In a mood of optimism they named him "Attila." What they wanted of a dog was strength, formidableness, and fight, and hence he was named after the "Scourge of Europe."
The opening lines of “Attila” are an excellent introduction to the delicate use of irony which is one of the author’s greatest talents and most effective tools. The strategic arc of this story toward a conclusion that is ironic also exemplifies Narayan’s key ability to penetrate into a singular effect he wants to ply throughout the story. Not all of those stories are constructed around irony, of course; other stories pursue other literary devices in the same way.
He expected she would stop and speak to him. But she merely threw at him an indifferent glance and passed on. He stood staring after her for a moment, baffled.
This story opens with the title character seeing a shadowy figure off in the distance that he muses might be a ghost before deciding to investigate further. The story ends with that same figure passing closely by him in the quote above. Her indifference causes him to ponder for another momentary bit of musing: "Probably this is someone else.” This is another example of the author’s precision in outlining a strategic arc that takes his stories logically from their beginning to their end.
For years, people were not aware of the existence of a Municipal Council in Malgudi. The town was none the worse for it.
His talent for a pithy little ironic cul-de-sac like this reversal of expectation sometimes can make reading Narayan sound like Joseph Heller. Unlike Heller, of course, this kind of display of humor does not appear on practically every page. Which, some would argue, makes Narayan’s utilization of the device all the more effective.
After waiting a few weeks he resigned himself to the loss and return himself to his old precarious existence—on alms which he could not demand.
The beggar so described here is both deaf and mute which would provide a natural sense of emotional commitment. To this mix, now add the sudden, expected appearance of a monkey which assists the beggar and enriches his life for several years. And then, overnight, the monkey disappears never to be seen again. By the end of the story, the character has transcended from pitiful to pathetic in the literary sense. The author has infused what was a sad story with the tragic dimension of pathos through the addition, ironically, of a monkey.
