The Guide Literary Elements

Fiction

Mid-20th-century India; specifically, the fictional town of Malgudi

Vacillates between first person (Raju) and third person

Tone: direct, unconcerned, ironic, delightful

Mood: easy, restless, amused

Protagonist: Raju | Antagonist: Marco, to an extent

Will Raju truly embody the role of holy man that he has embraced for himself and manage to do what is necessary to bring about the rains?

There are two climaxes in the novel: one when Raju is arrested, and the other at the end of the novel when he collapses into the river and says the rains are coming.

Narayan foreshadows the demise of Raju's relationship and his time in jail throughout the first part of the novel when Raju is trying to feel out his new role as swami. The reader has the distinct sense that things did not end well for him with Rosie and that his coming to this secluded space after jail was a result of some dramatic event. Narayan bears these suppositions out as Raju begins to tell Velan his story.

N/A

1. Ramayana: an ancient Indian epic poem written in Sanskrit
2. Parvathi: Hindu goddess of beauty, fertility, love, divine power
3. Bhagavad-Gita: a Hindu epic written in Sanskrit
4. Othello and Desdemona: characters in Shakespeare's play "Othello"

See Imagery section

Raju is a famous guide full of knowledge, intuition, and insight. However, paradoxically he does not know himself whatsoever and cannot guide himself anywhere near good decisions or enlightenment until the very end of the novel. This makes the title paradoxical as well.

Rosie's life and Marco's life parallel each other after their split in that both of them achieve fame and financial comfort due to their respective arts of dancing and archeological study.

N/A

1. "The banana worked a miracle" (33)
2. "Her art and her husband could not find a place in her thoughts at the same time; one drove the other out" (95)
3. "...he picked the most carefully packed evidence between his thumb and forefinger and with a squeeze reduced it to thin air" (177)