Point of View

While the perspective that Mr. Sampath – The Printer of Malgudi offers is predominantly that of its protagonist, Srinivas, the author exploits the third-person point-of-view in order to present Srinivas and other characters in an ironic light. Through a third-person point-of-view closely focused on Srinivas, the reader gains insight into Srinivas’s thought process and value system while also seeing the flaws in Srinivas’s thinking. This happens often in very subtle ways. For example, after an excited Srinivas declares that Ravi could be “a great artist” (49), Ravi next appears in the text referred to as “the artist” (52). This goes on for some time. Though subtle, this detail is evidence of how the novel invites the reader into Srinivas’s worldview while, at the same time, subtly encouraging the reader to question Srinivas’s worldview: what makes Ravi, who says that he has only made one...