Prasad 165

CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION

Indian English writers have aroused considerable interest both at home

and abroad. The works of writers like Aurobindo Ghosh, Sarojini Naidu, Toru

Dutt and Rabindra Nath Tagore in the past and R K Narayan, Mulk Raj

Anand, Raja Rao, Manohar Malgaonkar, Kamala Markandaya, Ruth Prawar

Jhabvala, Anita Desai and Khushwant Singh of today have received excellent

response. Unanimously R K Narayan has been regarded as one of the

finest Indian novelists writing in English especially the child-centered novels.

R K Narayan (October 10, 1906 – May 13, 2001) was born in

Chennai (erstwhile Madras). His writing career began with Swami and

Friends. Mr R K Narayan won numerous awards and honours for his works

which include the National Prize of Sahitya Akademi for The Guide in

1968, Padma Bhushan, the most coveted Indian award, for distinguished

service to Literature in 1964. He is an accomplished, sensitive and prolific

writer. He, until the end, remained a true friend of children with whom he

had begun his first dialogue in Swami and Friends.

“We are what we are. Whether you grow older, more decrepit

inside, the sense of awareness, of being, is the same throughout.

I don’t see any difference between myself when I was seven

years old in Madras and now here in Mysore.”

(R K Narayan – An interview with Susan Ram)

As a novelist, R K Narayan defies easy definition. On the face of it,

his novels can be taken as insulated from history, circumscribed by a limited

 Prasad 166

geography, lacking in ambition and replete with small every day detail. Most

of his works are rooted in everyday life and seem to be very simple but, to

delve deep and get an insight, is a herculean task.

R K Narayan had produced a sizable body of fictional work. He had

written more than a dozen novels in addition to the collection of his short

stories. His life work gives him the place and honour of one of the most

respected novelists of his times. He had conducted his craft of fiction almost

for half a century. It is his childlike imagination, with all its whimsicalities

and moods, born of innocence and novelty that endears him to the generations

of readers. R K Narayan as a fiction writer has a unique flair for inventing

astounding stories, with well knit characters dramatically interplaying on each

other with the ultimate purpose of eclectic, the humanistic essences of life and

literature. The innocence and innocently revealing manner of his exposition of

men and manners is a matter of great interest. Reading R K Narayan is a

unique experience. He transposes the readers’ mind into the world of children

as children would like to have it.

Technically, R K Narayan is one of the most perfect novelist among

his contemporaries. His artistic excellence is something that cannot be

compared. He tells his story with perfect ease and has no confusing devices.

His understanding of human psychology, especially the in-depth feeling for a

child and child psychology, realistic approach towards life, smooth and easy

plotting and use of excellent language puts him above board.

Narayan’s stories are creative, very close to reality, interesting and

suggestive. He is renowned not only for his wit, humour, eye for detail, locale
 Prasad 167

approach, use of Indian myths and legends, extremely pure and simple

expression but is highly acclaimed as a detached observer of life. He dealt

with big themes – all that was happening in India with deceptive ease and

simplicity.

Narayan instead of thinking on his own or having an independent

philosophy in his novels, largely subscribes to Hindu ideals depicted in the

ancient Hindu scriptures. The most intricate, interesting and fascinating fact

about Narayan’s writing is that his thought and presentation is purely Indian

without any influence of the west.

As a novelist he is the master in the art of characterization. Since his

novels are primarily the presentations of the dramas and stories of the middle-

class family belonging to South India, he finds an ample opportunity to truly

present the fears, frustrations, happiness, sadness, defeats, achievements as he

was also from a similar background. This is also rightly authenticated by M

K Naik when he says:

“He has no great heroes or heroines, only local nobodies and

local eccentrics and his style habitually wears a deliberate air so

that the thrusts of his insistent irony are felt all the more

sharply. It is out of its depth only when the author expects his

words to take wing or catch fire.”

(Naik, 162)

Narayan’s novels are full of a variety of characters. All sorts of

characters, both fair and foul are present in his novels. The real greatness of

Narayan lies in his realistic presentation of the will and temperament of his
 Prasad 168

characters. He is a great craftsman and his novels are very strong in plot

construction. He being a noteworthy master of story telling arranges the

actions and events in his novels coherently. The skillful exposition of the

themes through a coherent and well knit plot adds to the artistic value of the

novel. The close observation, minute detail, intimate homeliness and

contagious zest of Narayan’s style which is exhibited in his humorous

descriptions and conversations carry with them a wide and universal appeal

and make his novels a great success. Further, he has an uncanny knack of

transmuting even the most trivial and trite details into very amusing and

sparkling ones. His brilliance lies in his unique method of interspersing his

narrative with pointed, ironical and comical display of situations.

The language of R K Narayan is simple, smooth and gentle. His

selection of words do not impose any limitation. He is everybody’s cup of tea

in terms of using understandable language. About the use of English language

he himself admits in an Interview with William Walsh:

“My whole education has been in English from the primary

school, and most of my reading has been in English language. I

am particularly fond of the language. I was never aware that I

was using a different medium, a foreign language, when I wrote

in English, it came to me very easily. I cannot explain how.”

(Walsh 7)

He has been a true psychological observer of human behaviour. The

beauty of his narration lies in bringing out the emotions and passions. His

language differed from character to character. The educated character speaks

 Prasad 169

in an educated manner while the language of layman is comparatively simple

and common. This is possible only because of his able presentation of

psychological behaviour of his characters.

