Question

Give a detailed information of r. K. Narayan and critically analyse his work the snake in the grass

Answer 1

Answer:

This paper entitled, R. K Narayan’s A Snake in the Grass and Stephen Leacock’s With the Photographer – A Comparative Study, aims to accomplish a comparative study of short stories written by Post- colonial writers. “The shortest of short stories may be no more than a page or two in length”, says R.J. Rees (P.202). The two chosen writers are R.K Narayan and Stephen Leacock. R. K. Narayan is the best known and most widely read Indian novelist and short story writer in English. Stephen Butler Leacock, Canadian humorist, short story writer, essayist, biographer, and political economist enjoyed enormous popular success with his short stories and sketches. This comparative study further highlights on the theme, irony, narrative style, characters and cultural and traditional background as the two writers vary in their culture and nationalities. A Snake in the Grass by R.K. Narayan depicts a family with a problem. Several superstitions or rituals are indicated in the short story. Living in southern India, the Indian people fear and honour the King Cobra. Its bite is deadly. But people almost worship it. The family in the story has a cobra somewhere in their yard. Someone saw it come into the yard, but it has not been found. Narayan finds some humour in this precarious situation which is characteristic of his writing. Stephen Leacock’s With the Photographer is an adapted screenplay from one of the Stephen Leacock’s short stories. The story is about an enthusiastic customer who encounters an annoying photographer at his sixties. The whole story is about the experience of the customer through the process of getting his photograph taken. Indeed an interesting story and this was one reason to choose Stephen Leacock for this comparative study.