The Guide

Infobox Book |
name = The Guide
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = R. K. Narayan
cover_artist = R. K. Laxman (Penguin edition)
country = India
language = English
series =
genre = Philosophical novel
publisher = Viking Press (First American edition)
release_date = 1958
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 220 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-670-35668-9 (First American edition)
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Guide" is a 1958 novel written in English by the Indian author R. K. Narayan. It is one of the author's most critically acclaimed novels.Fact|date=February 2007 Like most of his works the novel is based in Malgudi, the fictional town in South India. The novel describes the transformation of the protagonist, Raju from a tour guide to a spiritual guide.

Plot summary

Raju is a railway guide who becomes obsessed with Rosie, the neglected wife of an anthropologist Marco. Rosie has a passion for dancing which Marco doesn't approve of. Rosie, encouraged by Raju, decides to follow her dreams and walks out on her husband. Raju becomes her stage manager and soon with the help of Raju's marketing tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer. Raju, however, develops an inflated sense of self-importance and tries to control Rosie. Gradually, the relationship between Raju and Rosie becomes strained. Marco reappears and Raju inadvertently gets involved in a case of forgery and gets a two year sentence. After completing the sentence, Raju is passing through a village when he is mistaken for a sadhu (a spiritual guru). Reluctant not having to return in disgrace to Malgudi, he stays in an abandoned temple. There is a famine in the village and Raju is expected to keep a fast to get the rains. With media publicizing his fast,a huge crowd gathers (much to Raju's resentment) to watch him fast. After fasting for several days, he goes to the riverside one morning as part of his daily ritual, where his legs sag down as he feels that the rain is falling in the hills. The ending of the novel leaves unanswered the question of whether he dies, or whether the drought has really ended.

Character of Rosie

Rosie is one of the main characters of the novel “The Guide” by R.K. Narayan. She is presented in the novel as a beautiful dancer, of the Devadasi variety of temple dancers, and the wife of Marco. Her marriage has been like a curse in disguise to her as Marco is totally engrossed in his career and is totally apathetic and unemotional to her. She is very passionate about dancing but her husband does not allow her to dance. She tries to persuade her husband and bears all the insults by him just for the sake that she will be able to get permission to dance. When she was left by Marco in Malgudi and was living with Raju she devoted herself completely to dancing. She woke early in the morning and practiced hard for three hours regularly. She is always willing to talk about dance and even tries to teach Raju some tips of it.

She is religious by nature as she believes in Goddess Saraswati and have the bronze image of Nataraja in her office. She doesn’t discriminate people on the basis of their financial status. On one hand when Raju prefers to meet people who are very rich and influential in the society Rosie doesn’t care much about these people. Being herself an artist she respects art and likes to be in the company of artist and other music lovers.

Her success doesn’t gets to her head as she remains a down to earth person even after becoming very successful in her dancing career. Once Raju became very upset as Rosie spent lot of time with different artists and not with him. He came to her and said that these artists come to her because they are inferior to her then she replies to him saying that she is tired of all the talk of superior and inferior and doesn’t believe in all these things.

She is also like a traditional Indian wife. Her husband is like God to her. Marco calls her dancing skills as street acrobatics and compares it to monkey dance. Despite all these insults she continues to be his wife. When Marco came to know about the intimacy between her and Raju he became very upset and didn’t talk to her and completely ignored her presence. She apologized to him and kept on following him like a dog hoping that his mind would change one day but that did not happen. This incident shows her tremendous tolerance power and her optimistic attitude. Even after she became very successful in her career and independent of her husband Marco she still had his photo which meant that she still considered Marco to be her husband and highlights her traditional Indian wife kind of character.So the novel “The Guide” may also be viewed as the story of a weak submissive girl who because of talent, her hard work and little help from Raju went on to become a strong, successful and independent woman.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The film "Guide" was released in 1965, based on the novel. It starred Dev Anand as Raju, Waheeda Rehman, Kishore Sahu (in a brilliant cameo), and Leela Chitnis in the lead roles. Music by S.D.Burman is one of the best-remembered scores.

External reference

* [http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/anglophone/narayan.html A Study Guide to The Guide]
* [http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/narayan-guide.html An Analysis]
* [http://www.museindia.com/showconnew2.asp?id=460 Another Analysis]