R.k Narayan is regarded as one of the greatest of Indian writings in English. He is the most artistic of the Indian writers, his sole aim being to give aesthetic satisfaction and not to use his art as a medium of propaganda or to serve some social purpose. The novelist was never a good student. He failed in both high school and intermediate examination. He could get his degree only when he was twenty-four years old. These failures at school and college have made him shy, reserved and diffident, an introvert and not an extrovert.
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The Guide received the shatiya Akademi award for the year 1960.He was awarded padma Bhushan in 1964, University of leads conferred on him the Honrary D.Litt in 1967, and Delhi University followed suit in 1973.He has been included in the writers and their Works series being published by the British Council; he was the only Indian so far to have achieved this distinction. He visited U.S.A in 1956, on an invitation from the Rockfeller Foundation. Many of his stories and sketches have been broadcast by the B.B.C, a rare distinction. His works have been published both in England and the U.S.A and both these countries he has enjoyed wide popularity. In America he is regarded next only to Faulkner and graham Greene. His works throw considerable light on his character and personality
R.K Narayan is not only a great novelist, but also a leading writer of short stories in English. From 1939-1945, He did not publish any full lengths novel. Between The Dark Room, 1938 and The English Teacher, 1945, there is a gap of seven years. The shocking domestic tragedy, and the horrors of the world WarII, it seems touched the sensitive Narayan too nearly and he could not make any sustained artistic effort. However, He was not entirely idle. During this period he contributed a number of short stories to the Hindu and to the short lived Quarterly Journal Indian Thought. These short stories were later on published in book form and are among the finest Indo-Anglian short Stories. R.K Narayan is one of the greatest of Indian writers of fiction. R.K Narayan is a novelist who has no axe to grind. He is the rare example of a pure artist. One who writes for the sake of art and not out of any ulterior motives? That is why his popularity has been worldwide and lasting. His works have been translated into a number of languages of the world, and his reputation as an artist has been steadily rising.
His deliberate detachment from the social and political unrest of the time distinguishes him from his contemporary novelist. Without making bones he asserts:
“Don’t forgot I am only a fiction writer and not a historian
philosopher or social scientist. My habit is to take things as
as they are. Too much analyses proves a handicap to my
Understanding…It is essential that I should maintain my
Objective”.
And More,
“One should not revive history blindly and stir up the
bitterness of other days. It serves no purpose. Let us
Forget the past and see what we may do now”.
R.k Narayan is one of those lucky writers who have achieved recognition with the publication of his very first novel. He has ten novels, about hundred short stories, a number of articles and sketches, to his credit, and all his large body of work, with few exception [as The Dark Room], is uniformly of a high standard, his first three novels deals with the life of the three different stages in the life of the same character, though he is given different names. Swami and Friends,The Bachelor of art and The English Teacher are novels of school and college life and they are deeply autobiographical. The Dark Room and the sweet-vendor are also novel of domestic life. The Financial expert, Mr.Sampath, The Guide and The Man Eater Of the malgudi, deals with the careers of money hunting men of the world. Usually Narayan takes no note of the stirring political event of the day, but in the Waiting of the Mahatma Gandhi he has introduced the figure of the great Mahatma, and the effect is rather melodramatic, but this too is not a political novel. It was no doubt an artistic mistake to have dragged in the great mahatma, too big for any single work of art, but the Gandhian movement is not its theme .Its real theme is the love story of Sri Ram and Bharati, and it has been dealt with effectively and credibly.
