② Briefly give the difference in the financial status of muni and the visiting American. State how does it reflect on the theme of clash between materialism and spiritualism
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Answer:
Both Muni and the Red-Faced Foreignerstruggle with preoccupations over possessing material objects. The foreigner struggles more with materialism as he is more prosperous and thus has more possessions than Muni, but this preoccupation figures, albeit to a lesser extent, in Muni’s life as well. Unlike the foreigner, however, Muni revels in recounting his past and in discussing his spirituality in the form of mythological tales, which is shown to be at odds with the foreigner’s obsession with material objects and financial matters. The foreigner is thus emblematic of the time- and money-obsessed capitalist society of which he is a part. These petty preoccupations prevent the foreigner from appreciating Muni’s spiritual narrative—not only because of the language barrier, Narayan suggests, but because of their differing cultural perspectives. In this story, Narayan presents materialism and a preoccupation with ownership as obstacles to engaging with the spiritual dimension
Answer:
Although Muni himself is not prosperous and therefore does not have many possessions, he prides himself on the few possessions he does have, such as his two goats and the tree to which he ties his goats, of which he says, “although no one could say precisely who owned the tree, it was his because he lived in its shadow.” Muni must worry about who owns the tree because almost everything, even in his small and insular village, is owned and assigned a price (such as the pen at the Big House, which he used to rent out for his flock). Others’ fixation on ownership prevents Muni from focusing on the more spiritual matters with which an elderly man in Hindu society is supposed to concern himself. The fact that Muni does not follow the system of “varnashramadharma” (or the assignment of certain tasks and behaviors according to one’s age and caste) is again indicative of Kali Yuga, a dark age in which even the elderly do not commit themselves to the holy tasks that would gain them admittance into Swarga (or “heaven”) and release them from the cycle of rebirth (“samsara”). Even the shopkeeper from whom Muni requests food on credit connects materialism to spirituality when he states, “If you could find five rupees and a quarter, you would pay off an ancient debt and then could apply for admission to Swarga.” This ridiculous connection between materialism and spirituality prevents the shopkeeper and Muni from recognizing how relatively petty these materialistic matters are and that spirituality has little to do with profit.