1.

1
Would you describe this book as realistic? How does the author, R. K. Narayan,
play with both myth and realism in the construction of the narrative?
In his novel Swami and Friends, R. K. Narayan evokes a mythical setting of Malgudi
that is both grounded in specific local details and generic enough to stand in for a
universal and authentic imaginary of India. While Narayan sketches out the contours of
the town by giving us place names of important features, such as the River Sarayu where
Swami and Rajam meet for their duel, he eschews ethnographic detail of the town to
focus on the vivid inner and social life of Swami. Therefore, one may argue that the
novel is realistic in the ways that it evokes the spirit of Indian boyhood in British India,
but it is less concerned with a kind of historical or ethnographic realism. Therefore, one
could say that the realism of the book is colored by the sense of wonder and naïveté of a
young boy and therefore combines both traditional realistic and mythical elements.
2. 2
How would you describe the tone and attitude of the narrator toward Swami and
the other characters?
The narrator of the novel inhabits a point of view of someone clearly wiser and older
than Swami. Sometimes, the narrator will at times playfully mock Swami, such as when
he receives the letter from the sporting goods company and completely misunderstands
it. The narrator, by recounting word-for-word the letter, enables readers to read the letter
themselves and realize how woefully the boys have misread the letter.

The narrator, despite moments of ironic sympathy, does not intervene or comment
explicitly on Swami and his antics. Instead, the novel closely follows their movements
and thus our reading is synchronous with Swami's experience of reality, which intensifies
the emotional immediacy and sense of drama. This becomes most explicit when Swami
gets lost in the woods at the end of the novel; we encounter every odd sound, devilish
whisper, and scary imagining that occurs to him. There is no given space to distance or
process the sensations separately from Swami—instead we inhabit his point of view
closely.

3. 3
Swami and Friends is a children’s novel about a schoolboy and his friends, but it
also weaves together historical conditions of popular revolt against colonial rule and
for independent nationhood. How does the schoolboy narrative interact with India's
colonial history and struggle for independence?
Power struggles run through the entirety of Swami and Friends. The underlying struggle
in the novel is the historical struggle of India attempting to gain independence from
Britain. By telling a schoolboy narrative in a mythical town, Narayan evokes this period
of time in an intimate scale and with the lightheartedness of everyday life. In doing so,
Narayan shows the insidious ways that colonialism is assimilated into everyday life by
influencing how one stands in relation to another—in particular, how the parts of
Swami's life deemed feminine and other are positioned as inferior, which is evident in his
relationship with his granny. Swami consistently goes to her for emotional support and
for a listening ear when he is bored or wants to brag about Rajam. Yet, he also
consistently devalues her because she is old and doesn't know anything about cricket, an
English sport that he and his friends becomes obsessed with.
Boyhood is defined as an escape from maternal figures and independence from
patriarchal and colonial figures. The struggles that define Swami's boyhood involve
subverting and escaping patriarchs—most prominently, his headmasters and his father.
 His struggles dovetail neatly with the larger historical struggle, as is evidenced in the
“Broken Panes” chapter when he easily joins the protests and throws stones at the
headmaster’s windows, motivated by his personal antagonism toward school emboldened
by the larger political mood. True independence is something that Swami yearns for but
fails to achieve, or at least stumbles toward it. The novel thus chronicles his missteps
toward freedom and brings India's historic independence movement down to the level of
perception of a young, small-town boy.

4. 4
How does the protagonist, Swami, navigate his dueling desires for community and
for freedom? What do you think he learns at the end?
Belonging and freedom are two powerful yearnings that Swami experiences. Swami
desires social affirmation, especially from his father and his friend, Rajam, whom he
looks up to. The problem is that belonging is conditional upon following certain rules
and norms, which he struggles with because he also desires freedom from coercion, as
becomes evident in his escape from school and participation in the political strike.
However, whenever Swami runs aways, he is reeled back in because he powerfully
misses the belonging entailed in being part of a community, whether regarding his
family, his friend group, or even his school. Thus, Swami is perpetually torn between
ingratiating himself into the center and escaping to the periphery. Indeed, while Swami
chafes against the authoritarian style of his teachers, he happily submits himself to
Rajam, who, assuming intellectual authority, lectures him on cricket and the Vedas and
rebukes him for participating in the political strike.

The novel begins with descriptions of Swami's close friends and how he gets along with
them, demonstrating their centrality to his life in Malgudi. He works extremely hard to
impress Rajam because he is ultimately afraid of being socially rejected by him. When he
briefly has a falling out with his old friends over being “Rajam’s tail,” he is shocked and
deeply uncomfortable. He comes to regret his expulsion from Albert Mission School
because he fears that he will lose contact with his school friends. By the time he expels
himself from the Board High School, he looks back longingly at his old missionary
school, reflects on his old “cosy and homely” history class, and almost weeps at the
memory of his friends “happy dignified and honored” within the walls of the missionary
school. The image of Swami, on the verge of tears as he stands outside the boundaries of
his former school, about to escape into the woods because he dreads the consequences of
his actions, is reflective of the conundrum between freedom and community that he has
always faced.

