The Theme of the Novel "The Apprentice" - Arun Joshi

THE APPRENTICE – ARUN JOSHI

# Write the theme of the novel ‘The Apprentice’.

Ratan Rathor, the protagonist and also narrator of the story in the novel ‘The Apprentice’, who recounts the story of his own life in an episodic and reflective manner. He is initially an idealist like his father whose martyrdom gave him a strong impression on idealism and moral values but later he sacrificed his idealism and moral values in the face of the harsh, frustrating realities of bourgeois (middle class) existence.

It may be argued that ‘The Apprentice’ is predominantly about money, power, politics and corruption. The novel basically deals with how the New Slavery has come into existence after independence with new masters: politicians, officials (bureaucrats) and the rich.  At the outset the narration of the story in the novel is directly aims at exposing social degradation and political corruption of post-independent India. It is also be argued that the novel deals with the problem of character building, since Ratan Rathor the young idealist authored an essay ‘on the crisis of character’ to his college magazine which won the first prize for the year.   

Ratan Rathor has seen two pictures of India: the colonial India that produced a nation of clerks, the pillars of British Raj, and the post-independent India, which, in spite of fervent patriotism, ancient heritage, and Gandhian moral enthusiasm, is still overwhelmed by the British colonial tradition, which emphasis the spirit of docility and obedience as values that makes the middle-class so blindly follow its masters. The unique class of clerks is ironically portrayed by Joshi in his novel ‘The Apprentice’ as a class of emaciated men whose ambition does not extend beyond the constricting goals of clerkship, career-hunting, matrimonial game-planning and other highly charged ritualistic games involving status and money.

It was in the India of the 1940s and 1950s; Ratan Rathor first finds himself confronting with two worlds: one, the world of his father that is the world of idealism, patriotism, social and moral concern and the other is crippled world of bourgeois filth. No doubt poverty is a fertile soil for breeding crime, but it is seen in both the rich and the bourgeoisie of the pre-independence and the post-independence periods, who will do anything to gratify their indulgent lust for money. Joshi’s astute analysis of crumbling values of the bourgeoisie and its complete absence of ethical values and concerns in the name of aristocracy reveals the nature of the moral and psychological conflict among the people like Rathan Rathor, who has come from bourgeois class of society. Ironically, Ratan Rathor’s mother, a tuberculosis patient, is a staunch realist who knows fully about the practical value of money states categorically that without money life and all its idealism are totally meaningless. Rathor’s mother warned her husband not to give up his Law-practice for the sake of the falsetto idealism of Mahatma Gandhi. Following her husband’s sacrificial death, she is more convinced about the value of money. 

The self-destructive confusion and moral ambivalence of Ratan Rathor, which finally make him succumb to the mounting temptation of accepting tainted money by sacrificing his patriotism and honour, result from the spineless structure of bourgeois morality. By accepting the bribe from Himmat Singh, he has risked the lives of thousands of patriotic soldiers who fought with the enemy with inferior weapons. Ironically, when it comes to rationalization –— one of the last resorts of a criminal like our hero –— Ratan Rathor is frantically obsessed more by his honour than by the severity and magnitude of his crime.  

Ratan Rathor is guilty of accepting a bribe would characterize as compound fraud, the sin against community. His bribery and fraud threatened his honour for which he determined to take revenge from Himmat Singh, and then from the Secretary who hatched a conspiracy of supplying defective weapons to the army and also responsible for the committing suicide of his childhood friend Brigadier. Ratan Rathor did not opt for death like his Brigadier friend for his guilt of accepting bribe but expiate his guilt in more Gandhian way than Vedantic way:

“Each morning, before I go to work, I come here. I sit on the steps of the temple and while they pray I wipe the shoes of the congregation. Then, when they are gone, I stand in the doorway. I never enter the temple. I am not concerned with what goes on in there. I stand at the doorstep and I fold my hands, my hands smelling of leather and I say things. Be good, I tell myself. Be good. Be decent. Be of use. Then, I beg forgiveness. Of a large host: my father, my mother, the brigadier, the unknown dead of the war, of those whom I harmed, with deliberation and with cunning, of all those who have been the victims of my cleverness, those whom I could have helped and did not.

After this I get into my car and go to office. And during the day whenever I find myself getting to be clever, lazy, vain, indifferent, I put up my hands to my face and there is the smell of hundred feet that must at that moment be toiling somewhere and I am put in my place.”

