‘The child’ is a beautiful story
written by the famous writer Premchand. He brought a new sense of social
awareness in people through his novels and short stories. He is respected as an
outstanding short story writer.
‘The child’ is a
story which is narrated by the narrator who is a generous, rich man. Gangu was
one of the servants who served his master. Gangu was a Brahmin. He was different
from many other servants in the household. He was away from all the vices. Of
course, he showed no characteristics of an ideal Brahmin. Once he went to the
narrator in private. He hesitated to speak. The narrator showed that he was too
busy and ordered him to speak quickly. The narrator thought that he must have
come to either ask for money or to complain about another servant.
But the narrator was surprised
when Gangu declared that he wanted to leave the job because he was going to
marry. Gomati Devi who had been driven away twice by her two past husbands. She
lived in the same mohalla and she was respected by none. All believed her to be
low in character. But Gangu’s opinion was different. The narrator tried to stop
but Gangu said that it was not fault. Nobody understood her. Finally, he left
the job. The narrator thought that very soon Gomatidevi and Gangu would get
separated but they lived happily.
But once Gomati ran away. The
narrator was happy thinking that he proved true. Gangu was upset but still had
faith in her. After one month when the narrator returned from Nainital, Gangu
came to him again. He had a newborn baby in his hand. He was extremely happy.
He searched and found Gomati out. She had run away because she was going to be
the mother and Gangu was not the father of that child. But Gangu was very generous.
The narrator tried hard to provoke him against Gomati but he was firm in his
love. He accepted the child as a gift from the god.
Finally, seeing Gangu’s feeling
and generosity, the narrator was touched and offered his blessing to the baby.
We are impressed by the courage and sincerely of Gangu here. He proved to be a noble human being.
Analysis
The story contains
various issues of Indian society and the psychological aspects of the Indian mindset.
The story starts with an introduction of an illiterate Brahmin servant “Gangu”
who thinks he is superior among all the servants because he is “Brahmin”. The
owner of the house is the narrator of the story and he could be Premchand himself.
The rigid mentality of Gangu irritates his master again and again but he is not
much affected with this kind of behaviour. One day Gangu confesses his love
towards a widow named Gomti Devi, and he also marries Gomti, who has betrayed
three husbands before her marriage with Gangu. Gomti gave birth to a child, a
baby boy just after six months of her marriage with Gangu and Gangu accepted
that child as if that was his own child.
The interesting part of
this story is a change in the psychology of characters, first Gangu was a rigid
Brahmin and was not allowing anyone to disrespect him but when he falls in love
with Gomti, he forgets everything and marries her. On the other side, the master
who was not interested in the caste system, he was against that marriage and he was
happy when Gomti run away and left Gangu, even when Gangu has shown his child
to him, he was taunting Gangu about his
child’s birth just in six months. In the end, master has realized that what he
was doing was not appropriate because he was an educated man and a writer but
he learned a lot from an illiterate Gangu, and then he apologized Gangu and went
to meet Gomti.
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