poor sufferer. She became the one
victim to be burnt in the flames of religious riots. Her admirer, Dilnawaz, dragged her to the
worst of the destinies. She was being sold by him to the business of prostitution. Once full of
life Ayah became soulless body. When Godmother and Lenny visited her the differences of
life and death within her were quite eminent.

“Where the radiance and the animation gone. Can the soul be extracted from its
living body?”

Ayah became a puppet at the hands of men. Ayah can be seen as the paradox for desire of the
sick sexuality of men or all races, religions and status. Her molestation represents the
perverted sexual behaviour which was present in almost every character in the novel. Women
and children (like Rana) the most vulnerable ones, were used not only to satisfy the sexual
lust but also the power lust.
At once place Ayah was devastated by men while on the other hand women gave her
strength and she dared to let herself set free, over the lavish life of imprisonment, she chose
freedom. Godmother send her home to her family in Amritsar, which remains in India after
partition.

Dilnawaz

Dilnawaz, Ice Candy Man, is the antagonist of novel. However, Bapsi Sidhwa slowly reveals
his role as the partition of Lahore into Pakistan. He is street vendor who sells ice candies in
summer and birds in winter. Just as he changes his profession he changes his appearance time
to time. The importance of his character has let the author to title the piece with his name. For
than half of part of the novel he serves as the comic relief for he is kind of good humoured
funny character.

He is introduced in novel as one of the admirer of Ayah. By catching Ayah’s attention he

looks for tactics to be close to her and touch her in anyway. He very well knows the subject
of chattering and convincing.

“Talk to me for a while…Just for a while,” and Ayah’s heart melt over his pleading. He
has got such keenness for Ayah that sometimes it coincides with lunacy for instance once
upon hearing Ayah’s refusal for watching movie with him, he becomes so enraged that he
threatened her by throwing down Adi.

He has got good brain for profits, like selling his birds hr reads the mind of Englishwomen
and crafts the clever ideas and compel them to buy the birds. “They buy the birds by
dozen.” Being a good businessman he has enough quantity of hypocrisy he became lover
when he wished and became Muslim when need arise.

“So what if you are a Sikh? I am a friend to my friends…And an enemy to their

enemies…And then a Mussulman!”

Characterization in Ice Candy Man is superb with psychological insight into human
behaviour and human nature. Sidhwa also shows how a feeling of communal hatred
transforms good people Dilnawaz into savages. With turn of events he turned his heart and
Ayah became Hindu woman for him. He has undergone a dramatic transformation in the
wake of aggravated religious feelings sprouting within him.
This transformation also shows how raw emotions in simple people can transform them into
extremists. Their perception of outer reality becomes different from those who manipulate
things to suit their selfish interests. Bapsi shows the impact of trauma and shocking sights
which Ice Candy Man witnesses. He sets out to avenge the genocide of his Muslim brothers
and sisters. This novel like other partition novel emerges as a compelling study of character
and events, irrespective of caste bias and religious affinity.

The incident of train that arrives from Gurdaspur transforms peace loving Ice Candy Man
into selfish man and a savage.

‘A train from Gurdaspur has just come in, ’he announces, panting, ‘Everyone in it is
dead. Butchered. They are all Muslims.’

He then takes active part in killing Hindus and Sikhs in Lahore. Even in his anguish he did
not show any mercy for her love, Ayah. Became bloodthirsty for Ayah. He let her kidnapped
and let her get molested by various men. In his rage he crushed Ayah’s life.He showed the
unreliability of human actions. After getting her physically assaulted by many he converted
her and married to her and then confesses his defiled nature in words,

“I am a man! Only dogs are faithful! If you want faith, let her marry a dog.”

Dilnawaz represents multiple facts hidden within a person. Like ice his character hardens and
then melts. Human’s morality is thought to be controlled by outside factors. He confesses his
human flaw in front of Godmother. He confides his painful past and justify his pain has
shaped his present. He has learnt to love the way he had seen growing up. A love divided
loyalties, love for the sake of love. A love for the sake of advantage. He has learned to work
with hearts and earn money instead of love. As Lenny says,

“I realise there is more to his turmoil than rage and terror generated by Godmother’s
attack.”

It remained a mystery what made her change her mind and he let Ayah get molested and then
why married her, then what passion overtook him which made him follow her to different
places. These unanswered questions refer to post-modern discourse where finding out reasons
behind any event appears difficult. And so was his end as was his birth…unfairly justified.
He lost Ayah and after losing her he becomes a mad lover, but it was too late to repent.

