Scholar+and+Gypsy

Scholar and Gypsy is a short story by Anita Desai, featured in her book Games at Twilight, first published in 1978. The story follows an American couple, Pat and David, who have travelled to India for the husband's research for his sociology thesis. It looks closely into their relationship throughout their travels in Bombay, Delhi and Manali.
 * __ Scholar and Gypsy[1] __**

** Plot Summary **

David takes Pat to Bombay for a sociology thesis. She has a great dislike for Bombay so they move to Delhi, in which both she feels suffocated, before finally moving to Manali, a mountain village in the Kulu Valley, where she feels much more at home, compared to the bustling city where David felt more comfortable in. We follow them from day one of their trip to India, all the way to the last day they have together, before "Pat set off...with never a backward look"[4] and we "see David off next morning making a quieter, neater and sadder departure for Delhi"[4]. Through the story, the reader sees the change and growth of both the characters individually, and also interactively in their relationship.

** Title **

The title 'Scholar and Gypsy' is an ironic play on the definitions of the words, and implies directly that one is educated, and civilized, while the other is exactly the opposite. When one thinks of scholar - they think well educated, intellectual, smart and therefore willing to be open to ideas and opinions of others, and that they would be culturally open. At the start of the short story, David is the obvious 'scholar' - he has travelled to India to write a thesis on sociology, and in Bombay and in Delhi he is more willing to go out to meet people. When one thinks of gypsy - they think of a uneducated person, someone who sticks mostly to their own group of people and is unwilling to open up to the rest of society. Therefore, Pat's reluctance to accept the culture of Bombay and Delhi makes her at the start of the story, the gypsy. She also "came of plain, strong farmer stock - she ought to have some of that blood in her, strong, simple and capable"[5]. However as the story continues we see their growth and change, and Pat starts to become a scholar as well - David analyses and distinguishes things based on facts, and from an appeal from a higher authority: he relies on information from other Indian scholars for his thesis; while Pat immerses herself into the spirituality of the place and people through perception and emotion. A clear example of their differences in how they learn and judge things is in the Hindu temple, when David mocks Pat for mistaking it to be a buddhist one "Don't you know? you're sitting outside a Hindu shrine, this is a Hindu temple, and you're making it out to be a source of Buddhist strength and serenity"[6], but she rebuts by saying its the aura of the place and not the label of the religion. However another interpretation of the significance of the title is perhaps the similarities of a scholar and a gypsy. Another Indicator of the role reversal between scholar and gypsy of the two characters can be seen by their inter-personal relationships. Pat can associate herself with the hippies and the gurus of the mountains because she can identify their wants and relate to them, implying that she could look at people as three-dimensional, emotional beings. However, David looks at peoples as subjects for his sociology these, being interested in how people of different classes or education level behave on a superficial level and not on a spiritual level as Pat. Contrasting the two, each one is masterful in their own way of dissecting people to try and understand them, and neither is better than the other. The title, that is actually quite vague, gives the chance for the reader to look back and reflect on the story, to come to their own conclusion and who is the scholar, who is the gypsy, or whether they are both or neither. This also reflects the different ways of acquiring knowledge; whether in the way of academics or an appeal to authority (David); or through perception and emotion (Pat). Ultimately, There seems to be a strong tangent connection in interest and circumstances in placing who gets to be labeled the gypsy or scholar. David does strive as a scholar in Bombay and Delhi because he does feel as if he belongs to that social setting and is able to express his wants and needs while Pat is more adjusted to the free lancing atmosphere in Manali and it is there where she feels as if she belongs. Ultimately, it was a matter of where these two individuals fitted and how society and circumstances can influence their images. Thomas, there is no mentioning of David being the obvious 'gypsy', but rather that Pat becomes a 'scholar' as well. [2]

A little background on the application of the term "gypsy" in the context of India: In Sanskrit, the word "Dom" denotes an ethnic or social group that is segregated from the mainstream community and the members are considered as outcasts. This perhaps provides the reason for why David finds it deprecating (as seen above) for his wife to be admiring the hippies that are acting like "damned vagabonds", quoted from David.