Thus Ratan Rathor’s search for spiritual identity includes his concern for humanity. Ratan Rathor is freed from the fear of a possible judgement of society, but he remains bound to his own moral conscience in a voluntary attempt to redeem himself from the sin he had committed. However in the process of discovery of self there are magical moments when the individual sees congruence between social morality and individual consciousness.

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THE APPRENTICE — ARUN JOSHI

# Write an essay on the character of Ratan Rator, the protagonist of the novel, ‘The Apprentice’

Ratan Rathor, the protagonist, who narrates the story of his life to a N.C.C. cadet who came to New Delhi to participate in the Republic Day parade. Ratan narrates his own story an episode after another episode ranging from his childhood to his apprenticeship and as a shoeshiner on the steps of a temple as a sort of expiation (redemption) for his sins. The novel, ‘The Apprentice’ deals with Ratan Rathor’s adolescent innocence, his manly experience and his saintly expiation.

Ratan Rathor presents before us a background of his childhood life both before and after the death of his father. Ratna has been an eye-witness to the sight of his father lying dead, who was brutally killed by a British Sergeant while he was leading a procession protesting against British Rule in India. Ratan Rathor, with the background of his middle class family, is torn between the world of his father’s idealism and his mother’s pragmatism. On one hand his father, an ardent patriot, gives up his lucrative practice as a lawyer to politics at Gandhi’s call. Up holding moral values, he donates everything to the national cause without thinking of his family’s difficulties. On other hand his mother, who was disillusioned about the sacrifices made by the patriots during the freedom struggle. A woman suffering all the time physically, mentally, and economically may become almost cynical about money as it is the only means needed to make a man’s life happy in this world.

As a student Ratan Rathor also had ideals like his father and hoped that free India will bring new light to the citizens of the Republic. But, after the achievement of Independence all his hopes for better India have shattered.  He thought that the politicians of free India are worse substitutes for the alien Englishmen. This problem becomes so nagging that Ratan Rathor compelled to think that it has simply given us New Slavery: “yes a new slavery with new masters; politicians, officials, the rich, the old and new. Swindlers in fancy cars.”

When Ratan Rathor comes to Delhi, ‘a city of opportunities’, after his graduation in search of a job for his livelihood, he is disillusioned with stark realities of the present system. In his search for employment he realizes that the posts advertised are already filled in some manner. Even his father’s friends could not come to his aid for finding job for him. During his stay in Delhi he gets shelter in a sarai (inn) beside a masque where several others also occupy the same room with him. A stenographer living at the same inn, manages a temporary job for him in a Government office, dealing with war purchases. 

  

Thus Ratan Rathor begins his life as an apprentice clerk. Ratan Rathor keeps his eye upon his career despised by his father as bourgeois filth. He leaves the inn as soon as he gets the job to settle somewhere and tries to keep himself away even from the stenographer who had been instrumental in securing a job for him. He works hard to please his superintendent. In very short time of six months, on the recommendation of the superintendent, he gets confirmation in the service on his assurance that he would marry the superintendent’s niece. Henceforth he never looks back and on the superintendent’s retirement he gets this most coveted post which brings him every comfort in his life. With the accumulation of riches, Ratan rather gets engulfed in the vices associated with wealth such as taste for wine and woman. In Bombay he once gets engrossed in ‘fantasies of pleasure.’

There is nothing unethical about the fact that the son of the freedom fighter runs after a bureaucratic career. But it is highly illegal, unethical and unscrupulous that he should get corrupt and act against the national interest. During the time of the nation’s adversity, he is not only one to gain prosperity by clearing sub-standard war materials supplied by the Sheikh Himmat Singh, being used in Indo-China war without caring for the lives of innocent people. The gravity of the offence committed by Ratan Rathor is surely more intense than the solution of polishing the shoes in front of the temple. Ratan rather forms a view that a successful career cannot be achieved through diligence and sincerity, but be realized through flattery and cunning. So he deceives his very close friend by giving a false statement without admitting his crime. Ultimately, the Brigadier commits suicide. Similarly, Ratan plays havoc with many who are sacrificing their lives for the nation’s cause. Ratan deceives Himmat Singh, a contractor holding him responsible for the supply of defective materials, but the words of Himmat Singh exposing the character of Ratan Rathor are soul-searching when he comments: “You are bogus, Ratan Rathor…. from to bottom. Your work, your religion, your friendship, your honour nothing but a pile of dung”.

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