Critical Appreciation

Ice-Candy Man is the central figure in the novel as the action revolves around him. All the important incidents are inspired by his action in the main plot of Ayah-Masseur and Ice-Candy Man's love triangle. All the other characters are passive as compared to him and remain flat whereas he is a round character undergoing changes from the beginning to the end of the novel. But still we can't declare him to be the hero of the novel as most of the action arising from him is wicked and treacherous. He betrays even his beloved friends.

Ice-Candy Man has a strong desire for sensual and sexual pleasures of life. Although he is married yet he constantly tries to form physical relationship with Ayah. He has a frailty of flesh that is observed even by a little child like Lenny when she notices his seductive toes after their target on many occasions;

"I keep an eye on Ice-Candy Man's toes .Sometimes, in the course of an engrossing story, they travel so cautiously that both Ayah and I are taken unawares."

Ice-Candy Man is a raconteur. He is such and absorbing gossip that Ayah only sits with him to listen to his stories as she is not all that interested in him. He tells stories from elopements to politics. This is how he constantly engages Ayah's attention.

One of the positive aspects of his character is his constancy in love. He follows Ayah everywhere she goes and this love is so deep that he commits crimes to achieve his beloved. This is exactly why he is jealous of Masseur as Ayah is in love with this unfortunate person who has to pay dearly for this love-affair. He openly expresses his jealousy for Masseur on a number of occasions. When Lenny asks him about the chastity of his wife, his reply brings out the dark jealousy from him;

"She won't. They have no tailors in the village. No masseurs either... with their cunning fingers taking liberties!"

This dark jealousy makes him to brutally murder one of his friends and Ayah's favourite lover, Masseur. Here he not only betrays his friend, Masseur, but also his beloved Ayah. And there are many more betrayals to come from this cunning person. The text does not give any direct hint towards this murder but a careful study reveals that nobody else can murder a man like Masseur except jealous Ice-Candy Man.

Sher Singh is able to evacuate his house with the help of Ice-Candy Man. This incident exposes his moral bankruptcy and evil genius. The satanic method he uses to frighten the women of Sher Singh's tenants gives us an insight into his evil mind and soul;

"We exposed ourselves so that only they could see us."

We can clearly observe from this incident that the seeds of evil are already there in his soul even before the riots begin. The riots only help these seeds to grow. We can't blame the riots for his cruelty and stone-heartedness. He also betrays Sher Singh when he adopts the same method against Sher Singh's