Search for Identity: A Study of Female Characters in Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain

Abstract

The three leading female characters in the novel Fire on the Mountain(1977) are searching for their identity till the end of the novel. All of them are victims of various kinds. Nanda, though not a victim of direct physical violence, has certainly been a victim of her husband’s indifference and of the family that has taken her for granted all her long life. Due to which she has finally decided to live a lonely life in Carignano. Ila Das in her own way for searching for her identity becomes the most obvious victim of violence in her own death by murder. Raka though a child searches for her identity due to the brutal and indifferent nature of her parents. She is a victim of the world of her parents that she is born to. But she is the one female character in the novel who is aware of the violence and finally get s the solution by setting the forest in fire.