All this work is remarkably even in the quality of its achievement. Naturally, his later work is more complex, and more introspective than his earlier work, but there can be no question about the quality even of his earlier work. Narayan’s is an art for art’s sake, but it does not mean that he is a writer without any vision of life. It simply means that there is no intrusive message, philosophy or morality in his novels. Narayan is the creator of Malgudi. He has put this particular region of south Indian on the world map. His treatment of it is realistic and vivid, so much so that many have taken the fictitious to be the real, and have tried to identify the various geographical features and other landmarks that constantly recur in his novels. Narayan is a great regional novelist. It is against the back-drop of Malgudi scenes and sights that Narayan studies life’s little ironies, which have always been the same in every age and country. His novels are tragic-comedies of mischance and misdirection, studies in the hu8hu man predicament which, essentially, has always been the same. From the particular Narayan rises to the general, and intensity and universality are achieved by concentration .Narayan is the creator of a whole picture-gallery of the immortal of literature. A number of life-like memorable figures move in and out of his novels, and once we have been acquainted with them, we can never forget them. He writes of the middle class, his own class, the members of which are neither too well off not to be worried usually modest, sensitive, ardent and sufficiently conscious to have an active.
Narayan regarded as one of the big three among the Indian novelist in English has been admired for his remarkable for telling stories .portraying memorable people of small oddities and eccentricities, and for his humour. Narayan’s fiction rarely addresses political issues or high philosophy. He writes with grace and humour about the fictional town Malgudi and its inhabitants; and their little lives. Narayan’s comic vision is ironical. His all-embracing irony which includes the particular social context in his men and women who have their various transaction and the existential reality based on their particular experiences. Narayan is classic teller of tales; an enduring appeal springs from his canvas where common man and women of all the times and places are joined in their commonalty. Narayan weaved a world existing nowhere, but striking a chord of perfect reality with readers across the English reading peoples. His books appeal in a quiet reassuring way and have a remained a popular very many decades. His writing is also part of literature coursework in some American universities. Narayan evokes a unique diction of unusual freshness and rare ingenuity with English literary idiom.
Narayan can be said to be a regional novelist in a higher creative sense. Narayan’s stories have a functional locale-Malgudi, an imaginary world. Malgudi a small south Indian town provides the setting for almost all of Narayan’s novels and short stories. The class between the tradition and modernity in which Narayan’s characters are sandwiched has ironical implications. In his novel modernity is the rash and impulsive force that disturbs the peaceful equilibrium of traditional life. The character in the midst of this conflict emerges as comic and grotesque figures. Narayan is the writer with a full commitment to certain spiritual and religious idea with which the Indian are familiar and he has been able to penetrate into the core of Indian life without being hampered by problems of regionalism, religion, cast and class with which an Indian writer has to come to grips. Narayan is a short writer and novelist, has its limitations too. The world of his creation is not full of volcanic conflagration or tragic ups and down. Even then it is a big world full of smile and tears and thoughts and drama, fusing them into a level. It does not require a very great artist to make an interesting story out of very ordinary day-to-day incidents of life. Narayan’s novels are straightforward realistic pictures undisturbed by fantasy. The intellectual interest is the main spring of his inspiration and that is the angle from which he approaches all the aspects of his subject matter. The result is that he analyses actions and diagnoses motives.
Narayan characters are true children of Malgudi. He portrays a variety of characters covering the whole gamut of life. Narayan’s character covering the whole gamut of life. Narayan character represents varied facets of human nature which are neither good nor bad. Human nature is presented interestingly and memorably, there is no over condemnation or praise. Narayan deliberately restricts himself to and insists on matters of everyday life, and therefore he chooses ordinary men and women for his novels. His protagonists are anything but outstanding. Malgudi is peopled by average and ordinary men and women, who generally belong to middle and lower-middle classes of the Indian society. In the novel of Narayan without expectation it is the man or woman of ordinary abilities rather than the extraordinary person that seeks to realise some or other ambition, fails or achieves a measure of success in society which is more traditional than modern.
Malgudi experiences some more swift changes, the impact of which is reflected on the traditional Indian society with its century-old culture, customs, beliefs and superstitions. He wrote about people in a small town in South India: small people, big talk, and small doings. To some extend that reflected the life of Narayan. Narayan’s world is not, after all, as rooted and complete as it appears. His small people dream simply of what they think has gone before, but they are without personal ancestry; there is the great blank in their past. Their lives are small, as they have to be: this smallness is what has been allowed to come up in the ruins, with the simple new structure of the British colonial order (school, road, bank, courts).
