Truth In R. K. Narayan's Like The Sun

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“Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.” -Khaled Hosseini The topic of truth in itself is a paradox; if telling someone the truth will hurt him, then is it worth lying to him, creating a false reality to be comforted by? In the short story “Like the Sun” by R.K. Narayan, the theme is that similar to the sun, truth cannot be directly seen without being hurt. In the beginning of the story, directly following Sekhar’s internal oath to tell only the truth for the day, he expresses to his wife that the breakfast that she prepares for him is not good, and that he can’t even swallow it (Narayan). Following the unexpected remark, his wife winces in reaction. Later in the story it is seen that she is still upset with him at the …show more content…

He now has his wife and boss upset with him, plus 100 papers to grade in one day. Although, even after receiving the results of telling the truth, he still feels what he has done is worth it, as further supported by this line “...feeling that sitting up all night with a hundred test papers was a small price to pay for the luxury of practicing truth,” (Narayan). All of these results that Sekhar meets with support the given theme. This is because they show that even though he tells the truth, not even in a manner with the goal to offend, it still causes the receiver to get hurt. Overall, the theme that similar to the sun, truth cannot be directly seen without being hurt, is thoroughly expressed throughout the story. Because Sekhar gives a response different to the ones expected by his wife and boss, he is immediately met with anger by both characters towards himself. As shown it the quote this essay began with, truth is an essential thing. Sekhar does not give the truth with the intent to hurt others, but with the intent that for just one day the stigma could be broken of the expectancy of a positive opinion, even when it is not

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