What are the views and values conveyed by the author in The Village by the sea? Support your answer with close reference to the text.

There are views and values of general and personalized opinions by Anita Desai being portrayed in this novel. The ones that will be emphasized on in this essay are the ones considered to be the main ones such as her views on family life and how it is more important and powerful than anything else in contributing to a child’s life. In addition to this, her views on modernization/industrialization and the ways in which she both supports and opposes it and the ways it will affect the ways of living in Thul.

In the beginning of the text, a young boy at the age of twelve, named Hari is introduced. He is a boy with lack of education due to how he has to take care of his family as his mother is ill with a disease they cannot afford to treat whilst their father sleeps all day and goes to get intoxicated with alcohol at night. However, with a high held spirit he sends his younger siblings to school each morning and heads off to work to make the little money that barely supports the family. Here they author is conveying the idea of pride and perhaps even guilt. Hari feels that since he is the ‘man’ of the family now, with his father being asleep all day not bothered with his family, he feels that he must pursue his job in order to support his family which is seen to be his job now despite him being a mere twelve years old. This is done by the determination and positive stubbornness emitted by Hari’s character. How not even a teenager is able to take on the role of an adult. In this, Desai’s views are strongly put through saying that family life is one of, if not the most important section of life. She emphasizes indirectly through characterizations how with sticking together, a family can get through anything and accomplish endless goals. This is shown to be relevant in the story as it progresses, and also very relevant to the reader as it is often portrayed in everyone’s everyday life. In contrast, by Hari leaving he contradicts this portrayal by Desai. This is because he sees as it being the best for the family, and he feels that by leaving for a big city to find a job he is able to enforce the bond between the different members of his family, in an indirect manner.

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In addition, Desai also portrays the way that things do change, some for better and some for worse. This is displayed by the new arrival of the factories that are put up near Thul. Immediately this brings hope to Hari as he feels they will allow jobs for the people there that suffer from low paid hard working jobs. He is mesmerized by the thoughts of being able to earn a living that could provide for his family. What Desai is conveying here is again Hari’s determination to be the man of the family, to be able to ‘wonder’ and hope for a different lifestyle. “The boys in the village say a factory is to built in Thul and everyone will get jobs there. Perhaps I will get one too.” This quote underlines Hari’s determination in which he tries to be the man of the house, to take care of his family, as his father is unable to do so. To be quite honest, the life they are living, in the settings they are placed in is not perfect. They suffer from poverty and are stuck in the slums. This has been the motivation for the young boy Hari to dream of a better life, not only for him but also for his family. He actually cares for others than himself, even when his life is shown to be far from great he still preserves his positive attitude towards life and its outcome and gets on with his life in a matter that everyone could learn of. Desai shows that one does not need wealth or any other possessions other than a good heart to pursue one’s dreams. This is shown in the novel when Hari travels to Bombay. The journey there is no dream cruise. He is thirsty and hungry on the way, yet keeps up a high spirit. When he finally arrives, the dock of the harbor is more than enough for him to be intimidated as it is swarming with people. However, getting a job, and making one rupee a day would normally be seen as hell for any other human being. Hari is more positively adjusted to this ‘adventure’ of his and therefore looks on it brightly and carries out working at the eating house because he knows that in the long run, it will benefit his family, and thereby make him happy.

Anita Desai also portrays her own views and values through the sudden push of modernization and industrialization brought about from the outside more wealthy industries. Factories and chemical plants are to be opened near Thul and this is to the disapproval of many villagers as they see the change as being negative because it will deprive them of their traditional and common ways of earning a living such as fishing or subsistence farming. Desai shows this through opinions and views by characters such as Hari, who keenly thinks “A job. A factory. Many jobs. Many factories. Jobs – factories. Factories – jobs.” This quote shows how Hari is confused at first, but then builds up the image of the ideals of industrialization. Desai achieves this by using a shortened sentence structure to illustrate his confused mind. The short and sudden fluctuations in words create a sense of tension and suspense, making the reader wonder what will happen next and also portrays a very ‘open minded’ approach to this matter of modernization / industrialization. Hari realizes that it will bring about change to Thul, but again in the long run it is seen to be for the best. What Desai is trying to convey here, are the stages of emotions that people go through when changes appear to come and ‘disrupt’ their quiet small-town village lives, mainly due to them being unaware of the outside world and therefore have nothing but a lack of knowledge concerning the matter. Anita Desai brings out these views, to portray her values of the consideration that to others living a ‘lesser’ life, a sudden change seen to be a minority to large firms may have a totally different impact on them, as they seem to go through stages of ‘not knowing’ and mystification.

In conclusion, I hereby regard the novel as being a relevant novel to everyday life, but also a wake up call for many people around the world. What Anita Desai has achieved in this novel is the ways that she is able to illustrate common themes in the world today, but in a simpler, more approachable form for us to take into consideration. She does this by using characterization of simple villagers, who aren’t afraid to take chances, and are not skeptical in ways that others, perhaps of the more wealthy generation would be in such cases.

Essay written by Nikolas B. Hansen