Anjali in Wonderland
Anjali’s favorite place in the world is defined by the enormous gap between its literal and its figurative circumstance. Imagery is used to transform the mundane into the magical: “Anjali loved it here. It was like her private zoo. The long, crimped leaves of the mango tree would sway lyrically in the summer breeze as if they were dancing. Families of monkeys would jump from tree to tree, playing with one another and fighting with the diving hawks that threatened their young. Tiny green lizards, striped squirrels, and an occasional slinky mongoose frolicked around the premises. But most importantly to Anjali, this was where Nandini lived.” From the “dancing” flora to the menagerie of fauna, what is prosaically described as nothing more than a corner toward the back of the yard becomes almost a private wonderland.
Anjali not in Wonderland
Along with the magic of the corner of the yard are aspects of life under British imperialist occupation of India that make Anjali’s story anything but a fairytale. “Anjali woke with the sun. It wasn’t the sounds of the noisy roosters, peacocks, and monkeys outside that woke her up. It wasn’t the light knocking of the rain on her windows. It was the sound of her belly rumbling because she had gone to sleep without eating the night before.” This imagery is all about sensory experience. Few would have trouble imagining the sound of rain “knocking,” but most of them would find difficulty in sleeping through the screech of a peacock or howl of a monkey.
Freedom Fighting
Anjali’s mother shows up unexpectedly at her school wearing a plain dress with the intention of demonstrating to the class how to use a spinning wheel. The imagery is deceptive: “She took what was left of the raw cotton from her mother and turned the wobbly knob of the wheel, mimicking what Ma had done. The knob on the wheel was old and clumsy, hard to turn. It made a rickety noise until Anjali tilted her hand, then suddenly ran smoothly. In no time at all, all the raw cotton in Anjali’s hand was gone, transformed into sleek strands of thread.” The key to this imagery is the references to the knob: old, wobbly, clumsy to handle, and noisy. The spinning wheel is a symbol representing the transformation of Anjali’s mother into a freedom fighter. The references to the knob serve as imagery describing the state of freedom in India under British colonialism.
Mad Parade
The context of British colonialism is established early through imagery. More specifically, through one single image: “Anjali had stopped by the captain’s office after school to catch a glimpse of her mother through the window, as she had often done for the past year…That day had looked like any other. She had found her mother hunched over the corner room desk, typing away, as Captain Brent lounged on his scarlet silk sofa under a faded oil painting of Queen Victoria. He was dictating to Anjali’s mother in his harsh foreign accent, and Anjali couldn’t help but stare.” The juxtaposition of the British officer’s luxurious restfulness against her mother’s body language personifying oppression becomes a portrait of British imperialism precisely due to the approving eye of the monarchy in the painting. What makes this imagery so powerful, however, is that it is situated as something that Anjaji herself has been conditioned to accept as the natural state of things by virtue of the scene never altering from one day to the next.