R K Narayan is known for and is fond of using common English

language to observe the small happenings of the society and his approach is

objective in the treatment of his subject. He could create a great miracle even

through the use of modest language resource with honesty and self confidence.

He never mixed other languages with English. Dr. P K Singh aptly says:

“He uses simple English and never attempts to mix the flavour

of Tamil or any other Indian language into his English. There

is no distortion of the rules of English grammar. He uses a lot

of Indian words, e.g., pyol, putka, pahelwan, etc. His English

is vivid, clean and witty. His themes, characters and dialogues

are able to carry the feelings and atmosphere of the South

Indian Society. He uses common Indian English idioms

without bringing any change in their structure. His language is

perfectly capable for the presentation of ideas and characters

and is suitable also for the amusement of the readers of West.”

(Singh, 77)

Narayan wrote his novels for the south Indian people. He does not use

hard words to express his feelings. It is seen that Narayan does not use

imagery to mystify the situations in his novels. Narayan is supreme in the

Indian English Writing in terms of his thought, technique, characterization

and above all, the art of story telling.

 Prasad 170

R K Narayan’s works were translated to every European language as

well as Hebrew. This great Indian writer has to his credit a large number of

publications. Besides publications, his writings The Guide and The Financial

Expert were made into films. Swami and Friends, The Vendor of Sweets and

some of his short stories were adapted by late actor-director Shankar Nag into

a television series. Malgudi Days was serialized and telecast on Doordarshan,

The Indian Television Network.

Like a drop in the ocean, in the second chapter, an effort has been

made to trace and study the world of childhood in the works of R K Narayan.

It is undoubtedly true that R K Narayan is one of the significant contributors to

the Indian Writing in English. What is more significant is his portrayal of

children and the depiction of childhood where Narayan is at his best. With his

first book Swami and Friends R K Narayan had become a true friend of

children and remained so all his life. With an unusual skill, Narayan succeeds

in capturing the spirit of childhood. Swami and his friends are a delightful

bunch of juvenile characters, each of them distinctly etched and recognizable.

Narayan could beautifully depict the psyche of impressions on the

impressionable minds of young children. Swami and Friends is an episodic

comedy which first of all sees the world and its different patterns of loyalties

and authority through the eyes of a child. It is not a novel about childhood,

nor is the theme of childhood linked to growth, development and memory. It is

linked here with Swami’s vividness of imagination, even bordering on

superstition and his vulnerability. Narayan is at his best when he recalls

childhood days.
 Prasad 171

Narayan often looked upon the world through children’s eyes and

showed an unbounded interest in the experiences of childhood. Swami and

Friends clearly illustrates the unscaled heights of imagination, from a

child’s point of view, in Narayan’s world of fiction. Swami and his friends

in their innocence, transform reality of this world to confirm to their childlike

fancies and successfully live in their own world of make-believe. This novel

provides us the world of childhood. Each and every page seems to be natural

for each one of us when we look back into our childhood. The ease with

which Narayan depicts childhood is incomparable.

Swami and Friends is an episodic comedy which first of all sees the

world and its different patterns of loyalties and authority through the eyes of a

child. It is not a novel about childhood, nor is the theme of childhood linked

to growth, development and memory as for example in the great Victorian

novels of England. It is linked here with Swami’s vividness of imagination,

even bordering on superstition, and his vulnerability because of that. Both the

comedy and finely observed detail come out of this relation between

imagination and vulnerability. Swami and his friends live in a world that is

very close to fantasies and spells, threats and tortures, half beliefs and

superstitions.

Narayan is at his best when he recalls childhood days. What the Head

Master in The English Teacher says about the memory of his young days

might well be Narayan’s own expression:

“Most of us forget that grand period. But with me it has always

been there. A time at which the colours of things are different,

 Prasad 172

their depths greater, their magnitude greater, a most balanced

and joyous condition of life; there was a natural state of joy

over nothing in particular.”

(Teacher, 167)

Many of Narayan’s stories move between two worlds, each viewed

humorously against the background of the other. For instance, his stories

dealing with children such as “The Performing Child,” “Unbreakable Doll,”

“Hungry Child,” “Dodi,” “The Regal,” “Leela’s Friend” and “Uncle” project

the make-believe world of children, which is presented in striking contrast to

the matter-of-fact world of adults. In “The Performing Child” the little girl

Kutti longs to live in a world of pleasant dreams far away from the charmless

world of adults. In “Unbreakable Doll” the child’s world of imagination is a

class apart from that of an adult. The thought process of a child is

diametrically opposite to that of an adult. Agony of a child who is unable to

pass examination was well brought out by Narayan in his short story ‘Iswaran’

and the psychological pressure a child undergoes while trying to cope with

the stress from within and outside is an eternal problem and even this aspect

was not left out by Narayan. “Hungry Child” illustrates how the capricious

and mischievous nature of a child attacks the pretensions of the world of

adults. In “Dodu” and “The Regal” a child’s make-believe world is presented

in contrast to the world of adults who have no concern for children’s feelings

and bring disillusionment to them. In “Leela’s Friend”, Leela, the innocent

little girl, is far from the complexities of the adult world. She is very friendly

with their Sidda who is more of a friend to play with than a servant.
 Prasad 173

“Uncle” presents the unconditional faith and innocence of a child.

