A THEMATIC STUDY OF THE EXPOSITION IN SELECTED NOVELS OF BAPSI SIDHWA

This study examines exposition of the plot in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man (1988) and Water (2006) to introduce characters, settings, and central conflicts, serving as a precursor to the novels’ major thematic concerns. Employing a qualitative, interpretive approach grounded in Seymour Chatman’s structuralist narratology, particularly his distinction between story and discourse, the analysis explores the effect of expository passages on readers’ understanding of gender oppression, cultural memory, trauma, and ideological critique. In Water, the widow ashram functions as a symbol of patriarchal, religious, and economic subjugation, while Chuyia’s forced marriage reflects systemic discrimination. In Ice-Candy Man, the child narrator Lenny presents pre-Partition Lahore, subtly anticipating communal violence and the commodification of Ayah’s body. Exposition in both novels operates not as mere background but as a thematic device, establishing early ideological frameworks that reveal patriarchy, trauma, gender vulnerability, and cultural fragmentation.