At the end, actually on his own in the woods, he finds himself entirely miserable, on the
verge of delirium, hungering after his mother’s cooking and hallucinating about the
cricket game that he was supposed to have played with his team. Precisely when he is
alone, when Swami is the most “free” from the social coercion that he faced, he comes to
terms with his powerful attachments and attempts to return. While he is able to return to
his old school, the Board High School, and is welcomed back to his family, he has
missed the cricket game and is unforgiven by Rajam.

5. 5
How does the structure of the narrative inform the sense of time in Swami’s world?
Time passes unevenly and subjectively in Swami’s world. Every day is a new day. The
novel proceeds in short, episodic chapters that revolve around a single incident or person,
resulting in a shape of time expressed in punctuated, self-contained units that gain
 coherence by filling out a profile of Swami’s life. Despite the shortness of each chapter,
the pacing is slow because the chapters do not connect with each other or build
momentum, but rather start afresh to illuminate a new aspect of Swami’s life in Malgudi.

The novel expresses a subjective sense of time by the absence or presence of specific
time markers. Indeed, the novel begins, “It was Monday morning.” Swami struggles to
wake up because after the “delicious freedom of Saturday and Sunday,” he could not
adjust to the “Monday mood of work and discipline.” School oppresses his sense of time
and assimilates it into a binary of school day and weekend, a time of work versus a time
of freedom. Before certain big deadlines—namely, the examinations and the cricket
game—time is heightened with suspense and clearly demarcated with each passing week
and day noted. In other times, such as after school is let out, time passes smoothly and
without hard distinctions between days or weeks.

THEME

In Swami and Friends by R.K. Narayan we have the theme of disobedience, conflict, control,
authority, power, rebellion and independence. Narrated in the third person by an unnamed
narrator the reader realises after reading the story that Narayan may be exploring the theme of
disobedience. Swaminathan has burnt his school cap in support of Gandhi who has been jailed.
As to whether Swaminathan fully understands what is happening is a different matter as he is
after all only ten years old. By burning his cap he may not be protesting so much about British
injustices in India but rather the fact that he has to go to school in the first place. It is also
possible that Swaminathan is impressionable and may have followed the lead of older school
boys. How impressionable Swaminathan may be is noticeable by the fact that when he sees the
boy outside the school breaking the windows. Swaminathan picks up some stones and begins to
break windows too. It might also be important that Swaminathan attempts to impose his own
will on the smaller children from the boarding school. He is only too well aware that he will be
beaten by the older boys who attend the boarding school if he attempts to intimidate them and
as such stays clear of them.

If anything just as the crowd are trying to control their environment outside the school, at the
boarding school and at the centre of Market Road. Swaminathan is also attempting to control the
infants from the boarding school. It is as though Swaminathan does not actually know why he
has not gone into school or as to why he is protesting. Which may be the point that Narayan is
attempting to make. He may be suggesting that Swaminathan is caught up in what is happening
and is enjoying the fact that he is able to rebel as any young child might like to do. Though
again Swaminathan may not know what he is rebelling about. Swaminathan is also very fearful
of what his father might say to him when he tells him that he needs another cap. This too might
be important as it suggests that Swaminathan realises that he is under the control of his father.
It is his father who dictates what will happen. So it is an act of good fortune that the day’s
events outside the school can be used to Swaminathan’s advantage. Even if he has to lie about
what really happened his cap.

In reality Swaminathan appears to be enjoying the adventure that is to be had as part of the
crowd going through the streets of Malgudi. He is free to do as he wishes and he wishes to
continue to break windows (boarding school). However his enjoyment soon comes to an end
when those in authority take back control and reclaim the streets. For the second time in the
story Swaminathan is afraid. He does not necessarily like the police and he knows that they are
more powerful than he could ever be. It is as though Swaminathan has met his match and he
knows it. Similarly the bruises and aches that Swaminathan feels later in the evening suggest
that his day has been one in whereby he has been lucky to escape with his life. Swaminathan’s
father does after all mention that people have been killed during the clashes between the crowd
and the police. This may be important as it highlights to the reader just how serious the events
of the day have been. Even if Swaminathan had viewed the day as being an adventure till the
police arrived.

The end of the story is also interesting as Swaminathan appears to knowingly rebel against the
system. Though he takes the punishment that is administered to him by the Head Master
Swaminathan does everything that he can to show that he is not hurt. He holds back the tears
he wants to cry and runs out of the classroom. It is as though things have become personal for
Swaminathan. Where previously he was just part of a crowd and following the lead of the crowd.
Now Swaminathan is making decisions for himself. If anything as Swaminathan is running out of
the classroom he is showing independence. He is able to think for himself. He knows what is
happening to him is wrong and he does not wish to be part of a system that treats him unfairly.
Something that some critics might suggest is similar to how millions of Indians felt at the time
the story is set. Just as they may have felt beaten by British rule so too does Swaminathan feel
as though he is being beaten for no good reason. Without knowing it Swaminathan may have
learnt an important lesson. At times those in authority can abuse their power.