The child lives happily with his uncle before experiencing the outside world.

Narayan’s stories, dealing with children, are abundant in psychological

exploration of their tender minds. They deal with their innocence, hopes,

fears, disappointments and desperations. “Forty five a Month” presents a

picture of the hope, anxiety and despair of Shanta. She gets excited and

thrilled, for her father has promised to take her to the cinema. Some of the

stories on Children by Narayan viz. “A Breach of Promise,” “A Hero”, “A

Willing Slave,” “The Birthday Gift” and “The Performing Child” deal with the

psychological fears of the child. In “Father’s Help” Narayan portrays a child

who hates attending school on a Monday after having enjoyed Saturday and

Sunday. The universal urge of child to imitate adults is vivid in “Leela’s

Friend”. In Narayan’s world of childhood there are traits which are by no

means just rosy-eyed but brings to light juvenile self-centeredness, vanity,

snobbery, insensitivity, callousness and cruelty. Through his pen Narayan

gave his readers a thorough insight of a child’s mischief, innocence, loyalty

and unconditional faith, imagination and vulnerability, fantasy and spells,

threats and tortures, superstitions and make-believe world, agony and stress,

hope and fears, disappointments and desperations, anxiety and despairs etc.

There is a world of childhood in the novels of R K Narayan and he has

touched each and every aspect of a child as though he has relived his

childhood each time he lifted his pen to portray a child.

With the world of childhood, a study of Narayan’s vision on child

literature was a unique experience. The child literature is just a part of vast

written literature which includes fiction, prose, myth, short stories, novels,
 Prasad 174

folk tales, poetry and nonfiction literature. Literature is a well considered

form of a language that influences the minds of readers of all ages. The great

literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons help the human mind to share

feelings and thoughts through language.

Narayan could understand very well that the foundation of any

language is laid at home and is nurtured by the surrounding and environment.

It is evident that he could understand very well that all depends on how one

develops his mind right from his childhood. The child by nature being

imitative, the stories told to the child in his childhood have a lasting impact on

his impressionable mind and psyche. An objective reading of Narayan’s

novels, especially the child-centered ones, show that they are buoyant with

energy, vigour and childhood pranks and it is difficult to miss the

autobiographical element in it. It shows that the thought process, vision and

outlook towards life, to a large extent, depends on the experiences and the first

experience a child gets is his family. Narayan is excellent in intricately

weaving the fabric viz. family around his characters. In India, family even

today, in spite of radical changes that are taking place, is a network of a

variety of relationships among its members. It comprises husband and wife,

parents and children, grand parents and grand children, a number of close as

well as distant relatives such as uncles, aunts, grand uncles and grand aunts,

and a variety of cousins. Narayan’s novels present in different ways virtually

all the relationships and he is adept in presenting the thoughts and deeds of a

child with different relations vividly in his writings.

It is undoubtedly true that Narayan’s most significant contribution to

Indian Writing in English is his simplicity. What is equally significant, though

 Prasad 175

not so well highlighted, is his superb imagination, his vision on child, child

literature and portrayal of children and the depiction of childhood of some of

his mature characters where Narayan is at his best. Besides enjoying his own

childhood, Narayan closely watched the childhood of his daughter as he took

care of her after his wife’s death in June 1939. He not only gave her a great

deal of his company in order to make up for her mother’s absence but amused

her so that she did not remember her mother. It is natural, therefore, that

scenes of childhood are so fresh in his writings. In his novels, his short

stories, essays and even his autobiography, one can hear the playing, giggling,

mischief-making children itching to come out of his pages. It appears that

Narayan was reconstructing the scenes of his boy-hood as well as that of his

daughter which must have left a deep impression on his mind and which are

reflected in his works.

It is a kind of imagination which makes the adult consider the child’s

mind a devil’s workshop. When concretized, it takes the form of fun and

frolic, mischief, childish games and activities. The entire novel dealing with

Swami and Friends is full of mischief and fun. While most of the children

are mischievous there are others who are simple to the point of being stupid.

It is in their simplicity, gullibility, and idiocy that their nature is represented.

Like Narayan himself, the children in his fiction are quite intelligent and witty

in everything except in their studies. Swaminathan shows his unwillingness

to go to school on Monday morning which marks the termination of his

playful activities. Narayan showed us that children’s world is the adult world

in miniature. It is here that Wordsworth’s concept of the child being father of

man finds expression in their daily activities. At times, the world of children is
 Prasad 176

portrayed in a mock-heroic fashion. Swami’s simple desires are converted

into his dreams and ambitions. Simplicity and charm – these seem rather

empty words to describe with any adequacy the full flavour of his books but

the qualities of simplicity, although always difficult to achieve, and the charm

are the fundamentals of Narayan’s distinctive tone.

A trivial incident is reported with unusual detail because it comes after

what was to Swami an intense personal experience; the series of actions

closely relate to the boy’s changing state of mind. The gap between the

generations is suggested very definitely in the book. The fantasies of the child

Swaminathan are nearer the idealized memories and myths of his

grandmother, and Swaminathan’s father stands at the same distance from both.

