Redeeming Raju in The Guide: A Phenomenological Study
Date
2021
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Panini
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09
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Abstract
The paper intends to analyze the predicament of Raju, the protagonist of R. K. Narayan's The Guide, from the theoretical perspective of "existential phenomenology' of Martin Heidegger, supplemented by relevant ideas from Jean-Paul Sartre's early philosophyas well as Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological exploration of human perception. It considers Raju's painful alienation portrayed in the novel and interprets his deep-seated guilty conscience as the characteristic feature of what Heidegger calls an "authentic' existence. In order to make more sense of Raju's situation in which he undergoes extreme suffering, it focuses on his past life and how he gradually embraces an "authentic" existence. The study thus demonstrates that, in the "authentic" or final phase of his life, Raju is more coin.mowd about his "being" or existence in the rural community of Mangel than the question of his life.
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North South University