R.K. Narayan's Presentation of Indian Society in His Stories

R.K. Narayan's Presentation of Indian Society in His Stories R.K. Narayan is an Indian novelist and short story writer who writes in English. His novels show how the lives of ordinary

Indian people reflect the greater concerns of national identity and

historical change. He presents the Indian society in four different

stories, "The Evening Gift", "Trail of the Green Blazer", "The Blind

Dog" and "The Tiger's Claw".

"The Tiger's Claw" is a short story with comic elements

added to it, which talks about a man who boasts about himself

throughout the whole story of how he fought the tiger all by himself.

"The Blind Dog" is a short story, which compares man with animal and

how an animal can be more sensible and loyal than man. "Trail of the

Green Blazer", teaches a man a lesson that, when you are given a

certain characteristic, use it accordingly and not change it. "The

Evening Gift" is also a short story, which talks about an employer and

employee relationship and how it got shattered due to some

misunderstanding.

All the four stories try to bring out the Indian society

through its setting, people, even through the way they react to a

certain situation. The stories consists of very ordinary characters

and a setting which is very poverty stricken. Through lives of

ordinary men, and the ordinary lives they live, R.K. Narayan is able

to bring out, or rather, convey thoughtful messages to the audience.

In all the four stories we are introduced to certain

characters through which we learn the messages, R.K. Narayan is trying

to put acro...

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...f how poor he is. In "The Blind Dog", we see a lot of poverty

around. The beggar, the dog, the place in which they live, the

ribbon-seller, novel-vendor and perfumer, all have a very simple and

pathetic life.

Through all these stories R.K. Narayan wants to show that a simple

man's life can also greatly affect you and teach you great values. In

an Indian value system, family is considered to be one of the first

priorities, and therefore we have people like Raju and Sankar, who can

get to do any type of jobs to support and take care of them. The

setting makes us aware of India as a developing state, but the people

in India are very well developed. Even though they are not educated,

they have sustained and preserved those values, which might lead them

or maybe others to become a better person.

English Coursework