This distance is suggested in the slight pomposity of style both in the way his

father speaks and the way he writes (for example, the letter to the Head

Master of Albert Mission School). The set also accepts formal rules of

behaviour towards parents and teachers, and formal ways of punishing those

who break them. Swami puts his loyalty to his friends before the fear of his

Headmaster, but in the end fails to please either. Only his place in his family

is secure: ‘Father could be depended upon to get him out of trouble.’ The

limits of free choice, passage of time and friendships, and security in one’s

role within the family are themes which are only partially explored in Swami

and Friends.

Narayan’s writings are mostly child centered and his understanding of

child psychology had helped him in creating a world of child literature which

is evident from his writings. Academic excellence has always been the

concern of parents and a child unable to come up to the expectation of the

 Prasad 177

parents undergoes a mental trauma and a child’s wish to excel is shown very

meaningfully in his short story Iswaran. Narayan’s understanding of the

child, child’s hopes and aspirations, seeking happiness in small things like

getting dressed well and going for a cinema and the helplessness of a father

and the outpour of feelings are well shown in Forty-five a Month. The novel

Vendor of Sweets presents by far the most effective treatment of the theme of

the generation-communication-gap in the Indian context. The Performing

Child, Father’s Help, and Crime and Punishment are stories on child

literature and children. Narayan has a special knack of understanding the

child psychology and at the same time portraying them. The Regal, A Hero,

Leela’s Friend and Dodu bring us back to the world of Children, happy,

innocent, mischievous and sad with their little problems. Narayan seems to

recreate the world of childhood with rare artistry.

One might suspect that for such a lively portrayal of children, Narayan

might have studied child psychology. Narayan, on the contrary, considers

psychology a device not to understand children but to get away from their

noisy company. He, therefore, dismisses the child psychology as an atrocious

idea, as the escapist’s view and prefers to deal with children as human

realities, and not as abstractions, problems, bundles of psychological activities

or projects. It is with this healthy attitude that our novelist tries to understand

the children – their likes and dislikes, their resentment over being

discriminated against and their hatred for discipline. If Narayan succeeds

where child psychologists fail, he had seen the key to his success in the hands

of an unlettered servant who was not only friendly to a child but had the

capacity to enter that world as a little child.

 Prasad 178

Above all, the best thing about Narayan’s young characters is that they

are all true to their nature. Narayan is an extraordinary visionary who could

understand children and has created a world of Child Literature.

Broadly, the realistic depiction of the society and delineation of life in

its true sense is Social Realism. The raw material provided by life gets an

artistic form with the help of literature. The whole range of social forces

become operative in literature. It is further seen that literature not only

reproduces life but also influences it. In order to present the real picture of

society an artist must have a sense of social awareness. Similarly an author

cannot be treated as a complete author if he keeps himself aloof from the

society.

His special concentration on socialism realism depicts the realistic

approach of R K Narayan and the ease with which his characters are plotted

are immediately recognizable as all his characters are part and parcel of our

society. He possessed a wonderful ability to feel the pulse of the people and

the social context he wrote about. His realism was famed for his lightness of

touch and a style that is lean, lucid, undecorated but wonderfully expressive

and full of understated surprises.

Narayan’s writing show that Social Realism is not an art of the studio.

A social realist rather carefully translates life into a piece of literary art. He

may not react to the social, political, economic or religious conditions of his

time but his work is expression to his reaction. He selects some significant and

dramatic moments in the lives of ordinary people. These moments focus on

the indignity or pathos of their situation – the hard work they perform, the
 Prasad 179

inadequate rewards they receive for it, or the miserable condition they work

under. There is implicit or explicit criticism made of the contemporary social

system.

Narayan possessed a wonderful ability to convey a feel of the people

and the social context he wrote about. As a story teller, he was a natural,

picking at the bedrock of everyday existence to uncover the barest truths and

tease out the bold facts of life. He placed high value on spontaneity and ‘non-

deliberateness’ in fiction. As a novelist of international fame and repute, he

has to his credit more than fifty years of fiction writing. The most important

fact about his writing is that he is Indian to the core i.e. both in thought and

spirit though he preferred writing in English over his own mother tongue and

his creativity in a foreign language had not diminished a bit. He is easy to

understand, immensely absorbed in religion and family, unaffected and

indifferent to the literary fashion of west.

Narayan’s social consciousness and thereby realism is conspicuous in

his novels but his awareness is hidden below the blanket of irony. He

maintains the well laid out norms of fiction writing thus is free from all sorts

of partiality. K R S Iyengar explains how his artistic excellence is maintained

under a limitation:

“He is one of the few writers in India who take their craft

seriously, constantly striving to improve the instrument,

pursuing with a sense of dedication what may often seem to be

the mirage of technical perfection. There is a norm of

 Prasad 180

excellence below which Narayan cannot possibly lower

himself.”

( Mehta, 201)

Narayan’s fictional world is multi-dimentional and rich in color and

tone but the basic undercurrent of social awareness is always perceptible. As

class struggle is not the only and ultimate reality, Narayan’s social novels

transcend this ideological boundary and present the real picture of society

encompassing the broader humanity. Through his characters he vividly tries

to enliven the contemporary Indian life. R K Narayan is a gifted artist who is

extremely sensible to his surroundings, different kinds of people living in the

society, their likes and dislikes, aims and objectives, their ways of thinking

and living, their beliefs and the values they set before them. Narayan very

sincerely portrays man in relation to society in his novels. Thus Narayan also

passes the surpreme test of an artist through his sincerity with which he

portrays his characters.

