THE MAN AND THE MILIEU: A STUDY OF
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THE SHORT FICTION OF R. K. NARAYAN
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THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH TO KUMAUN UNIVERSITY, NAINITAL
2011
Supervisor : Professor A.S. Adhikari Department of English Kumaun University, S.S.J. Campus, Almora – 263601 India
Researcher: Mrs. Beena Karnatak
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THESIS
DEDICATED
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MY DEAR TEACHER
LATE Dr. NEETA JOSHI
Acknowledgement
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It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge my deep and affectionate gratitude to late Dr. (Ms.) Neeta Joshi, Department of English, Kumaun University, D. S. B. Campus, Nainital for initiating me to Narayan studies. But for Dr. Joshi’s encouragement the work would never have begun. She guided and stimulated me at every turn in the initial stages of the work and in her I found the inspiration of an ideal scholar and a great teacher.
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I express my deep sense of gratitude to my supervisor Professor A. S. Adhikari, Department of English, Kumaun University, S. S. J. Campus, Almora for his invaluable guidance without which this study could not have been possible. I am truly indebted to him as he was kind enough to supervise my thesis after the sudden demise of my supervisor Dr. (Ms.) Neeta Joshi. My thanks are also due to Professor S. A. Hamid for encouraging me and the other teachers of the English Department of Kumaun University for the same. I take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Lalji Mishra, Head (Retired), Department of English, M. B. P. G. College, Haldwani who was kind enough to go through the draft of my thesis and gave me valuable suggestions. I also owe my thanks to the Librarian and staff of Central Library, Kumaun University, Nainital, S. S. J. Campus, Almora and Central Library, M. B. P. G. College, Haldwani, Sahitya Academy Library, New Delhi for providing me library consultation facilities. I owe special thanks to Mr. Mahesh Joshi, Assistant Librarian M. B. P. G. College, Haldwani for his help. This dissertation would have been simply impossible without the confidence, endurance and support of my family. I would like
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SUMMARY
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R. K. Narayan emerges as one of the most important novelist and short story writer in presenting the realities of the simple lives of the people living in Malgudi, a microcosm of South India. Using the form of short story as a probe, he highlights simple South Indian people’s lived experience in search of identity in the complex social order. He displays the different facets of ordinary people’s life and shows what it is to be a middle class simple person, and the efforts, a person has to make towards establishing his identity. The present analysis of Narayan’s short stories is with a view to understand the short story writer’s concept of man and his milieu. It is in this context that Narayan’s deep and profound relationship with society is analyzed.
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Narayan’s initial perception and recognition of the condition of middle class people in the Indian society has generated a unique change in his stories. Narayan’s stories present the mosaic of middle class characters, encompassing fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, servants, armors, monkey performers, postmen, clerks, teachers, cricketers, children etc. which is achieved by the integration of the individual self and the social self. The stories begin with the specific realization of the situation of being a character. In spite of being rooted in material experience, Narayan’s characters are able to move out of the confinement in search of a better independent life. Narayan records a distinct departure from the subjective world of characters specially of women to envision society as a whole where meaning of life and their relation to something larger than the self, preoccupy the protagonists. Having explored the various aspects of human psycho-specially with reference to
2 women, an attempt has been made to understand their responsibility towards something outside the self and establish meaningful relationship with the society. Through these various relationships, the protagonists struggle to survive, strengthen themselves and attain fulfillment.
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Narayan’s synthesis of tradition and modernity in his stories mark the emergence of the self defined middle class people who have forged an independent existence and voiced previously unspoken conflicts and experiences. Narayan has established himself as a unique writer in making literary articulation, a responsible soil function. By enhancing middle class consciousness, his stories project the feelings and perceptions associated with human progress towards self-definition.
