Point of View

The novel uses a third-person limited perspective to tell Margayya’s story. For the most part, the novel focuses on telling events in Margayya’s life from the perspective of Margayya himself. Of all the characters in the novel, Margayya is the only character whose interior thoughts are represented in the novel. There is a clear example of this imposed limitation at the end of the novel, when Narayan describes in Part Five Margayya’s angered ravings as he goes to see his son: “ ‘What right has that fool to make me walk to him at this house? It is sheer nonsense, why should I go there?’ he asked himself suddenly. ‘Share of the property! Accursed fool! What share—I gave him the right answer.’” (375). Passages such as this one allow the reader to see into Margayya’s perspective and, in so doing, implicitly solicit...