Games at Twilight Summary

In "Games at Twilight," Ravi and a group of older boys play hide and seek. The eldest boy,
Raghu, is chosen to be the seeker. He can't find Ravi, who has hidden in a shed. At twilight,
Ravi emerges, victorious, only to find that the boys have moved on to another game.

Ravi and his little brother join a group of older boys who want to play a variant of
hide and seek. Raghu, the eldest, quickly finds Ravi's brother and several of the
others.

Ravi originally hides in a garage, but then slips into a shed attached to it. Raghu
whacks at the contents of the garage with a stick, but can't find Ravi.

At twilight, Ravi remembers that he has to run and touch the veranda to claim his
victory. He emerges, only to find that the other kids have moved on to a different
game. He leaves, feeling isolated and powerless.

Games at Twilight Summary

In "Games at Twilight," Ravi and a group of older boys play hide and seek. The eldest boy,
Raghu, is chosen to be the seeker. He can't find Ravi, who has hidden in a shed. At twilight,
Ravi emerges, victorious, only to find that the boys have moved on to another game.

Ravi and his little brother join a group of older boys who want to play a variant of
hide and seek. Raghu, the eldest, quickly finds Ravi's brother and several of the
others.

Ravi originally hides in a garage, but then slips into a shed attached to it. Raghu
whacks at the contents of the garage with a stick, but can't find Ravi.

At twilight, Ravi remembers that he has to run and touch the veranda to claim his
victory. He emerges, only to find that the other kids have moved on to a different
game. He leaves, feeling isolated and powerless

Summary
This title story in Anita Desais acclaimed collection Games at Twilight, and Other Stories
(1978) deals with a universal theme of children at play and their fantasies and
disillusionment. Desai begins the story objectively from the third-person vantage, but as the
action progresses and the tension mounts, she skillfully shifts the narrative focus to the
consciousness of the central character, Ravi. The story is remarkable for its insights into child
psychology, powerful evocation of atmosphere, vivid imagery, and symbolic use of setting.

The story opens on a hot summer afternoon in an urban house in India. The children who
have been kept indoors all day to escape the oppressive heat of the sun feel confined and
suffocated, and when they are finally unleashed, they thrill with joy and excitement and
decide to play a game of hide-and-seek.
Raghu, being the eldest, is chosen to be itthe seeker. All the other children run helterskelter to find a suitable hiding place. Ravi hides behind the locked garage. When he hears
his little brother crying because he has been caught by Raghu, he panics. As Raghus
whistling and the thumping sound of his feet grow louder, in a moment of fright Ravi
suddenly slips through a small gap into an abandoned shed next to the garage. From this
moment on, the narrative filters through Ravis consciousness and the reader is brought into
the deepest reaches of his psyche.
Though the shed is dark, damp, and spooky, littered with discarded pieces of junk and
infested with moths and crawling insects, Ravi finds it a welcome haven. His initial fear of
darkness disappears the moment he entertains the thought that no one can possibly find him
there. Raghu whistles and whacks his stick in vain around the garage and then moves away.
Ravi feels exultant at the thought of not being discovered. In his imagination, he begins to
savor the new sensation of his victory over Raghu and the thought of being recognized as a
champion in a group of older, bigger children.
He becomes so absorbed in his fantasy that he loses track of time. At twilight, as darkness
engulfs the shed, he suddenly realizes that, according to the rules of the game, he has to
clinch his victory by dashing to the veranda and touching the den. To rectify his mistake, he
darts out of the shed and rushes toward the house to proclaim his victory. To his great
anguish, however, he discovers that the game of hide-and-seek has long been over, that no
one has even cared to remember that he was missing, and that now the children are engaged
in another game, totally oblivious of his existence. With tears in his eyes, he cries out at the
top of his voice to assert his existence and his victory, but no one pays attention to him.
In the last climactic scene, Ravi decides to withdraw from the childrens game completely,
and in a quick flash of intuitive understanding, he accepts the reality of his situation. Hurt and
humiliated, he suddenly becomes aware of his strong sense of alienation, powerlessness, and
unimportance.

