1
Comment on the father-son conflict in the story Vendor of Sweets by R.K. Narayan.
The story deals with Jagan, the primary protagonist of the story. Jagan plays the role of
the father of the household which houses his only son, Mali, and memories of his late
wife. The story revolves around the life, deeds, confusions, policies and beliefs of the
protagonist and his final, ultimate decision to remove himself from the material world
and live a life of recluse and isolation. In The Vendor of Sweets, the generation gap
between father and son strains their relationship.
Part of the reason for this is cultural. Jagan represents the traditionalist values of
Indian identity. He wears homespun cloth. He looks at the wall that features a picture
of the Goddess Lakshmi, who controls wealth accumulation. He tries his best to fuse
his way of life with strict Gandhian principles of adherence to spiritual truth. Jagan
carries with him the legacy of being a freedom fighter in India's struggle against the
British. It is for this reason that he cannot easily surrender his past and what it means.
The struggle for those values were real and represent priorities that are dear to his
heart.
Mali does not share these values. He is different as he embodies much of the youth in
India. He fails to acknowledge Indian/ Hindu traditions that he sees as "backwards."
He sees his life as his own and not linked to anything larger. It is for this reason that
he sets his mind to going to America, taking money from his father without consent to
do so, and setting up abroad. On a personal level, the relationship between father and
son is frayed because Mali blames his father for his mother's death. The differences
are stark when Mali returns back to India. He feels that the country of his birth is
foreign, as “He seemed to cower back and recoil from the bright Indian sunlight.” He
has returned for financial fain and nothing more.
The generational gap differences between father and son also contributes to the
frayed relationship between them. The communication gap between them is even
more difficult to overcome. Jagan cannot bring himself to effectively speak to his son,
while Mali did not even write the letters that his father brandishes about with
beaming pride. Their relationship is shown to be incapable of overcoming the intense
differences between them.
2
When Mali speaks reproachfully to his father that “Oh, these are not the days of your
ancestors” and when Jagan says that the younger generation “are not the sort to make
a home bright," it reflects the gulf that exists between father and son. Jagan is a
follower of Gandhian values, a man who suffered physical abuse for his role in the
Indian Independence Movement. He struggles with balancing the spiritual with
material. For example, while he sits and reads the Gita, he also secretly counts his
money from his sweets business. His son, Mali, does not experience this struggle.
Mali is driven by materialism. He steals his father's money to live and study in
America and returns to India simply to start his own business. Mali is modernistic, and
has disdain for his father's cultural and spiritual approach to life.
The father-son conflict is mainly due to their inability to understand each other. Mali
has little care for what his father believes. For his part, Jagan's emphasis is on
resolving the battle between material and spiritual. He seeks to move closer towards
a spiritual way of life. As the novel ends, Jagan is able to surrender the bonds of this
life and is preparing for his next phase, one for which his son has little care or regard.
There is little emotional connection between both men because they believe in
different generational ideas, with no chance of reconciliation.
