Reading Internal Exile in Kiran Desai’s Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard

Abstract

This research paper undertakes a reading of Kiran Desai’s Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard with respect to ‘internal exile’ and reads the work with a focus on the metaphorical movement of the character on a psychological and spiritual plane in negation of or in addition to actual physical movement or the exile in a more superficial sense. The paper seeks to evaluate the spiritual transformation of the protagonist Sampath internally as he moves away from the material concerns of Shahkot to experience the expanding horizon of freedom in the surreal realm of the guava orchard.