Epic Story
A Horse and Two Goats
‘A Horse and Two Goats’ is a masterpiece of literature by R. K. Narayan (1906 - 2001). The writer is a brightly shining star in the galaxy of the leading literary Indian fiction writers, particularly who wrote in English including Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. Narayan is given credit for bringing the Indian Literature in English to show the whole world. For this great service to the Indian literary world, he is rendered as the greatest Indian novelist and short story writer. The setting of this story is in the real and small village, Kritam unlike his most of the stories. His stories have simple language and common characters that are grappling with their social problems of everyday life as we see in his story ‘A Horse and Two Goats’. Narayan has been compared to as great writers as William Faulkner and Guy de Maupassant. He has reflected humour and passions of ordinary life and exposes the bitter truths about human life in different shades and colours. With respect to this trait, he is counted a humanitarian artist in his own way and distinctive style. However, R.K. Narayan’s style has met bitter criticism for simplicity of his diction. It is said that he is too simple to be intellectually entertaining. The story has just two main characters. Muni, an old and very poor Indian and a red-faced American. Both of them represent their cultures through language. They speak their own languages and hardly can understand each other. In other words, language proves a great barrier in communication between the two individuals who belong to two entirely different cultures. This difference of cultures speaks volumes about the conflict of the East and West, with their own distinctive values and standards. Moreover, the two characters represent their respective nations. One is from the First World, America, the highly developed one and the other is from India, the Third World. Muni is symbol of austere poverty, materially as well as morally. He is in fact
‘A Horse and Two Goats’ is a masterpiece of literature by R. K. Narayan (1906 - 2001). The writer is a brightly shining star in the galaxy of the leading literary Indian fiction writers, particularly who wrote in English including Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. Narayan is given credit for bringing the Indian Literature in English to show the whole world. For this great service to the Indian literary world, he is rendered as the greatest Indian novelist and short story writer. The setting of this story is in the real and small village, Kritam unlike his most of the stories. His stories have simple language and common characters that are grappling with their social problems of everyday life as we see in his story ‘A Horse and Two Goats’. Narayan has been compared to as great writers as William Faulkner and Guy de Maupassant. He has reflected humour and passions of ordinary life and exposes the bitter truths about human life in different shades and colours. With respect to this trait, he is counted a humanitarian artist in his own way and distinctive style. However, R.K. Narayan’s style has met bitter criticism for simplicity of his diction. It is said that he is too simple to be intellectually entertaining. The story has just two main characters. Muni, an old and very poor Indian and a red-faced American. Both of them represent their cultures through language. They speak their own languages and hardly can understand each other. In other words, language proves a great barrier in communication between the two individuals who belong to two entirely different cultures. This difference of cultures speaks volumes about the conflict of the East and West, with their own distinctive values and standards. Moreover, the two characters represent their respective nations. One is from the First World, America, the highly developed one and the other is from India, the Third World. Muni is symbol of austere poverty, materially as well as morally. He is in fact