R.K. Narayan: Short Stories Literary Elements

R.K. Narayan: Short Stories Literary Elements

Genre

Indian Writing in English, Short Stories

Setting and Context

An imaginary town of Malgudi, located in southern India

Narrator and Point of View

Most of the stories are written in third person.

Tone and Mood

Humorous, Sympathetic, Optimistic, Ironical

Protagonist and Antagonist

The title characters of the stories are the protagonists. The talkative man appears as a protagonist in three of the stories and his antagonist is the chairman of the municipality.

Major Conflict

In the stories of R.K. Narayan the clash between human values is the major conflict. Some of the stories portray the conflict of an invidual with his or her society and social customs.

Climax

In "The Doctor's Word", the doctor resorts to God at last and his prayer miraculously saves the patient.

Foreshadowing

In "Iswaran", Iswaran's consecutive failures in the exam break his self-confidence. He loses faith in himself and it foreshadows his death which occurs at the end of the story.

Understatement

When Leela loses her gold necklace in "Leela's Friend", the writer understates the character of Sidda to create a tension in the story.

Allusions

The stories of Narayan allude to post-colonial situation of India.

Imagery

In "The Axe", the imagery of the axe cutting through the trees becomes heart-wrenching for Velan.

Paradox

In "Iswaran" the death of the protagonist is paradoxical.

Parallelism

The characters of the stories of Narayan resemble the mindset and attitude of Indians in post-independence era. The plots reflect Indian society. The fictional town of Malgudi is a quintessential representation of India.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

In "The Axe", the farm is personified and it becomes a close companion of Velan.

Update this section!

You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this section.

Update this section

After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback.

Cite this page