Godmother
Godmother in novel is also one of the major characters. Her name is Rodabai. She belongs to
Parsee community. She is an elderly lady, full of grace and always wore Khaddar sarees.
Godmother is a source of love and compassion for Lenny. Along with her loveable
personality Lenny is attracted to her feminine grace as describes in these lines,

“She looks like a dainty young thing. As if water has whittled away her age.”

Lenny’s definition of love starts and ends with Godmother. She also loves Lenny as her own
child and never bothered about her disability. There bond is more strong than the bond of
motherhood.

Godmother is the only perfect character in the novel. Godmother’s flawless disposition by
Lenny has made her a godly figure. She emerges in the lives of people to help them out of
their miseries. Though she belongs to Parsee community still she is respected by people of all
other communities like Muslims and Hindus.

Godmother tried her best to let Ayah get freedom from her miserable life. With the efforts of
Godmother, Ayah ended up being at rehabilitation centre and Cousin stated,

“If Godmother says, she will help Ayah get away, she will get her away.”

Besides her godly attributes her humour has somewhat eased the painful elements in the
novel. Discussion between her and slavesister was refreshing component in tragic story. At
one point while referring towards sluggishness of slavesister,

“If bathing queen did not take hours wallowing in her bath like Cleopatra, you would
have breakfast.”Exchange of this type of words with slavesister shows the frankness of
Godmother.

She is a brave lady and the bravery with which she carries her womanhood did not let her
succumb to the crimes happening around. Her humour has the power to raise the state of any
fallen woman.

“What is a fallen woman? I ask Godmother.

‘A woman who falls off an aeroplane.’

At one hand Godmother is symbol of love and good heartedness at the same time we can
observe transformation of her kind personality. In case of Ice Candy Man her remarks for him
shows her anguish,
“I can have you lashed, you know? I can have you hung upside down in the Old Fort
you rot…get out of my sight, you whining haramzad!”

Lady who has always shown love to strangers is unable to maintain normal relation with her
family member. Love not only for people around her but for animals too. Once while arguing
with slavesister on the custom of Parsee community of putting their dead bodies in Tower of
Silence She says,

“Instead of polluting the earth by burying it, or by wasting fuel by burning it, we feed
God’s creatures.”

Mother

Lenny’s mother, beautiful and intelligent. She loves her husband and children with her whole
heart. But Lenny’s father is sarcastic to her wife, never returned her love. She calls him
“Jana,” a form of word “jan,” or “life.”

Lenny believes her mother to be weak and dependent but she acts boldly and courageously in
her secret work after partition. Along with relatives, she raises money by selling petrol on the
black market, to rescue women from prostitution and forced marriages. Lenny’s mother
demonstrates that women can change other women’s destinies. Along with Godmother she
also helped Ayah to get freedom and go back to her home.

Cousin

Lenny, herself acknowledges that her male cousin, the son of Electric Aunt, is one of her
most important teachers. For example, he teaches her about electricity, male desire, and he is
her first experience of sexual obsession. Cousin is most interested in Lenny even when she is
not interested in him.

Masseur

The beautiful and graceful Masseur is also an admirer of Ayah. When tensions between
Hindus and Muslims grow in Lahore, Ayah draws closer to him. Their connection draws the
attention of the Ice Candy Man, who obsessively stalks Ayah around Lahore. One day,
Masseur is found dead by Hari and Lenny. Masseur becomes a victim of tension between
Hindus and Muslims.

Rana
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Rana is great grandson of Imam Din, the Muslim cook. He is about the same as Lenny. Lenny
visited Imam Din’s village, Pir Pindo, many times. By the end of partition Rana becomes an
orphan and is rescued by his aunt. Rana’s tale of massacre remains a symbolic tale for overall
level of violence, rape, and murder occurring during independence and partition of India and
Pakistan. Through the mouthpiece of Rana writer actually tried to highlight the massacre of
Muslim country folk (story of Rana’s escape from his village when Sikhs attacked their
village and his meeting with his Aunt) just as the deaths, kidnappings, and rapes in the city of
Lahore, against those who are not Muslims.

Other characters

Other characters like Imam Din, Hari, Moti, and Mucho played their respective roles in the
development of novel. The effects of partition can be easily seen everywhere. Some people
left their properties and moved towards the areas where they were in majority for example
Hindus in Lahore travelled to Amritsar while Muslims from India came to Lahore. And those
who stayed in Lahore, changed their religions. Hari converted to Islam and changed his name
to Himat Ali. Moti became a Christain.

Imam Din plays his role when Muslims came to Sethi’s home for recovering Ayah. To save
Ayah from Muslim brutality he even lied to them and said, “khuda ki kasam, she has
gone.” This shows that the heinous acts that occurred during partition could not pollute
people’s hearts. They supported their brothers and sister as much as they could.