Transcript Leela’s Friend By R. K. Narayan Main Points • Caste Prejudice - Sidda never stands a chance • Leela and Sidda - a special friendship •

Leela’s Friend
By R. K. Narayan
Main Points
• Caste Prejudice - Sidda never stands a
chance
• Leela and Sidda - a special friendship
• Sidda - weak and vulnerable
• Adults versus Sidda - prejudice
• Adults versus Leela - condescension
• Leela versus Sidda - stubborn and
principled
Caste Prejudice
• Treated impersonally
– …brooding over the servant problem.
– ‘Doesn’t seem to be a bad sort… At any rate, the
fellow looks tidy.’
• Homeless
– …indicated a vague somewhere…
– ‘Why should he always be made to sleep outside
the house, Mother?’
• Assume the worst
– It seems he is an old criminal…The police know
his haunts.
– These fellows…have no fear. Nothing can make
them confess.
Leela and Sidda
• Source of happiness
– Leela…looked at Sidda and gave a cry of joy.
– His company made her supremely happy.
– It gave her great joy to play the teacher to Sidda.
• Mutual devotion
– …Sidda had to drop any work he might be doing and
run to her…
– She pitied him and redoubled her efforts to teach him.
• Extremely close
– Day by day she clung closer to him…all her waking
hours.
– I won’t sleep unless Sidda comes and tells me stories.
– She clung to Sidda’s hand…in tears.
Sidda
• Magical imagination
– ‘…if you stand on a coconut tree you can touch
the sky.’
– …told incomparable stories…
• Human limitations
– [Sidda], though an adept at controlling the moon,
was utterly incapable of plying the pencil.
• Treated like an animal
– Sidda stood with a bowed head…looking at the
ground.
– He looked at her mutely, like an animal.
Adults versus Sidda
• Mr Sivisanker
– …subjected him to a scrutiny…
– …grew very excited over all this…
– …in any case, we couldn’t have kept a criminal
like him in the house.
• Mrs Sivisanker
– Leela’s mother threw a glance at him and thought
the fellow already looked queer.
– The thought of Sidda made her panicky.
– ‘What a rough fellow he must be!’ said his wife
with a shiver.
• The Police
– What a devil you mist be to steal a thing from such
an innocent child!’
Adults versus Leela
• Bullying
– Her mother gave her a slap and said, “How many
times have I told you…”
– …attempting to make her lie down… ‘Sleep,
Leela, sleep,’ she cajoled.
• Condescension
– …all of them laughed…
– ‘You are not a reliable prosecution witness, my
child,’ observed the inspector humorously.
– ‘Baby, if you don’t behave, I will be very angry with
you.’
• Irritation
– All of this bother on account of her.
Leela versus Adults
• Chooses Sidda
– ‘Don’t send him away. Let us keep him in our
house.’
– And that decided it.
• Defends Sidda
– ‘I don’t like you, Mother. You are always abusing
and worrying Sidda.’
– ‘…leave him alone. I want to play with him.’
• Disapproving and superior
– ‘Let him be,’ Leela replied haughtily.
– Leela felt disgusted with the whole business.