Narayan: The Man-Eater of Malgudi

Narayan: The Man-Eater of Malgudi

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As a starting point, refer to the section of chapter 5 involving

Nataraj's consultation with the adjournment lawyer (pgs 60-64).

Explore how Narayan "invests his story with all his warm, wicked and

delightful sense of comedy." You should use to other sequences from

the novel in your response.

Narayan's humour in "The Man-Eater of Malgudi" relies on a lot of

ironical situations as well as the interaction of several of his major

and minor characters in unexpected ways, creating a distinct range of

reactions which lead to comic and humorous situations. Apart from

Nataraj's consultation with the adjournment lawyer in chapter 5, the

opening of chapter 4 - when Vasu takes the liberty of taking Nataraj,

without warning, on an excursion into Mempi Village - and a section of

chapter 6 - when the septuagenarian visits Nataraj and learns that

Vasu has shot his grandchild's dog - are also varied examples of how

Narayan creates humour in different forms. The humour created on the

trip to Mempi Village relies heavily on the unexpected and Nataraj's

own internal thoughts while the episode concerning the murdered dog

involves an array of characters, and Narayan uses dialogue as his main

technique in creating a dark humour here.

Nataraj's consultation with the adjournment lawyer is a small example

of how Narayan creates a humorous situation out of typical human

behaviour around other. people. On his way up the "staircase" to see

the lawyer, he immediately connects it to the "one leading to [his]

attic devoted to dead wildlife". This allusion to Vasu (as it is he

who inhabits the attic) creates a certain amount of gentle humour as

it reminds us of t...

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...erent characters

involved. Sastri plays a large role regarding humour throughout the

rest of this extract and the visual/aural image of Sastri "as if he

had been poked with the butt of a rifle" is comic in nature while

Narayan's choice of language within Nataraj's mental sarcastic comment

- "Sastri insisted on enlightening him" - adds to the entertaining

aspect of this extract, as does his later comment - "Knowing Vasu's

style of speech with children, I could agree with the old man's point

of view [regarding the danger posed by Vasu towards the children]".

These three extracts all incorporate different combined techniques to

achieve a gentle and sometimes mocking sense of humour which is unique

to Narayan. Ultimately, the comic aspects add to the realism of the

novel as a whole, making it more credible as a story and more

enjoyable to read on the whole.