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The present research work deals with the man and the miliue as presented in the short fiction of R. K. Narayan. Narayan was busy in writing almost for five decades. He not only got success in his country but also earned the reputation as an international figure. He was remarkably praised by famous novelists such as Graham Green, V. S. Naipaul and John Updike. For every writer environment or background plays a prominent role. It is like the background of a body. Narayan has chosen Malgudi as the background of his stories. It is an imaginary town but it has emerged as an important character. It is essentially Indian in spirit and appears as a living presence in his stories. Malgudi can be called “Mini India”. Narayan has tried to present his point of view, his concept of life through the world of Malgudi. It is an effort to experience the Malgudi world in its essence. Referring to R. K. Narayan’s love for Malgudi, P. K. Singh writes:
3 R. K. Narayan frames his fictional imagination within the municipal limit of Malgudi. Malgudi is his an ‘imaginary regional locales’ like the ‘Lake District’ of Wordsworth ‘boarder countries’ of Sir Walter Scott, ‘The Wessssex’ of Thomas Hardy or ‘The Five Town’ of Arnold Bennet. As an imaginary South Indian town, it is situated between Madras and Tiruchirapalli. Narayan’s all characters-students, teachers, artists, Sannyasis, dreamers and realists-live within its limits (65).
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Many critics do not accept Malgudi as a mere geographical expression in Narayan’s stories due to its all absorbing interest to the readers. Critics find Malgudi as the real hero of Narayan’s stories R. S. Singh also holds the same opinion. In his, book Indian Novel in English. He writes:
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Malgudi is not only the microcosm of India in its multifarious mood but it is also the real hero of his novels, Swami, Chandran, Ramani, Krishnan, Sampath, Sriram, Raju, Vasu and Mali-all these characters are typically Malgudian, therefore, Indian, despite their angularities and oddities (56).
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Malgudi world is greatly discussed by critics. It has become an important character in itself. Malgudi does not exist anywhere on the map of India. In an interview John is Easy to Please, Narayan himself reveals the secret of Malgudi to Ved Mehta: I remember waking up with the name Malgudi on Vijayadashmi, the day on which the goddess of learning is celebrated. Malgudi was an earth-shaking discovery for me, because I had no mind for facts and things like that which would be necessary in writing about Malgudi or any real place. I first pictured not my town but just the railway station, which was a small platform with a banyan tree, a station master, and two trains a day, one coming and one going.(66)
Malgudi is a small town of South India. It has a modest size. It is the only imaginary town which lives in the mind of an Indian English writer. Though Malgudi is an imaginary town but it appears to us as a live character rather more real than any real town of South India. Readers can easily see how Narayan’s characters
4 are typically Malgudians, deeply rooted in the local customs and traditions.
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Narayan has written a number of stories of rare charm and skill. These stories were contributed to “The Hindu” and his own short lived “Quarterly Journal, Indian Thought”. Just like his fiction, his short stories also show the hand of a delicate and original artist. He believes in “Art for arts sake”. In his stories, he presents life as it is than to find a meaning behind it. In his stories, he mainly chooses a specific condition or a miniature of life and then projects it for his readers. In his stories, he never exaggerates his characters and the situations. The present work has been divided into five chapters.
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The first chapter deals with the nature of short story and gives a description of the changes which have come in short story writing from the beginning till the present time. Narayan’s short stories have also been compared with the short stories of different writers such as Shankar Ram, A. S. P. Ayyar, S. K. Chettur, K. S. Venkataramani, Manjeri Isvaran, Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, R. A. Abbas etc. The second chapter makes an analysis of the short stories of Narayan written during the early phase of his career. Narayan started his carrer as a writer dealing primarily with the characters such as school boys, teachers, college boys and college teacher. His early short story collection include Malgudi Days and An Astrologer’s Day and Other Stories. These stories present a sociological study of the pre-independence era. The third chapter makes an analysis of the stories collected in Lawley Road and Other Stories and A Horse and Two Goats and
5 Other Stories. The stories of Narayan’s middle phase are delightful showing stories of various middle class characters. While describing the middle phase of his stories K. R. S. Iyengar in Indian Writing In English writes:
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We enter an exotic world as half-headed or half-hearted dreamers, artists, financiers, speculators, twisters, adventures eccentrics cracks cinema-stars, sanyasis, several of them not Malgudi products at all but staying or important from outside (373).