The heroes of the Narayan are never drawn on a heroic scale. Narayan is the creator of un-heroic heroes. The heroes of the Narayan do not control events, the events control them. They are helpless creatures torn by desires. Raju, the Guide dies a ruined man not because he wanted to die, but circumstances so conspired that the only alternate before him was to become a willing martyrs. It therefore transpires the heroes as also heroines of Narayan depend upon a chance or luck for their happiness or unhappiness; and if things go contrary, they just run away and sometimes even become Sanyasis. It might appear that the best solution according to Narayan for evils of life is: “If you are defeated, runaway”.
Characters of Narayan bear the same stamp of intellectual analysis. They are drawn, in their own limited sphere, with convincing psychological consistency. These characters are full of life and vitality. They are thoroughly human in their like and dislikes. Krishna, the philosophic minded lecturer in English with all his idealism stands in sharp contrast with the worldly minded Ramani, who founded happiness in a mistress. Mr. Sampath, the happy-go-lucky opportunist serves as a foil to Raju, the Guide, who of all his cleverness loses his head on the love of Rosie. Savitri, the proud staunch Hindu wife is quite different from the independent minded Rosie. Even the minor characters have a permanent imprint on the mind of the reader.
It is surprising to note that thoroughly bad characters and the so-called villans so dear to the hearts of the novelist have no place in the novels of Narayan. Narayan is not out to preach any moral or to plead any cause.
Narayan is the most objective writer among the Indo-Anglian novelists. This very objectivity reflected in Narayan’s approach to his subject matter. In most of the Indo-Anglian novels there are number of the character and incidents woven round young hero and heroine and it ends with the happy ending. But Narayan’s approach is entirely different. Narayan starts with an idea of character and situation and the plot progresses on the line he conceives to be the logical development of the idea. It means no marriage, no happy ending and no hero of standardized stature. In the Swami and friends, the hero is just a young boy doing nothing brave or noble or adventurous. The hero of The Bachelor of Arts, chandran is an ordinary college student. The heroes of Narayan of Narayan do not approach the conventional heroic type. Since the action of the stories of Narayan logically springs from characters, such as accidence, concidence, sudden reversal of fortunate have no place in the plot of Narayan. Narayan give a picture of life unaffected by any desire for dramatic efforts. His stories are conditioned entirely by the logical demands of the situation or character.
The choice of his subject matters shows that Narayan is a creative artist. He begins his novels with confidence and engages our attention from the very first page; so that we settle down to watch him build his world. The plot of the Narayan are built of material and the incidents that are neither extra-ordinary nor heroic. The tone of his novel is quiet. Narayan selects day-day-day incidents that happen to almost every one of us one time or the other. His world of creation is the big world of smile and tears and thoughts and drama.
Narayan is the writer of the social novels, which are more or less comic novels. Every event is described with precision and care, so that the details are correct and the event is psychologically convincing. His social life is full of college boys, college teacher, school masters, merchants, municipal members, tourist guides, taxi drivers and most of other full blooded character, which form lower middle and poor classes of Malgudi. Princes of blood, commercial magnates and rich people rolling in wealth have no fascination for Narayan and the poor and the down-trodden class of workers does not inspire Narayan with imagination. Narayan steers the middle course and does not go beyond the people he has seen and lived with.
His canvas has a limited range. Sub-plots and interludes are few and far between in the novels of Narayan. His plots normally move from one incident to another, leading up to the final crisis. All his novels are straight forward stories told by highly intellectual mind; as such their interest is fundamentally intellectual. They appeal more to the head than to the heart.
R.k Narayan is the story teller in the Indian tradition of story-telling. The narration move forward chronologically, each succeeding event being linked causally with the previous one. Narayan is a short story writer and novelist, has his limitation too. He is an intellectual who has known the middle class life of South India at close quarters. But depths of pathos that move the very inner fibre are beyond the range of Narayan. He is good at undertones but bold and dramatic flashes are not for him.
