Critical Appreciation of the Story A Horse and Two Goats

Introduction
‘A Horse and Two Goats’ is a short story written by acclaimed Indian writer R.K. Narayan. The story was first published in 1960 in the Indian newspaper The Hindu. It did not reach a broad international audience until it was published again in 1970 as the title story in Narayan’s short story collection A Horse and Two Goats and Other Stories. The story appeared for a third time in Under the Banyan Tree, another volume of Narayan’s short stories published in 1985.

The story is based on cultural differences and shows how they affect people. An American who dreams of going to India, finally travels there to a small village that was mostly forgotten. He sees a statue there. He likes it and demands an old Indian present there to sell it to him. The oldman misunderstands and thinks that the American wants his goats and the two start to argue. However the truth dawns on the old man and they settle into an agreement.

Plot of the Story
Exposition: The story is se in Kritam, a tiny village located on the edge of India. The main character and protagonist of the story, Muni, is shown as poor and deprived oldman who previously led a prosperous life, which has gone down¬hill, leading to him and his wife living in poverty. Muni and his wife are taunted by the villagers as a barren couple as they have no children, and are frowned upon, because even though they are childless and must only support themselves, they still live a rundown life.

Rising Action : In the rising action of the story, Muni begs his wife to make him a breakfast of drumsticks. She decides to make this breakfast as long as Muni is able to find the other ingredients needed. Muni’s wife does not have these ingredients in the house not the money to buy them, therefore she sends her husband off, telling him that a day of fasting will do him good.

Climax: Muni continues to his usual spot, underneath a large clay statue of a horse and warrior, where he rests as his goats graze. Unexpectedly, Muni is approached by an American man who has just pulled over in a station wagon. Muni becomes frightened as the man’s ‘Khaki’ coloured clothing misleads Muni to believe the foreign a soldier or police officer.

Muni tries to run away, however his old age restricts him and he is unable to move. The stranger approaches Muni and greets with ‘yes, no’. These two words are as far as Muni’s English vocabulary reaches. The foreigner, who in reality is a businessman from New York, pulls out a cigarette, lights it and offers it to Muni. Muni accepts this offer and then, the American pulls out a business card. Muni becomes startled at this action as he believes that this is a warrant of some kind, therefore he starts blabbering of his innocence.

Falking Action: The American asks Muni questions about the marvellous horse statue which he believes that it belongs to Muni. Both men converse, though neither understands what the other is saying. This language barrier leads to Muni, reminiscing about his past, the statue and his childhood, while the American explains to Muni how he will be rearranging his funiture back in New York, to accommodate the statue.

Resolution: Finally after this strange conversation, the American places a hundered rupee note into Muni’s hand. Muni believes he has just sold his goats, while the American believes he has just purchased the statue. The American makes his leave with the horse statue, while Muni returns home to his wife. When he arrives home and explains to his wife that the money has come from their sold goats, she is infuriated and does not believe him. Muni is left confused and the story ends with the wife threatening him to go back to her parents.

Moral of the Story
The story shows cultural differences. Both the American and the old man are quite ethnocentric by knowing little of each other’s cultural background and both keep talking about different topics, not understanding a word of what the other one is saying. The writer tries to convey that cross-cultural knowledge is important in the world today. We see how different these two people are by what they value. For the wealthy American, the statue is nothing but pretty decoration, and the hundred rupee note the American offers the old man is of little value to him.

Muni, on the other hand, who only owns copper and nickles, can not even afford the pretty dream of his because he does not have the small amount of twenty rupees that are needed for this. The statue of the horse is not a decorative object for Muni. As a matter of fact, Muni values it for the spiritual importance of it. This shows how wealthy people are quite materialistic while the poor value the small things.

Characterization
In the story, there are only four characters namely Muni, his wife, the American and the shopkeeper. Muni is the protagonist of the story. He has been shown as an old and desperately poor man. Once he was prosperous, with a large flock of sheep and goats, but a series of misfortunes have left him with only two scrawny goats. The whole story revolves around him.

Muni’s wife is a minor character. She has been presented as old as Muni, but more agile in terms of being able to earn something or the other by doing odd jobs so as to provide Muni with a meal at the end of the day. Then there is an American who is only seen at the spot of a statue. As he is fascinated towards the statue, he bargains it knowing Muni its owner. Shopkeeper is another minor character who seems to be a business minded man. He seems to be a practical man who can not be swayed by any words or actions.

