The Bachelor of Arts by R K Narayan
Summary
The Bachelor of Arts by R K Narayan is one of his best novels. In this novel, he has used the character of Chandran to tell his own storey and put in the parts of his own life. It looks like Narayanโs heroes arenโt very heroic because they donโt have to deal with bad things. Instead, they get out of bad things. People who read thisย novel have elements of autobiography, humour, myths, and things from their own area.
The Bachelor of Arts (1937) is about an idealistic college student who challenges the bourgeois order, but he comes to accept a lawful, obedient life.
When William Walsh talks about The Bachelor of Arts, he says that it shows the writerโs ability to mix the serious and the fun โin an intricate, inseparable alliance.โ Chandran is the main character in this novel. He is so important and important that theย novelโs title is named after him.
The Bachelor of Arts is made up of four parts and 18 chapters. As a student at Albert Mission College, Chandran is a final-year history student. He is the son of a retired district judge who lives in his mansion in Lawley Extension. Chandran is the hero of the novel. She is very religious and efficient at running the household, but she also wants to keep the status of her husband, Chandran, and her son, Seenu, who is going to Albert Mission School. She is also very concerned about keeping the status of her family. Chandranโs father is very happy with him and thinks heโs a little modern, but he doesnโt want to overrule his wifeโs decision.
People who read this story are called Chandran, who is a student of history. He has a loving family (his mother, father, and brother) and a good friend, Ramu, who he can trust. Pre-exam anxiety, friendly banter, and fierce debates are all part of his college life.
When you go to college, you usually make new friends. Chandran is the same way. He finishes college and is ready to start a professional life like the one in post-colonial India, where people try to find a balance between a chaotic past, an unknown present, and an unknown future.
When he was born, he came from the state of Tamil Nadu. He has lived his life in line with the traditions and conventions of his time and place. However, his education has made him want to break the rules of conservatism and look for a way out into the world of freedom. This change is caused by heartburn and a loss.
Chandran is in love with a girl named Malathi who he meets at the river in his village. He is so in love with her that he spends all of his time thinking about her. The situation becomes clear to his parents, and they try to give in to his wants.
Chandran wants to marry the girl so much that he wants them to go to Malathiโs house and talk to her parents. However, the stars in their horoscopes donโt line up, so his marriage proposal isnโt going to work out because of that. Another man will marry Malathi soon.
Itโs hard for Chandran to be in the hands of fate and to be hurt. In the midst of so much heartache, he decides to give up control and let go of all the rules. Madras is where he goes when he leaves his home in the spirit of the rebellion. Living in a hotel at first, his unique path quickly changes.
In the end, he decides to live a life of asceticism and to cut off his hair. His fame as a wise person grows during his travels. His defiance lasts for about eight months, but then it starts to fade away a little. It makes him feel bad that he left his family and parents.
Life as a hermit starts to wear Chandran down. Soon, he goes back to living the normal life of a person who owns a home. When he gets a job in publishing, he decides to marry the woman his parents want him to. Malathi was his best friend and he still misses her. When he sees pictures of her, though, he still canโt help but feel sad.
Finally, his father finds a young Brahmin girl named Susila for him, and he is very happy about it. He is still unsure, and at first, he doesnโt want to marry her. When he goes to Susilaโs house, however, fate turns the other way and he falls in love with her.
When he looks at her, he feels the same desire and longing that he had long forgotten. She also comes with a lot of money for her dowry, which is interesting.
When he gives up his desire for adventure, he finds peace and tranquilly in a domesticated life and goes back to his roots and social role as prescribed by his Brahminical society, where he lives. A young manโs youth and wandering whims finally come to an end when he has to do chores at home and spend time with his family.
The storey is based on Narayanโs own life, and he used a lot of his own experiences to sketch Chandran. Itโs set in South India. The storey is very good at capturing the post-colonial mix of traditional and modern life values and thoughts that people have.
Narayan shows the threads of pain and humour in a beautiful tapestry of Malgudi and its colourful people. One part of a trilogy set in Malgudi. The first storey is called โSwami & Friends,โ and the last one is called โThe English Teacher.โ
Bachelor of Arts is a novel that does a good job of dealing with real-world problems and is a great example of simplicity and values. R.K. Narayan has a unique ability to show Indian values in the most real way possible. Nobody else can do as good a job as he does with the way he deals with it. Many foreign authors have tried and failed to adapt to the way people live in this country. When you read aย novel by R.K. Narayan, you get to see how the common man feels. He picks out little things from everyday life to show how important they are. Swami and Friends, The Financial Expert, and The English Teacher are all examples of R.K. Narayanโs heartfelt stories. They all have themes that make the reader think about their own lives.
If you want to learn about the lives of generations, Bachelor of Arts will show you. The main character of the storey is Chandran. Chandran is so present in us that it doesnโt take long to get into his rhythm. Sometimes, the reader has to get excited and think, โOh! This is so exciting!โ Is this going on to me? A storey about a B.A., History graduate who had a hard time deciding whether to keep going to school or not, fall in love with a girl next door, and then think that solitude is the best company. Then, he realised that family is more important than a girlโs love, and figuring out a career after the worn-out days of love is the best thing to do.