** Characters ** ** The two main characters of the story is the couple Pat and David. They are a married couple from New York, David, someone with a wealthier background that is a sociology student, and Pat, from a farmer family who didn't attend university. Their characters are portrayed through their emotions, rich adjectives and dialogue and thoughts between the characters, **** e.g. Pat feels that she is burning when she arrives in Delhi and she suffers unbeautifully in David's eyes ****. The backgrounds of the characters actually play a large part in the story - Pat has an obvious craving for the countryside while in the cities, while David feels uncomfortable in the mountains and around its people, and they both end up in places they consider to be similar to their homes[21]. **

The shifting relationship between the two characters also plays a significant role in the development of the plot. Pat is seen to be heavily reliant on David at the beginning of the story, constantly needing his help as she struggled through the social events of the city. Even going as far as yelping "get me out, get me out". [16] David is also caring and attentive to Pat during the opening, he changes the destination of cities in order to suit Pat's needs, traveling from Bombay to Delhi, then to Manali in order to make her stay more comfortable. But at the plot develops, and Pat begins to change, the relationship between the couple starts to strain, David feels distanced from Pat, although initially subtle, the distress of this disconnection grows stronger and stronger through the course of the story. David ends up growing volatile towards Pats behaviour, the story ends in a quarrel between the two, "throwing around of suitcases" and "dramatic parting" [3]

** 1. Pat **

Pat starts off detached from reality and unwilling to explore the culture of Bombay, "Her first day in Bombay wilted her.... she drooped, her head hung, her eyes glazed, she felt faint...Sweating, it seemed to her that life, energy, hope were all seeping out of her, flowing down a drain, gurgling ironically"[7], portray her dissatisfaction and reluctance to be open to the country. This reaction is again repeated when she arrives in Delhi, describing herself as melting from the heat with "heat scorching her bones"[5] which creates a sense of harshness she feels towards Indian cities in general. she finds the people "primitive, barbaric"[8]. The reader's first impression of Pat is that she's in a sense, spoilt, and that she was one to always complain. She didn't seem at all intellectual because she basically shut out her surroundings. There is, however, a contrast when she enters Manali and she can relate to the hippies and gurus of the mountains. She feels at home as she connects to them seemingly on a spiritual level, and eventually becomes hippie-like (and hence one of them) towards the end of the story. This can be seen through her behaviour towards David and also how she regards the temples and village as fascinating. We also see through the shifting relationship, how Pat goes from being very dependent on David to being quite the opposite - she goes out to explore by herself and comes to her own conclusions on things, as seen in the dialogue between the couple on the temple.

** 2. David **

David starts of f as what seems to be the 'scholar', being the sociology student writing a thesis. He is smart, comfortable in his surroundings, more open and willing. "David attracted people like a magnet - with his charm, his nonchalance, his grace, he did it so well, so smoothly, his qualities worked more efficiently than any visiting card system."[9]. When Pat wants to travel to somewhere else, he is open to her ideas and takes her there right away. The reader's first impression of David is that he is very open-minded, is generous and caring. Upon arriving in Manali, both characters change - Pat it seems, for the better. Her excitement and enthusiasm for being there is conflicted by David's new reluctance as he "sat slumped". In Manali, it is Pat who brings David around to explore, while he becomes what she was in the city, and complains. We see that Pat has become the new scholar in a different way, and David has become the narrow-minded, stubborn gypsy. ? "Working on a thesis? Sociology? The idea of you, Dave, when you've never so much looked, I mean really looked, into the soul, the prana, of the next man - it just too…do you think [Buddha] is as narrow-minded as you?"[10]. Also, Pat "[was]revolted, by his egoism and conceit that didn't allow him to see beyond the tip of his nose... didn't it just show that he saw nothing, noticed nothing outside himself?"[10], and we see from the indirect description of David through Pat, that he isn't really open-minded. In the end, Pat also completely changes and finds out really want she was meant for, "not going to parties with David, but to live with other men and women who shared her beliefs."[10].