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The stories of Narayan’s later phase are based on the classical myths, middle class, the inevitable victory of good over the evil, the law of life and concept of Karuna, the concept of cyclical existence and the various stages of middle class human beings lives. The short story collections of this phase are Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories and Salt and Sawdust and Other Stories.
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R. K. Narayan began his short story writing almost a decade after Anand’s. His famous short story collections are Cyclone and Other Stories, Dodu and Other Stories, Malgudi Days and Other Stories, An Astrologer’s Day and Other Stories, Lawley Road and Other Stories, A Horse and Two Goats and Gods and Demons and Others. The most characteristic note of his stories is a gentle irony. Sometime this ironic exposure helps us to understand human psychology. For example, in “The Doctor’s Word”, a physician famous for his ruthless truthfulness speaks a lie to save his best friend, who is on his death bed. In “Missing Mail”, a humble postman hides a letter bearing the news of a relative’s death so that the marriage in the family may complete without a disturbance. “A Horse and Two Goats” is a first class comedy of international misunderstanding. An unlettered Indian goatherd thinks that the American visitor to his village wishes to buy his two goats,
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6 whereas the tourist is actually bargaining for the big clay horse in the village of which he wrongly thinks the goatherd is the owner. Here is a competition in single minded simplicity on two different cultural places. “Engine Trouble” tells the different fate of a man who wins a road engine in a lottery. This road engine proves white elephant for the family. At the end one great storm, solve their problem. In “The Magic Beard”, beard makes a man a prosperous beggar organizer, but all the power of his hand disappears when he shaves it off, without anticipating the consequences. “The White Flower” presents a light satire against the Hindu system of marriage according to which the union of two hearts depends upon the wishes of other people. “An End of Troubles” is the most moving and pathetic of all the stories of Narayan, the story describes the tragic death of Kuppan, a poor rickshaw driver. “Man-Hunt” is a funny story based on an ironical situation. The main interest of the story arises from a printing mistake in connection with the search of a missing boy. The “Mute Companions” And “Attila” are stories about animals. They describe how mute animals often prove more helpful and serviceable to man than members of his own species. “The Comedian”, “Under the Banyan Tree” is the psychological stories. These stories point out that artist fail to charm people when age begins to leave its fatal impress on them and then their talents fail. In “The Axe” we are told of the great shack which Velan, an old gardener gets when he finds that the garden he has grown with great care is going to be cleared off and the trees he has reared with the boundless love of a fond parents are going to be hacked. In “A Shadow” The author gives a very successful description of the internal working of the mind of a mother and son. “Father’s Help”, “Unbreakable Doll” and “A Willing Slave” are the stories about
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7 children. “Old Man of The Temple”, “The Level-Crossing” and “The Magic Beard” is the ghost stories and deal with mysterious situations for which the writer gives no convincing explanations. “Forty-five A Mouth”, “The Birthday Gift”, “Dodu” and “Leela’s Friend” are also stories about children. These stories hinge upon ironical situations which besides being amusing and entertaining, provide a peep into the nature and character of the eager, innocent and easily credulous children. “The Birthday Gift” is a very humorous story. It describes the trials and tribulations of Sonu, a young boy who loses the costly pen his father has presented to him on his birthday. “Dodu” is the story named after an eight year old boy who is always found in need of money for hundred reasons. In “Gandhi’s Appeal”, we are shown how a lawyer and his wife, Padma, are led to do something which they have taken every care to avoid. In “Blessing of Railway”, a clever father, Sambasivan, plans to show his beautiful daughter to a promising young man in a railway compartment. “Dasi The Bridegroom” is the tragic-comic story of a simpleton who having fallen a pray to the pranks of his neighbours is driven to complete madness. “A Change” Shows the impact of the machine age on human lives. “The One Armed Giant” is the sketch of a beggar with one arm. It gives eagerness with which he waits for the young man who promises to give him a coat. “The Broken Pot” is the pathetic story of a family which is completely ruined due to the hard-hearted behaviour of a vile woman, Kali. The story gives a moving description of the socially discarded and poverty, stricken people. “Mother and Son” portrays very successfully the mental condition of a fond mother who rebukes her son for not acting according to her wishes and then feels very much concerned about him when he does not return home that night. “An Astrologer’s Day” is one of the famous
