REALISM IN ICE CANDY MAN NOVEL.......
Realism is that kind of literary genre in English literature in which writer tries to depict all incidents , events , situation , characters etc in a realistic manner or near
about real life or daily life ....As far aa realism in Ice Candy Man is concerned one detect realistic aspects in the novel by giving a minute reading to the novel. This novel is one of the greatest novel ever written by Sidhwa Pakistani , Parsee , female novelist , deals with real incidents and happenings of partition of India 1947.
The novel is set in Lahore and narrated through eight years old child Lenny , a polio victim , lamb girl. Sidhwa has depicted each and everything through her lense. Novel deals with daily life activities of Lenny's family and their servants . Ayah who is Lenny's maid falls in love with Hassan , masseur , and he too . On the other hand Ice Candy Man , Dilnawaz , falls in love to Ayah , but she does not love him . Dilnwaz loves her intensely and says , "Talk to me , talk to me for a while " and Ayah's heart melts over his pleading. But the passage of time each and everything variates as in real life . Sidhwa has depicted in real sense that it takes nothing for a soft-hearted and kind man to become a beast or savage just like Dilnawaz.
The novel deals with the real incident of partition of India , greatest of the world which history ever witnessed , real leaders of All India Muslim League , All Indian National Congress and their leaders all are depicted by Sidhwa in realistic way as they used to be during their lives and while her era as well. She has also lensed the Parsee community and its cutoms as well and their prominent figures are also envisioned by Sidhwa in her historical novel. She has depicted Gandhi , Quaid e Azam , Nehro , Lord Mount Batten and other figures of that time . Sidhwa has contrasted Quaid e Azam with Nehro , and has said that Nehro was the favorite of Mountabatten . Gandhi is declared as nutritionist of Sidhwa's time .
When is announced riots begin in the subcontinent and bloodshed and massacre take place every where . Firstly we see Dilnwaz that he is very kind and compassionate to all whether someone is Muslim , Sikh or Hindu . He says , " So what if you are Sikh ? I am a friend to my friends and an enemy to their enemies " But when riots begin and train comes situation variates ." A train from Gurdaspur has just come in " , he announces pantingly , " Everyone in it is dead and butchered .All are Muslims .All are women "
In pirpendo this Silhs attacked the whole village , raped the women , killed the young , old and children brutally . "Please kill us .Kill us all but spare the children "----- Please do whatever you want to do with me .But don't torture me " Ayah was caught by militant group of Muslims because of Lennys mistake of relying on Dilnwaz , Hassan was killed in Hindu-Muslim conflict , all the Sikh friends of Lenny's family got migrated to Amratsir and Ayah was also deciding to set off to Amratsir to her family but unfortunately got trapped by so-called miltiant group of Muslims . In this novel we see because of tense situation people were forced to deny their religion and recognize other. Dilnwaz leaves Ayah at the house of prostitute and earns money via her and then marries her and coins her a new name Mumtaz . Luckily because of Lenny's curiosity and Godmother's kindful efforts Ayah was recovered by Dilnwaz with help if police . Godmother admonishes and abuses Dilnawaz for his betayal to Ayah . Dilnwaz says , "Only dogs are faithfull .If tou want faithful let her marry a dog"
In this novel we have seen all incidents of real life , as take place in our own lives , some harsh and some pleasant . Thus Sidhwa's novel is really in a true sense a realistic novel from advent to end and this realistic attitude of novelist applied in the novel makes it surpass other realistic novels of her time and appears as greatest partition based novel in a versatile manner .