Abstract: As Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s literary career advanced, her narrative tone also changes, becoming darker and darker with each successive novel. She presents a drama of conflict and resolution in terms of a youth’s quest for identity In the world her protagonist confronts, several social realities that were the consequence of Indian planning which are easily identified. The break-up of the joint family and mushrooming of nuclear units that followed created a need for new adaptations and adjustments. This phenomenon is characteristic feature of the new India as the decay of the aristocracy and the emergence of the business class enters Prawer Jhabvala’s fiction for the first time……
Key words: Identity, adjustment The Indian joint family, essentially patriarchal in character, kept itself alive by satisfying two vital needs of its male members the patriarch’s love of power and the young man’s need for financial security. By undertaking to support them, the system enabled young men to marry and raise a family before attaining financial independence. Prem, the central figure of the novel is an underpaid Hindi Lecturer at a private college in Dehli. He is newly married and he scarcely knowsIndu, his young wife. Having recently arrived in Delhi, he lives in a small flat for which he is paying quarter of what he earns from his job. Apart from Prem and Indu, a single domestic servant also lives in the flat, the novel’s titles provides its own frame go reference as we see Prem entering the second stage of a traditional Hindu life, that ‘of a Householder.’ We see Premexplaining to Mr. Seigal, his landlord. “… there are four stages to a man’s life. When he is young, he is a student, he is a student, learning from his father and his teachers… After that comes the life of Householder” Prem said “In this stage a man must raise a family and see to their needs… The third stage is when a man …show more content…
It is so that while we are still children and know nothing of what we want, they take as and tie us up with a wife and children… so… when we are old enough to know what the world is and God is, then it is too late, for we have a burden on our back which we cannot shake off for the rest of our days (27). Prem is not a good degree holder and is lucky to have got a job. The college where he teaches is owned by the snobbish Mr. Khanna and his even more despicable wife who do not pay their staff well, but lives on the profits that the college fetches. They also treat their stays with Scant respect. Prem who belongs to lower middle class milieu, is obviously exploited by Mr. Khanna the principal of the college and Mr. Seigal, and his handlord. Consequently he is in severe financial crisis throughout the novel. He plans to ask for a rise in salary and reduction in rent but never succeeds in his attempt. ‘My salary is not very big and it is difficult for me to pay so much rent every month…. ‘Ai’ said Mr. Seigal in irritation at his tooth and digging deeper. Especially now I expect my expenses to go up higher…. Perhaps you know already you see I am expecting…. my wife is expecting a baby…. Mr. Seigel said ‘Ah’ as he dislodged the of ending particle; … ‘let us hope for a boy’… very nice he said again and went
Key words: Identity, adjustment The Indian joint family, essentially patriarchal in character, kept itself alive by satisfying two vital needs of its male members the patriarch’s love of power and the young man’s need for financial security. By undertaking to support them, the system enabled young men to marry and raise a family before attaining financial independence. Prem, the central figure of the novel is an underpaid Hindi Lecturer at a private college in Dehli. He is newly married and he scarcely knowsIndu, his young wife. Having recently arrived in Delhi, he lives in a small flat for which he is paying quarter of what he earns from his job. Apart from Prem and Indu, a single domestic servant also lives in the flat, the novel’s titles provides its own frame go reference as we see Prem entering the second stage of a traditional Hindu life, that ‘of a Householder.’ We see Premexplaining to Mr. Seigal, his landlord. “… there are four stages to a man’s life. When he is young, he is a student, he is a student, learning from his father and his teachers… After that comes the life of Householder” Prem said “In this stage a man must raise a family and see to their needs… The third stage is when a man …show more content…
It is so that while we are still children and know nothing of what we want, they take as and tie us up with a wife and children… so… when we are old enough to know what the world is and God is, then it is too late, for we have a burden on our back which we cannot shake off for the rest of our days (27). Prem is not a good degree holder and is lucky to have got a job. The college where he teaches is owned by the snobbish Mr. Khanna and his even more despicable wife who do not pay their staff well, but lives on the profits that the college fetches. They also treat their stays with Scant respect. Prem who belongs to lower middle class milieu, is obviously exploited by Mr. Khanna the principal of the college and Mr. Seigal, and his handlord. Consequently he is in severe financial crisis throughout the novel. He plans to ask for a rise in salary and reduction in rent but never succeeds in his attempt. ‘My salary is not very big and it is difficult for me to pay so much rent every month…. ‘Ai’ said Mr. Seigal in irritation at his tooth and digging deeper. Especially now I expect my expenses to go up higher…. Perhaps you know already you see I am expecting…. my wife is expecting a baby…. Mr. Seigel said ‘Ah’ as he dislodged the of ending particle; … ‘let us hope for a boy’… very nice he said again and went