Why america ?

« certainly have to renounce and give up some of his cultural heritage.

Jagan dreads Mali might be faced with an entirely different cultural environment and be rejected, looked down on by other students because of his color and origin.

Last, but no least, Jagan can’t stand the thought of being separated from his son.

This is made clear in the sentence “he had..

so far l10).

We aren’t given much information about the relationship between Jagan and his son, but we can suppose that jagan is a doting, overprotective father which might explain Mali’s need to break away.

Moreover, Jagan lives in a society in which children, particularly boys, are supoosed to take care of their parents in their later years.

Jagan is sixty years old now : who will look after him if mali goes to America ? All these reasons explain why Jagan is so adamant at the end of the text and will do everything in his power to prevent his son from leavi ng India (but..

here l.44) Jagan and his cousin have a very stereotyped vision of America.

What little they know of the United States is based on hearsay (I used…told me l34) or on specialized magazines which do not reflect what America really is (I have… about films l37).

That’s why jagan ans his cousin are so prejudiced and biased against America.

Because of their warped, short -sighted vision of America, they regard it as a dissolute country where women are too independent and have shocking behavior.

Moreover, they blame America for being a country of alcoholics and meat -eaters, unlike india, where many people are vegetarians and drink water and milk.

That’s the reason why Jagan is so frightened : in the USA, Mali may well become Americanized, adopt Americ an customs, behave like all the dissolute people around him and even fall in love with some woman who will “bask in the sun without clothes” l39 or destroy their marriage without ado.

Jagan and his cousin convey a very narrow -minded image of India, contra ry to Mali, who symbolizes the new face of india.

They desperately stick to old- fashioned traditions and are strongly prejudiced against any culture which doesn’t respect Indian customs.

Although they know practically nothing of and have a destroyed vision of other cultures and societies, they nevertheless make it a principle to condemn them irrevocably.

They convey the image of a backward and small -minded country locked in a rigid pattern of behavior, and whoever doesn’t follow this pattern must have lost their reason.

Although R.

K Narayan’s novel was written in 1967, we sometimes get the impression that it could have been written in the early 19 th century.

Unlike Mali, jagan and his cousin are cut off from the outside world / the rest of the world.

And ye t, we get the feeling that Narayan doesn’t condemn them entirely.

In a way, he seems if not to forgive them, at least to understand them and even to pity or feel sorry for them.

Jagan and his cousin are shown as victims and the embodiment of the generation gap : young people and their elders do not understand each other because of their different experiences, opinions, habits, and behaviour... »