Circus Cat Alley Cat

Anita Desai
Anita Desai
Anita Desai
• Born in 1937 in Mussoorie, India
• Educated at Delhi University
• Famous novels: Fire on the Mountain (1977), In
Custody (1984), Fasting, Feasting (1999)
• In Custody was shortlisted for a Booker Prize and
made into a movie
• Her recent book is The Artist of Disappearance
(2011)
• Desai lives in the US and is a Professor of writing at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.
• Desai’s writing is rich in visual imagery and
details
• Her books tell the stories of the marginalized,
the oppressed and the ‘others’
• Although she is criticized for creating characters
that are devoid of ‘heroism’ in the traditional
sense, Desai retorts that her characters imbibe
the ‘heroism of survival’
• Her writing draws parallels between Indian and
Western socities instead of contrasts
Themes
Imagination vs. reality
• The story thrives on children’s imagination
• Anna imagined as a formidable circus trainer
• Children imagining themselves as circus animals
• Anna imagined as a strong willed woman
• The reality was different
• Anna, a victim of the social realities of her time
• Anna, a victim of marital abuse
• Anna losing her identity
Themes cont.
Motherhood
• The struggles of working mothers
• The struggles of economically insolvent mothers
• The struggles of single mothers
The duality of Circus Cat/ Alley Cat
• Shows the duality in Anna’s character
• Alley cats are urban feral cats
• Circus cats are tame and trained
• Both are fettered in different ways: alley cats can go out of the
house/ place they live in and roam around but they are
dependent on humans for food and shelter; Circus cats are
trained since birth and are not allowed contact with wild animals
and hence, are not able to protect and adjust in the wild
THEMES
• Discrimination
• Inequality
• Identity crisis
• Dream
• Hope
• Struggle
• Stages of life
• Adjustment
• Imprisonment
Literary Devices
• Metaphor: Anna’s character is compared to a
wild animal (“Anna the queen of the circus cats,
Anna the circus cat…”)
• Irony: Anna’s Malabar name ‘Shakti’ (meaning
‘power/ strength’) is ironic as she is stripped of
this very name.
• Imagery: Desai has made use of imagery on
many occasions; example: “And through the cage
of bamboos…the gibbering of apes” (Desai 118)
Thank You!