Page 64 - DENG202_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_III

Unit 5: The Vendor of Sweets by R K Narayan

From another point of view The Vendor of Sweets recreates most vividly and convincingly the life Notes
of the common person in India, with average intelligence, average practicality and average
goodness and average spirituality. When one is, born one should do one’s duty as a man in the
world, as a youth, man, father, and when one becomes old, finally, affect a complete renunciation –
it would be the most accredited procedure according to the scriptures. Thus though there are
many surprises and twists in the story Jagan’s final act of renunciation from all business, shaking
off the painful fetters of attachments and affections, is entirely in keeping with the general trend
of the novel, and in fact, it has all the sure inevitability of a well-built, and calculated climax.
Jagan’s business-mindedness and his adherence to the Gita are apparently incompatible traits of
this simple good man but these contradictory traits are only superficial because as long as one
is in the world, with necessary chains of love and affection one must “do” something for them,
to answer the claims of the world. He becomes apparently a man of the world with a conscience
that seems to be at once nodding and nagging, with an understanding that is neither too analytical
nor outstandingly spiritual and he remains as one essentially true to nature.
A man, of necessity, should turn spiritual, some day or other, young or old, the cause may be
frustrated love, or a termagant wife, or a rude shock from too-loved children, or from pure
philosophical searchings. When that point comes, from whom the inspiration comes and from
which conviction is achieved, we do not know. In addition, in the story of The Vendor of Sweets it
comes through the strange and mysterious sculptor-disciple, now turned hair-blackener.
He communicates to Jagan his master’s blissful vision of the supreme five-faced goddess, Gayatri.
The Gayatri-mantra being the most universal in its meaning and significance and the most
accredited and indisputable in the whole world. As the supreme mantra for the highest meditation,
in order to know and realise the Supreme, the Ultimate, whose meditation is incorporated
(indeed, it occupies the central part) in the Hindu Sandhyavandanam, the daily three-time
prayer-meditation of every true Hindu.
Thus, repeatedly, we see that beneath an apparent puckish light-heartedness, frivolity and
flippancy, a mere no meaning light entertainment there is in R K Narayan a true sincerity, an
intense preoccupation with the great traditions and values of India. He has a loving admiration
for the common man and shows that the average fumbling, blundering, frail humanity is capable
of sterner decisions and solid values and act with swiftness and alacrity and decision of purpose,
and, with the necessary ‘will-power,’ aim at a transcendence, triumph over the petty weaknesses
of the flesh and the world.

Regarding the technical aspect of the novel, it must be said that it is most satisfying in simplicity
of plan and wonderful symmetry and arrangement of parts each with exciting twists and
sustaining narration. The central crisis or turning point is well placed and well worked out and
is, in the end, merged with the last climax. The last yet greater climax, the act of renunciation,
arises, as it were, out of the earlier climax which is the sudden baffling decision to give up the
preoccupation with the profits and which gives rise to the symbolic act of reducing the price of
the sweet-packets.
The action, the mental states and the moods are described with wonderful charm. A pure,
innocent reflectiveness, given to constant brooding, melancholy or happy, sad or sapient, musings
and half-musings over the past, the present or the future – these make up the best technique
adopted by Narayan to recreate in flesh and blood the full personality of lagan, to lay bare his
innermost thoughts and feelings before us. In addition, in the vague, hazy, foggy reflecting and
brooding mind of Jagan there is something sweet and irresistibly attractive. And in the last long
brooding over the past just before his renunciation we have a most charming, delicious, nostalgic,
reminiscent picture of Jagan’s past life of youth and marriage. There is a special appeal to the
heart as the author describes the sweet sentiments, the delicate feelings and noble traditions in
Hindu marriages and morals. The description, the recreated picture, of the married life of Jagan
covering a pretty span of life, from the exact point of his shedding his bachelorhood to the point

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