What did Samuel ask SWami as he entered the class room
Answers
The present chapter deals with the critical study of the novel Swami and Friends of R.K.
Narayan. In the present chapter the theme, plot, setting, characters, social values, cultural values
and philosophical values as depicted by Narayan in his present novel are critically discussed.
Swami and Friends is the first novel of Narayan published in 1935. This is really creditable for a
first attempt. But, unfortunately, in the forties, even the early fifties, efforts were made to prevent
its being prescribed as a text book in schools and colleges of South India.
The novel is thoroughly autobiographical; it owes much of its realism and authenticity to
the fact that it is rooted in Narayan’s personal experience as a boy at school. The
autobiographical element is unmistakable. Swami’s experiences in the Albert Mission School
seem to be based on Narayan’s own experiences as a school boy. Indeed Swami is only the
second half of Narayan’s original name, Narayanaswami, and the shortened form “Swami” was
adopted out of deference to the novelist’s publishers, “not wanting the novel to be confused with
an autobiography”. Like Wordsworth, Narayan is at his best when he recalls his childhood and
boyhood scenes, as he has done in the present novel. Most of us forget that grand period. But
with R.K. Narayan it has always been there. It is a time at which the colours of things are
different, their depths greater, their magnitude greater, a most balanced and joyous condition of
life. It is a natural state of joy over nothing in particular.