• Balumuri Venkateswarlu

Arun Joshi deals importantly with the theme of anxiety like the existential writers of the West. The range of themes depicted in Joshi’s novels is quite wide and varied, and covers temporal as well as timeless issues. But the search for individuality is a pronounced and recurrent motif in all his fiction. All his heroes are “men engaged in the meaning of life”. His main characters are in search of their lost self, their identity. A keen analysis of the novel The Strange Case of Billy Biswas of Arun Joshi depicts that the protagonist, Billy Biswas, son of a judge, retreats from the so-called civilized life to the primitive world of his tribal mistress, Bilasia. Billy Biswas is a character with greater depth than that of the general run of the western existentialist heroes. His alienation from the civilized world leads him to explore the dark mossy labyrinths of his soul that long for an identity, the godhead of self. He aims at reaching the divine heights. Finally Joshi suggests that real peace, pleasure and perfection can be felt in the lap of Nature and primitive atmosphere and not in the sophisticated urban area. According to him one can realize the essence of life by liberating the self from the clutches of mercenary civilization and by hearing the calls of the inner being. For Joshi this is the only way out of saving man from the purposelessness of the contemporary sordid, meaningless world.

alienation, primitive, civilized, tribal, existentialist

"Search for Individuality in the Novel of Arun Joshi: The Strange Case of Billy Biswas", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.4, Issue 10, page no.977-981, October-2017, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1710155.pdf

"Search for Individuality in the Novel of Arun Joshi: The Strange Case of Billy Biswas", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.4, Issue 10, page no. pp977-981, October-2017, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1710155.pdf