Arun Joshi’s The Apprentice: A Study on Narrative Techniques.

The Apprentice is a novel which is different from other novels of Arun Joshi, the novel uses the techniques of first person confessional narratives thou which is not new in the Indian context, the narrative techniques used in the novel parallels narrative techniques used by Browning in his most of the poetries i.e., dramatic monologue. The novel is shaped as a series of dramatic monologues spoken by the protagonist-narrator to a listener. These monologues form its narrative body. The whole novel is seen through the lens of the protagonist, Rathan Rathor, son of an advocate who turned into freedom fighter. The personality of his father greatly influences him. As a son, Rathor has stuck between two different ideologies of his parents, the Gandhian ideology inherited from his father and the materialistic ideology or the ideology of realism inherited from his mother. As the novel progresses we witness Rathor’s conflict with the alien world, each stage of his life he becomes a tyro and learns the tactics of livelihood to suit his living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]