Much More Realistic

What I liked most about this novel was the way Narayan wonderfully describes the childlike behavior of Swami and his friends in a realistic manner. I guess I had a much easier time relating to this since more or less Swami was a normal kid. Some of the previous novels we've read like "Ake" had a totally different description of the main character who was a child. For instance, I think a lot of us had trouble believing Wole's child-genius qualities. However, because Narayan uses such a realistic character, I find the messages sent in this novel having a greater impact on me. Using Rajam, a boy who Swami desparately tries to impress, as a symbol of Britishness or Westernization just made all the effects that colonization can have on a child seem more believable. For instance, in "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," Tutuola draws a parallel between the ghost world and the real world where colonization is happening. At many times during that novel, I found it hard imagining what life would be like under colonial rule because it was hard to relate something so unbelievable like ghosts to something so realistic like colonization. However, in Narayan's novel, there is such a refreshing description of what it feels like to be a child and the thoughts children tend to have like wanting to impress a friend which is something most of us have been through. Therefore, its easier to relate to the idea that colonization psychologically impacts the mind of children into believing that they are inferior and everything Western is superior.