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8 stories of R.K. Narayan. It describes an accidental meeting of a run-away criminal turned an astrologer with his old enemy, Guru Nayak whom he has thrown in a well in a fit of drunkenness and taken for dead. “Gate man’s Gift” portrays the shake and bewilderment of an aged toy-maker, Govind Singh at receiving a registered letter from the office where he had worked as a gateman for twenty five years. “Fellow-Feeling” shows a study in the character of a bully who tries to harass Rajam Iyer and other passengers in a Railway compartment by encroaching upon their legitimate space and inflicting useless secrets upon them. “The Evening Gift” describes the misfortune of Sankar, a sturdy peasant from a village near Malgudi “Chippy” provides a very fine study of the psychology of animals. “A Night of Cyclone” is narrated by a Talkative man. It is also full of improbable incidents described in a thrilling and convincing manner. It tells the difficulties faced by him on a might of cyclone, when by unfortunate coincidence his wife delivers her first child without any human or medical aid. In “The Artist’s Turn”, an artist who fails to satisfy the whims of a publisher regarding the sketch of the great clown Tenali Rama decides to draw the publisher’s own face. His trick works for the sketch is immediately approved by the publisher. “The Roman Image” is another story narrated by the Talkative Man. It gives a humorous description of a funny situation in which an archeologist and his assistant get involved. “An Accident” is a ghost story describing the encounter of the author with the ghost of Arul Doss, a driver, who has earlier lost his life in a car accident. “Such Perfection” is another story containing super-natural elements in it. It describes the misery of Soma, a skillful image maker who is advised against the consecrations of his idol of Nataraja in a temple. In “A Parrot Story”, Ramani whose talents as a poet remain
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9 unrecognized because editors and publishers stand between him and his public, decide to improve his fortunes by starting the parrot business. In “All Avoidable Talk”, the readers are told of the great ordeal that Sastri has to face when he tries to avoid all avoidable talk under the instructions of an astrologer. “Crime And Punishment” is a very humorous story. It describes the tricks and tribulation of a tutor engaged for coaching the pampered son of wealthy parents. “The Tiger’s Claw” is an animal story. “The Watchman” and “A Snake In the Grass” are based on subtle ironic situations. In the “Martyr’s Corner”, Narayan ridicules the craze for erecting monuments in honour of big and small leaders.
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“Another community” is the only story in which Narayan makes a reference to the savage and shameless carnage in India, witnessed at the time of the transfer of the power. “Half A Rupee Worth” describes the tragic death of the avaricious Subbiah, a rice merchant, who falls victim to his own greed for wealth. “Flavours of Cocoanut” gives a funny description of the hunt and trial of a little mouse who has been guilty of ratting the vessels, ravaging the food-stuffs and so on. “At the Portal” describes how a certain member of an important committee misses one of its meeting as he is held up by the pleasant sight of a baby squirrel’s repeated attempts to climb the port-holes in a compound wall. “A Breach of Promise” describes the dizzy joys of a young boy who passes higher Secondary Examination turns into fear as he appears before the goddess Chamundi and is reminded of breaking his previous promise of ending his life if he failed. “Uncle’s Letters” gives a very interesting account of the experiences that come in the life a man as he grows from a child into an aged man. “Around a Temple” is narrated by the Talkative man. It describes the
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10 punishment inflicted on a forest officer by the deity in Anjaneya temple, “Trial of The Green Blazer” describes how Raju, a pickpocket, who has successfully removed a purse from the pocket of a man putting on the green blazer, is moved by the presence of a balloons lying in the purse. “Four Rupees” is very humorous story. It describes the ironical situation in which Ranga, a jobless labour, is a caught when he unwittingly agrees to pull out a bucket from a deep well. “The Shelter” describes the accidental meeting of the long separated husband and wife on a stormy and rainy day. “In “The Magic Cure” Kannan and his brother-in-law play a trick upon an old lady, Thayi, and rob her of her ornaments under the pretext of providing her the magic cure for her severe stomach-ache. “Like the Sun” is one of the most humours stories of Narayan’s collections. It describes the trials and tribulations of Sekhar, a teacher who suffers because of the habit of speaking truth.
