THE GUIDE

1. THE GUIDE R. K. NARAYAN

2. INTRODUCTION •The Guide is a 1958 novel written in English by the Indian author R. K. Narayan. Like most of his works the novel is based on Malgudi, the fictional town in South India. • Philosophical novel , describes the transformation of the protagonist, Raju, from a tour guide to a spiritual guide and then one of the greatest holy men of India. • The novel describes the transformation of the protagonist, Raju, from a tour guide to a spiritual guide and then one of the greatest holy men of India. • The novel brought its author the 1960 SahityaAkademi Award for English, by the SahityaAkademi, India's National Academy of Letters.

3. Main Characters in the Story • Raju- tourist guide (central character) • Marco- scholar and an anthropologist • Rosie- Marcos wife • Velan- villager

4. Theme of the Novel • The Guide is a novel about the rather serious issue of what constitutes a Guru-this, at any rate, is one of its major themes. • Furthermore, the novel not only asks if Raju is a real Guru but also if Gurus are for real. • At an even more complex level, the novel engages with the whole question of Indian modernity. • Did modernity in India really refashion Indian society as it did in Europe? Or is it something that exists, side by side with tradition, but unable to comprehend it? Or is it a superficial facade, a veneer that hides but not erases the force of tradition?

5. Character of RAJU The main character of The Guide, who pretends to be a holy man in search of love and more importantly, food. Raju, at first, seems like a stereotypical criminal. He’s always looking for a shortcut (when he forges Rosie’s signature for her jewelry), and this gets him in trouble. He’s also a born liar, as indicated by him telling Velan that he is a holy man, when he really is pretty much the opposite. However, this all arose from a desire to be loved. Him forging Rosie’s signature was not really a criminal act, but rather a desire for attention and love for his wealth.

6. Character of ROSIE Rosie is one of the main characters in R.K. Narayan’s The Guide. At first glance, it seems as if she is a woman of many roles, from taking on wife, to dancer, to mistress to national icon. But, throughout all of the many changes in her life, she stays devoted to dance. To Rosie, or her stage name Nalini, dance is a constant in her life and is with her no matter who else is gone. Although her life mostly revolves around dance, she is greatly affected by Marco and Raju.

7. Character of Marco Marco is another main character in R.K. Narayan’s The Guide. He is the husband of Rosie, the dancer. Although he is a very intelligent man, he spends all his time occupied with his work instead of pleasing his adventurous wife who eventually leaves him. He specializes in cave paintings that show India’s past culture. His reason for business in Malgudi is the cave paintings that lead him to Raju for assistance.

8. STORY • The setting of R.K. Narayan’s novel, The Guide, as in most of his novels, is Malgudi, a fictional town in southern India. The novel is told through a series of flashbacks. • Raju, the central character, is a shopkeeper, and then becomes a popular tourist guide by the name of Railway Raju. • His success as a tourist guide lies in his sincerity, ingenuity and intelligence. • He falls in love with Rosie, who is the epitome of beauty and talent for him. • Rosie is the wife of Marco who is blind to her physical and emotional needs.

9. Continued… • Rosie and Marco engage Raju’s services as a tourist guide, and he takes them sightseeing. She wants to see a king cobra dancing ; Marco wants to study cave paintings. Rosie and Marco quarrel constantly, and Marco remains cold and aloof toward Rosie. • While Marco is away studying cave paintings, Raju falls in love with Rosie. • He wears the mask of a lover in order to gratify his lust for Rosie and money. • When Marco discovers that Raju and Rosie have become lovers, Marco abandons her and returns to Madras.

10. continued… • Raju is so obsessed with Rosie that he forgets his business, falls into debt, and loses his shop at the railway station. • He also loses his mothers respect because he is living with a married woman. • Raju’s mother moves out of their house, and the house is claimed to pay off his debts.

11. continued… • Raju encourages Rosie to resume her career as a dancer, and becomes her manager, launching her on a successful career as an interpreter of Bharatanatyam, a classical dance of India. • He spends money extravagantly and commits a faux pas by forging Rosie’s signature for a package of her jewels, a mistake that earns him a two-year prison sentence.

12. continued… • On his release from prison, Raju stops to rest near an abandoned temple, where a villager named Velan mistakes him for a holy man. • Raju does not want to return in disgrace to his friends in Malgudi, and reluctantly decides to play the part of a holy man. • Raju wears the mask of a Swami. But this mask becomes his face in the end. • He is happy to accept the daily offering of food which the villagers bring him. Gradually he accepts the role which has been thrust upon him, and he acts as spiritual advisor to the village community.

13. continued… • Raju is content with the arrangement, until a drought occurs, and, to save face, he has to take up a 12-day fast. As a great crowd gathers to watch him during his ordeal, he begins to believe in the role he has created. He has taken on an unselfish task, not for love or money, for the first time in his life. • Despite grave danger to his health, he continues to fast until he collapses. His legs sag down as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. • The ending of the novel leaves unanswered the question of whether he dies, or whether the drought has really ended.

14. continued… • A central theme of the novel is the transformation of Raju from his role as a tour guide to that of a spiritual guide. • The title of the novel, The Guide, has a double meaning, and Raju is in a sense a double character. • As a tour guide and lover, he is impulsive, unprincipled, and self-indulgent. After his imprisonment, and after his transformation as a holy man, he is careful, thoughtful, and self-disciplined.

15. TRANSFORMATION OF RAJU • The novel also tells two stories, that of Raju’srelationship with Rosie, and that of Raju’srelationship with the villagers as a holy man. • The novel begins with Raju sitting beside the temple and meeting the villager named Velan, who mistakes him for a holy man. The novel then alternates between an account of Raju’s career as a holy man, which is told in the third-person, and Raju’s account to Velan of his previous career as a tour guide and lover, which is told in the first-person. • This dualism reflects the dualism in Raju’scharacter. He is transformed from a sinner to a saint, though he is never truly a sinner, and never truly a saint. Because of his capacity forempathy, Raju is a sympathetic character throughout the novel.

16. JUSTIFICATION OF THE TITLE • The title of the novel is very apt as it shows Raju’s career and life as a guide for the tourists and then later on for the villagers. • The novel shows his progression and transformation from a selfish tourist guide to aselfless holy guide. From an unruly, undisciplined, and selfish man, he turns into a thoughtful, selfless, and disciplined person. • The major theme of transmigration of the human soul from the clutches of maya or ordinary desires to attain nirvana or self realization is amply demonstrated by the author in the novel. 

17. continued… • Raju begins his journey of life as a selfish man who is smitten and trapped in the world of maya or illusion, but finally is able to achieve the path of self realization in the end when he turns into a selfless guru or spiritual guide, doing his dharma, or moral duty assigned to him by God. • He rises from the ranks of a railway guide to a spiritual guide and derives spiritual joy from the fast that he keeps for the villagers. • From a Pseudo Saint he attains the stature of a real saint.

18. CONCLUSION • The Guide begins as a comic look at the life of a rogue, but develops into something different in its progression. • In a fairly compact and concise manner the book conveys the numerous aspects of the day-to-daylives of Indian people. • The different culture systems, the superstitions and values of the people of a small town named Malgudi serves as a reflection on Indian society altogether.