Raja Buddha Character Analysis

The unusual brevity of construction, especially in sentence no. 3, 4, and 5, reminds, one almost of the first lessons in a children’s language primer. The effect is an intentional dissociation from the literary convention of the traditional novel form which has so far been Rao’s own as well. In his earlier novels Raja Rao strive to find his own style by enhancing the existing mode with the help of customary weapons – archaism, conceits, purple patches, etc. Here his intention, it seems, is primarily to break through his own wall of art. And he is quite successful in his experiment. The repeated use of ordinary nouns such as sea, tree, house, cat, kitten, wall and common verbs like be, have, sleep, awake, love, build, live, weigh etc. reflect

The way to the Absolute here is not Karma Yoga or Jnana Yoga of the two previous novels, but Bhakti Yoga, or the path of devotion. (Paranjape: xiv)
Thus, Raja Rao introduces another important path to the Absolute: total surrender to the will of divine power (mother Cat).
J. P. Tripathi, prior to technical and thematic examination of the novel, compares The Cat and Shakespeare with Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. He clarifies that both the novels have a profound beginning and are evasive in meaning. The use of understatements implies the principle of iceberg, only one-tenth part is visible above the surface. However, Tripathi suggests upper hand of Raja Rao to the Nobel laureate Hemingway:
The structure of both the novels is parabolic and allegorical, and symbolism plays a significant role in both. But the rifts of The Cat and Shakespeare are loaded with more philosophical and metaphysical ore and its style is more compact. (Tripathi:

The yarn of the plot reflects a story which has no logic, system or order. The action is pretty comical with Govindan Nair jumping across the wall and the cat jumping from table to table including that of the judge! In fact, the main action is ideation, reflection, and conversation. The whole story gives an impression as if everything occurs in a dream. But this funny spectacle is overloaded with really deep metaphysical thoughts. As a result a reader may misjudge the book if he looks at things on face value and does not go into the hidden layers of