** Settings ** ** The story is set in three different cities around India - Bombay, Delhi and Manali. For both Bombay and Delhi, Pat describes it as "Different in content. It was the same in effect."[11]. This shows that even with a change in climate and of people, Pat still finds the general city culture of India not to her liking. ** All three areas are busy and populated but by their own degrees and with its own different flavour. While Delhi and Bombay is overflowing with people, colours and nightlife; in Manali the bazaar is busy with cultural flavour and hippies.

The description of Bombay following David sounds more calm and peaceful compare d to Pat’s interpretation of the city.
 * Place ||  Mood/atmosphere  ||  Tone/feeling  ||
 * Bombay || 1. “ (David) looked so right, so fitting on the Bombay streets, striding over the coconut shells and betel-stained paper and the fish scales and lepers’ stumps.” [5]

2. “ the bar in the hotel was so crowded, the people there were so large and vital and forceful in their brilliant clothes and with their metallic voices and their eyes that flashed over her like barbers’ shears, cutting and exposing, that she felt crushed rather than relieved”[5][9] For Pat, the city is extremely intimidating.

3. “ She (Pat) was always on the point of collapse since she arrived at one: the taxi invariably stank, the driver’s hair dripped oil, and then the sight and scene they passed on the streets, the congestion and racket of the varied traffic, the virulent cinema posters, the blazing colours of women’s clothing, the profusion of toys and decorations of coloured paper and tinsel, the radios and loudspeakers that never tuned to less than top volume, and amongst them flower sellers, pilgrims, dancing monkeys and performing bears...that there should be such poverty, such disease, such filth, and that out of it boiled so much vitality, such irrepressibly life... seemed ..unnatural and sinister - it was as if chaos and evil triumphed over reason and order ”[9] Extremely busy, the whole city is energetic with the sounds, colours, and business. || 1. Here a sense of discord for Pat is created while David feels at home with the ugly side of India.

2 & 3. The author is constantly listing things, emphasizing the busyness and how hectic life is in Bombay. The listing also creates a very fast and rapid pace that further adds to the hectic lifestyle of Bombay. Great use of audio, visual and olfactory description to create imagery of the city and the energy. ||
 * Delhi || 1. “ Delhi was drier. It was dry as a skeleton. Yellow sand seethed and stormed, then settled to wood, stone, flesh and skin, brittle and gritty as powdered bone. Trees stood leafless. Red flowers blazed on their black branches...Beggars drowsed in their shade, stretched unrecognizable limbs at her.”[3] Harsh, unemotional adjectives are used to describe the climate of Delhi.

2. “ Her body no longer melted, it did not ooze and seep out of her grasp any more. It was dry...But the dust inside her sandals made her feet drag. If she no longer melted, she burnt. she felt the heat strike through to her bones. Even her eyes, protected by giant glare glasses, seemed on fire."[3] Here Desai uses the description of the character to reflect the heat of Delhi and its still negative effect on Pat

3. “ Then the gods [the shopkeepers] showed her, named for her, with their flurry of arms, their stamping feet, their blazing, angered eyes and flying locks, all thunder and lightning, revenge and menace.”[8] || 1. The visual description creates a harsh, unbearable picture of Delhi, description with the beggars enhancing the feeling of harshness.

2. Through a visual and sensory description of the character, the harsh side of India is once again exposed indirectly, creating a sense of discomfort that the reader shares with Pat.

