The Theme of Desire in The Alchemy of Desire Essay

Tarun Tejpal’s The Alchemy of Desire(2005) is a narrative about Desire .The novel opens with the quote: â€Å"Love is not the greatest glue between two people, Sex is† and ends with â€Å"Sex is not the greatest glue between two people, Love is†¦.† (The Alchemy of Desire, 3,518) Amid the quotes, Tarun Tejpal explores what he calls, â€Å"The Alchemy of Desire†. The word ‘Alchemy’ has a scientific origin which means creation, combination or transformation from something very original and base to very valuable.(Concise Oxford English Dictionary). The main aim is to explore the value of Desire. The desire which can foster jealousy, distraught, truth and hallucination reality. The story of the novel revolves around a young couple from a small town in India†¦show more content†¦The lowest level in Maslow’s Hierarchy is the Physiological needs. This includes hunger, thirst and sex. The next sets of needs to emerge are the Safety needs which include security, stability, dependency, protection from fear. Such needs are generally satisfied for most adults living in a hospitable society. The third sets of needs are the Belongingness and Love needs. These represent the need for friends, family and â€Å"affectionate relations with people in general.† The fourth level of the hierarchy includes Esteem needs –fame, status, dominance, attention and dignity. After experiencing all these stages the human mind attains the fifth stage i.e. Self-actualization or Self-realization .We begin from the First stage and move towards the Higher order needs for the betterment of our lives .Maslow stated that when all four of the basic, deficiency needs have been satisfied, â€Å" a new discontent and restlessness will soon develop , unless the individual is doing what he, individually is fitted for †¦what a man can be he must be†¦.† (Theories of Personalities , 450) Similarly Tarun Tejpal has also divided his novel into five parts –Prema : Love, Karma: Action, Artha : Money, Kama : Desire, Satya : Truth . These five parts of the novel acted as the five stages of needs for the narrator .Tarun Tejpal has taken kaleidoscopic view of desire – the desire in men for women , the desire in men for menShow MoreRelatedThe, Illusions, Visions And The Irrational All Stem From The Basis Of Surrealism1281 Words   |  6 Pagescollage. 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