Themes
Because Games at Twilight deals primarily with children at play, its main theme is fantasy
versus reality. This theme is symbolically reflected in the title, as the word twilight
suggests an interplay of light and shadow, blurring the distinction between reality and fantasy.
Dealing with a crucial stage in the psychological development of a self-conscious young boy,
the story derives its strength from an imaginative application of two postulates of Sigmund
Freuds well-known theory that a childs play is motivated by a single wish to be big and
grown up and that every dream or fantasy is a wish-fulfillment, generated essentially by the
desire to correct unsatisfying reality.
Ravi is clearly unsatisfied with the reality of his present circumstances. A sensitive and
imaginative child, he feels acutely the inferiority of his status as reflected in the rude and
aggressive behavior of his older siblings. On more than one occasion, they remind him that
he is nothing but a baby. At the onset of the game, when he proposes that Raghu, being the

eldest, become the seeker, a scuffle ensues between them, and Raghu tears his shirt sleeve.
He is tired of being kicked and shoved around by his big brother. When he cannot reach the
garage key hanging on the nail, he wishes he were big and tall, but he is helplessly aware of
the reality that it will be years before he can reach that stage. Similarly, when he thinks of
running around the garage if pursued by Raghu, he painfully realizes that his short legs are no
match for Raghus long, hefty, footballer legs. It is with this frame of mind that he crawls
into the shed.
Ravis retreat into the dark shed is symbolic of his entry into the dark recesses of his
unconscious self. As he ventures into this unknown territory, he is surprised at his own
audacity. Released from the oppressive fear of being captured by Raghu, he begins to indulge
in a fantasy of self-victory, power, and recognition. He clings to his fantasy so long that he
overlooks the ultimate requirement for victory.
The clash between fantasy and reality is dramatized at the end of the story. Ravis ironic
correction of his unpleasant situation results in his disgrace and disillusionment. In an
archetypal sense, his final resignation, his mood of quiet rebellion, and his decision to
withdraw from childrens play altogether suggest his awakening into reality and perhaps
some kind of realization that he has acted irresponsibly and that to grow up he must pay the
price for his daydreaming.
Another theme in the story, as in many of Desais other fictional works, is alienation of the
individual. This theme stems from Ravis feelings of insecurity and inferiority. He believes
that no one takes him seriously or treats him with respect. What hurts him the most is his
painful discovery that he has been completely forgotten and left out by his own family. At the
end of the story, he feels as if the children are singing his requiem in their mournful chant at
the funeral game. His final decision to withdraw completely from childrens games is
strongly indicative of his acute sense of alienation.
Just as Ravis fantasizing is an act of unconscious rebellion against the unpleasant reality of
his situation, his acceptance of alienation as the human condition is a first step toward the
process of individuation, which will eventually lead him to maturity.

Desai is a consummate artist known for her distinctive style and rich, sensuous imagery. Her
diction is highly formalized and sophisticated. In her own account, though writing comes to
her naturally, she works consciously, laboriously, and meticulously to impose a design on the
chaotic raw material of life. She regards writing as a process of discovering the truth, which
is, for the most part, hidden beneath the surfaces of what people see, say, and do. Because her
professed interest in fiction has always been a psychological exploration of the human mind,
she does not give much importance to the plot. Instead, she reveals the interior landscapes of
her characters minds.

In Games at Twilight, Desai provides a psychological exploration of the protagonists mind

by delving into his childhood fears, emotions, perceptions, desires, and thought processes.
Her narrative strategy of shifting the omniscient point of view to the limited third-person
vantage allows the reader to gain leisurely insights into the inner workings of Ravis mind.
A distinctive aspect of Desais style is her use of graphic description and vivid imagery. The
story contains a number of memorable descriptions. The opening paragraph describes the
oppressive and suffocating environment in the house. The second and the third paragraphs
dramatize the impact of searing heat outside by painting a verbal picture of listless life in the
garden through a series of visual images and vivid similes. Her microscopic description of the
dark shed is meticulous in concrete details. Finally, her evocative and poetic description of
twilight is characterized by soft and sensuous imagery appealing to all the bodily senses.
The setting of the story is not only descriptive but also evocative and symbolic. Desai uses
many details of the setting to evoke an atmosphere of intense and oppressive heat, which
serves as a symbolic background to rising human conflict. The setting also forms an integral
part of the action. The garden, the shed, the veranda, and the lawn, all play an important part
in shaping the action of the story.