Narayan’s fictional world is multi-dimentional and rich in color and

tone but the basic undercurrent of social awareness is always perceptible and

could very sincerely portray man in relation to society in his novels. His

realism is not just the surface realism. He essentially grasps the psychological

essence which gives his characters their reality. He delves deep into the minds

of the people. He transcended the concept of realism on the critical and the

socialistic planes and had evolved his own Malgudi Realism. In fact, his

creation Malgudi represents India. Narayan’s Malgudians are grateful to life

and death, despite the incredible complications affecting even the most
 Prasad 181

elementary aspects of their existence. His social realism is born out of his

innate understanding of human society.

An extensive and in-depth study of Narayan’s novels show that he

could successfully project true image of our country through his characters

and situations in different walks of life viz., a child and his innocence, the

youthful world, the complicated social world, the tricky commercial world

and the ruthless political world.

At the outset Narayan can be taken as a psychologist who knows

every nook and corner of a child’s mind. The world of children has been

presented by Narayan with minute details. Narayan beautifully portrays the

simple joys and sorrows of these children. Their act of teasing Swami by

nicknaming him ‘Rajam’s tail’ is the result of their hurt conscience. There is a

pang in their heart that they are inferior to Rajam.

The second phase in man’s life is youth, the spring of life. This phase

is most realistically depicted in Narayan’s novel The Bachelor of Arts. The

remarkable thing about Narayan is that he has produced his three novels

coinciding with the first three stages in human life. The first novel Swami

and Friends dealing with the child world, the second The Bachelor of Arts

dealing with the youth and the third The English Teacher dealing with the

conjugal life. All these novels are marked with deep autobiographical

elements.

R K Narayan’s novels are essentially Indian in character and they

exhibit the core of the social pattern of life existing in India. Different

customs, traditions, ways of thinking and living are so clearly depicted in

 Prasad 182

Narayan’s novels that even a foreigner, after reading Narayan’s novels, can

get first-hand knowledge about India. The Indian atmosphere is recreated

before the minds of the readers. As a social realist Narayan has a keen eye for

various customs and traditions that shape the life of the Society. Many popular

superstitions, rituals and beliefs are frequently exploited. Sadhus, sanyasis and

swamis are ever-recurring characters in his novels.

Lust for money is one of the dominant themes of Narayan’s novels.

Margayya in The Financial Expert and Raju in the Guide are striking

examples of ‘money-hunting men.’ Margayya is a middle-aged ordinary

money-lender, whose chief object in life is to rise in social status by earning

enormous wealth. He has his own philosophy regarding wealth.

As a social realist R K Narayan is also aware of this stream of life

underneath the political upheaval. He never aims at presenting himself as a

devoted Gandhian. Really speaking, he has that rare skill of effecting the

synthesis of attachment and detachment. In Swami and Friends Gandhiji is

seen addressing the people of Malgudi.

Narayan is a socially aware artist but his vision has a broad spectrum.

He sees beyond class-conflict. Further, he has a great regard for family ties

and pieties of the home. Therefore, domestic relationships occupy the central

place in his novels. He could beautifully deal with the theme of

communication gap in other novel The Vendor of Sweets.

R K Narayan’s social realism acquires a new dimension. His realism

is an expression of his essential humanism. He is perhaps the most celebrated

novelist among his contemporaries. His novels present the story of a common
 Prasad 183

man in a brilliant way. His uniqueness is visible in his perfect writing. He is a

thorough Indian novelist par excellence.

Study of R K Narayan’s work without looking into his childlike

attitude towards life would be like visiting a holy shrine without feeling the

sanctity of the place. His child-like attitude is the sole essence of his writing

and his child-like simplicity in thoughts and expression was the source of his

genius. There was nothing artificial in his works. His thoughts were

spontaneous, impulsive and mischievous. Like a small child he was charmed

by unsophisticated and simple, yet eccentric people and their lives. In his

acceptance speech for an American Cultural Award in New Delhi in 1982,

Narayan says:

“I wanted to be able to put in whatever I liked, and wherever I

liked – a little street or school or a temple or a bungalow or

even a slum, a railway line, at any spot, a minor despot in a

little world. I began to like my role, and I began to be

fascinated by its possibilities, its rivers, market place and the

far-off mountain roads and forests acquired a concrete quality

and have imprisoned me within their boundaries with the result

that I am unable to escape from Malgudi.”

(The Hindu June 03, 2001)

Almost every character in Narayan’s novels has child-like innocence

and this characteristic can be categorized as the children, the grown-ups

passing through the second childhood and the innocent rustics is evident in his

novels.
 Prasad 184

In children, Narayan presents a characteristic spectacle of innocent

characters. Although he plays with several faces of innocence, the vividly

telescoped type seems to be located in The Children. Swami and Friends,

Narayan’s first novel can be considered as full fledged study of innocence and

child-like attitude of Narayan. The overall nature of innocence, taken as a

child’s inherent trait is realized through the school-boy’s psychology, it has

been primarily focused through their ignorance.

The grown-ups passing through the Second Childhood is actually a

journey which begins in childhood and ends normally in old age. Although

the two stages of the life-span, namely childhood and old age, are poles apart,

possibly in sense of the term, they however, seem to share one trait in

common: the childlike innocence. If it is the most naturally realized trait of

childhood, it may have a symbolic realization in old age as well. As one

notices Granny’s innocence, realized primarily through her ignorance of the

new world of Swami, one also notices the novelist’s comic filter to reflect it.

