A Horse and Two Goats

by

R. K. Narayan

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on A Horse and Two Goats makes teaching easy.
An impoverished, low-caste goat herder who lives in the fictional South Indian village of Kritam. At one time, Muni possessed a large and healthy herd of goats and sheep, but the herd dwindled away over time until only two were left. Due to his now-impoverished state and bad reputation in the village that makes it impossible to buy goods on credit, Muni barely manages to find enough to eat every day. The two scraggly goats that make up the remainder of Muni’s herd serve only as a bitter reminder of how far he has fallen in the world. Despite this, he leads an emotionally rich life in which he travels each day to sit on the pedestal of a grand statue to graze his goats, watch the highway nearby, reminiscence on the past, and ponder mythological stories. Muni’s desire to experience the world outside his tiny village of narrow-minded people leads him to this statue beside the highway every day. One day, he comes into contact with the vast world outside his village when he meets the red-faced foreigner, whose car runs out of gas beside the statue. Their interaction culminates in a grand misunderstanding in which the foreigner offers Muni money for the horse statue, and Muni, looking at the situation through his own cultural lens, believes that the foreigner is offering to buy his goats. Instead of viewing time as finite and linear, Muni sees it as limitless and cyclical, and instead of seeing the world in terms of monetary value, he values the emotional richness of storytelling, which is interwoven with his own Hindu spirituality. Kalki

Muni Quotes in A Horse and Two Goats

The A Horse and Two Goats quotes below are all either spoken by Muni or refer to Muni. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Perspective  Theme Icon
).
A Horse and Two Goats Quotes
He knew that if he obeyed her she would somehow conjure up some food for him in the evening. Only he must be careful not to argue and irritate her… She was sure to go out and work – grind corn in the Big House, sweep or scrub somewhere, and earn enough to buy foodstuff and keep a dinner ready for him in the evening.
Related Characters: Muni, Muni’s Wife
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
He passed through the village with his head bowed in thought. He did not want to look at anyone or be accosted. A couple of cronies…hailed him, but he ignored their call. They had known him in the days of affluence when he lorded over a flock of fleecy sheep, not the miserable gawky goats that he had today…but all this seemed like the memoirs of a previous birth.
Related Characters: Muni
Related Symbols: The Highway
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
The shopman had said that he was seventy. At seventy, one only waited to be summoned by God. When he was dead what would his wife do? They had lived in each other’s company since they were children… He had thrashed her only a few times in their career, and later she had the upper hand… He avoided looking at anyone [in the village; they all professed to be so high up, and everyone else in the village had more money than he. “I am the poorest fellow in our caste and no wonder that they spurn me, but I won’t look at them either.”
Related Characters: Muni, Muni’s Wife, The Shopkeeper
Page Number: 10-11
Explanation and Analysis:
Only on the outskirts [of the village] did he lift his head and look up… He sat on [the statue’s] pedestal for the rest of the day. The advantage of this was that he could watch the highway and see the lorries and buses pass through to the hills, and it gave him a sense of belonging to a larger world.
Related Characters: Muni
Related Symbols: The Kalki Statue , The Highway
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:
The horse was nearly life-size, moulded out of clay, baked, burnt, and brightly coloured, and reared its head proudly, prancing its forelegs in the air and flourishing its tail in a loop; beside the horse stood a warrior... None in the village remembered the splendours no one noticed its existence. Even Muni, who spent all his waking hours at its foot, never bothered to look up… This statue had been closer to the population of the village at one time, when this spot bordered the village; but when the highway was laid through (or perhaps when the tank and wells dried up completely here) the village moved a couple of miles inland.
Related Characters: Muni
Related Symbols: The Kalki Statue , The Highway
Page Number: 11-12
Explanation and Analysis:
Muni shrank away from the [foreigner’s] card. Perhaps [the foreigner] was trying to present a warrant and arrest him. Beware of khaki, one part of his mind warned. Take all the cigarettes or bhang or whatever is offered, but don’t get caught. Beware of khaki.
Related Characters: Muni, The Red-Faced Foreigner
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

“Please, please. I will speak slowly…Can’t you understand even a simple word of English? Everyone in this country seems to know English. I have got along with English everywhere in this country, but you don't speak it. Have you any religious or spiritual scruples against English speech?”

Related Characters: The Red-Faced Foreigner (speaker), Muni
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:

“You see, last August, we probably had the hottest summer in history, and I was working in shirt-sleeves in my office on the fortieth floor of the Empire State Building. We had a power failure one day, you know, and there I was stuck for four hours, no elevator, no air conditioning. All the way in the train I kept thinking, and the minute I reached home in Connecticut, I told my wife Ruth, ‘We will visit India this winter, it's time to look at other civilizations.’”

Related Characters: The Red-Faced Foreigner (speaker), Muni
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:

“I don’t want to seem to have stopped here for nothing. I will offer you a good price for this," he said, indicating the horse. He had concluded without the least doubt that Muni owned this mud horse. Perhaps he guessed by the way he sat at its pedestal, like other souvenir-sellers in this country presiding over their wares.

Related Characters: The Red-Faced Foreigner (speaker), Muni
Related Symbols: The Kalki Statue
Page Number: 18
Explanation and Analysis:

"This is our guardian, it means death to our adversaries. At the end of Kali Yuga, this world and all other worlds will be destroyed, and the Redeemer will come in the shape of a horse called 'Kalki'; this horse will come to life and gallop and trample down all bad men… [T]he oceans are going to close over the earth in a huge wave and swallow us—this horse will grow bigger than the biggest wave and carry on its back only the good people and kick into the floods the evil ones.”

