In The Vendor of Sweets, the generation gap between father and son strains their relationship.
When Mali speaks reproachfully to his father that “Oh, these are not the days of your ancestors” and when Jagan says that the younger generation “are not the sort to make a home bright," it reflects the gulf that exists between father and son. Jagan is a follower of Gandhian values, a man who suffered physical abuse for his role in the...
In The Vendor of Sweets, the generation gap between father and son strains their relationship.
When Mali speaks reproachfully to his father that “Oh, these are not the days of your ancestors” and when Jagan says that the younger generation “are not the sort to make a home bright," it reflects the gulf that exists between father and son. Jagan is a follower of Gandhian values, a man who suffered physical abuse for his role in the Indian Independence Movement. He struggles with balancing the spiritual with material. For example, while he sits and reads the Gita, he also secretly counts his money from his sweets business. His son, Mali, does not experience this struggle. Mali is driven by materialism. He steals his father's money to live and study in America and returns to India simply to start his own business. Mali is modernistic, and has disdain for his father's cultural and spiritual approach to life.
The relationship between father and son is frayed because neither is able to understand the other. Mali has little care for what his father believes. For his part, Jagan's emphasis is on resolving the battle between material and spiritual. He seeks to move closer towards a spiritual way of life. As the novel ends, Jagan is able to surrender the bonds of this life and is preparing for his next phase, one for which his son has little care or regard. There is little emotional connection between both men because they believe in different generational ideas, with no chance of reconciliation.
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