Decoding Class - Consciousness in R.k. Narayan's “ The Guide”

Registration ID: IJNRD_185470

Published ID: IJNRD2212312

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Ms. Indu Prasad

differences, Society, class, power, relations, struggle

India is a country full of diversity in terms of geographical location, religion, caste, class, creed, rituals language, physical appearances, attires etc. and more or less these differences contribute in our thinking, personality development, behavior, actions etc. Now, there are both the positive and negative sides of such differences, sometimes the negative being more apparent. Such divisions not only exist but maintain a hierarchy in society and unconsciously we are always aware of our relations with others in that hierarchy. Narayan's stories seem to be concerned with simple problems of middle-class people and their solutions in a humorous way. But he is not completely away from serious concerns like caste, class and gender rather he did engage with these issues. Malgudi is divided on class lines, with the elite living in lowley Extension and the lowly living elsewhere, in or off Ellaman street. In ‘Waiting for Mahatma’ Gandhi goes to the home of the poorest of the poor avoiding the Municipal Board Chairman's hospitality. Swami and his friends go to the poorer quarters to fight with the coachman's son. In ‘The Guide’ also Narayan does study “… economic problems minutely and exquisitely and thereby frame several economic groups. While Marco and Rosie represent the well-to-do class, Gaffur and Joseph denote the low wage-earners. In the character of the sait, the money - lender, we find a wealthy person who amasses and hoards wealth thriving upon the troubles of other persons. Then there are the rich lawyers who make huge amount of money at the expense of the clients.”(Sarkar,01) There is always a latent spirit of struggle among all those classes or continuous attempt by them to upgrade their class maintain it. Such unconscious attempts by all the three main characters of the novel cause complexities in their lives and decide the plot of the novel. The present paper deals with decoding the psychological working in all the three main characters and some other characters of the novel in context of their class in society which is not only confined to the economical similarities among a group of people but also the similarities in terms of thinking, beliefs, gender, background, upbringing, place etc. Unknowingly they are always aware of their class and their actions and dialogues are always more or less influenced by their class-consciousness. It is this knowledge which silently creates ego, love, ambition, greed, jealousy, hatred, devotion, atonement etc. in them.

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Ms. Indu Prasad (December-2022). Decoding Class - Consciousness in R.k. Narayan's “ The Guide”. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NOVEL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, 7(12), d124-d126. https://ijnrd.org/papers/IJNRD2212312.pdf

Volume 7 Issue 12, December-2022

Pages : d124-d126

Paper Reg. ID: IJNRD_185470

Published Paper Id: IJNRD2212312

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Published Paper PDF: https://ijnrd.org/papers/IJNRD2212312.pdf

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Journal Name: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NOVEL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT(IJNRD)

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