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Narayan’s makes use of tragic irony, such as in “Isvaran”. In this story, a college student who has failed many times in intermediate at last passes in second class. But he cannot bear this happiness and goes mad on this sudden pleasant surprise. Narayan is not successful in using tragic irony. Equally, he is not successful in using supernatural themes.“Level Crossing” and “Accident” are better stories of this group. A few of his stories are purely character-sketches and they reveal Narayan’s keen eye for eccentricity, “Uncle” “Annamalai” and “Breath of Lucifer” are some of the best examples. Narayan’s Malgudi milieu is uniformly compact and his Malgudi stories are told in his usual seemingly artless style. In many of his stories, there is a universal narrator. It is known as the “Talkative Man”. In one of his stories “Uncle’s Letter”. The style
11 of narration is entirely different. In this story, the complete life span of a south Indian is described through letters.
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Another important characteristic of Narayan’s stories is the thematic interconnection between some of his stories and his novels. A few of his stories are influenced by his famous novels. “The Regal”, “A Hero”, “Father’s Help” and “Dodu” are stories of boyhood experiences which could very well have fitted into “Swami and Friends”. In “The White Flower”, the horoscope problem is the same as in “The Bachelor of Arts” The situation in “The Seventh House” has close affinities with The English Teacher. The story “Four Rupees” repeats The Guide theme on a different level and with a happy ending. Though Narayan is a good short story writer and his stories are, always readable they are perhaps not as significant an achievement as his major novels. Even in the best of his story, what we miss is that transformation of irony from a simple stance into a meaningful vision of life. Time is undoubtedly present in almost all of his novels. R. K. Narayan works neither with the aristocracy at the top nor with the poor. He, like Jane Austen, identifies himself with the middle class people and their life cycle, their clashes and adjustments. In his stories, he emerges as a critic of contemporary society. In a wild manner, he criticizes the follies and foibles of modern civilization. However, in a soft manner, he raises social problems of Algoid society but, he believes in the principle of “Art for Art’s Slake”. This characteristic of Narayan’s writing can be compared with E. M. Forster and D. H. Lawrence. Like H. G. Wells and Galsworthy, he writes also for the pleasure of creation and beauty. He has a special liking for religious life and hence in all his short stories, readers are bound to come across Sanyasi,
12 temple and rivers. Narayan’s subject is man-in-society. Man in his environment is the basic theme of his stories. Not only Narayan but almost all Indian English writers present historical and geographical awareness of Indian situations. In Narayan’s short stories, the theme is sociological. His approach is to deal basically with the manners, customs, conventions and system of Indian society.
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The different phases of his career as a short story writer show that Narayan deals with the contemporary social issues. National Freedom movement provided rich and ready materials to writers of Narayan’s generation and thus social problems and political issues became an inseparable part of Indian literature. Indian English literature in particular is a sociological study of the contemporary society. Most of Narayan’s stories deal only with the social issues of the present society because they deal with a central theme that keeps the strands of the narrative bound together. R. K. Narayan’s stories witness the stream of social consciousness which gripped Indian literature. The present study is a humble attempt to explore his social consciousness and to assign the writer his due place among Indian English short story writers. A chronological evaluation of his stories has been made for this purpose. ************
CONTENTS Page no.
2. The Earlier Phase 3. The Middle Phase
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4. The Later Phase
1 – 71
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1. Introduction
72-177
178-230 231-323 324-356
6. Bibliography
357-363
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5. Conclusion
