Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur, University Nagpur

1. RashtrasantTukadojiMaharaj Nagpur, University Nagpur ShriSaibabaLokPrabodhan Arts College, Wadner Ta:- Hinganghat, Distt:- Wardha Subject: English Literature Class: B. A. II, Semester-III Presented By Asst. Prof. NiteshTelhande Head of English Department ShriSaibabaLokPrabodhan Arts College, Wadner

2. The GuideBy R. K. Narayan

3. R. K. Narayan (10 October 1906 – 13 May 2001) Full name is Rasipuram krishnaswamiIyerNarayanaswami

4. His Writing Style: • Simple • Unpretentious • Element of Humour • Focused on Ordinary People • Write about the intricacies of Indian Society

5. His works: • Novels of Malgudi • Swami and Friends (1935) • The Bachelor of Arts (1937) • The Dark Room (1938) • The English Teacher (1944) • Mr.Sampath-The Printer of Malgudi (1949) • The Financial Expert (1952) • The Vendor of Sweets (1967) • The Painter of Signs (1976) • A Tiger for Malgudi (1983) • Talkative Man (1986) • The World of Nagaraj (1990)

6. Stories: • A Horse and Two Goats (1970) • An Astrologer’s Days and Other Stories (1947) • Lawley Road (1956) • Malgudi Days (1982) • Under the Banyan Tree and Other Stories (1985) • The Grandmother’s Tale (1993)

7. About The Text: • The Guide is one of the immortal classics of the world by R. K. Narayan published in 1958. • He wrote many novels and short stories and sketches. For his valuable contribution he was awarded SahityaAkademi Award for 1960. • This novel has been translated into one of the important languages of the world. It has also been filmed. It is triumph of Narayan’s art. • It floats as gently as a lily pad on the surface of Indian life and yet suggests the depths beneath. • It manages to describe a saint, who is neither born nor made but simply happens, almost like the weather.

8. Major Characters: • Raju – A tourist guide and Protagonist of novel • Marco – Archaeologist and Husband of Rosie • Rosie – Wife of Marco • Velan – A villager

9. The Plot: • The Guide is divided into two parts, the fist part narrates Raju’s childhood, love affair and imprisonment. • The second part deals with his growth into a swami. • The narrative stream moves simultaneously, the first part is set in Malgudi and the second part is set in Mangla. • While Raju’s past in Malgudi is narrated by Raju himself, his present in Mangla is narrated by the author.

10. When we first encounter Raju, he is about to meet Velan, the villager. • Rajuis out from jail and he does not want to go to Malgudi. • Velanmistakes him for a holy man.

11. Raju’sPast: • Grows up near a railway station, and becomes a shopkeeper, and then a resourceful tourist guide. • He meets Rosie, a beautiful dancer, and her husband, whom Raju nicknames Marco, because the man dresses in a thick jacket and helmet as if undertaking an expedition, like Marco Polo. • Marco is a scholar and anthropologist, who is more interested in his research than in his young wife Rosie.

12. Rosie and Marco engage Raju’s services as a tourist guide, and he takes them sightseeing. • While Marco is away studying cave paintings, Raju falls in love with Rosie. When Marco discovers that Raju and Rosie have become lovers, Marco abandons her and returns to Madras. • Rajubecomes infatuated with Rosie. He is so obsessed with Rosie that he forgets his business, falls into debt, and loses his shop at the railway station.

13. He also loses his mother’s respect because he is living with a married woman. • Raju’smother moves out of their house, and the house is claimed to pay off his debts. • Rajuencourages Rosie to resume her career as a dancer, and becomes her manager, launching her on a successful career as an interpreter of Bharat Natya, the classical dance of India.

14. But he spends money extravagantly, and is tricked by Marco into forging Rosie’s signature for a package of her jewels, a mistake that earns him a two-year prison sentence. • On his release from prison, Raju stops to rest near an abandoned temple, where a villager named Velan mistakes him for a holy man. • 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.

15. 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.

16. Central Theme: • 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.

17. After his imprisonment, and after his transformation as a holy man, he is careful, thoughtful, and self-disciplined. • He is transformed from a sinner to a saint, thought he is never truly a sinner, and never truly a saint. • Because of his capacity for empathy, Raju is a sympathetic character throughout the novel.