The Quest For Identity In The Guide By R. K. Narayan

Identity is based on race, religion, ethnicity, culture, language and people separate themselves from other groups and create their observation and dignity in who they are. However individuals may possess more than one cultural individuality as a consequence of social activity and their wish for belonging to a definite community. Identity in creative works may refer to the writer's embracement of new culture and language as means of presentation following a flight from his nation of origin to another country. At last the pattern of migrant works has grown with the exploration of the issues of migration, banishment and creation of new individuality in immigrants. Also it could be linked with the continuous use of pen names by writers as an …show more content…
Narayan, the chief characters commonly setout on a quest for identity in maintaining with definite philosophical- cultural suppositions which shape the ground of his socio- religious inheritance and his psycho- ethical ambience. The truth is that Narayan himself is committed to definite views of the Indian tradition which can be suitably presented to hide the socio- economic sources of human dilemmas :
Raju's mother, at the beginning, was full of sympathy for Rosie, changes her attitude completely when she learns that she belongs to dancing girl class and has come to their house to perfect her dancing.
(Kantak 76)
In the novel, The Guide, the main protagonist, Raju is fixed in actuality in Malgudi during his childhood days. Raju does not go to school but studies magazines and books from his shop on the platform of Malgudi station. He advances his knowledge and information about the world. Raju becomes a tourist guide and all travellers prefer to be instructed by him because of his fame and talent as a guide. He reserves his hold over actuality so long as he remains to perform his duty completely. But after meeting Rosie, Raju falls in love with her. Raju starts to live in the world of imagination. Rosie has the skill of dance which is appreciated by Raju and disliked by her husband Marco. Rosie leaves her husband’s company. Rosie with Raju's help becomes famous as a renowned dancer. Raju realizes that Rosie still has respect for her husband …show more content…
But when comes out of jail, he does not have any place to go. He stays in a discarded temple where he is received as a saint. Now Raju starts living a new life and his quest for actuality simulates a spiritual extent. Sainthood is enforced upon him and he gets himself wandering over a tender tightrope extending between the twin poles of deceptive quackery and spiritual deliverance from sin. The more Raju gets himself engaged in the atrocioussness of his making, the more he finds himself carrying towards the requirement to change his false sainthood into a real one. The drought in the village drives Raju mercilessly into adopting the role of divine martyr for which he had not thought himself. But once he is caught into frolicking this part, he gets that there is no turning back on it. Reluctantly, he plays it till the essential conclusion to which it must finally lead. Fasting to bring rain, Raju collapses in the water with his ceasing statement that it's raining in the hills because he can feel it arriving under his feet and up his legs. Readers are surprised, whether it is really raining or is it only an imagination or a state of hallucination, which is the most likely, result of Raju's psychological situation at that particular point of