The American

Outer characterization

The American is one of the main characters of the short story “A Horse and Two Goats” by R. K. Narayan. He is a tourist from New York (p. 185, l. 13). His face is “sunburned and red” (p. 184, l. 31), and he is wearing “a khaki-coloured shirt and shorts” (p. 184, l. 31). When he meets Muni, the American has already been travelling through India for three weeks (p. 185, ll. 29-30) in his station wagon (p. 186, l. 44). The American has no knowledge of the Tamil language and can only communicate in English. 

Inner characterization

The American stops his station wagon next to the old Indian man because he is fascinated by the horse statue that guards the entrance of the village: “ ‘Marvellous!’ he cried, pacing slowly around the st...