'The Mark of Vishnu', novelleanalyse

The Mark of Vishnu is a story about an old man who lives with a household in India. Everyday he puts out a saucer with milk so that the Kala Nag, which is a snake will stay satisfied and keep the family alone. One day, after a monsoon, the Kala Nag had to come up from it's hole and then the children of the household beat it up 'till it it had become a pulp. Then they picked it up and put it into a jar so that they could take it to school and show their teacher.

The next day, just before they left they told Gunga Ram that they had killed the Kala Nag. When they children got to school they were about to show their teacher the snake, but as he opened the jar the snake jumped out a coiled out the door. But out on the hallway was Gunga Ram with a saucer of milk to try and calm the snake, but when he bowed down the snake bit him in the forehead, just were his V-mark, symbolising the Hindu god Vishnu, and made him fall dead on the ground.

The story takes place in India but as for the time we do not get a full idea about when the story takes place. Probably around 1950, when it was published. The main character is called Gunga Ram, who works as a sort of servant to a family. At the same time he is also a Brahmin, which is a high status in the Hindu priest caste. The children of the household make fun of Gunga Ram because he keeps putting out a saucer of milk to a snake called the Kala Nag and because he believes so strongly in the Kala Nag and the story of the snakes (fx. page 79, line 5/6 “the party burst into peals of laughter. »Must be Gunga Ram's eggs. We'll soon have a hundred Gunga Rams.«). They called him stupid, but Gunga Ram ignores them, for he is afraid of the Kala Nag and fears that it will go them bad if the children kill it. But the children ignore him. They do not think much of Gunga Ram and go against him and his believe by trying to kill the Kala Nag. In that way the do not respect Gunga Ram either.