Mali is insignificant when compared to his father, Jagan. Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer.
R. K. Narayan’s The Vendor of Sweets was first
published in London in 1967. East-West conflict is the major theme of the
novel. It is the conflict between a genuine Indian or Eastern father and his
Western-bred son.
Jagan, a college-educated
man in the late fifties has made a success of his sweet shop. Though he grew
quite rich as a sweet-vendor, his main interest and concern was his only son,
Mali. Mali’s mother died of brain tumor several years back. The barrier between
the father and the son came into being the day the mother died. It might be
that Mali, a little bewildered and dismayed, felt obscurely that in some way
his father was responsible for his mother’s death. Jagan was an advocate of
nature cure. Jagan’s love both for his wife and his son was deep and
unwavering. The tragedy is that when he lost his wife, he lost also any
affection that his son might have had for him. Jagan’s love for the son was so
much that he hastened home from his shop in the evenings thinking that the boy
would be lonely. But, Mali did not rise to his expectations and he preferred to
be alone and detached. It led to a total estrangement between the two. Even
after having lived twenty years with his son Jagan knew very little about him.
Jagan was very proud of his son, but he had no control over him. Mali gave up
his studies and went to America. Mali’s letters from America only added Jagan’s
worries. Jagan could not think of his son eating beef. He was a true Gandhian
and a vegetarian. During India’s freedom struggle he had been arrested for
hoisting Indian flag. He lived a very simple life. He ate food cooked by his
own hands. He never used sugar or salt since he believed that they were
detrimental to health. As recommended by Gandhi he spun on his charka and used
clothes made of khaddar. Jagan could not use tooth brush as he feared that its
bristles were made of pig’s tails. The
Bhagawad Gita was always in his hand and he read it whenever he was
free. Thus Jagan was a model of traditional Indian values whereas his son was
the other extreme, a spokesman of modern Western values. Spirituality in him
gave way to materialism. After three years of education in America, Mali
returned home accompanied by a Korean-American girl name Grace. When Mali
announced to Jagan that the girl was his wife, Jagan was shocked. Still he
loved them, gave due respect and allowed them to stay in his house. He accepted
Grace as his daughter-in-law. She also behaved admirable towards him. But, soon
cracks developed not only between Jagan and Mali, but also between Mali and
Grace. Jagan was unwilling to finance a huge amount of money for Mali’s
establishment of story-writing machine. It was too much for Jagan when Grace
announced to him that Mali and Grace had been living together without being
married; nor was Mali willing to marry her. The ever-growing tension in
father-son relationship reached its climax when Mali was caught red-handed for
breaking the prohibition laws. Then there came in Jagan’s life the moment of
self-realisation and also of decision. He managed to break away from Mali and
his scheming and vicious world which he could not approve. He escaped from the
chains of paternal love. Jagan abandoned the world and retired into a life of
spiritual devotion. He was altogether unaffected to hear that Mali was in jail
as the police had caught him with liquor in his car. He thought that a period
of jail might be good for the young man.
Jagan is the most vibrant
character of the novel from the first
page to the last. Mali, his son who returned from America with a half-American
half-Korean girl whom he reported as his wife and later said he never married,
had been something of a sensation disturbing the placid waters of Malgudi. But,
Mali is insignificant when compared to his father.
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