3. Here lists of very active adjectives are used again, creating an image of a flurry of discordant activity or chaos. ||
 * Manali || 1. “ //it was innocent and open and if it did not clamorously and cravenly invite, it did not shut its doors either--it had none to shut”[12]// with adjectives like //bright, open, sunlit, small, easy, macrocultural bliss (pg 126).// This creates a natural landscape of the place in the reader’s minds, and with the elements of Hindu temples and hippies

2. “ //That’s what i feel here...without fear....that’s what I admire so in them, in the Tibetans...they’re upright, they’re honest, independent”[13]// atmosphere created through description of the mountain-dwellers

3. “ //Then they were disgorged, broken sandals, shells, hair, rags, children and food container, into the Manali bazaar...” [14]//

4. “ //...The yellow pai dogs and the abjectly filthy children one had to pass, nor the extraordinary odour of the shops in which sweaty castaway wollens discarded by returning mountaineers and impecunious hippies made soft furry mountains along with Tibetan rugs...all presided over by stolid women with faces carved intricately out of hard wood.” [15]//The village bazaar is conveyed to be very busy, with descriptions of people, ornaments and scents ||  1. The place is painted out to be more tranquil ， simple and spiritual through visual description

2. and the people seem to be more welcoming than in the cities through direct description

3 and 4 (see below) The author is listing the littlest of details to bring out the simplistic flavour of rural India, by creating a visual painting of the scents and sights of the village. It has a different kind if busyness than the cities, more cultural. Let's also discuss point of view. I like your use of literary vocabulary--and your ability to look at the type of language being used (including parts of speech). ||

** Purpose **

The purpose of this short story is to do the following : 1. To entertain by bringing out the multifaceted sides of India - from the bustling city life of Bombay to the tranquil mountain villages of Manali. 2. To show how the environment and people of a certain place can influence and inspire a huge change in people. 3. To show the different aspects of being someone 'wise' - both by academics, your mindset and spirituality, and how neither is better than the other. 4. To emphasize the following themes.

**Themes** 1. Classes in Society. Each setting is a representation of a different class or a contrast of different classes. In Bombay, "the parties they went to were all very large ones. The guests all wore brilliant clothes and jewelry", and the people they were with, the upper class, "would be at home at any New York cocktail party" because they were all "modern and up-to-date". While in Delhi, "the Delhi intellectual was poorer than the Bombay intellectual". Lastly, in Manali, it was full of "hippies". We see in the story that David sticks with the upper and 'educated' class with "black marble floor that glittered like a mirror and reflected the priceless statuary that sailed on its surface like ships of stone...jewels, enamel, brocade and gold"[16], but feels embarrassed to see his wife around hippies and gurus. "There was condescension and, in some cases, pity in their expressions and attitudes that he could not bear to see directed at his fellow fair-heads, much less at his own wife"[17]. A matter of pride that his wife was being looked down upon by hippies whom he regarded as inferior. It relates how alike the western interpretation of class distinction is to the slight impact of the caste system in (rural) Indian societies.

2. Misogynist views on women. Through the relationship between Pat and David, we see the stereotype that is often placed on women in a misogynist society, through how David underestimates his wife's capability to understand things. To start off with, even she feels that she is below him, as seen, "'I'm just not sophisticated enough for you,' she gulped"[8]. The Irony is that as we go on, we see that Pat finds a side to herself that she finds deeper than his personality or what he can comprehend, and she takes initiative to free herself from him and his mental and stereotypical constraints on her. "he would have considered it lowering in status to make a move towards her"[18]. She finds a new side of herself and becomes confident enough in leaving all (including her husband), as seen on the last page, when "pat set off, striding though the daisy-spattered yard in her newly acquired hippy rags that whipped against her legs as she marched off...with never a backward look"[4]. from David's point of view, his reaction to Pat's change may be justifiable because of the sudden shock and deviation from his expectations of her, and that may have been difficult for him to take personally, and hence his bitterness towards her could be mistakenly expressed as a misogynist view. This is open to the reader's interpretation.

3. Culture Shock. Pat feels swamped and overwhelmed with the people of Bombay and Delhi. "The greasy Indian masses, whining and cajoling and sneering - oh horrible"[14] and "she wept into her pillow for the lost home, for apple trees and cows, for red barns and swallows, for ice cream sodas and drive-in movies, al ﻿ that was innocent and sweet, and lost, lost, lost."[9] and "You know, down in those horrible cities, I'd gotten to think of India as one horrible temple, bursting, crawling with people... all horrible"[14]. The rich use of adjective gives the impression that Pat views the Indian cities mentioned as a loud kaleidoscope of culture and activity that is too much for her to take.