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Narayan’s purpose is to entertain, to amuse his readers by telling them an interesting story, which does necessitate any great effort on their part. He does not preach or moralise. Though there is an analysis of human feelings, emotions and motives, there is no probing into the subconscious and the unconscious as is the case with the modern novelist. The dregs of poverty, the crushing loads of misery cannot be found in the pages of Narayan. But within his limited range, Narayan is an exquisite master of the art of story-telling. In short, Narayan is story-teller, nothing less and seldom more.
Human relationship-relationships within the family circle-and relationships centering round sex and money, are his ever recurring themes, and we can learn from them how to establish right relationships. Life must be accepted and lived; despite its many short-comings, but it has to be gleaned by each reader according to the light that is in him. Narayan has deliberately avoided politics and polemics of any kind. The themes he chooses his novel be seem to be perennial interest especially to a sensitive mind interested in human beings. One of them is man’s susceptibility to self-deception due to entertaining illusions. It is the most recurrent and it provides excellent field for Narayan’s relationship, the renunciation, conflict between the tradition and modernity, the east -west encounter, education, etc. Narayan’s method is to treat his themes, not in abstract or didactic terms but in terms of individuals in flesh and flood their experiences And the universal appeal of his novels, although they confine themselves a narrow region in south Indian. The themes of Narayan are all inter-related and inter-dependent. But for the purposes of study and analysis one may have to isolate them.
The mainspring of Narayan’s fictional art is his abiding, humane and responsible interest in varieties of people, especially the vast majority of the average and the ordinary, and in the limitless possibilities of their lives. The fictional world of R.K Narayan in its exploration of the familial relationship of the domestic world is largely devoted to the study of the family and various family relationships in detail, as the family forms the basic unit for any society. Narayan presents his protagonists against the background of their families and relations. He skillfully draws particular attention to various details of their families. Many of them are seen rooted in the tradition, customs, beliefs and superstitions of their families. Thus every one of the important character is given a recognizable identity and helped to come alive.
The first two novels of Narayan, Swami and Friends and The Bachelor of Arts illustrate this point. The central theme of either novel is growth towards emotional maturity which involves a crisis. Some of his novels deal with characters who strive to realize their absurd aims and ambitions, irrespective of the consequences. There are others who in spite of the obstacles, obligation, and limitations placed over them by the bonds of family and restricted by a strict social code, strive to realize their aims and ambitions, irrespective of the consequences.
The protagonist of some of the novels feel impelled to try some form of renunciation because of frustration, disappointment, failure and failure of the relationship. The English teacher depicts Krishna’s grief at the premature death of his wife and his comings to term with the tragic fact. His coming into psychic contact with the spirit of his wife enables him gradually to accept her death as well as. The guide presents the theme of the fraudulent holy man or guru from a fresh angle. The novelist makes a satiric exposure of the false sanyasi far less important than focusing attention on the role of faith that a credulous community places in one who is believed to be holy man and its consequences to both the ascetic as an individuals and a public figure, and to the humanity.
Narayan is a writer with a full commitment to a certain spiritual and religious ideas with which Indians are normally familiar and he has been able to penetrate into the core of Indian life without being hampered by problems of regionalism, religion, caste and class with which an Indian writer has to come to grips.
Narayan’s style embodies his vision of life, the typical life of Malgudi in an extraordinarily simple and unpretentious language with no staining after effects. Narayan has a remarkable command over English language and used it as a medium of storytelling in simple, natural, lucid and unaffected manner. His style is rich with images and metaphors; allusions and quotations not only from the Sanskrit classics, but also from the French literature. Narayan tries to inject the spirit and tempo of Tamilian idiom into English speech in a natural and unaffected manner. Narayan’s style is so uniformly simple that the most ludicrous as well as the most serious events are described in the vein.
