Question- Can The Guide' be called a picaresque novel?

Answer - 

A picraseque novel features a series of adventures by a roguish hero who does not mature. Narayan's The Guide' is neither a rogue novel nor picaresque novel proper. It is a novel of character transformation. Narayan has beautifully exposed the hypocrisy and shams of Indian social life through the character of Raju.

As far as the theme of good and evil in the novel The Guide' is concerned, it is in Raju's character both good and evil are embodied in the same person. Raju is both the hero and the villain in the novel whose transformation takes place towards the end of the novel.

The novel has been written in the tradition of picaresque novel. The word 'picaresque' comes from the Spanish word 'Picaro' meaning a rogue or a villain. In The Guide' Raju is the central figure and he is a rogue and fraud who plays different roles, till finally, he comes to be regarded as Mahatma and falls a martyr to his ingenuity.

From the very beginning of life, Raju is good for nothing. He plays with the village boys and acquires dirty habits of all sorts. He swears horribly and uses the most vulgar abuses. He does not like to go to school, wastes his time here and there when he is forced to go and learns almost nothing. His father has a poor opinion of him and his mother regards him a loafer. When the railways comes to Malgudi, his father takes a stall on the station and leaves it in his charge. His father soon dies leaving him to look after the stall. Thus, the disciplining influence of the father is thus removed early in his life and Raju is left free to sow his wild oats.

So, Raju as a seekless and the romantic hero is poised against a whole set of hard realities. The innate urge of Raju to find a meaning of life, to assert his identity in an imperious world, takes up an urgency in the character of this comic hero and the greater the urgency, the greater is the dynamism of his actions and reactions. From a stall-keeper, Raju soon truns into a tourist guide. He is shrewd, intelligent and observant and he soon acquires little bit knowledge by reading old books and magazines. He tells the tourists about Malgudi though he himself is a fraud who doesn't know much about Malgudi and its environs. He deceives, lies and adopts crooked ways to fleece the unknowing tourists which reveals his evil nature.

At the station, he was sought out by everyone who wanted advice and directions which is one of the chief attributes of Raju. However, one of good traits lies in Raju's character because of which tourists from all parts insisted on his services and whatever he does for them he does with a certain detachment, not for any private gain but simply because they ask him.

Raju would've remained a tourist guide but for the arrival of Marco and his fascinating but discontented wife, Rosie, Raju is at once fascinated by her and wins her heart by his sympathy and consideration as well as by her keen interest in art. Both of them are born romantics and it is the coming together of two similar temperaments which is essentially romantic.

Rosie is one of those butterflies type of woman who frequently appear in the novels of Narayan. She is the heroine of the novel who charms and fascinates Raju. When Rosie's husband comes to know of their illicit affair and throws Rosie out of the house, she comes to Raju, a wicked and flirt indeed. She does not take long to achieve eminence and it is Raju who helps her to attain the place which she has desired for. Due to his evil nature, Raju exploits Rosie for his own advantage and narrow, selfish ends. He performs the role of Rosie's business manager and publicity agent with relish and perfection, excelling as an impressario. But soon, Raju's greed, on in real sense, his evil nature forces him to forge Rosie's signature on a document claiming her jewel out of some muddled system of motives which is in her husband's keeping. Marco seeks revenge and Raju is prosecuted.

In the prison, Raju turns out to be a model prisoner. He is perfectly happy in the jail. Raju responds enthusiastically to the various calls made on him by the prison community and he becomes the teacher and comforter of the prisoners whom he could talk out of their blackest mood, the friend of the warders and personal servant and secretary to the superintendent. This change towards goodness can be witnessed the way he works with pleasure on a vegetable patch in the backyard of the superintendent's home. But, when his punishment comes to an end, he feels choked with tears and he admits himself that when he has to go out after 2 years and he wishes that we had not wasted all that money on the lawyer.

When Raju comes out of the prison, he is very much depressed because all the avenues for his return to Rosie as well as to his mother are closed because of his wickedness. But destiny has decided something different for Raju which sends him to village Mangal. Some are born saints and there are some on whom sainthood is thrust and such one is Raju. Raju plays the role of Mahatma very efficiently for basically there's not much difference between the role of a railway guide and that of a spiritual guide.

But the irony of the situation prevails when he's called upon to undertake a twelve day fast so that it may rain and the starving villagers of Mangal may be saved. Raju, as a swami, tries to run away from the village but he is not able to do so. The belief in his sainthood in villagers is still stronger when he narrates his past story when he used to be a criminal, a fraud, a rogue and ultimately; is compelled to undertake the fast and finding no escape, he decides to do it thoroughly.

Here, Raju tries to be good because he is not able to face the harsh reality of the world. With a resolution, Raju forsakes his domestic life and in accepting martyrdom, the narrative moves out of the bounds of comedy and enters the portals of a religious drama, the comic incongruity persists, though now outside Raju's character Raju's undertaking the penance in order to eradicate the drought and thus mitigate the suffering shows his goodness as well as generosity. Raju's character changes for the better.

In this way, The Guide is a powerful aristic projection of the socio- economic forces and the psycho-spiritual layers of human personality existing in a traditional and upcoming society of Malgudi. The metaphysical quality of the sentences in the novel suggests a freedom for Raju from his deception and from his self-deception at last. He realizes, perhaps, only in his last moment, and strives to liberate his submerged self and comes to possess again his long lost true identity. The tragedy of it is that it becomes possible only at the point of death. Hence, the novel is to some extent a picaresque novel.

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