Probing the Internal and External Conflict in Anita Desai’s Bye Bye the Black Bird

Anita Desai occupies a unique position as an Indian English writer. Her fiction pioneers the exploration of human psyche. Her narrative technique prompts the reader to delve deep into the inner realms of her protagonists. There is a constant struggle between the conscious and the unconscious, between desire and reality that dictates the entire action or inaction of her central characters. This individual psychological struggle may also be caused by the social, cultural or traditional norms that influence the social institutions of marriage and family which ultimately defines and dictates an individual’s role in a given situation. Any analysis of Anita Desai’s fiction depends on the reader’s ability to probe the traits that define the prominent shades within a psychological monochrome. Her fiction mainly illustrates the internal drama of human life. This paper intends to probe the internal and external conflicts in Anita Desai’s Bye-Bye Blackbird.