Narayan’s language belongs to the everyday world of ordinary people. It is the language in which the average Malgudians dream, love and indulge in their small wars. Laugh and lament. His style gives the distinct impression of a small South Indian community confined to particular temporal and special setting, their manners and musings, conversations and thoughts, and instinctive reactions to the things.
Narayan’s irony dissembles in humour, and the reader realizes only when hit. Narayan’s simple style of narrations holds up a mirror to the simple, occasionally ambitious, and the relaxed way of living of the Malgudians.
Narayan’s novels have so many studies in human relationships, particularly, family relationships. Of relationships within the family, father-son relationship is most frequently studied. As his art matured, his study of human relationships became more complex and intricate. Such complex relationships which he explores are those which centre round sex or money. These relationships are of particular importance in The Financial Expert, The Guide, and The Man-Eater of Malgudi. In these novels money and sex appear in different guises and are explored and studied from different angles. Excessive preoccupation with either money or sex is an aberration which results in discords and disharmony-in the disrupting of the normal family life, for instance-but peace and harmony ultimately return and normalcy is restored. This is so much so the case that the disruption of the accepted order and ultimate restoration of normalcy may be said to be the central theme of the, novels.
Narayan is an Indian writing novels in the Indian tradition of story-telling. Fantasy is a common quality in Indian stories and so, despite his realism, fantasy is also an element in the stories of R.K. Narayan. Fantasy may be defined as the absurd, the eccentric, and the improbable, as something which is hardly possible in real life. It is as if the novelist gives free reign to his imagination, throws the laws of logic and natural causation to the winds and the result is fantastic and absurd. The first half often has excellent realistically-drawn setting, characterization and action. About half way through, there is a distinct break and fantasy takes over.
Narayan has a remarkable command over the English language and used it as a medium of storytelling in a simple, natural, lucid and unaffected manner; the conversation of his character never reads like a translation, while it is at the same time free from English colloquialism which in the circumstance would ring false. He manages to make his people speak; in fact, as they would speak if English were their language. Narayan’s style is so uniformly simple that the most ludicrous as well as the most serious events are described in a same vein. Simplicity of language and style imparts pointedness to his comic irony. In spite of raciness and simplicity, Narayan style is rich in evocativeness and suggestiveness.
The later novel of the R.k Narayan are based on the classical myths-the inevitable victory of the good over the evil, the law of life and the concept of karma, the concept of cyclical existence and the four stages of human life. The later novels The Man-Eater of Malgudi, The Painter of Signs embody the religious and cultural glory of Hindu society. The novels are marked with maturity in fictional imagination.
The Man-Eater of Malgudi is an allegory showing that evil is self-destructive. In this novel, Narayan employs the Bhasmasura myth. The title of the novel is ironic for man-eater in the novel is no tiger, but mighty man, Vasu, who not only kills a number of wild animals, but also kills himself with a single blow of his hammer- like fist.
The story is narrated in the first person by its tragic-comic hero, Nataraj, a printer of Malgudi. In his printing work he is assisted by Mr. Sastri, who is a compositor, proof reader and a machine man, all rolled into one? Among his constant companions are a poet who is engaged in writing the life of God Krishna and Mr. Sen, the journalist who always runs down Nehru. The smooth and congenial life of this small group is disturbed by the arrival of Vasu, who comes to stay with them as a tenant in the room in the upper storey of the printing press. This tall man of about six feet, with bull neck, hammer fist and aggressive behaviour arouses fear in the heart of the Nataraj and his friends. Natraj tolerates him in his room upstairs till he makes himself unbearable by robbing Mempi forest of its wild life and collecting dead animals in his room for stuffing them. When even Natraj’s neighbours compains to him about the unsanitary conditions of the neighbourhood, he request Vasu to find a new house for himself. The taxidermist treats this as an insult and sues him for harassing him and trying to evict him by unlawful means. The timely help from his clients, an old lawyer, his ability to prolong a case beyond the widest dream of a litigant, saves Nataraj from the clutches of the law. Soon after Vasu starts bringing Rangi, A notorious dancing woman and some other women like her, to his room, to the great nuisance of all concerned. But Vasu cares too hoots for their feelings.
