Games at Twilight

The story’s plot centers around a game of hide-and-seek on a hot summer day in India as a group of children seeks the freedom of the outdoors as an escape from the oppressive heat inside their house. The children’s play, described by the narrator as “the business of the children’s day” (Paragraph 7), is deceptively serious, serving as an imaginary terrain in which they act out their ambitions and resentments, try on gender roles, and seek to discover who they are in preparation for entering the mysterious adult world they see all around them.

The text highlights Familial Roles and Relationships within the traditional family structure of India, with extended family living together (or nearby). The mother is the primary caregiver within the home, there are multiple children, and the father is mentioned (though not seen) as the adult who provides the financial support for the family. There are other adults mentioned—as well as cousins—by Ravi, who emerges as the story’s protagonist. Ravi’s family appears to have a comfortable life economically, as they employ a driver and a gardener and have a generous lawn and garden where the children can spread out and play. This family structure played a large role in traditional Indian society, but at the time this text was written, it was transitioning to a more nuclear structure with the urbanization of Indian society.

The story focuses almost entirely on the children’s experience, and adult characters exist only on the periphery of this child-centric world. Their play, however, makes clear that the adults around them loom large in their imaginations, as they take on roles that demonstrate The Pressure of Gendered Expectations passed down to them by their parents and other adults. Mira is featured as the older, responsible “motherly” figure to her younger siblings (Paragraph 14); Raghu, another older sibling, is a dominant male presence with physical maturity and athletic ability; Manu is very young and helpless; and Ravi falls somewhere in between as the forgotten and ignored middle sibling.

The children are characterized through their play. From the first moment that the game of hide-and-seek begins, Raghu’s rough and unforgiving nature is evident, as he seeks out the children one at a time, whacking the walls and the ground with a stick to intimidate them. Young Manu is the first to be found and is shown no mercy by Raghu. Ravi remains hidden in a dark shed and spends most of the game alternating between the fear of being found, the fear of being alone in the dark, and developing a strong determination to finally win at something and overcome the Feelings of Inadequacy and Insignificance that emerge as his primary character trait and a core theme of the story.

While these story events are unfolding, the author also uses her description of the setting as a way to add further depth to the plot. The children are playing outside on an extremely bright, hot, and oppressive summer day. This undoubtedly adds to the harshness of the environment and the irritability of the characters. From the first moment the story begins, readers can see how desperately the children are trying to escape the heat by being outside in the open air, and how physically restless they are as they push and shove each other over simple matters, such as who will be “It” in their game of hide-and-seek (Paragraphs 14-16). The weather adds more tension and unrest to the behaviors and attitudes of the characters, evoking and heightening the restlessness of childhood.

The story is told primarily through Ravi’s point of view as he waits in the shed, alternating between fear, boredom, and excitement at the prospect of victory over his older siblings. His goal is to move past the helplessness he feels (represented in an even more unadulterated form by his younger brother Manu, who is found as soon as the game begins) and move into the sunlight of full, mature personhood (represented in his mind by his athletic and assertive older brother Raghu). Hindering him in this effort is a combination of seemingly incompatible personality traits that can be understood as universal to the experience of childhood: near-total self-absorption and an overwhelming sense of personal insignificance. To himself, he is all that matters and maybe even all that really exists. However, he is keenly aware that in the eyes of his older siblings, he hardly exists at all. He wants nothing more than their attention and approval to validate his developing sense of self. His intense disappointment at the end of the game—a game that, for the others, ended hours ago—signals his budding recognition that this kind of external validation will always elude him.

Reminders of death are woven throughout the story, whether it’s to describe the lack of movement of living things in the heat (Paragraph 5), or to describe the feeling or scent of the dark shed where Ravi hides (Paragraphs 22-23). Even the children’s nighttime game emphasizes the normalization of death, as they recite, “The grass is green / The rose is red; / Remember me / When I am dead, dead, dead” (Paragraph 36). These casual allusions to death imply a recognition that childhood and life are fleeting, and that as the children rush to become adults, they are also rushing—whether they realize it or not—toward the end of their lives. Ultimately, the author communicates the idea that life is a series of complex and multifaceted events, both positive and negative. Even though one may feel as if they are in control of their life, there are many aspects that are beyond one’s control, and sometimes harsh realities must be accepted.