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a) Do you think the title ‘Crime and Punishment’ is an apt one? Justify your views. b) Write an alternative title for the story. |
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Answer» a) I think the title “Crime and Punishment” by R.K. Narayan is an apt one for the story. There is crime and then there is punishment. The boy does the crime of repeating the same mistake wilfully and he gets slapped as punishment. Slapping is the crime by the teacher and he gets punishment from the boy. That is why he has to act as a station mater and tell him so many stories ad run after him, all against his will. In fact there is a world famous novel by the same name by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Narayan must have copied the title. But in Dostoyevsky’s novel, the crime is murder and not the small mishiefs in R.K. Narayan’s story. b) The Plight of a Poor Teacher/The Mischievous Imp and the Poor Teacher. |
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