Superficial belongingness of Indian immigrants in Anita Desai's bye-bye blackbird

This paper is an attempt to raise the issue of alienation and assimilation of the immigrants in the world of yet to be fully developed multicultural world. Through the uprooted individuals of the novel, we discuss the problems faced by immigrants in the adopted society where they superficially belong. Numerous reasons are being assessed and reassessed in the analysis of literary texts. So, Anita Desai's Bye-Bye Blackbird is an interesting criticism of the concept of multiculturalism. It is clear how crossing actual border does not necessary implying crossing inner borders. The novel explores different kind of alienation especially in the lives of two main characters---Dev and Adit. It is the depiction of alienation of the Indian immigrants who being outsiders are characterized by a sense of strangeness and unreality and are conditioned by nonacceptance in the adopted society where they belong superficially. They are culturally alien and as away from their native land India and are psychologically alien as they are not accepted in England. As such, cultural alienation in the case of these characters is due to their preference for the native culture. Since they fail to accommodate and improvise themselves in an alien kind of culture to which they are exposed, they feel neglected, isolated, alienated and superficially belonged.