Swami and Friends Literary Elements

Fiction

The fictional town of Malgudi, located in southern India

The novel is written in the third-person, omniscient point of view.

Straightforward, sympathetic, humorous, ironic

Protagonist: Swaminathan or Swami. Antagonist: changes with each episode

The clash between Swami's rebellious boyhood and systems of British, patriarchal colonial authority is one of the major conflicts of the novel.

There is another conflict between Swami and Rajam themselves as they negotiate the intimacy and power between themselves.

At the end of the novel, Rajam is about to leave Malgudi. Swami and his friend Mani go to the station to apologize to Rajam. Unfortunately, they are blocked off by a crowd of police officers who have gathered to say farewell. At the last minute, Mani and Swami are able to see off Rajam, and Swami says goodbye to him, asking when he will ever see him again. Rajam appears to respond, but his response is lost to the sounds of the train departing. Swami weeps as the train leaves, wondering if Rajam will ever think of him. Mani assures Swami that Rajam has promised to write a letter to him, but Swami is unsure of whether to believe him.

The repeated times Swami runs away from school to escape a cruel headmaster foreshadows his final escape, when he tries to leave Malgudi altogether. Swami's desperate dependency on his father and his approval, despite his father's harshness, foreshadows the kind of imbalanced relationship that Swami has with Rajam in which he is constantly trying to earn Rajam's approval.

Narayan understates the primary interactions between Rajam and Swami's friends to heighten the effect of the climax in the novel. The relationship takes on new contours as the novel progresses.

1. The attempts of Christian missionaries to convert Indians.
2. The Swadeshi and Boycott movement during India's struggle for independence.

The imagery of the train leaving the platform and Swami's struggle to offer the parting gift to Rajam is a significant episode in "Swami and Friends."

Srinivasan, Swami's father, wants Swami to be a well-educated man and well-versed in English. When Swami joins the protest for boycotting British commodities, his father supports him. In this episode of the novel, the attitude of Swami's father is somehow paradoxical yet significant.

The plot of "Swami and Friends" runs parallel with India's socio-economic background during the early 20th century. Even the ethos and morality of the characters in the novel resemble Indians in every aspect. This novel of Narayan is a kaleidoscopic representation of India under British rule.

N/A

1. "the steel wheel crunched on the sandy bed of the river as it struggled and heaved across."
2. "It (the bicycle) went back home in one leap, took him to the kitchen, and then to his bed, and lay down beside him."
3. "they were free from the shackles of time..."