A Horse and Two Goats

Essay on A Horse and Two Goats

The American has many attributes which make him a memorable character in the short story “A Horse and Two Goats” written by R. K. Narayan. The author makes the character memorable by making him a stereotypical American tourist and makes him slightly ignorant and stupid to give it a slight comedic aspect.

The American is very stereotypical in many ways, for example he is wearing khaki clothing, which many American tourists wear in the jungle. He also expects for everyone to speak English and looks for an English translator in a small Indian village. He is also not the smartest man in the world because he doesn't seem to understand the poverty in the village nor that not everyone speaks English. He finds it annoying that Muni doesn't speak English and doesn't see that he shouldn't be criticizing Muni for he cant speak their native language Tamil.

“Please, please, I will speak slowly, please try to understand me.” As you can see the American is trying to communicate with Muni, not realizing that him speaking slowly will not suddenly make Muni understand what he is saying. This is also humorous which makes the character even more memorable; this is because we tend to remember things that we find funny and interesting.

“I will offer you a good price for this.” The American says this towards Muni. Muni thinks that he wants to buy his goats but in fact the American wants the statue. This shows the error of communication, which makes the story more humorous and interesting. Also the author is making fun of the Americans ignorance to not see that Muni has the wrong idea what he wants to buy.

The author uses many things to make the stereo typical American a memorable character and truly makes him a character you remember. The author does this by making his conversations humorous and makes him a very stereotypical American tourist.