Question

Make a critical appreciation of the short story, “A Horse and Two Goats,” by R.K. Narayan.

Answer 1

The story of R.K. Narayan called, “A Horse and Two Goats,” is about a poor Indian man who meets a wealthy American. The men are not only separated by language, but by their status in society. Muni and his wife have known prosperity in the past, but a string of bad luck and’weather have reduced the old couple to living in one of the many shacks in their village, having great debt, and owning only two goats. Muni belongs to a low caste and cannot improve his lot in life.

The food that Muni and his wife share is meagre fare: they cannot afford anything else. However, one day Muni is able to shake “drumsticks” from a tree and asks his wife to prepare them for him. She sends him to the store for ingredients, but he has no money and the shopkeeper sends a deeply mortified Muni away. When Muni gets home, his wife tells him to forget eating until the end of theday—fasting will be good for him. So Muni walks away to sit next to a statue of a horse, that hps been there for the past seventy years.Soon a large station wagon arrives, carrying an American. Neither man can understand the other, but they carry on a conversation. Each man speaks about what is important to him: the American wants to buy the statue, believing Muni owns it. Muni understands none of this, but neither does the American understand Muni’s story of his life (including a childhood of poverty) and the history of the statue.

The story shows a clash of two very different cultures. By the end of the tale, the American believes he has bought the statue from Muni, and he presses a hundred rupees into Muni’s hand. It is humorous to note that Muni has no thought of the statue, but believes that he has sold the American his old scraggly goats—that are too worthless to be sold or eaten. Muni takes the money and runs to tell his wife. She refuses to believe the story.lt becomes even more difficult when the goats finally find their way home, making the story seem even less credible. The story ends with Muni being verbally beaten down by his wife. They have money, but now Muni has no peace.