Search results
Malgudi
- Setting: Malgudi, a fictional town in southern India
www.litcharts.com/lit/the-vendor-of-sweetsThe Vendor of Sweets Study Guide | Literature Guide - LitCharts
People also ask
What is the main theme of the vendor of sweets?
Is the vendor of sweets a true story?
Who is the protagonist of the vendor of sweets?
How does the vendor of Sweets end?
Like R.K. Narayan’s first novel, Swami and Friends (1935) and the vast majority of his other works, The Vendor of Sweets takes place in the fictional southern Indian town of Malgudi and deals with social concerns such as conformity, religion, and the influence of British colonialism on Indian culture.
- The Vendor of Sweets by R. K. Narayan Plot Summary - LitCharts
At the sweet shop, Jagan discovers from the cousin that Mali...
- The Vendor of Sweets by R. K. Narayan Plot Summary - LitCharts
- Introduction
- The Vendor of Sweets Summary
- The Vendor of Sweets Characters Analysis
- The Vendor of Sweets Themes
- The Vendor of Sweets Literary Analysis
R.K Narayan, a born storyteller, has an adequate intellect of the tragicomic. By virtue of his primary sense of splendor and despondency, he is often compared to Anton Chekhov, a famous Russian playwright, and story-writer. He writes wholly about India and Indian society, yet, in its form, style, tone, and assumptions, he portrays his protagonist c...
The novel centers on the relationship between Jagan and his son, Mali. Jagan is a sweets vendor (seller) and strictly follows the asceticism of Gandhi, however, Mali denies his father’s beliefs and values and favors liberal western ideas. When the novel begins, Jagan is fifty-five years old man, living a strict life of asceticism. He eats only whea...
Jagan:
He is the protagonist and the only round character of the novel. While building the foils around the central figure, the novelist highlights his spiritual change. Most people in the age of Jagan thinks of retirement while he is caught in time. He is a successful widower who has made shallow and artificial arrangements for his old age and a conventional mode of living. He eats only wheat, green vegetable, and honey and cuts sugar and salt from his diet. He thoroughly follows a core Hindu scrip...
Dye-maker:
Though the dye maker appears in a single chapter of the novel, he plays a very crucial role. He is a didactic figure, having a link between past and present and a man of conscience. He has an explicit and direct role that is obvious to everyone. The dye-maker prods Jagan into understanding how constricted his whole life has been. His authoritarian way of speaking leads the transformation of Jagan’s spirit.
Mali:
He is the only son of Jagan. He is an ambitious, spoiled young man. He has a strong hatred for the education system of India. He blames his father for his mother’s death. He desires and believes in the modernism of the conventional method in all aspects of life. That’s why he returns from America after studying creative writing, he attempts to modernize everything.
Marriage:
Marriage is one of the most predominant themes of the novel The Vendor of Sweets. The novel deals with the clash between the traditional and modern concept of marriage. Throughout the novel, we see that the various views about marriage are interwoven into the lives of characters. After the death of Ambika, Jagan’s wife and Mali’s mother, both Jagan and Mali have different views on marriage. Her death is caused by the Jagan’s insistence upon to cure her brain tumor with natural remedies. Jagan...
Generation Gap:
Jagan, in his youth, opposes British rule. He sticks to his old conventional and traditional ideals, however, when he is a grown old man, he fails to see his son sharing the same beliefs as his. The fault is not apparent in the novel, whether it is Jagan’s that he adheres to his traditions or of Mali, moving with the change.
In the novel The Vendor of Sweats, Narayan uses the drama and situational comedy along with the gentle humor that is not familiar with western fiction. The story is basically about the discovery of calmness an equanimity in life. Narayan’s novel is easy to understand and has surface level meaning. The gods and goddesses he introduces in his stories...
Jagan is the vendor of sweets. He owns a sweet mart where sweetmeats are prepared and sold to the customers. The writer employs both visual and olfactory imagery to depict the scene of Jagan's religious activities performed in the morning with the scent of jasmine flowers and the incense sticks.
- R. K. Narayan
- 1967
Nov 3, 2023 · The Vendor of Sweets is a 1967 novel about Jagan, a widower who runs a sweets shop while attempting to live a life inspired by the teachings of Gandhi. Uninterested in Hinduism or the family...
At the sweet shop, Jagan discovers from the cousin that Mali expects Jagan to provide the investment money for his business. Jagan begins avoiding Mali and Grace at home. Meanwhile, Mali buys a used green car for traveling to his business ventures, much to Jagan’s displeasure.
In R.K. Narayan’s novel The Vendor of Sweets, the tension between old and young India is the backdrop against which a father and son clash. Jagan, a 55 year old man who is steeped in tradition, is a bundle of contradictions.
The Vendor of Sweets Summary. The novel begins with Jagan talking to his “cousin,” a man who claims kinship with Jagan despite a lack of true clarity surrounding the matter. They live in the small Indian town of Malgudi. The two discuss various philosophical and everyday matters as Jagan gets ready to go home.
