About the Author
Arun Joshi (1939-1993)
• One of the major Indian English writer of the contemporary time.
• Educated in both India and U.S.A
• Primarily an existentialist writer and his writing was in line with Albert Camus and Franz Kafka.
• Existentialism: a twentieth century literary movement which challenged the established order of the universe as a moral absolute system. Instead, it pointed out,
‘’The aimless existence of man who is indifferent to everything and alien to everybody, a delirious effect brought upon to the life of man due to the forces of industrialisation and urbanization.’’
• Arun Joshi’s writings are the Indian variety of existentialism which examines the human psyche trapped in the matrix of decaying values.
• The distinctive feature of his writing is the duality of selves i.e. the native consciousness and the acquired consciousness.
• Joshi’s fiction encounters the cultural conflicts of tradition and transition and the juxtaposition of materialistic, rational view of life and the traditional, emotional and spiritual stance.
• Joshi’s theme of alienation does not confined merely with geography or nationality but is rooted within the man’s soul.
Important Works
• The Foreigner (1968)
• The Strange case of Billy Biswas (1971)
• The Apprentice (1974)
• The Last Labyrinth (1981)
• Survivor (1975, collection of short stories)
“That is a terrible sensation. My friend – may God preserve you from it – the realization that one’s life has been a great mistake, without purpose, without results. There are many sorrows of a wasted life,’’
"The Apprentice"
Characterization
Kundan Lal
• A proud father of Dr. Khanna always bragging about his son’s achievement and him being the only American of the village.
• Like a typical Indian father, he had expectations from his son of returning to his roots once his education is completed, get married to a girl of a respectable family with his consent and blessings, hold a big position and bring comfort and contentment to the old man’s life. But all his hopes and dreams for his sons are but to be shattered and belied when Dr. Khanna marry a girl, there in America.
• Like a proud man, he is, Kundan Lal, didn’t want to ask his son to send him a ticket to visit America but would assume Dr. Khanna would do it on his own. Therefore, Kundan Lal would shave everyday, bring himself new shirts and a suit and upon being asked by the question as to why he is doing all that, he would discreetly answer that he is expecting a ticket from his son to visit America.
• But unfortunately, that ticket never came and Kundan Lal drowned his grief and humiliation in religion and hymn singing hoping that God would make his son send him a ticket or at least a letter only to in vain.
• He is also described as a bright student, a scholar, standing third in the state among forty students but in contrast to his son his erudition never gotten into his head and he loved and cared for his mother until she passed away.
Dr. Khanna
• He is described as one who has completely negated his duty as a son.
• He, in a way, is used as a character only to heighten the poignancy of Kundan Lal’s predicament.
• We are not even told about his initials and he is only being referred as Dr. Khanna .
• He preferred to attend his conference than to attend to his father when being informed about his father’s illness. Moreover, when asked by the question as to why he had not sent a ticket to his father he replied with, ‘’I could not. I did not have the money’’, when it was no secret that he was among the best dressed men on the campus.
• He did not even come when his father died considering it sheer sentimentality, expensive and unnecessary.
• In this way Dr. Khanna is represented as a neglectful son whose has caused his father to have suffered from his callousness and indifference.
Radhey Mohan
• Radhey Mohan has described as a character archetypal to what Jung calls the “Wise Old Man’’. A character beneficient and whose function is to act as a guide to the erring hero, in this case, Dr. Khanna.
• The Wise Old Man represents qualities like knowledge, wisdom, reflection, cleverness, intuition, goodwill and a readiness to help.
• The ashtamp farosh or Radhey Mohan is the archetypal of The Old Wise Man who reunites the son with his father, if symbolically.
• The father’s quest for his son brought to fruition by him.
Narrative Techniques :
Joshi was dexterous enough to bring about his skill of dual consciousness in The Only American Form Our Village.
He did so by the use of a number of techniques in the narrative.
The alter ego:
The character Radhey Mohan, is seen as an alter ego of Dr. Khanna’s father Kundan Lal.
When he met Dr. Khanna at the party he immediately put his complacency into painful remorse having been neglecting his duty as a son.
Even his appearance is a spitting image of Kundan Lal, had he been alive with a greasy jacket and eyes heavy with the cataract.
Moreover, the sight of Radhey Mohan bring this unreasonable feeling in Dr. Khanna that he was going to slap him.
Ashtamp Farosh :
This is one other technique Joshi has used to bring about the native sensitivity and sensibility in the entire narrative.
The word Is overtly native and have been used in the story for as many as 16 times to reinforce the native sensibility.
The Open endedness :
This story does not end with a happy note or any kind of resolution in the end.
Rather the very ending is suggestive of many questions that only time will answer.
For instance, Dr. Khanna keeps on staring at his feet and complains about a burning sensation.
Like his father, he too seems to have lost his mental balance.
Will he regain his sanity and go back to his life of research and won more laurels ?
These are the questions which looms over the mind of a reader due to the open endedness of the story.
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