Old Man Of The Temple by R.K. Narayan
Internal conflict: Doss is possessed by Krishna Battar and also that Krishna Battar fights against himself because he is a ghost. He is trying to decide reality.
Man vs man: The talkative man trying to rid the spirit of Krishna Battar possessing Doss.
Man vs society: The people living in the temple tell the talkative man they have heard a strange knocking every night but, since he is gone it has stopped.
Man vs nature: As the temple was old, it was getting destroyed because people started to forget about it.
Man vs superpower: That Krishna Battar could control Doss’ body and mind.
Climax: When the talkative man tells the ghost that is dead and helps him to go with his wife.
Resolution: The ghost finally goes to heaven finding peace with his wife and the neighbours by the temple are no longer disturbed by the strange noises at their door.
New resolution: The ghost was so confused with what the talkative man said that he ignored him because he did not care of what he was saying, after all the ghost thought that the talkative man just wanted to scare him so the ghost would give him money, for that reason he decided not to believe him while knocking the door to allow him enter to the temple. So he never knew the truth of what was really happening to him and he never knew what had happened to his wife.
Theme: Connection, acceptance, tradition, faith and dedication.
Voice: The point of view in this story is both 1st and 3rd person. We can tell that it is in 3rd person because the story starts out with "The talkative man said:" but then the whole story is narrated in 1st person.
Mood: At the beginning of the story the mood was trustworthy because the talkative guy trusted Doss to be his taxi driver but at the end the mood was suspenseful since the story gives an intriguing feeling as it progresses.
Conflict: The conflict of the story is when the ghost whose name was Krishna Battar takes possession of Doss’ body.
Tone: Terrifying.
Setting: Late at night, somewhere between the cities of Magludi and Kumbum. It is 50 miles from Magludi.
Characters: Doss (taxi driver), Krishna Battar (the ghost), the wife and the talkative man.
Elements of horror:
- Terrorific moment in which the ghost possessed Doss' body.
- The people living in the temple tell the talkative man that they have heard a strange knocking every night but, since Krishna Battar is gone, it has stopped.
- Fear that the ghost would also possess the talkative man.
- Panic when Doss started to talk about weird things suddenly.
By Catalina, Andrea and Laura, Step 9 Blue
