Critical Appreciation R. K. Narayan’s "A Snake in the Grass": Family’s Agitation on Hearing of the Snake
"It crawled under the gate and disappeared along a drain. When they recovered from the shock they asked: ‘Does it means that there are two
snakes here?’ The college-boy murmured: ‘I wish I had taken the risk and
knocked the water-pot from Dasu’s hand; we might have known what it
contained." --"A snake in the Grass" by R. K. Narayan
Story
people in the household of A snake in the Grass are gullible and victim to superstitious beliefs. It
tells us about the ignorant and frenzied denunciation of hidebound critics and
sham classic people. In his typically humorous style, R. K. Narayan has given
us a slice of Indian small-town life. The family’s agitation on hearing of the
snake; the pompous, useless chatter of the neighbours; the transference of
responsibility on to the servant; the servant’s trick to get his own back; the
credulous, God-fearing nature of the people—are conveyed in a deceptively
simple and lucid style. The story starts suddenly before the gate of a house
with the bell ringing of a cyclist the inmates of the house were not at all
ready to receive the shocking announcement that a big cobra has got into your
compound’. The author has precipitated the crisis gradually in artful pattern.
The actual trouble arose with Dasa the old servant of the house. Read
More Short Stories The neighbours
of the house also took the situation very seriously. All of their curses fell
upon the servant for his idleness of low degree. Here the author has brought
into the dull fidelity of the servant most blameworthy. His idleness and
feigning were the matters of much eloquence. The fellow really deserved
scolding for his protracted abusing of duty and trying to steal a false excuse
under the pretext of a grass-cutter. The surrounding was a vulnerable place
only due to the negligence of his duty. It is significant that while Narayan
shows the Indians as lazy, indolent and unable to handle a crisis swiftly and
effectively, his attitude is tinged with affection and indulgence, which makes
the caricatures extremely endearing.
In one sense, Dasa is
really the only character in A snake in the Grass. The other people are
secondary to his story except as their actions affect his life. The mistress of
the house, as the person who makes it possible for Dasa to
communicate with other people and who serves as the primary mediator between
Dasa and the world, is the only other character that develops
somewhat in the course of the narrative. Yet even she remains shadowy.
These
facts captured the mind of the mistress of the house distinctively and horrified.
We return to the cobra affair soon after the end of the debate when the human
faces anxiously searched for the reptile. They were aided with their
conventional crude ammunition. We are not worried to see the gesture of the
mother for the beggar from the urge of his supernatural belief. Read
More Short Stories Though it is
superstitious yet this spiritual inclination of the mother signifies the
pragmatic vision that created by the author who has eventually constituted a
life more real to him. This is an Indian culture and belief to take natural
forces as deity. By dint of this peculiarity the members of the family took the
snake as God Subramanya. The snake visited the house to remind their promised Abhishekam, a religious rite. The
post-lunch afternoon nap or siesta is suggestive of the slow paced Indian life.
The hubbub on hearing of the snake’s entry into the garden is set up as a
deliberate contrast to highlight the earlier mood of relaxation and to make
convincing the subsequent confusion and chaos.
Even
in the brief span of the short story, R. K. Narayan presents a memorable
character in Dasa. He is a servant, but is not servile. He is not unduly
disturbed by the chiding of his mistress and can hold his own against
accusations of negligence. His ability to dupe his employers and their
neighbours by pretending to catch the cobra in a water-pot is a humorous
instance of how the low-born occasionally triumph over their superiors. He will
undoubtedly be questioned severely about the truthfulness of his statement on
his return but for the moment he has forced them to admire his worth and
silenced their criticism of his laziness.
The
man introducing as a snake-charmer somehow managed to dupe them pretending that
he had a skill to seize the reptile. The people were so gullible that Dasa
easily became the hero of the day. Pretending that he had caught the venomous
reptile and put it into a pot, He snatched Undue respect from the hypochondriac
mother. the old man inflicted his fool audience and became detracted later when
the real cobra came out of the hole.
So A snake in the Grass is a blend of hypocrisy, superstition and reality. This is one of the
Narayan’s masterpieces and depicts some humble elements of a middle class house
has been the fairest one and the author’s creative energies is flamed with
unprecedented brilliancy. The imaginary situation has become as original as
ever done for a literary text because of his talent which is indispensable to
art worthy of fame. Read
More Short Stories He propagated the logic of lingual artfulness to arrest the
reader’s attention. He believed in inspiration unreservedly and vehemently
accepted the value of referring to the ordinary business of life for his
material in order to make the piece interesting. Imagination, passion,
inspiration and working of the mind are the most interesting materials in it.
So the piece is one of the valuable works of the author. It is short and a few
occasions are arranged but interesting for its placidness and reality It bears
the credit of well-readability. Read
More Short Stories Dasa, the old but clever servant, tricks his
employers-a mother and her four sons- into thinking that he has caught a cobra
for which the family has been searching in the garden all day. Earlier in
the day, the family had accused the servant of being lazy and not cutting the
grass. They had spent the entire afternoon frantically searching for the
snake.
The irony comes from the servant, who
is probably very lazy, amusingly tricking the family into thinking that he
has done what they spent all afternoon trying to do. In addition, he saves
his job because the family had threatened to fire him if the snake was
not found. Shrewdly, he has outwitted them all with his pretense of the snake
in the jar. The irony at the end of the story is that the family is planning to
reward Dasa when he has in fact lied and endangered them, thus deserving no
reward and thus making himself the "snake in the grass" who turns on
them.
Dasa
has supposedly caught the snake in a water pot, which is sealed with a slab of
stone. Dasa claims that he caught the cobra in the pot and is taking it to the
snake charmer. The old servant claims that he saw the cobra peering out
of the pot, and he sealed up the pot before the snake could get out. Read
More Short Stories The family
believes that they have misjudged the old servant, and now, they have to
compliment and reward him for finding the snake and trapping it. Quite
proud of himself, he tells the family “Don’t call me an idler hereafter.” The
mother is satisfied, and Dasa, the old servant, becomes the hero of the day.
As he leaves to take the snake to the charmer, the family decides to give
him a reward.
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