Question- Who was the narrator in the short story "The Free Radio'?

or
Write a sketch character of the narrator.

Answer - 

In 'The Free Radio', the narrator is a former teacher of the main character, a young man named Ramani. The narrator begins the story with his concerns for the well being of his former student who is a hard worker who runs a rickshaw operation. The youth became involved with a widow at least ten years older and is rumoured to be a prostitute. The narrator, a friend of the youth's deceased parents feels he must intervene to save his former student but ultimately fails to separate the young man from the widow and the folly of his involvement with her.

The story "The Free Radio' is written in the first person. The narrator is an old teacher of an important part of the community. He used to know Ramani's parents. The narrator aften switches between the singular 'I' and 'the plural 'we', which means that he assumes the role of the community's spokes person.

The narration is unreliable, as it is filtered through the narrator's biases and preconceptions. Unreliable narrators are fairly common in modernism. The narrator is particularly prejudiced against the thief's widow. The fact that he never addresses her by her own name reveals a lot about the narrator's view on gender. The widow is only defined by her disreputable dead husband as if her identity were tied inextricably with his. In the narrator's view, women are not independent beings.

The widow was certainly attractive, no point denying, in a sort of hard vicious way she was all right, but it is her mentality that was rotten. Ten years older than Ramani she must have been five children alive and two dead, what that thief did besides robbing and making babies. God only knows, but he left not one new paisa, so of course she would be interested in Ramani.

The narrator also safeguards conventional morality by frowning on the fact that Ramani and the widow are seen in public; "But after that Ramani and the thief's widow were seen everywhere, shamelessly, in public places, and I was glad his mother was dead because if she had lived to see this her face would have fallen off from shame.

The fact that the narrator is a teacher, is significant, given the stories clearly didactic tone. The narrator wants to lecture the reader about the importance of listening to elders and the dangers of succumbing to fantasies.

...Prev | Next...