What is the language barrier to write humour in the story a horse and two goats.
Answers
Explanation:
R. K. Narayan has depicted in his story how the cultural and linguistic difference between two men can create a humorous situation. Muni, a common Tamil villager in India who knows only two words in English – ‘yes’ and ‘no’ meets by chance an affluent American, a ‘red-faced man’, who has come on a tour here.
The red-faced man was driving a station wagon. It stopped near where Muni was sitting under the clay-horse. The red-faced man got down and asked Muni “Excuse me, is there a gas station nearby, or do I have to wait until another car comes –“. Then the man looked up at the clay horse and cried “Marvellous!” twice. Muni didn’t understand anything and got frightened. He took the stranger to be a policeman or a soldier by his khaki dress and wanted to run away, but could not. He was afraid that the man might chase or shoot him if he ran.
When the stranger greeted him saying “Namaste! How do you do?”, Muni merely uttered “yes, no”. Then Muni went on to give his introduction in Tamil language which the man couldn’t understand. When the man offered Muni a cigarette, he received it with surprise. When the man offered him a light, he blew it on and put it out, being confused. When the man offered him his card, Muni thought it to be an arrest warrant and shrank away from it. He knew that a murder had been committed nearby a few weeks before and thought that the policeman might be looking for the culprit.
Muni pleaded the man to go away as he did not know anything of the murder and promised that he would catch the bad character for him if he found. He assured that their village had always had a clean record, so it must be the other village. The foreigner understood nothing but listened courteously and nodded his head.
Thus, neither of the two could understand what the other was saying. Both of them tried to guess the topic by following the other’s finger direction, look or the physical objects like the card. In the process, both of them ended up revealing their personal life, key concerns and their cultural difference. Interestingly, while only the readers get to know about the two characters’ identities and concerns, they themselves don’t actually understand anything about each other. And this is where the fun comes from. It makes the conversation humorous and enjoyable, building the curiosity at the same time.
Answer:
The majority of this book deals with some fairly heavy going topics such as the ramifications of child marriage and poverty. However, between the doom and gloom, there are some definite laughs to be had. For me, the first smile came when the author revealed that while Muni "had thrashed [his wife] only a few times", she later gained "the upper hand."
The part of the story in which hilarity ensues, however, comes later, when Muni is sitting and resting by a statue near the highway. Suddenly, a vehicle stops right in front of Muni, and a "red-faced foreigner" steps out and starts asking Muni where the nearest gas station is. He then notices the clay horse, which he immediately decides he must own. Given that the foreigner only speaks English, and Muni only speaks Tamil, the two cannot understand one another at all. A complete fail at intercultural communication follows.
Muni is highly suspicious and frightened of the visitor, thinking that he is here to have him arrested and that the business card the foreigner hands him is some sort of arrest warrant. He assumes that the American is questioning him about a murder that recently took place. He is reassuring the American that punishment will be brutal for the murderer if Muni is the one to catch him.