Arun Joshi’s The Apprentice Summary and Analysis

The Apprentice Summary and Analysis

Introduction

Arun Joshi was born in 1939. He was educated in India and U.S.A. He got his Masters Degree in Management from M.I.T. His five novels and a collection of short stories won him critical acclaim and recognition as an author of rare sensitivity and exceptional talent. His novel The Last Labyrinth was selected for a prestigious Sahitya Academy Award, which is regarded as India’s highest literary honour. Special mention must be made of his novels- The City and the River, The Foreigner, The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, and his collection of short stories entitled The Survivor.

The Apprentice Summary

The Apprentice is a novel totally different in tone from all other novels and writings of Arun Joshi. The protagonist, Ratan Rathor, represents the quintessence. Every mana contrast to other protagonists in so far as his intellectual level is much lower. An unsophisticated youth, jobless, he comes to the city in search of a career; unscrupulous and ready to prostitute himself for professional advancement. Seduced by materialistic values, he takes a bribe to clear a large lot of defective weapons. As a consequence, a brigadier, who is also his friend, has to desert his post, and to escape shame, commits suicide. A repentant Rathor, avoids confessing his guilt, but tries to achieve redemption by cleaning the shoes of devotees, every morning at a temple.

The Apprentice attacks materialistic values but with a different strategy. Ratan Rathor wades through corruption to arrive at an understanding of life and its affirmations. According to “World Literature Today” the novel is cast in a series of Browning like monologues, to a boy to whom the protagonist, burdened with sorrow of a wasted life’, lays bare motives, aspirations, dilemmas and frustrations of his past.

The Apprentice Analysis

Arun Joshi is recognized as an author of rare sensitivity and exceptional talent. His novel The Apprentice is considered as an experimental novel. According to “World Literature Today” the novel is cast in a series of Browning like monologues, to a boy to whom the protagonist, burdened with sorrow of a ‘wasted life lays bare the motives, aspirations, dilemmas and frustrations of his past.

The Apprentice is a novel totally different in tone from all other novel and writings of Arun Joshi. The protagonist Ratan Rathor, represents to quintessence. Everyman- a contrast to other protagonist in so far as his intellectual level is much lower. He wades through corruption to arrive at an understanding of life and its affirmations. An unsophisticated youth, jobless, he comes to the city in search of a career. He is unscrupulous and ready to prostitute himself for professional advancement. Having been seduced by materialistic values, he takes a bribe to clear a large lot of defective weapons. As a consequence, a brigadier, who is also his friend, has to desert his post and to escape ignominy, commits suicide.

Rathor feels repentant and avoids confessing his guilt. But he tries to achieve redemption by cleaning the shoes of devotees, every morning at a temple.

The brigadier comes from a poor family. His father was a school teacher in a village. After the death of his father, his mother stitched clothes. His sisters also did the same. He was educated on the scholarships and the earnings of those poor women. His mother stays with him. His sisters are well-settled. He was in good service. But wherever he went, whatever he did, he could not forget those women stitching in the light of the kerosene lamps or carrying loads or sweeping floors. They are the persons who make up this country. It is only for them that he works. He intends to work hard and make his men work hard.

Head thrown back, handsome, scar across one cheek, memento of a previous war, sleeves rolled to the elbow, straight nose and even teeth was the personality of the brigadier. He was not afraid of death. What he feared was the humiliation of defeat. He said he had been through two wars and had been wounded five times, but each time they has won. Even when he lay dying in the dust of the road, he knew that they would win. The brigadier was not killed. He came back soon after the hostilities were over.

The brigadier was the only friend that Ratan Rathor had. He lived two houses down the same street. His father was grain merchant, a jolly man and quite rich. He used to lend money to put him through college. But after his father’s death, things became bleak.

Employment seemed more than even out of reach. The introductory letters given by his father’s friends a lawyer and an engineer could not help Rathor. He started applying for any jobs that were advertised. He and the brigadier used to discuss careers when they were in college. He went to Delhi in search of a career. But even survival seemed impossible. Promotions were based on blindly doing what their seniors told him. After getting a job he was awaiting confirmation. He carried on the work without making any complaint. He was asked privately to handle difficult assignments. He managed to put in the argument about an allowance. The superintendent took up the whole job.

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The conduct of the contractor surprised Rathor. Rathor was forced to accept the bribe. He was worried about the consequences of what would happen to the taker and the giver Rathor used to visit his mother every six months or so, ever since he had come to Delhi. Her illness had fortunately not deteriorated and she passed her time well working in a home for widows. The idea was that soon after he got settle, she would come and live with him.

Thus the novel Apprentice is an experimental novel. Arun Joshi is one of the very few Indo-Anglian writers who seem to be conscious of technique and technical experimentation.