Abstract:
By nature, people love peace. But, sometimes, they reveal their
devastating instincts both towards themselves and others. This phenomenon
of conflict between love and hate prevails in many parts of the present world,
especially in the Middle East and South-East Asia. Consequently, the
extreme sufferings of humanity have impacted the creative writers of the
world. This has, off late, become a popular area of literary exercise among
fiction writers in South Asia. Following this trend, The Guide written by RK
Narayan, portrays a bigger picture of a human and humane process
peace-building that makes us constantly imagine of and get involved in
establishing an ideal world. He, in the novel, proves how important it is for
us to have peace in our life, which comes at the cost of self-sacrifice. This
paper investigates, through theories and critiques, textuality and intertextu-
ality, how Raju, the central character in The Guide, turns into a peace-build-
er, and how this peace-building puts back calm and happiness in his life as
well as in the lives of others around him.
Keywords: Peace, peace-building, ideal world, self-sacrifice