Style and Structure

__ Point of View __ The Story is narrated in third person. The benefit of the story being a third-person narrative is that it is more an observational role, and is able to give insight into the thoughts and emotions of both characters without being biased to either one. In this way, the reader is able to judge for themselves how each character fits into the role of either the scholar or gypsy, and allows the freedom for the reader to interpret how the characters grow within the story. For example, Pat's personal growth towards spiritualism can be interpreted as a form of personal realization or as a woman who has lost all common sense and sense of responsibility to her husband.

__ Stylistic & Structural Aspects __ The story is presented in a chronological order so that the progression of the relationships between the two characters, and the development of each character is more clearly presented. Also, the stark differences between the three major settings - Delhi, Bombay and the Kulu Valley - is more distinctly drawn out as the characters move from on to the other.
 * Structure **

Many different stylistic is used within the story, such as: 1. Metaphors. A metaphor that we see throughout the story is the metaphor of 'eyes', to show the progression and growth of the characters roles of being scholars to gypsy and vice versa. The eyes show us the growth in the two characters perceive and judge their surroundings. For example, David "Saw them in her eyes, more remote and faint every day. Her eyes had been so blue, now they were fading as if the memory, the feel of apple trees and apples were fading from her...she looked at him dumbly with her fading eyes."[1] For Pat, it is the gradual remoteness in her eyes that show the gradual acceptance of the Manali mountains, and her gradual willingness to embrace the culture and her own spirituality, and making this place her new home. While for David, it shows how perhaps he doesn't like how things have turned out and no longer wants to open his eyes to the reality, after his eyes had been scalded with hot water " 'I'm blind, I'm blind'..."[David] actually opened his eyes--an act he had never thought to perform again"[20]. For Pat, the change in the openness of her eyes may be interpreted as gradual steps to a personal spiritual realization; for David, his blindness towards the end can be seen as his conversion from being the erudite scholar to one who is culturally blind to the subjects of his sociology thesis.

2. **Breaks & Interruptions** **. ** A number of breaks and interruptions are in the middle of describing events, which creates tension and becomes a 'mini-cliff hanger' for the reader. In the first paragraph it creates and impression and therefore an expectation in the reader's mind, then goes to a break before going into detail. It often also starts quite abruptly. e.g. "......At the airlines office, the man could only find them seats on the plane to Manali, in the Kulu Valley. To Manali they went.  ---  Not However, by plane. For there were such fierce sandstorms sweeping through Delhi that day that no planes took off...."[19] From these 'mini-cliff hangers', it gives the impression that every part of their trip is very eventful and unpredictable.

Citations: [1] Anita Desai, __Games at Twilight__ (London: Vintage, 1998) 108 [2] Ray Jang, Class Comments, "Scholar and Gypsy", EngA1S1012tracesgames, Oct 2010 <[]>Oct 17 2010 [3] Thomas Chen, Class Comments, "Scholar and Gypsy", EngA1S1012tracesgames, Oct 2010<[]> Oct 16 2010

[4] Desai, 1978. pg. 138

[5] Desai, 1978. pg. 112 [6] Desai, 1978. pg. 129 [7] Desai, 1978. pg. 108

[8] Desai, 1978. pg. 113

[9] Desai, 1978. pg. 109 [10] Desai, 1978. pg. 137 [11] Desai, 1978. pg 114

[12] Desai, 1978. pg. 123

[13] Desai, 1978. pg. 128

[14] Desai, 1978. pg. 118

[15] Desai, 1978. pg. 124

[16] Desai, 1978. pg. 111

[17] Desai, 1978. pg. 132

[18] Desai, 1978. pg. 130

[19] Desai, 1978. pg. 115

[20] Desai, 1978. pg 134

[21] Elvan Chan, Class Comments, "Scholar and Gypsy", EngA1S1012tracesgames, Oct 2010< [] > Oct 16 2010 = = = =