In the final analysis Granny as the member of the second childhood lives up

to the role. There seems to be a unique character who, though neither plays

the child nor an old man, qualifies to be an innocent soul.

R K Narayan’s novels are known for his simplicity and great humour.

As a story teller, he was natural, picking at the bedrock of everyday existence

to uncover the barest truths and tease out the bare facts of life. He became a

child’s friend with his first novel Swami and Friends. Child Psychology in the

Works of R K Narayan is in a nutshell the essence of his writing.

 Prasad 185

WORKS CITED:

CHAPTER - I

Alam, Mohd. Ejaz, R K Narayan and the Inhabitants of Malgudi, Rajat

Publications, New Delhi, 2005, p.29.

Barman, P T, [Link]/quotes/keywords/[Link]

B B C 3rd Programme, 22 Feb. 1968, An interview with Prof. William Walsh.

Bhatnagar, G B R K Narayan: The Novelist (The Ph.D. Thesis submitted to

Nagpur University, Nagpur, 1981) p. 359.

Bhatnagar, M.K., New Insights into The Novels of R K Narayan, Atlantic

Publishers and Distributors Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. 2002, p. 208

Ibidem p. 210

Bloom, Harold, [Link]

Brown Rita Mae, [Link]/blog/[Link]/.../inspirational-quotes-for-

language-learners.

Cleave, Chris, [Link]/quotes/c/chriscleave

Derozio Henry L V: [Link]

Erikson, Erik, [Link]/quotes/authors/e/[Link]

Freud, Sigmund, [Link]

Froster, E M Aspects of the Novel, London: Edward Arnold Publishers, 1974,

p. 57.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, [Link]/blog/[Link]/.../inspirational-

quotes-for-language-learners.
 Prasad 186

Iyengar, K R Srinivas, Indian Writing in English. Sterling Publishers, New

Delhi, 2003, p.314

Ibidem p.358-360

Ibidem p. 364

Ibidem p.385

Jha, Ashok Kumar, R K Narayan: Myths and Archetypes in His Novels, B R

Publishing Corporation, Delhi, 2000, Preface.

Kapadia Nova, Middle Class Milieu in R. K. Narayan’s Novels, p. 158.

Karl Abraham, [Link]/quotes/authors/k/karl_abraham.html

Lair Jess, [Link]/quote/[Link]

Lombardi, Esther, [Link]/bio/[Link].

Mandela, Nelson, [Link]/blog/[Link]/.../inspirational-quotes-for-

language-learners.

Milligan, Ian, The Novels in English, an Introduction, London, Macmillan

Press Ltd., 1983, p. 151.S

Moragan, Clifford T, Introduction to Psychology, Tata McGraw-Hill

Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi, 1993, p.4.

Naik, M K, The Ironic Vision Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd., Delhi, 1983, p.1

Narasimhaiah, C D, Narayan’s ‘The Guide’ – Aspects of Indian Writing in

English, ed., M K Naik, Macmillan, 1979, p.175.

Narayan, R K, Swami and Friends, Indian Thought Publication, Mysore,

1985, p.3

____ ‘View of an Indian Novelist’, Indian and Foreign Review, Vol. 17, No.

15, May 15, 1920.

 Prasad 187

Parameswaran, Uma, A Study of Representative Indo-English Novelists, Delhi;

Vikas Publishers, p. 46.

Pastermark, Boris, [Link]/quotes/keywords/[Link]

Pound, Erza, [Link]/quotes/keywords/[Link]

Putney, Mary Jo, [Link]

Ramteke, S R, R K Narayan and his Social Perspective, Atlantic Publishers

and Distributers (P) Ltd., New Delhi, 1998 p. xiii

Singh, K Natwar. The Times of India, August 7, 1983.

Singh, P K, The Novels of R K Narayan – A Critical Evaluation, Atlantic

Publishers and Distributers, New Delhi, 2001, p. 20.

Ibidem p.13.

Stevenson, Robert Louis, [Link]

Sundaram, P S, R K Narayan Arnold Heinemann, New Delhi, 1973, p.33

Times of India, May 31, 1981.

The Times of India, July 26, 1981.

Walsh William: Indian Writing in English – Papers read at the Seminar on

Indian English held at the Central Institute of English and Foreign

Languages, Hyderabad, July 1972 - Edited by Ramesh Mohan, Orient

Longman, New Delhi, 1978, p. 26.

CHAPTER – II

“A E” (G W Russell), Germinal.

Bellamy, Gladys Carmen, “Roads To Freedom,” Twentieth Century

Interpretations of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Ed. by Claude M

Simpson, Eaglewood Cliffs, N J Prentice Hall, Inc., 1968, p.17

 Prasad 188

Dnyate, Ramesh, The Novels of R K Narayan A Typological Study of

Characters, Prestige Books, New Delhi, 1996 p. 59,60 & 61

Kipling & the Critics, edited by Elliot L Gilbert, Peter Owen, London, 1966.

P.153.

Krishnan, S, Uncle in Malgudi Landscapes, Penguin Books Pvt. Ltd., New

Delhi, 1992 p.270 ‘

Narayan, R K, Children in Reluctant Guru, Orient Paperbacks, New Delhi,

1974, p. 48.

