PLIGHT FROM CORRUPTION TO MORALITY: ARUN JOSHI'S THE APPRENTICE

Arun Joshi, prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award winner novelist for his The Last Labyrinth is a distinct name in the field of Indian English fiction. He holds a place of singular merit in Indian writing in English dealing with the relevant themes of modern period. He has given a new direction to Indian literary scene mainly concerning his writing with the moral and spiritual problems of contemporary man and defines the nature of man and his confrontation with society while he is constantly drifting between right and wrong choices of living. Arun Joshi has given a new shape and treatment to modern man's vision turning his existentialist quest and identity crisis to a positive direction. He has aroused a genuine faith in the integrity of human values, relations and culture and tried to mould the individual towards a fruitful and hopeful life. He has to his credit five novels – The Foreigner (1968), The Strange Case of Billy Biswas (1971), The Apprentice (1974), The last Labyrinth (1981) and The City and the River (1990) along with a collection of short stories entitled The Survivor. Joshi has renounced the larger world in favour of the inner nature of man and has engaged himself in a search for the essence of human living. The Apprentice narrates the story of an honest young individual Ratan Rathore, who, out of the problem of joblessness and corrupt ways of society is forced to adopt the corrupt practices and becomes apprentice of corruption but after the awakening of his soul involves self to be of good use to people and society through redemption.