Related Characters: Muni (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Kalki Statue
Page Number: 19-20
Explanation and Analysis:

“Lend me a hand and I can lift off the horse from its pedestal after picking out the cement at the joints. We can do anything if we have a basis of understanding” … He flourished a hundred-rupee currency note… The old man now realized that some financial element was entering their talk. He peered closely at the currency note, the like of which he had never seen in his life… He laughed to himself at the notion of anyone coming to him for changing a thousand- or ten-thousand-rupee note.

Related Characters: The Red-Faced Foreigner (speaker), Muni
Related Symbols: The Kalki Statue
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire A Horse and Two Goats LitChart as a printable PDF.
A Horse and Two Goats PDF

Muni Quotes in A Horse and Two Goats

The A Horse and Two Goats quotes below are all either spoken by Muni or refer to Muni. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Perspective  Theme Icon
).
A Horse and Two Goats Quotes
He knew that if he obeyed her she would somehow conjure up some food for him in the evening. Only he must be careful not to argue and irritate her… She was sure to go out and work – grind corn in the Big House, sweep or scrub somewhere, and earn enough to buy foodstuff and keep a dinner ready for him in the evening.
Related Characters: Muni, Muni’s Wife
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
He passed through the village with his head bowed in thought. He did not want to look at anyone or be accosted. A couple of cronies…hailed him, but he ignored their call. They had known him in the days of affluence when he lorded over a flock of fleecy sheep, not the miserable gawky goats that he had today…but all this seemed like the memoirs of a previous birth.
Related Characters: Muni
Related Symbols: The Highway
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
The shopman had said that he was seventy. At seventy, one only waited to be summoned by God. When he was dead what would his wife do? They had lived in each other’s company since they were children… He had thrashed her only a few times in their career, and later she had the upper hand… He avoided looking at anyone [in the village; they all professed to be so high up, and everyone else in the village had more money than he. “I am the poorest fellow in our caste and no wonder that they spurn me, but I won’t look at them either.”
Related Characters: Muni, Muni’s Wife, The Shopkeeper
Page Number: 10-11
Explanation and Analysis:
Only on the outskirts [of the village] did he lift his head and look up… He sat on [the statue’s] pedestal for the rest of the day. The advantage of this was that he could watch the highway and see the lorries and buses pass through to the hills, and it gave him a sense of belonging to a larger world.
Related Characters: Muni
Related Symbols: The Kalki Statue , The Highway
Page Number: 11
Explanation and Analysis:
The horse was nearly life-size, moulded out of clay, baked, burnt, and brightly coloured, and reared its head proudly, prancing its forelegs in the air and flourishing its tail in a loop; beside the horse stood a warrior... None in the village remembered the splendours no one noticed its existence. Even Muni, who spent all his waking hours at its foot, never bothered to look up… This statue had been closer to the population of the village at one time, when this spot bordered the village; but when the highway was laid through (or perhaps when the tank and wells dried up completely here) the village moved a couple of miles inland.
Related Characters: Muni
Related Symbols: The Kalki Statue , The Highway
Page Number: 11-12
Explanation and Analysis:
Muni shrank away from the [foreigner’s] card. Perhaps [the foreigner] was trying to present a warrant and arrest him. Beware of khaki, one part of his mind warned. Take all the cigarettes or bhang or whatever is offered, but don’t get caught. Beware of khaki.
Related Characters: Muni, The Red-Faced Foreigner
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

“Please, please. I will speak slowly…Can’t you understand even a simple word of English? Everyone in this country seems to know English. I have got along with English everywhere in this country, but you don't speak it. Have you any religious or spiritual scruples against English speech?”

Related Characters: The Red-Faced Foreigner (speaker), Muni
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:

“You see, last August, we probably had the hottest summer in history, and I was working in shirt-sleeves in my office on the fortieth floor of the Empire State Building. We had a power failure one day, you know, and there I was stuck for four hours, no elevator, no air conditioning. All the way in the train I kept thinking, and the minute I reached home in Connecticut, I told my wife Ruth, ‘We will visit India this winter, it's time to look at other civilizations.’”

Related Characters: The Red-Faced Foreigner (speaker), Muni
Page Number: 16
Explanation and Analysis:

“I don’t want to seem to have stopped here for nothing. I will offer you a good price for this," he said, indicating the horse. He had concluded without the least doubt that Muni owned this mud horse. Perhaps he guessed by the way he sat at its pedestal, like other souvenir-sellers in this country presiding over their wares.

Related Characters: The Red-Faced Foreigner (speaker), Muni
Related Symbols: The Kalki Statue
Page Number: 18
Explanation and Analysis:

"This is our guardian, it means death to our adversaries. At the end of Kali Yuga, this world and all other worlds will be destroyed, and the Redeemer will come in the shape of a horse called 'Kalki'; this horse will come to life and gallop and trample down all bad men… [T]he oceans are going to close over the earth in a huge wave and swallow us—this horse will grow bigger than the biggest wave and carry on its back only the good people and kick into the floods the evil ones.”

Related Characters: Muni (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Kalki Statue
Page Number: 19-20
Explanation and Analysis:

“Lend me a hand and I can lift off the horse from its pedestal after picking out the cement at the joints. We can do anything if we have a basis of understanding” … He flourished a hundred-rupee currency note… The old man now realized that some financial element was entering their talk. He peered closely at the currency note, the like of which he had never seen in his life… He laughed to himself at the notion of anyone coming to him for changing a thousand- or ten-thousand-rupee note.

Related Characters: The Red-Faced Foreigner (speaker), Muni
Related Symbols: The Kalki Statue
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis: