Character of Leela in Leela’s Friend by R. K. Narayan

Introduction : In R.K. Narayan’s short story “Leela’s Friend”, Leela was one of the important characters. Leela is five years old daughter of Mr Sivasanker. R.K. Narayan described Leela’s character in many forms of human behavior and qualities.

A. Innocence: Leela has been presented by RK Narayan as an innocent girl. She has no interest for the expensive earthly possession as she remained indifferent to her missing chain. She was very innocent. She believed that Sidda could touch the moon and moon followed to Sidda’s order.

B. Friendship : Leela is very interested to spend time with Sidda. She always likes to play and listen stories with Sidda. She insisted to keep Sidda in their house because of her Friendship with him. She trusts Sidda even when her parents considers him a thief. She is a true friend of him.

C. Joyous and Energetic : Leela is very enthusiastic girl to play with Sidda. She plays teacher-student game with Sidda. Leela wants to play all the time with him.

D. Curious : Leela is very curious girl to know about the sky , god and unknown places. She asked Sidda out of her curiosity whether the moon knows him.

E. Imagination : She has a big imagination power. Her mind always transcends into the world of imagination when she listened to Sidda’s story of magician, gods in heaven, animal in jungle.

Conclusion: In the conclusion we may say that Leela is a very little girl who does not have any kind of class attitudes, her mind is full of imagination, innocence, and curiosity. RK Narayan with these qualities turned a little girl more than Friendship.