The various references to R K Narayan’s novels are incorporated in the

body of the text. For all the quotations from his works referred to in

the present study, the page reference is given in parentheses after the

quotations, preceded by an abbreviated form of the title. When the

reference is clear only page number is cited in the bracket.

____ Dodu in Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories, Indian Thought

Publications, Chennai, 2009, p.61

____ Father’s Help in Malgudi Days, Indian Thought Publications, Chennai,

2009, p.56

____ Forty Five a Month in Malgudi Days, Indian Thought Publications,

Chennai, 2009, p.76

____ Hungry Child in Malgudi Days, Indian Thought Publications, Chennai,

2009, p.225

____ Iswaran in Malgudi Days, Indian Thought Publications, Chennai, 2009,

p. 45.

____ Leela’s Friend in Malgudi Days, Indian Thought Publications, Chennai,

2009, p.136
 Prasad 189

____ No School Today in Writer’s Nightmare – Selected Essays 1958 – 1988,

Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1990, p. 29.

____ Swami and Friends, Indian Thought Publications, Chennai, 2009, p. 28

____ The English Teacher, Indian Thought Publications, Chennai, 2009,

p.167.

____ The Performing Child in An Asgtrologer’s Day and Other Stories Indian

Thought Publications, Mysore p. 75

____ Unbreakable Doll in Malgudi Days, Mysore: Indian Thought

Publications, p. 86-87

Reviews in the Daily Mail, Spectator and Morning Post.

Sundaram, P S, R K Narayan , Arnold Heinemann, New Delhi, 1973, p.27.

The Journal of Indian Writing in English, 4, no. 2 (July, 1976), “[Link],

Lila and Literature,” p.7.

Twain, Mark, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Pigeon Books India, New Delhi, p.

17.

CHAPTER – III

Harrex, S C, The Fire and the Offering, Vol. II. The English Language Novel

of India (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1978) p.52

Mehta, Ved, The Train Had Just Arrived at Malgudi Station, John is Easy to

Please, Seeker and Warburg, London, 1971, p.148.

Narayan, R K,

___ Malgudi Days (Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 1996), p.45

___ My Days, Orient Paperbacks, Delhi, 1991, p.9

___ Reluctant Guru Orient Paperbacks, New Delhi, 1974, p. 28

 Prasad 190

___ Swami and Friends, Indian Thought Publications, Chennai, 2009 p. 2

___ The Dark Room, Hind Pocket Books, New Delhi, 1972 p.39

___ The English Teacher, Indian Thought Publications, Mysore, 1945

p. 147.

___ The Financial Expert, Indian Thought Publications, Mysore, 1975,

p.32

___ The Guide (Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, 1975), p.3

___ The Man-eater of Malgudi (London: The New English Library Ltd.,

1965), p.124

___ Uncle in Malgudi Landscapes, The Best of R K Narayan edited by S

Krishnan, Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1992 p. 273,274.

Singh, P K, The Novels of R K Narayan, A Critical Evaluation (Atlantic

Publishers and Distributers, New Delhi) p. 13

Sundaram P S, R K Narayan as a Novelist, B R Publishing Corporation,

Delhi, 1988, p.22-23.

Srivastava, Ramesh, What Is So Great in R K Narayan? Perspectives on R K

Narayan, ed. by Atma Ram (Ghaziabad: Vimal Prakashan, 1981) p.

205

Twain, Mark, Advntures of Huckleberry Finn (San Francisco: Chandler

Publishing Co. 1962), p.32

Walsh, William, Natraja and the Packet of Saffron, Readings in

Commonwealth Literature, ed. William Walsh (Oxford: Clarendon,

1973), p. 54.

Wordsworth, William, Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections

of Early Childhood.
 Prasad 191

CHAPTER – IV:

Belinsky, V G, Collected Works, Vol. 7, Moscow, 1955, p.443

Berkley, James, Romance and Realism (N Y: The Odyssey Press, 1961)

p.359.

Bhatnagar, K C, Realism in Major Indo-English Fiction (Bareilly Prakash

Book Depot, 1980) p.4

Bhatnagar, O P ‘Politics as Metaphor for Indian Poetry in English,’ in

Perspectives on Indian Poetry in English (Amravati: Bajaj

Publications, 1985), p.24.

Ibidem p.24

Ibidem p.38

Caudwell, Christopher, Illusion and Reality: A Study of the Sources of Poetry

(Delhi: People’s Publishing House Ltd., 1956), p.108

Drabble, Margaret, ed. The Oxford Companion to English Literatre. 5th ed.

(Great Britain: Richard Clay), p.917.

Engels’s letter to Margaret Harkness. Quoted by Marx and Engels, On

Literature & Art (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1976), p.90.

Fowler, Roger, ed., A Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms (London:

Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973), p.115

Gilra, Shiv K, R K Narayan : His World and His Art (Meerut : Saru

Publishing House, 1984) p.65

Goyal, Bhagwat S, “Thematic Patterns in the Early Novels of R K Narayan,”

R K Narayan: A Critical Spectrum, p.20

Ibidem p.47
 Prasad 192

Green, Graham, Preface to R K Narayan’s Swami and Friends (London,

1935).

