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 ell 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.
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| Theme and summary of the Story A Horse and Two Goats by R.K. Narayan |
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 old man misunderstands and thinks that American wants his goats and the two start to argue. However the truth dawned on the old man and they settle into an agreement.
Theme of the Story:
A major theme is the obvious clash of cultures as exhibited by the wealthy, white American and the poor Hindu, Muni. The two men do not speak the same language, are not of the same economic status and don't have the same outlook on life. Their religions are different; their marriage customs are different There appear to be almost no similarities but, however, they are, as if by fate put together in one location for comparison.
The story obviously punctuates the economic differences between not just men, but entire cultures. By watching them both together, the reader can see that the American typifies the life of ease and entitlement that contrasts with the hard work, acceptance and loss that characterizes Muni's life. However the story does not turn into a judgmental piece but rather shows that Muni’s acceptance of his life is more peaceful than the American's attitude. After all, the American cannot stop complaining about the lack of air-conditioning and is irritated that Muni cannot speak English, even though he, himself, can only speak English.
The story also expresses the theme of knowledge versus wisdom. The American is highly educated but does not seem to truly understand the vastness of the world he lives in. Muni is not educated, but truly understands his own culture, history, religion and humanity in terms of the culmination of experiences in his life. In this manner, the American is seen as not unintelligent, but merely ignorant of the world, not necessarily educated in a formal away is vastly intelligent.
Summary of the Story:
Story begins with the depiction of the poverty in which Muni, the central character lived. There were around thirty houses in the village but only one, the Big House, was built of brick and cement. The others were mud huts of bamboo thatch. The village had neither running water nor electricity. Muni and his wife were not always so poor. Once he regarded himself well - off as he had a flock of forty sheep and goats. But years of drought, a famine and an epidemic affected his flock and now he was left with only two scrawny goats. Being a low caste, Muni was not allowed to go to school or to learn a craft. Since Muni and his wife had no children, their only income was from odd jobs his wife got at the Big House.
Daily Muni's wife cooked their typical breakfast of a fistful of millet flour over a fire in a mud pot. One day, Muni had managed to get six drumsticks from the drumstick tree in front of his house. He demanded his wife to cook them for him in a sauce. She agreed and asked him to get the other ingredients which they did not have in the house.
Muni had run through his credit at all the shops in the village. When he asked a local shopman to give him the items his wife required, he was disgraced and dismissed by the shopkeeper. There was nothing else in the house and hence, Muni's wife sent him away telling him to fast till the evening. Muni took the goats to their usual patch: a grassy spot near the highway and left them to graze as usual. While he was there, he sat on a pedestal at the base of a clay statue depicting a majestic horse and warrior. The statue had been there since Muni was young child and his grandfather had explained to him that the horse in the statue was a reference to the mythical horse Kalki, who according to Tamil legend would come to life when the world ends and trample all bad men.
While Muni was sitting there, he saw a yellow station wagon coming towards him down the highway. The car ran out of gas and came to a stop on the road in front of the statue. A red - faced foreigner (American) got out of the car and asked Muni in English whether there was a gas station nearby. However, Muni could not communicate with him because he did not speak English and the foreigner did not speak Tamil.
The foreigner who told Muni that he was a coffee trader from New York took an interest in the statue and wanted to buy it. He offered to pay Muni for the statue, thinking that it belonged to him. Muni did not understand what the foreigner wanted and initially mistook him for a police officer because he was dressed in khaki. Muni believed that the man had arrived to investigate dead body that was found on the border between Kritam and a neighbouring village a few weeks before. He told him that he did not know anything about the incident and that the murderer probably lived in the other village.
The foreigner could not understand Muni. Then he offered Muni some cigarettes and explained that he and his wife, Ruth, decided to travel to India on vacation after a power failure in the Empire State Building forced him to work for four hours without air conditioning on a hot summer day. Muni eventually realised that the foreigner was interested in the statue and started explaining the statue's history and the legend of Kalki to him. He talked about the Hindu religion and asked the foreigner about his family. The conversation continued for a while before the foreigner gave Muni hundred rupees and asked him to help move the statue to his car. Muni believed at first that the foreigner was asking him for change and suggested that he should go to the village money - lender . When the foreigner stooped down to pet some of his goats, Muni mistakenly believed that the man was giving him hundred rupees to buy his goats. Being elated, Muni accepted the man's money and left the goats behind for him.
The foreigner thought that Muni had agreed to sell him the statue, so he flagged down a passing truck and paid the men to help him detach the statue from the pedestal and move it to his car. He also paid to siphon off some of their gas so that he could restart his engine. Muni went home and showed his wife the hundred - rupee note, telling her that he received it from a foreigner who stopped to buy his goats. At that moment, the couple heard bleating outside their door and discovered two of Muni's goats standing there. Muni was confused while his wife suspected him of stealing, the money and said that she would go to her parents’ home because she did not want to be there when the police apprehended him.