When Chandran talks about his college days, they make us think back to our own days. It brings back memories of when we planned more than we did. Chandranโs home is full of life, with his mother, father, and brother. Itโs like any typical Indian family. A lot of Chandranโs college activities are very well-written. Brilliantly, the debates about whether historians should be killed or not are shown. Itโs a good job that he and Ramu have a friendship and that they both like each other. He also shows how college friends donโt stay friends for life. When Ramu doesnโt talk to Chandran for a while, R.K. Narayan says that people made it seem like they were friends, but the truth is that they were brought together by the forces of fate. How true!
Seeing Malathi changes his life. He always thinks about her when heโs at home. His parents get worried when they see how he is at home. Due to traditional ideas about horoscope matching, bad luck has a hold on their sonโs wish to get married. His heart is broken by the news, and even more so when he sees his crush getting married. He thinks that he should run away from home. He does run away to Madras, where he carefully avoids staying at his cousinโs house and slips away to a place where he is unknown. It makes him realise how foolish it was to run away from people he cared about at home. His parents are happy to see him when he comes back to Malgudi. Then he realises that he has to take care of some things and figure out a career. When he really falls in love with a girl and gets married, he realises that he has to take care of things.
This is the main point of getting a Bachelor of Arts in a certain field. The reader is always in a trance while reading thisย novel, but not because he is taken to a fantasy world. Instead, he is taken to a stunning reality that puts him so close to Chandan.
The Bachelor of Arts by Narayan โ Characters
This is a small novel that only has 166 pages, but it has a lot of things to see. Chandran is the main character in the novel, and around him are a lot of other people who have different roles. Before we get to Chandranโs parents, we have to look at them. Narayanโs depiction of Chandranโs father, with how he doesnโt show his love for Chandran and how concerned he is for him, is very memorable. When Chandranโs mother is at home, sheโs a typical Indian housewife who is traditional but also cares about the well-being of her husband and children. Chandranโs parents are shown in a very realistic way by Narayan.
When we look again, we see Chandranโs younger brother Seenu in the third class at Albert Mission School, which is where he goes to school. When weโre done with that, we have Chandranโs friends: Ramu, Natesan, Veerasami. Ramu and Mohan are two of the four people who play a big part in Chandranโs life. We also have Principal Brown, Professor Ragavachar, and Professor Gajapathi, who are all teachers at Chandranโs college, as well as other teachers. There are two people in Chandranโs life: Malathi and Susila. They play a big part in his life.
Ganapathi Sastrigal and the Srouthigal are also minor characters. They study Chandranโs horoscope and try to help him get married to Malathi, but it doesnโt work out for him, so they leave. Narayanโs depiction of these astrological experts is a mix of real and funny. Chandranโs uncle, aunt, and cousins live in Madras, and we get to know them a little bit.
Then we have a very interesting picture of Kailas, the middle-aged stranger who wants to be friends with Chandran. Thatโs not all. There is also the barber Ragavan, who helps Chandran become a sanyasi. Then there is Murugesam, the General Manager of Engladia Limited, who is a powerful friend of Chandranโs uncle in Madras. Murugesam helps Chandran get the Malgudi office of The Daily Messenger. All of these characters fit in perfectly with theย novel and add structural cohesion and episodic interest.
Theme of the Novel
In this novel, โThe Bachelor of Arts,โ the main character, Chandran, goes through a lot of hard things that have a big impact on his young mind. There were some things that made him think like an adult instead of an adolescent. Friends, family, teachers, and other people he knows have helped him grow up. Friendship plays a big role for Chandran at many different points in his life. He is a college student who lives in Malgudi. His friendship allows him to share his feelings, emotions, and success and failures with him on an equal level. His family is very important to him as he grows up from an adolescent to an adult. There are a lot of things that happen in the novel that make the protagonist mature. Most of R.K. Narayanโs novels are about the same thing. There is a lot more to the world of boys than just what the author saw from the point of view of boys. In the novel, the main character, Chandran, has grown a lot in terms of how mature he is when it comes to emotions. He has grown up a lot over time. Everything about him has changed in the story.
The human mind has many stages, but when we want to get to a certain point, we have to deal with a lot of problems. Itโs the same with Chandran, who has a different mindset when heโs in college and when heโs on the move in Madras. When his History Professor compliments him on how well he speaks, he has a big impact on him. This shows that he is mature when he tells his younger brother to focus on his own work. One more time he gets angry because the stars donโt match with the girl. When his brother asks him, he gets angry. These conversations show how he is disturbed by the way things are right now. People start to notice how grown-up this person is when he starts to take part in a debate and agree to be secretary of the society. The way his English teacher acts also makes him think. Because of colonial rule in India, he thinks in a different way. Family and family values also help him shape his mind. His psychology has changed over time in this storey, and he has become a more mature person because of it.
Malathi didnโt want to marry him, so he ran away from home. He went to Madras. To explain it another way, this is because of his young mind. After some time his psychology changes and he comes back home. This is a big change or growth in his emotional maturity because of all of these things. There are always new things going on that make peopleโs emotions change. It is correct to say that the way a person acts is a good reflection of how he thinks. Swami goes out in the afternoon and spends time with his friends. Thatโs why she tells her husband that. Narayanโs novels make you think of a person who lives a normal life, but who also has a hard time with wit.