Hindustan, Saptahik (Hindi), Oct., 76, pp. 10-16. Quoted by K.C. Bhatnagar,

Realism in Major Indo-English Fiction (Bareilly: Prakash Book

Depot. 1980) p.183

Iyengar, K R S, Indian Writing in English, Sterling Publishers, New

Delhi, 2003, p.359

Lewes, C H, ‘Realism in Art: Recent German Fiction’, Westminister Review,

LXX (Oct. 1858), p.493. Quoted by Ioan Williams, The Realist Novel

in England: A Study in Development (London: The Macmillan Press

Ltd., 1974), p.136

Kapadia, Nova, “Middle-class Milieu in R K Narayan’s Novels,” in

Commonwealth Fiction, ed. R K Dhawan (New Delhi: Classical

Publishing Company, 1988), I, p.147

___ Quotes “A Peep into R K Narayan’s Mind,” An interview, The Indian

Express, March 28, 1961. p.147

Kaul, A N “R K Narayan and the East-West Theme,” in Indian Literature, ed.

A Poddar (Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1972),

p. 227.

Mahod, Veena V, Social Realism in R K Narayan’s Novels (Book Enclave,

Jaipur, 1997) p. 48.

Mukherjee, Meenakshi, The Twice Born Fiction : Themes and Techniques of

the Indian Novel in English, 2nd ed. (New Delhi : Arnold Heinemann

Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1974), p. 43.

 Prasad 193

Murti, K V S, Kohinoor in the Crown: Critical Studies in Indian English

Literature (New Delhi: Sterling, 1987), p.125

Narasimhaiah, CD, The Swan and the Eagle (Simla: Indian Institute of

Advanced Study, 1969) p. 155

Narayan, R K, Swami and Friends, Indian Thought Publications, 2009, p.14

___ The Dark Room. Indian Thought Publications, Mysore, 1986, p.1

___ The Bachelor of Arts. Indian Thought Publications, Mysore, 1986, p.26.

____ The English Teacher, Indian Thought Publications, Chennai, 2009,

p.117.

___ The Financial Expert, Indian Thought Publications, Mysore, 1975, p.32

___ The Vendor of Sweets, Indian Thought Publications, Mysore, 1986, p.23

___ Waiting for the Mahatma. Indian Thought Publications, Mysore, 1984,

p.16.

Parameswaran, Uma, A Study of Representative Indo-English Novelists, p.76

Ibidem, p. 65

Ibidem, p. 74

Scott, Wilbur S, ed., Five Approaches to Literary Criticism (1962: rpt.

New York: the Macmillan Company, 1966), p.123

Shapiro, David, ed., Social Realism: Art as a Weapon (New York: Fredrick

Ungar Publishing Co., 1973), p.3

Singh, P K, The Novels of R K Narayan, A Critical Evaluation (Atlantic

Publishers and Distributors, 2001) p.81

Sundaram, P S, R K Narayan (New Delhi : Arnold – Heinemann, 1973), p.37

Trotsky, Leon, Literature and Revolution (1960: 5th rpt. Ann Arber: The

University of Michigan Press, 1975) p. 235.

 Prasad 194

Walsh, William, Commonwealth Literature (London: Oxford University Press,

1973), pp 12-13

Wellek, Ren’e and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, 3rd ed. (1949 rpt.

Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., 1968), p.9

CHAPTER –V:

Dnyate Ramesh, The Novels of R K Narayan - A Typological Study of

Characters, (New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1996), p. 34-58.

Jaidev. 1987, “The Importance of Being a Child: A Note on Two Details in

Narayan’s The Guide,” The Journal of Indian Writing in English, Vol.

15 (July)

Harvey, W J 1965. “The Human Context,” The Theory of the Novel, ed. Philip

Stevick, 1967; New York: The Press.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. 1850. The Scarlet Letter. 1996, New Delhi: Urasia.

Naipaul, V S 1964. An Area of Darkness. London; Andre Deutch.

Narayan, R K, Swami and Friends, Indian Thought Publications, Mysore,

2009.

___ 1938. The Dark Room. 1986; Mysore: Indian Thought Publications

___ 1945. The English Teacher. 2009; Mysore: Indian Thought Publications

___ 1952. The Financial Expert. 1984; Mysore: Indian Thought Publications

___ 1955 Waiting for the Mahatma. 1984; Mysore: Indian Thought Publications.

___ 1958. The Guide. 1971; Mysore: Indian Thought Publications.

Parameswaran, Uma 1985. “Children in Narayan,” Journal of Karnataka

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 Prasad 195

Shakespeare, William 1623. As You Like It. 1975; London: Metheun.

Walsh William 1973. Commonwealth Literature. London: Oxford University

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___ 1982. R K Narayan: A Critical Appreciation. New Delhi: Allied.

CHAPTER VI:

Mehta P P, Indo-Anglian Fiction: An Assessment of R K Narayan, Bareilly,

Prakash Book Depot, 1968), p. 201

Narayan, R K in the first person – An interview with Susan Ram published in

Frontline, Vol. 27 – Issue 01: Jan. 02-15, 2010.

___ The English Teacher. 2009; Mysore: Indian Thought Publications, p. 167

Naik M K, A History of Indian English Literature, New Delhi, Sahitya

Academi, 1986., p. 162

Singh, P K The Novels of R K Narayan – A Critical Evaluation, Atlantic

Publishers and Distributors, New Delhi, 2001, p. 77.

The Hindu, June, 03, 2001.

Walsh, William, An interview with R K Narayan (“Writers and their Work,”

No. 224 published for the British Council by Longman), p.7