Bily has a master's degree in English literature and has written for a wide variety of educational publishers. In the following essay, she examines the role of women in "A Horse and Two Goats."

When Muni the Indian peasant and the red-faced American meet and converse in "A Horse and Two Goats," the differences between them are immediately apparent, and these differences inform the main idea of the story, the clash of cultures. One of the few things the two men have in common is kept in the background of the story, but resurfaces frequently—each has a devoted wife on the sidelines, making it possible for them to keep going.

To begin to understand Narayan's sense of women, it would be useful to look briefly at how Indian and Hindu culture has perceived and shaped women's lives. It is believed that the ancient Tamil societies...