Theme of the Story A Horse and Two Goats
The most important theme in the story is the clash of cultures, specifically the clash of Indian and Western cultures. Using humour instead of anger, the writer demonstrates just how far apart the two worlds are : the two cultures exist in the same time and space, but literally and metaphorically speak different languages. Muni is poor, rural, uneducated, Hindu and brown. The American is wealthy, urban, educated, probably Judeo-Christian and white.
As a good Hindu, Muni calmly accepts the hand that fate has dealt him, while the American is willing and able to take drastic and sudden action to change his life (for example, flying off to India, or throwing away his return plane ticket to transport a horse statue home on a ship). Each man is quite ignorant of the other’s way of life. The inability to communicate in this story leads only to confusion, not to any real harm. In fact, although each feels valuely dissatisfied with the conversation, the men do not realise that they are not communicating. Each speaks at length about his own life and local calamities, with no awareness that the other hears nothing. At the end of their encounter each man has what he wants or needs and neither man has lost anything of value.
Then, there is the theme of wealth and poverty. Although they have little in common, the most important way in which Muni and the American differ in their respective level of wealth. The writer takes great pains in the opening of the story to show how desperately poor Muni is and to emphasise that even in his time of prosperity his standard of living was still greatly below that of most Americans. The American takes for granted his relative wealth and seems to be unaware of the difference between Muni and himself.
He casually offers cigarettes to a man who has never seen one, complains about four hours without air conditioning to a man who has never had electricity, brags about enjoying manual labour as a Sunday hobby who grew up working in the fields from morning till night and without a thought gives Muni enough money to open a business. He is not trying to show off; he simply acepts his wealth as his right. His very casualness emphasises the gap between them.
Next there is the theme of knowledge and ignorance. The story explores the different ways that a person can be educated. Muni, who grew up a member of a lower caste at a time when only the Brahmin, the highest caste, could attend school, has got no formal education. He has not travelled beyond his village, and he likes to watch trucks and buses go by on the highway a few miles away so that he can have a sense of belonging to a larger world. He does not even know his own age.
He does, however, have an impressive amount of knowledge of the two major texts of his literary heritage, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata which he has learnt by acting in plays and by listening to speakers at the temple. He knows the stories and he is able to mine them for truth and wisdom when he needs them. On the other hand, the American has obtained the full benefits of an American education. He has a roomful books that he values as objects, but there is no evidence that he understands or values what is inside them.
On one level, he is familiar with the larger world around him in a way that Muni never will be. However, even on this trip to India ‘to look at other civilization’, he does not seem to be looking at India for what it is, but only for a reflection of and ornaments for—his own life. The uneducated Muni tries to tell him the significance of the horse statue, but the American sees it only as a living room decoration. Of course, the barrier of language prevents him from knowing Muni’s interpretation, but in never crosses his mind to ask.
Treasure Trove Poems and Short Stories Workbook Answers