Summary of The Guide

Key Words 

( Transformation,Redemption,Gender, Feminism,Tradition vs. Modernity, Greed, Materialism, Attraction and Sexuality )

Summary 

 'The Guide' is one of the best narrative novels written by R K Narayan.He was an identical novelist of India.This novel is a mirror of modern Indian society, the protagonist and occasional narrator of R.K.Narayan’s The Guide. Raju is a character whose entire life is  upon the sins of hypocrisy and dissimulation. He shows multiple careers including his work as a tourist guide in his hometown of Malgudi, southern part of India.His other career as a “Dance Manager” for Rosie. (The seductive dancer he begins an affair with when she visits Malgudi with her husband, Marco). His final reincarnation as a holy man in a small village in India; premised deceptions and lies. The life  of Raju dramatizes the way in which Raju’s propensity for deceit leads him into trouble. Openly, Narayan suggests us through his potential experiences that Raju’s deceptions not only leading his complete corruption but also to the destruction of everything he holds there. 

         The various roles are played by Raju himself as a tourist guide, dance manager, jailer, gambler and holy man, respectively,all rely upon the spinning of fabricated stories and illusions. As  a Velan, Raju tells his life story about his past life as a tourist guide in Malgudi to the villagers.Raju tells more through his lectures to the visitors about the sights depended largely on the mood he was in on the day he escorted clients. He describes different ages to the same site.He exaggerates the singularity of some sights, 

contending that a particular place in town is “the greatest, the highest, the only one in the world”. He also sets his stories and facts according to his customers what they want to hear. Raju’s illusions and consistent misinformation are so successful that his reputation gradually grows as a result, leading tourist and innocent of his deceptions, he is popularly known as “Railway Raju.”

                          

 His tendency to promote the dancing desire of Rosie as her dream of career ,in his capacity as her manager. He changes his appearance;dressing “soberly” for the part of classical dance manager and sporting rimless glasses,all to play more convincingly the new part that he has assumed himself. Mostly, his work managing Rosie’s career consists of creating an illusioned importance. He takes to sitting in a particular spot at each of Rosie’s performances and then he inquires in a great detail about the preparations for each show, so this curiosity creates a tension for her present life. He speaks, acts, and moves as  an immensely important man and even begins to believe in this illusion himself, taking full credit for Rosie’s immense success. Later, he realizes that Rosie herself responsible for her own great success.

                Here Narayan's another experience for him, after freeing from prison for forging Rosie’s signature, Raju reinvents himself once more, he again changes the way of his life as a spiritual guide on a riverbank by a small village. When he finds that the villagers’ misguided faith in his spiritual powers means that he is well-nourished by the offerings.          "Raju soon realized that his spiritual status   would be enhanced if he grew a beard and long hair to fall on his nape. A clean-shaven, close-haired saint was an anomaly".

     He embraces the role enthusiastically, again dissimulating his true identity. He changes his appearance accordingly,growing his beard and hair long to more convincingly resemble a saint, all the while keeping his past a secret from the villagers. He takes to uttering “mystifying statements” to the villagers who gather around him every day and in this way,he manages to project an aura of wisdom and sainthood that has no base of reality that time.

                     His dissimulation and hypocrisy are not only limited to his work, However,this tendency extends to his personal relationships as well. Raju’s hypocrisy in particular becomes apparent when he escorts Marco, the scholar of ancient civilizations who comes to Malgudi to study cave paintings  along with his beautiful wife Rosie. On hand, Raju plays the part of the consummate tourist guide to Marco for arranging his travels, showing him the sites, and organizing his comfortable stay at Peak House, the house at the top of the Mempi hills near Malgudi where Marco spends some time examining cave paintings. On the other hand, Raju deceives and betrays Marco ruthlessly by courting and successfully seducing his beautiful young energetic wife as Rosie. He promises showing her the sites while Marco is busy at work, Raju flatters and courts Rosie, taking advantage of her dissatisfaction of sexual life with her husband. Raju ends up winning Rosie after Marco abandons her upon discovering her affair with his tourist guide. However, Raju’s inability to reign in his deceitful tendencies,  ultimately he sums up destroying his relationship to Rosie. Marco’s reappearance in their lives after the publication of Marco’s book on ancient civilizations, Raju hides news of Marco from Rosie and lies to her about the correspondence. He receives from Marco’s lawyer.

   

Raju’s lies ultimately lead to his complete corruption and the destruction of his relationship. This is reflected in the criminal act that Raju commits in the hope of fulfilling sensation —when he forges Rosie’s signature on a document that Marco’s lawyer sends to Rosie, in order to procure a jewelry box belonging to her without her knowledge. It is a discovery of this deceit by the police and Raju’s subsequent trial and imprisonment that leads him to lose everything including his reputation and the love of his life, Rosie too.

                                         Finally, The Guide takes a critical view towards the failings of its protagonist. Raju’s deceptions and exaggerations seem harmless at first, merely through which he cleverly reinvents himself time and again, his propensity for deceit ends up infecting all aspects of his existence. In this way, Raju not only sexual corrupt himself, but also destroys his most cherished relationships and healthy stems of life and also ends up losing everything that he holds as a result of his personality. He gives a great example of our relationship through his conception.