Page 1 of 7
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 01
January 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 421
A Brief Description of R.K. Narayan’s - The Guide
Nisha
Ex Student,
Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra
Abstract: The novel begins on the outskirts of the quiet village of Malgudi, where a simple
villager named Velan mistakes Raju, newly out of jail and resting at the ruins near the river,
as a holy man. Velan is reverential toward Raju and tells him of his problems, namely that his
half-sister refuses to marry the man selected for her. Raju does not really care but since he is
lonely, he is happy that somebody is talking to him. He thinks about how he just got out of
jail and of his time before then as a famed tourist guide. Raju lived in Malgudi with his
mother and father. He grew up as the train station was being built and eventually, after his
father's death, came to run his father's spacious shop. He loved talking to people and was
quite popular as a guide; his nickname was even "Railway Raju."
Keywords: The Guide, Upliftment, Malgudi, Railway Raju, Circumstances.
Introduction: While Savitri has endurance, sacrifice and strong maternal instincts as the
hallmarks of her personality, Rosie can best be described in terms of pure passion, carnal
pleasure and a zest for all that is lively. In The Dark Room (1938), as in The Guide (1958), life
meanders through different passages culminating in the identical experience of home
coming, albeit at different times and settings. Both Savitri and Rosie decide to return to their
origin where they felt they actually belonged, though for entirely different reasons and
under the pressure of different circumstances. In the case of Savitri, it is largely the maternal
instinct accompanied with her incompetence to fend for herself a respectable job as she
lacks the educational qualification essential for it that compels her to return to her
husband's house. Nevertheless, it is not Savitri, the wife, who returns to Ramani, her
husband; It is Savitri, the mother, who comes back to her children. Rosie, however, presents,
a slightly different aspect of the feminine in view of and in specific relationship to time and
Page 2 of 7
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 01
January 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 422
environment as reflected in the emergence of a new consciousness and sensibility in the
post independence Indian society. It was a time when certain theories about an ideal social
state were being put into practice. The upliftment of women was one of them. Rosie in
relation to this change in social attitude towards women is the representative of a new class
of women who had the opportunity to be released from the conventional confinement to
join colleges and universities in order to acquire a formal education. Rosie is a Master's
degree holder, an acquisition which does not fail to impress even Raju's mother. The main
reason for her return, however, is her disenchantment with the mechanical routine of her
dance schedule and also with her disillusionment with Raju whose motives are questionable.
Moreover, she realises that Raju was in no way different from Marco, who, she feels, is at
least her lawfully wedded husband whereas she is in no way connected to Raju. After an
intense crisis of conscience, she feels herself truly bound to and obliged by Marco. Like
Shanti in Mr. Sampath (1949), she feels a disgust for her present life. She tells Raju that she
was tired of her circus existence. She returns from Malgudi to live her life henceforth as a
reputed artist and a sincere, remorseful wife in anonymity. Her return symbolises return to
the world of reality, however, harsh or hostile it may be. Like all the Narayan protagonists,
Rosie in The Guide discovers that the world from which she wanted to escape in her quest
for self fulfillment is the only world which can offer real happiness to her. Like Chandran in
The Bachelor of Arts (1937), Shanti in Mr. Sampath and Savitri in The Dark Room, she learns
to accept life as it is. She realises that there can be no way out of one's fated conciliation.
Hence, hers can be called a journey from assertion to acceptance. Raju is clever enough to
know how to exploit Rosie's weakness" for dance:
Her eyes lit up with a new fervour at the mention of dancing. So I
sat up with her to day dream. I found out the clue to her affection
and utilised it to the utmost.
Page 3 of 7
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 01
January 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 423
But above all, it is her intense fervour and sincere and whole-hearted devotion to
dance that makes her look up to Raju, readily and easily available and genuinely interested,
as a messiah. Rosie wants to realize herself as a human being through the co-operation of
Raju. Narayan actually attaches great value to the basic humanness of his characters. They
are not capable of great sacrifices or grand and eloquent philosophizing. They are ordinary,
down-to-earth human beings prone to vices and incongruities of sundry sorts. They
participate in the act of living with complete involvement and drifting through the journey of
life, they undergo the process of trial and error and acquire a first hand experience of fife
and eventually emerge as mature and wise human beings. This very fact about them makes
them the claimant of receiving sympathy both of the winter and the reader. As opines
William Walsh also, though in a slightly different context:
The language is correspondingly temperate, mild in metaphor and
simple in syntax, and its easy action and unemphatic delivery are
exactly suited to express the special quality of feeling, an
observant and unrelaxed gentleness, which Narayan displays
towards his characters.
After stem hard work, Rosie is now well prepared to give a show of four hours. Raju
decides to launch Rosie's dancing career with a new name for her. Both of them worked on a
variety of names and after four days' hard thinking, they decided for Nalini, which sounded
to them more poetic and appealing: "This name had significance, poetry and universality,
and yet was short and easily remembered". With at attainment of a new name, Rosie too
enters a new phase of life. With the attainment of a new name, Rosie entered a new phase
of life. Under the new name, Rosie and all that she suffered in earlier life was buried in
public view." Rosie's professional life starts with her first dance performance in the annual
function of the Albert Mission School. When the office bearers of the students' Union of
Albert Mission came to Raju's house, Rosie gives them a demonstration of her enchanting
