Cultural Juxtaposition in R.K Naryan’s novel The Guide

Abstract

R K Narayan is one of the celebrated novelists of that era. His novel The Guide won the Sahitya Academy Award. The main objective of the paper is to discuss about the mixing of Indian and western culture. Indian is a country where logic and belief sit side by side. The novel maybe inspired by an incident in Mysore. Here acute drought completely dried up Krishna Raja Sagar. Some religious chanting took place for rain. The novelist combined the enforced sainthood with that incident. The novel has two layer of narrative. The third person narrative starts with Raju when he came out of jail. The first person narrative is Raju's recollection of past life to Velan. The novel The Guide has myth and reality blended in the plot. The life of Raju closely follows the concept of Chaturasham. Rosie who is an educated woman still carries some Indian values and Raju's mother carries traditional Indian rules. The two place village Mongal And town Malgudi shows two India in a single globe. While Malgudi is a commercial town with money sharks, Mongal is a place where ever a poor pays homage to a spiritual man with blind faith. The novelist juxtaposes both the sides into one pattern to portray real India in his novel.