House Opposite by R. K. Narayan :: Narayan House Opposite Essays

House gelid by R. K. Narayan   The short drool, House Opposite by R. K. Narayan is an example of a man and his struggle with his own humanity. The basal plot of the story includes a holy man (only referred to as "the recluse") that is living along with the traditions of an Indian lifestyle. He considers himself to be a really good man, not succumbing to temptations or as it is put in the text, "He rigorously suppressed all cravings of the palate and punished his body in a number of ways." It is indicated that the hermit really did not understand wherefore he was doing any of this however, barring his selfish interest in " weird liberation." The conflict in the story is internal the hermit becomes aware of a prostitute living across the street, and cannot ignore her presence. Throughout the story, the hermit complains about(predicate) the "awful monster" and regards her as the "personification of evil." This is not the root of t he task however. The hermits preoccupation with the prostitute served to destroy him, solely unfortunately for him, the foot cannot be aimed at her. Throughout the middle of the passage, the hermit described the features of the prostitute with a particular contempt, yet he continued to look, even leer at her. He continued to think about what went on puke the disagreeable doors, the men that waited around outside the house "smoking, chewing tobacco and spit up into the gutter - committing all the sins of the world according to the hermit." In fact, after the story unfolded, the hermit was so upset that he was "forced" to leave behind his shelter to look for a new place, thinking that he would instead not have a roof at all preferably than live near the woman. He could not tend to his proper images, and was not able to keep his gaze on the tip of his nose, as was proper, but only could see the woman. The interesting thing is that he did not blame himself at a ll for his problem. In one line the hermit thought to himself, "Difficult to say whether it was those monstrous arms and breasts or thighs that tempted and ruined me" and therefore proceeded to call the woman names. Why had she ruined his "tapas all the merit he had so laboriously acquired" The truth of the matter, however, is that not only was the hermit weak-willed, he had no idea why he would even be against this womans practices, different than it was once said by someone.