People form affective ties with the spaces they inhabit via their experiences and expressions of emotion.To develop a sense of attachment and belonging to a specific community and its environment, it is natural for humans to associate and interact with their surroundings, whether they are family, neighbours, co-workers, nature, or a place. This article explores the concept of a sense of belonging with the city in Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day(1988). The story is about four siblings, their relationship with one another and the concept of ‘home’ that binds them together. All four of them have different dynamics with the city, which is a point of concern for this paper. A home is a place where there is acceptance and the surrounding by people with similar likes and dislikes. This paper looks at what a person born in one country and moving to another considers his “home”? How do individuals engage with a city? Is there a relationship between a city and home? Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ aids the notions of belongingness used in this analysis. Parallel to what Maslow defines as a sense of belonging, the characters long for belonging and love, as displayed by their respective behaviours. Qualitative analysis of adult remembrance of childhood place experience supports the analysis that manifests a long-lasting, positively impacted attachment to the city.
Research Scholar, Dept. of English, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh
