Themes in the guide (edited)

this ppt was made for the ppt presentation in class. The source mainly is The Guide by R.K. Narayan. and the photo is taken from an online website. no plagiarism to my knowledge.

1. THEMES IN “THE GUIDE” by r.k . Narayan Amarnath Udayasoman Nair, 1 st YEAR M.A. English

2. R.K.NARAYAN BORN: 10 October 1906 PLACE: Rasipuram , Madras MARRIAGE : Rajam CHILDREN: 1 Daughter ( Hema ) DEATH: 13 May 2001

3. AWARDS Sahitya Akademi Award (1958) – The Guide Padma Bhushan (1964) Filmfare Award for Best Story(1967) – The Guide Padma Vibhushan (2000)

4. CHARACTERS RAJU – a railway shopkeeper who becomes an unauthorised guide later manager of a dancer, then a convict and later a holyman . ROSIE – a dancer by passion, starts as a dependent wife later becomes a independent woman. MARCO – Rosie’s husband, a workaholic. VELAN – a villager who proclaims Raju to be a holyman , a true believer of Raju . GAFFUR– a friend of Raju and a taxi driver. MANI – an assistant of Raju when he was the manager of Rosie.

5. Themes MATERIALISM POWER OF SPEECH FEMINISM PHILOSOPHY PASSION

6. MATERIALISM Materialism is a way of thinking according to which everything in the world happens as a result of material interaction, even our emotions and behaviours . Materialism forms the crux of Raju’s life-story. Through out his pre-prison life he strived to live a life of materialistic happiness. His career change from a shopkeeper to guide was mainly for the monetary purpose through any means. His materialistic views may have been formed by his childhood experiences. Due to which he began to attribute happiness with materials. Even when he is at the Temple the main reason why he decides to stay is because he is getting material benefits from the people in the village.

7. Raju’s decision of finding opportunity for Rosie was initially to give her artistic self exposure but as her fame rises he begins to use her art for his benefit. When he talks about Rosie and his progress in life he forgets her artistic achievements and focus on the material pleasures he could accumulate. He talks about how big the house is, how much money he is making, how many servants they employ etc. His life always revolved around materialistic gains until he starts the fast voluntarily after reluctance of initial days.

8. A quote which best indicates the materialism in the book happens when Raju talks about ones happiness: “Well, you have a big household, a big car and what not –is that not enjoyment of life?”

9. POWER OF SPEECH The novel is propelled by speech rather than action. Speech or spoken words play a important part in the novel. Through out the novel the action propels as a result of someone’s spoken words . Raju’s transformation into Railway Raju happens as a result of his cunningness in choosing words spoken to the tourists and descriptions of tourist sights. Through out the story we see Raju making people around him do what he wants through his power of speech. This mainly happens in connection with Rosie. Characters are defined through their speech.Marco is a character who speaks less and he is the character who is less defined.

10. Simplicity of philosophy is also shown through speech in the book as Raju delivers philosophical sermon to the villagers. The reason that lands Raju ultimately in the unwilling fast is misconstrued speech, credit to Velan’s brother. The entire narrative of past is in fact the words spoken by Raju to Velan and it captivates both Velan and us just like all other dialogues in the story. The backbone of entire novel is the power of speech which various characters possess, mainly Raju .

11. The suitable quote for showing power of speech is when Velan’s brother talks about what the Swami told to him: “ Tell your brother not to bring me any more food I won’t eat. If I don’t eat, it’ll be all right ; and then everything will be all right.”

12. FEMINISM R.K.Narayan speaks feminism through the story of Rosie and scales such heights which the then authors could only imagine. Rosie is a character who is introduced as a dependent wife but by the end of the story she is a independent artist. who needs no other person by her side to tread through her life. The men in Rosie’s life always comes with new hope which half way through proves to be a false one, whether its Marco or Raju . Through her Narayan portrays a new breed of women who are ready to move along with their life whether there is a man beside her or not. She is also a sexually and economically independent woman.

13. By creating two female characters who belongs to different generations Narayan shows how societies expectation from women changes over time. It was also a daring attempt by Narayan to make the character of heroine a “ Devadasi ” and shaking the readers conscience. Narayan’s feminist heroine never loses her feminine side as most of the times Rosie is confused about whether toidentify herself as a wife, woman or an artist. Male perspective of independent women is made clear through Raju’s initial comments about Rosie. The message that a woman can only be free when she becomes independent is driven in to the hearts of the readers by making the character of Rosie be bossed around by Marco without love and by Raju with love.

14. The entire strength which the character of Rosie attains in this novel can be showed through following lines spoken by Raju : “I knew looking at the way she was going about her business, that she would manage whether I was inside the bars or outside, whether her husband approved it or not. Neither Marco nor I had any place in her life, which had its own sustaining vitality and which she herself had underestimated all along.”

15. SPIRITUALITY The entire story can be considered as an allegory about the journey of human soul from a worldly being to the ultimate breaking of the ties with the world. The story also shows how the soul becomes one with the divine energy. Especially the scene in which Raju feels at peace when he is praying knee deep in water. All the characters comes into Raju’s life and leave him when their purpose in his life is served. The story is all about freeing ones spirit. W hether it is Rosie freeing the artist within herself or Raju finding peace ultimately or the villagers feeling at ease when they get a spiritual advisor.

16. The characters of Rosie and Raju are taken on a spiritual journey by Karma and it culminates for Rosie when she finds her footing on her own and for Raju with him freeing his soul from worldly pleasures. The villagers get a chance to look into their own soul with the help of Raju’s sermons all the while when Raju goes on doubting his qualification to perform this task. Through out the story Raju is a character who is not contend with what he has got but by the end of the novel he attains tranquility and comes to peace with his spirit.

17. A quote which shows the character attaining spiritual oneness is: “This enjoyment is something Velan cannot take away from me.”

18. PASSION Passion is another theme which is highly visible in the story and this passion while turns out to be good for the person who feels it, proves to be fatal to the people around them. The passion can be traced through three characters: Rosie, Raju and Marco. The passion in the story is mostly self consuming, whether its for Marco, Rosie or Raju . The most intense of the passion is faced by Marco, who doesn’t care about anything else around him except for his aim. One characters passion is always an impediment for another character.

19. Rosie’s passion for dancing cannot be tolerated by Marco, Marco’s passion for caves cannot be understood by Rosie and Raju’s passion for worldly pleasures makes him commit many sins. All the passionate characters get what they aspired for Raju gets Rosie, Rosie gets to dance and Marco publishes a book which changes the south Indian history like he aspired. The passion consumes Rosie as at one point in the story she gets tired of dancing but still loves it. Raju’s passion proved to be fatal as he lost the very thing which he tried to possess through some miscalculated actions.

20. THANK YOU