Setting of the Story
The story takes place in Kritam, probably the tiniest of India’s seven lakhs villages. Its four streets are lined with about thirty mud and thatch huts and one Big House, made of brick and cement. Women cook in clay pots over clay stoves and the huts have no running water or electricity. A few miles away, down a rough dirt track through dry fields of cactus and lantana bushes, is a highway leading to the mountains, where a large construction project is being completed. The meeting between Muni and the American was intended to take place between about 1945 and 1960 when the story was published, but the date is not central to the story.

Appropriateness of the Title
The title of the story seems to be an appropriate, though it may be misleading at first because readers will probably incline to assume the story a fable about horse and two goats. However, the title reveals its meaning after reading the story. From the beginning of the story it is observed that Muni is left with two goats which he wants to get rid somehow.

It is only when the goats are being taken to graze near the highway, that Muni’s chance encounter with the American takes place. The American thinks that Muni is the owner of the horse statue under which he is resting. The American, throughout his coversation with Muni, praises the statue as its prospective buyer. On the other hand, Muni does not understand the foreigner’s motive and goes on talking about Hinduism and the reincarnation of the Kalki in a horse with reference to the statue.

Then the American gives Muni a hundred rupee note to buy the statue. Muni accepts the note thinking that the American is interested in his two goats and therefore is giving him hundred rupees. As there is confusion in the story about the intention of buying the statue of horse or the two goats of Muni, the title is undoubtedly justified.

Realistic Element
R.K. Narayan’s fiction is often noted for its realism, its simple and accurate presentation of common, everyday life as it is lived by identifiable characters. In A Horse and Two Goats’, Narayan pays careful attention to the small details of Muni’s life : where he lives, what he eats, how he coughs when he smokes his first cigarette. Although many of the small details, like the drumstick tree and the dhoti where Muni puts his hundred rupees, are particularly Indian, they are also basic enough to human experience that they are easily understood by an international audience.

Humorous Element:
Humour is an important element in A Horse and Two Goats’ and understanding Narayan’s humour is important to understand his world view. Humour, which is affectionate and sympathetic to humanity and human foibles is often distinguished from wit which looks more harshly on human fallibility. For Narayan, who looks at the world through the lens of his Hindu faith, weakness and strife are to be accepted and transcended, not railed against. When he creates the comic characters of Muni and the American, he laughs them gently and kindly, not critically.

Narration of the Story:
The narration of the story goes chronologically in a third-person omniscient view, with the main characters being an American tourist and an old Indian man. Both the characters seem a little bit ignorant and ethnocentric, as none of them have competent background knowledge of the other’s culture and language. The fact that they can not understand each other can be looked upon as the main conflict.

Symbolical Element:
There is a symbolical element in the story, the horse statue. Along with time, the statue has been forgotten and in a way, so has the village. The village may not have been forgotten and in a way, but it is so small compared to the rest of the large cities of the world. Consequently, this village called Kritam does not seem to be common knowledge. Another factor this statue represents is the newer generations that are becoming, perhaps, less religious and more liberal. It is mentioned that ‘even the youthful vandals of the village left the statue alone. The younger generations do not seem to care about the spiritual significance of the religious statue.

Use of Imagery:
The writer has employed a number of images which adorn or beautify the narration of the story. At first, we see colour images in phrases such as :

  1. ‘Painted a brilliant yellow and blue all over.’
  2. ‘red-faced foreigner’.
  3. ‘This is a marvellous combination of yellow and indigo.’

The writer has employed the rural imagery when he describes in the story bamboo thatch, straw mud houses, mud pot, bullock carts and cattle grazing. The auditory imagery is also found in the stroy :

  1. ‘Muni kept cleaning his throat, coughing and sneezing.’ ‘
  2. ‘A couple of cronies lounging in the temple corridor hailed him.’
  3. ‘Hardly had these words left his lips when they heard the bleating outside.’

The Use of Figures of Speech
Figure of speech alliteration has been used in many sentences of the story. Some of the phrases are following :

  1. map by a microscopic dot.
  2. feuilt with 6rick.
  3. a lock of forty sheep
  4. A couple of cronies

Some depictions are exaggerated creating hyperbolic meatphors. For instance, the village which objectively is a ‘tiny dot’ on local maps, becomes ‘the apex of the world’ for locals.

Figure of speech personification has been used in the following: ‘Our pundit discoursed at the temple once how the oceans are going to close over the earth in a huge wave and carry on its back only the good people and kick into the floods the evil ones plenty of them about.’
Simile has been used in the following : ‘ though when she came to him her bosoms were large, like mounds of earth on the bank of a dug-up canal.’

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