14/12/2022

NAME: ANUSHKA MUDULI

COURSE: B.A ENGLISH HONOURS

ENROLMENT NUMBER: A91606122044

COURSE CODE: ENGL101

SEMESTER: 1

SECTION: A

ASSIGNMENT FOR HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

 ACKNOWLEGEMENT
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my History of English Literature
teachers Mrs Mohona Chatterjee and Mrs Ranita Chakraborty Dasgupta who gave me the
golden opportunity to do this wonderful assignment on the topic about the 20 th century
Novels.
Secondly, I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing
this assignment within the limited time frame.
Lastly, I like to thank all my supporters who have motivated me to fulfil their assignment
before the timeline.
Anushka Muduli
Semester 1
B.A English honours
 MALGUDI DAYS
BY-R.K. NARAYAN
INTRODUCTION:
Malgudi Days is a collection of short stories by R.K. Narayan, published in 1943 by the
Indian Thought Publications. The book was republished outside India in 1982 by Penguin
Classics. The book includes 32 stories all set in the fictional town of Malgudi and located in
South India. It has a series of chronicles which talks about the lives of people in the fictional
town of Malgudi. The stories share the lives of everyone from entrepreneurs to beggars. All
take place in and near this Indian fictional village. Thus, the heart and the soul of that village
are on display and we find it a place where most people are haunted by literacy and
unemployment. Despite the ubiquity of the poor, many stories come across with humorous,
good-natured episodes of their lives. Indian villages which are often depicted as poverty
ridden infested with epidemics occupied by good for nothing illiterate fellows have another
sign to them. They have a charm which we cannot explain. This charm is depicted and
presented in each of the stories in this book. Each story is so full of humanity and will invoke
that part of you which you have forgotten in these deplorable ratches called life. Rather than
revolving around a particular plot, this stories Vander of dreamily. Each of the story describes
the relationship between members and a family. The various social taboos prevalent in the
mid-90s. All the stories will seem faintly similar but they are vastly different from each other.
The stories deal with the most ordinary men and women and make these stories
extraordinary. Each story deals with simple people and simple issues. They are faced with in
real life. The stories instantly establish a connection between the reader and the characters.
Some of the stories are humours while other will shake your soul. Among the stories the
reader meets an astrologer, a gate keeper and a young man learning to pass the examinations.
There are also animals including Forlorn Dog who befriends a blind man and a ferocious
tiger. Perhaps, a hint of Narayan’s short novel. The tiger of Malgudi. The tone of the story
belongs to the 19th century to the world of Rudyard Kipling and O’ Henry to the days when
stories were expected to have neat little plot, a touch of irony and a surprise ending. R.K.
Narayan has long ago mastered his forms and techniques but the result is a body of work that
is not for everyone’s taste. More often a character’s dreams and expectations do not lead to
the results he desires. This keeps the reader guessing as to what the next story will show in
the lives of people who became endlessly fascinating if only the reason that you have met
them before in your town. Sometimes the story may not be strictly true. Occasionally, they
are blatant tail tales with little pretence at veracity. The truth inherent in this tales. However,
goes beyond the mere possibilities the facts of the narrative. The tiger in the tiger’s claw may
or may not have behaved as the author says but it does not really matter. The author will
never reveal what happened in the end and will leave it to your imagination. It will make you
go mad thinking what would have happened. The author will tease you by leaving you
wandering forever as those endings will never be written as the author himself is dead. The
reader does not know if the story is true but it might be especially if one is willing to suspend
disbelieve and enjoy the novel on its own merits.
ELEMENTS OF NEW LITERATURES IN ENGLISH IN THE NOVEL:
1. The Western Influence:
As western modernity enters Malgudi, its own indigenous values are corroded.
Presence of an Insurance company in the Dark Room, the studio on the bank of
river Sarayu in Mr. Sampath, and story writing machine brought by Mali in the
Vendor of sweets indicate that Malgudi is already growing as a civilized
commercial centre. Change is not only spatial and temporal but also cultural and
social. Mail lives with Grace, an American – Korean even when they are not
married. The orthodox Hindu society of Malgudi, ostracises Jagan for being a
Gandhian and punishes Mail for anti – social behaviour in the end.
2. Grief:
Grief is a key element in “A Shadow”. The story describes how a young boy
named Sambu keeps going to the cinema to see a movie his recently deceased
father is in. He enjoys these screenings immensely, but feels sorrowful every time
they end. He tries to get his mother to go, but she refuses, as she expects it to be
too upsetting to see her dead husband onscreen. Eventually, she relents and joins
him, but is so overwhelmed that she faints. He sadly notes that this is the last time
the movie will be shown. The story engages with the idea of grief, but shows how
both Sambu and his mother are contending with the absence of a loved one,
finding the movie to only offer a “shadow” of the person they have lost.
3. Chance:
A number of the stories in the collection deal with the element of chance. In “an
Astrologer’s Day”, a man working as an astrologer encounter someone from his
past who he nearly killed. He narrowly avoids being recognized by the man. In
“Attila”, a family purchases a dog to scare off burglars, giving him the name
Attila in the hopes it will make him more aggressive. One night, the dog fails to
frightens an actual burglar but accidentally trips him, alerting the family to his
presence. In both of these stories, surprising coincidences set the plot in motion,
revealing how chance can draw two seemingly separate characters together in a
significant manner.
4. Justice:
Justice is a prevalent element in the novel. “Trail of the Green Blaze.” The story
recounts a moment in which Raju a pink pocket, steals a man’s purse. He then
discovers a small balloon inside and feels remorse for his theft, vividly imagining
the child he is hurting by robbing this man. He attempts to put the purse back but
is apprehended and struck, as the man believes he is trying to rob him. In this
story, and others like it, Narayan reveals how doing the “right” thing is not always
rewarded. The thief would have been better off keeping the purse, but is instead
punished for trying to correct his wrongdoing.
5. Blutness:
In the story “a doctor world”, the main character, Dr Raman, is known for always
being straightforward with his patients, never sugar-coating his observations. He
firmly believes that his patients don’t benefit from him mincing words. However,
 when he discovers his friend is very ill, he struggles with whether or not he should
report how dire his condition is.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites:
1. https://www.bookrags.com/lessonplan/malgudi-days/essaytopics.html#gsc.tab=0
2. https://www.studymode.com/essays/Malgudi-Days-985446.html
3. https://www.enotes.com/topics/malgudi-days

Books:
1. Malgudi Days, by – R.K. Narayan
2. Malgudi Days (Penguin Classics), by – R.K. Narayan

Articles:
1. The news minute: The nostalgia inducing ‘Malgudi Days’: When Swami was my
friend too
2. The Indian Express: Diary Item: Malgudi Days are over