Teachers as Archetypal Characters in Short Stories of Manoj Das

Manoj Das is an illustrious bilingual Indian English story-teller who writes in both Odia and English. He arrests and sustains the interest of his readers throughout by subtle literary twists. His narratives are chequered with characters from the prevalent socio-cultural ambience. But when it comes to portray the character of teachers in fiction, he creates his own typical archetype. He touches the cultural chord of Odisha and creates teacher-characters in most of his short stories in which teachers play either lead roles or peripheral roles. The present paper studies these characters chosen from 21stories with focus on their substantial sensitivity and responsiveness to our cultural patterns. Teachers influence society and society influences teachers. The mutuality of influence between teachers and society comes to the fore through this paper.