Conflict in Bye-Bye Blackbird

Bye-Bye Blackbird, The third novel (in chronology) of Anita Desai, is a story mainly concerned with the varied human relationships. Dev and Adit are the two major characters representing the two streams of life. Adit, from the beginning of the novel, develops attachment to the western ways of life, especially of England; but while Dev living in England, shows his repulsion towards the ways of European life and particularly of England. Sarah, Adit’s wife, stands for reconciliatory approach between East and West. Adit cares for England but Dev loves India while Sarah swings between her natural inclination and her willing adoption of the foreign ways of life. The title of the novel refers to Adit’s final farewell to Asian immigrants in England when he leaves England for India for good. These three characters face the dilemma of finding their identity exactly because their background is ischolar_mained in the class society with group division by birth, and from a definite sense of social placement they are placed in an alien culture. The themes of cultural conflict, alienation, immigration, exile etc. are common in the twentieth century literature. Anita Desai has brilliantly portrayed the dilemma of upischolar_mained individuals in this novel.