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Articles: Literature | A Man of No Consequence
- Dr. Rajeshwar Mittapalli
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Rachakonda Viswanatha Sastri, better known to the Telugu literary world as Ra.Vi.Sastri started his literary career early in life, by publishing short stories during his college days. He has to his credit more than sixty short stories of extraordinary literary merit. Alpajeevi (or A Man of no Consequence in English translation) was one of his very few completed novels. It was serialised in the literary periodical Bharati from January 1953 to April 1953. Bharati was a prestigious journal of that era and writers often established their reputation by publishing short stories/novels in it. Thus with the publication of Alpajeevi in Bharati Ra.Vi.Sastri arrived on the main stage of Telugu literature and remained there till his death in 1993.
Alpajeevi, together with Buchibabu’s Chivaraku Migiledi (That Which Remains at the End), heralded modernism in Telugu fiction by lending it a new psychological depth. Prior to their publication Telugu novels tended to be patently romantic in orientation and thus hardly served the purpose of truth—psychological or social.
The protagonist of A Man of No Consequence has been diagnosed by critics as suffering from Inferiority Complex. It might help to clearly understand here what ‘inferiority complex’ primarily signifies. The term was originated by Alfred Adler, the onetime disciple of Sigmund Freud and the founder of Individual Psychology. He explains in an oft-quoted passage: “The feeling of inferiority rules the mental life and can be clearly recognized in the sense of incompleteness and un-fulfillment, and in the uninterrupted struggle both of individuals and humanity.”3 Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary simplifies it and defines inferiority complex as “an acute sense of personal inferiority often resulting either in timidity or through overcompensation in exaggerated aggressiveness. ” It is clear from these definitions that inferiority complex is basically the feeling on the part of an individual that he is inferior to others in some way.
This feeling could be a result of a real inferiority in the person, such as the one stemming from an organic deformity, but most often it is purely imaginary. This feeling lies in the unconscious and directs the course of the individual’s behaviour. Inferiority feeling could sometimes motivate one to achieve spectacular success but when it acts as a disincentive, one would feel greatly discouraged and retreat from the difficulties and challenges posed by life. Adler proposes two types of inferiority feeling—‘primary’ and ‘secondary.’ ‘Primary’ inferiority feeling is that which emanates from a child’s original experience of helplessness and dependence on the adults around him. ‘Secondary’ inferiority feeling has to do with an adult’s inability to reach his ‘fictional final goal’ or achieve the unrealistic subjective security.
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