Analysis Of R. K. Narayan's The Financial Expert

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R.K. Narayan’s The Financial Expert is a masterpiece and the setting is provided by various localities in Malgudi which appear and re-appear in the novel. Margayya is the financial expert and the central character of the novel. As H.M. Williams says, The Financial Expert is a marvel of plot construction. “Its five parts correspondingly represent the five acts of an Elizabethan drama. It tells the story of the rise and fall of Margayya, the financial expert. Margayya shows the ‘Marg’ or the way to others. He is the financial wizard and is expert in financial matters. Walsh calls Margayya, the hero of the novel, “Probably Narayan’s greatest single comic creation”. Margayya is a human being like us. Like a brooding philosopher, he generalizes …show more content…

Margayya passes through many ups and down in his life only on account of his passion for money. After the death of their father, Margayya and his brother could not maintain cordial relations. So they had to setup separate homes. But drinking water well remained common property for both the brothers. His mother was a kind charitable woman. She made very effacious tooth powder but never sold it. He got the son. Balu, after a lot of Japas and Poojas. He always fulfils all the demands of Balu. It is only because of his son that he wants to earn more and more money. He also wants to give high education to his son for which he needed money. But his excessive love is responsible for spoiling the boy. Balu is also responsible for the financial ruin of his father. The novel shows Narayan’s “tortuous awareness of the disjointed …show more content…

This mad man lives in a spacious house called ‘The House of Enlightenment’. He secures employment for those who come to seek his help. He also writes post cards daily, giving false news to the relatives about the death of someone or the other. He keeps a record of addresses of all those to come to him. However, his staff members do not actually post the cards he writes. But accidentally the post card regarding Balu was posted. To every question that is put to him he replies that he would reply only when God permits him to do so. Margayya and the police officer are able to trace out Balu at a cinema hall engaged in publicity. Both the police officer and the mad man do not appear again in the novel. But they play important roles in the career of the hero. Their appearances take away a little from the realm of the novel and impart to it the character of the Indian fable which is more often than not a mixture of realism and

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