Village by the sea by Anita Desai

Chapter 5 is about the launching of Biju’s boat and the community’s reaction to this event. Chapter 5 begins with Anita Desai’s description of the setting, where she uses many adjectives to show the colour and excitement of the villages, waiting to watch the magnificent display of the launching of Biju’s boat. This sets the ton, mood, atmosphere of the Chapter.

Anita Desai does many things to express how the community is. She uses a lot of skills and gives us a clear picture how the community is. The language she uses express the village people in very different ways. She uses a lot of colour “The newly painted signboard was up on the cabin wall, bright blue and pink.” This gives a clear image in our head. She uses a lot of similes to describe the village people. Anita Desai shows us that the villages don’t have respect for one another. They sware at each other. “… you young jackass” this explains that they don’t esteem one another and love to insult one another. She makes the setting very exciting at the start of Chapter 5 with all the villagers coming by to see the building of the boat

The launching of Biju’s boats showed many things such as progress into becoming a richer village. The first boat to have a diesel engine and a deep freeze shows progress. Even the factories are coming up shows that there is change from a normal agricultural village to a more developed country where people will be working in factories instead of farms. This will also give more work for the villagers.

When the boat was being launched there was a lot of tradition of this big event. Biju’s wife celebrated the launching of a husband boat. The launching of Biju’s boat was almost like a festival where there was everybody seeing the event. And the use of saris and long banners to symbolize the importance of the event. The sweets being traded also showed how significant the event was “The coconut cracked and spattered to shouts and cheers from all.” This shows that the breaking of the coconut is a tradition and it’s a way to celebrate an event.