Raven Culver Essays (861 words) - Indian Films, The Guide

Raven Culver EN-229 Dr. Laoye 3 March 2017 The Guide R.K. Narayan's novel, "The Guide" , deals with a man named Raju who recently was released from prison. After being spotted in a temple and mistaken for a Swami, Raju has now taken on that role and is pretending to be this holy man in Malgudi. In this novel, I had analyzed chapters six and eleven. In chapter six, the people are worshipping Raju as a Swami or saint. Because of his "role" as a religious leader, people bring gifts to his templeand Raju's love for food makes it easy to accept them. From all the abundance of gifts, Raju stopped becoming interested in these gifts and began handing them back out to the women and children at the end of the day. Based on the gifts given to him, Raju could tell what season it was so there was no need to keep a calendar. During one season, the rain had stopped half way through the season and crops began to dry up. Though the people were going through all these difficulties with their crops, they still continued to bring Raju gifts, though they we re smaller in, "size and volume" ( Narayan 71). The lack of rains began to effect the animals who no longer could plow the fields or produce milk. The people kept running the Raju for answers about the lack of rain, failing crops, and dying cattle; each for which he had made up some reason. As the days went on and more and more animals died and wells dried up, the townspeople began to become frustrated. They started fighting from the high food cost and stress. Upon seeing this, Raju thought of leaving town, but knew the people would look for him. Instead, he declared that he would fast until the people stopped fighting and the rains came. The people compare Raju to Ghandi and the pressure begins to overwhelm Raju. One night, Raju sits Velan down and tells him, "I am not a saint, Velan, I'm just an ordinary human being like anyone else. Listen to my story" ( Narayan 87), and reveals who he truly is. In chapter 11, Raju finishes narrating his life story to Velan about his childhood up until his release from jail. In the village, government officials sent a commission to observe the conditions of the drought and remedies; with this commission came newspapers. The newspapers began to spread word about the Swami and his fasting for the drought. These newspapers brought this to public interest. Raju was never left alone. He constantly had villagers outside of the temple protecting him. He finally vouched that he would stop thinking about food for the next ten days. He was finally making a true effort to be the Swami everyone saw him as and maybe this was his new dharma. Concentrating on something other than money and love gave him a new trill to actually keep with his promiseto fast in order to end the draught. Soon enough, Raju attracted attention from all over that he was being interviewed and appointed doctors by the government. By his tenth day of fasting, Raju's heal th was declining drastically, but tomorrow would be his last day of fast. On the eleventh day, Raju went down to the river, stepped into his basin, looked towards the mountains, said a prayer, and then opened his eyes. He said to Velan, "it is raining in the hills. I can feel it coming up under my feet, up my legs" (Narayan 196). In the beginning of the novel, we see that Raju is greedy and accepts all gifts given to him, though he knows that the villagers are suffering from the failing crops and lack of rain. When villagers had asked him questions, Raju came up with answer s that the people had believed because of his prestigious role in their caste system . He was pretending to be the swami to save the hopes of the people. At the end of chapter six, he finally feels guilty and admits his true dharma to Velan. Going forward to chapter eleven, we get Velan's reaction, which is not much