The crisis, however, comes to a head when the pitiless taxidermist threatens to kill Kumar, a temple elephant who is to be taken in a festival procession organized to celebrate the poet’s completion of his religious epic on God Krishna. Nataraj is very fond of the elephant, kumar. He becomes naturally upset the moment he learns from Rangi that Vasu intends shooting it on the night of the proposed procession. Nataraj immediately posts the wicked intentions of Vasu to his friend, the poet, the lawyer, and other important people of the town. The matter is reported to the police authorities but they express their inability to take any action against him until the crime has been actually committed.
The very thought of the temple-elephant, kumar’s murder, drives Nataraj crazy. Even while compelled to stay in his house owing to the agitated condition of his mind, he constantly thinks of the danger awaiting Kumar. As the procession passes in front of the printing press, his heart begins to beat pit a pat with fear. He is afraid of hearing the fateful gun shots and cries of panic-stricken people. He is surprised when the procession passes away without any untoward incident.
Freed from a nagging worry, Natarj goes to his office in the morning. To his utter shock and dismay, he learns that Vasu, the taxidermist is dead. The police authorities of the town soon start investigations. Murder is suspected; Nataraj, his friends and Rangi, the temple dancer, are interrogated by the police. From the medical report it is gathered that Vasu had died of a concussion received on his right forehead from a blunt instrument. When the police fail to find any clue of the culprit, the matter is dropped. Rangi later tells them that while striking a mosquito that settled on his forehead, Vasu slapped his temple and died instantaneously. He thus died of his own hammer-fist.
The novel has a well-knit plot and a fine gallery of vivid, life like characters. The character of Vasu, the central figure is a masterpiece. The narration is enlivened by Narayan’s comic vision which very often and mingles with pathos.
The Painter sings is obviously a novel which underlines the problem arising out of it. The use of an ancient Hindu legend is significantly obvious in the novel after The Man-Eater of Malgudi.
The guide is the most popular novel of R.K Narayan. It was published in 1958, and won the Sahitya Academy Award for 1960. It has been filmed and the film has always drawn packed-houses.
It narrates the adventures of a railway guide, popularly Known as Railway Raju. As a tourist guide he is widely popular. It is this vocation which brings him in contact with Marco and his beautiful wife, Rosie. While the husband is busy with his archaeological studies, Raju seduces his wife and has a good time with her. Ultimately the husband comes to know of the affair and go away to the Madras leaving Rosie behind. Rosie comes and stays with Raju in his one-roomed house. His mother tolerates her for sometimes, but when things become unbearable, she calls her brother and goes away with him, leaving Raju to look after Rosie and the house.
Rosie is a born dancer, she practises regularly and soon Raju finds an opening for her. In her very first appearance she is a grand success. Soon she is very much in demand and their earning increase tremendously. Raju lives lavishly, entertains a large number of friends with whom he drinks and gambles. All goes well till raju forges Rosie’s signatures to obtain valuable jewellery lying with her husband. The act lands him in jail. Rosie leaves Malgudi and goes away to Madras, her home-town. She goes on with her dancing and does well without the help and management of Raju, of which he was so proud. On his release from jail, raju takes shelter in a deserted temple on the banks of the river Sarayu, a few miles away from Malgudi and close to the village called Mangla. The simple villagers take him to be a 3Mahatma, begin to worship him, and bring for him a lot of eatables as presents. Raju is quite comfortable and performs the new role of a saint to perfection. However, soon there is a serve famine and drought and the villagers expect Raju to undertake the fast. The fast attracts much attention and people come to have Darshan of the Mahatma from far and wide. On the 12th day of the fast, Raju falls down exhausted just as there are sign of rain on the distant horizon. It is not certain whether he is actually dead, or has merely fainted. Thus the novel ends on a note of ambiguity.
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