GENERAL ENGLISH

ASSIGNMENT

ANALYSIS ON GOAT
DAYS(EXTRACT)
BY,
•K Keerthi (MC212878)
•Dharshini P (MC212876) •Rajani Gurung (MC212880)
•Meenakshi R Warrier (MC212879)
•Firdose Banu (MC212877) •Anshuma U Gaikwad (MC212881)
•Trishikha Govekar (MC212882
ABOUT THE
AUTHOR

Benyamin is a famous Indian novelist

and short story writer in the Malayalam
language from Nhettur, Kulananda,
near Pandalam of the south Indian state
of Kerala. His works appear regularly
in Malayalam publications in Kerala.
 GOAT DAYS
(EXTRACT)
The novel is based on the real life events depicting the
life of Najeeb Muhammad, an Indian immigrant going
missing in Saudi Arabia. Najeeb’s dream was to work
in the Persian Gulf states and earn enough money to be
sent back home. But he achieves his dreams only to be
propelled by a series of incidents into a slave like
existence, herding goats in the middle of the Saudi
desert. With the help of Ibrahim Khadiri, a Somalian
worker, Najeeb along with his acquaintance Hameed
together escape the treacherous doom of prison. In
addition to that, he meets Kunjikka, a fellow Malayali
who helps refugees, nursing Najeeb back to good
health. In the end, Najeeb contrives a hazardous
scheme to escape this vicious cycle of a deserted
prison in the middle of nowhere.
 •An identity crisis is a developmental event that
involves a person questioning their sense of self
or place in the world. The concept originates in
the work of the developmental psychologist, Erik
Erikson. According to Erikson, an identity crisis is
a time of intensive analysis and exploration of
different ways of looking at oneself.
•The text “Goat Days” tries to trance out the
identity crisis, portrayed by Benyamin through
the character of Najeeb. Identity is a kind of
origin that secures or guarantees originality, fixity
and stability. Different perceptions of identity
must be examined in this text.

THEME •Identity crisis is uncertain where a person is not

able to associate with any image of him and is
IDENTITY unable to convey his/ her identity to himself.
Najeeb identifies different identities to himself
CRISIS like that of a goat, scary figure, etc. But he is
unable to express himself through these identities.
 IDENTITY CRISIS IN
GOAT DAYS
•Together with love and death, the identity crisis has
constantly demonstrated its thematic power in literature.
Its portrayal challenges readers to think about their own
relationship with society, to elevate their self-awareness
to a higher level and to pursue and achieve self-
realization.
•Identity is an all-consuming word. We use our identity to
define how we perceive ourselves, what choices we
make, and how we portray ourselves to others.
Developing a sense of self or an identity is an essential
part of every individual becoming mature and not having
a strong sense of self will lead to struggling with identity
issues such as anxiety, insecurity, hopelessness and can
also result in a decline of your mental health, viewing
yourself or your life in a negative way has shown to be a
marker for vulnerability.
 Identity and Survival are linked gestures of human existence. Being the
most existing and important stratum of any of any level of consciousness
and or existential struggle, survival and identity crisis, delves within the
structures of a constructed human being. A human being is constructed very
much through the realms of the societal and cultural standards and the
consciousness of a human being is decided by the way the being reacts to
certain situations in life.
The theme of
SURVIVAL
portrayed in the
text:
•The goat days is a simple story about a Malayali being taken to the Gulf under false pretexts and being abused by
his Arab master. Najeeb, a poor, illegal sand miner from Kerala dreams of going to the Gulf to earn big bucks. Just
like millions of his Malayali compatriots. He is given the chance when the brother-in-law of a friend has “a visa for
sale”. Najeeb pledges his home and all his wealth to buy the visa and make the journey to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
There he is taken in by an ‘arbab’, who enslaves him as a shepherd of goats and camels. Denied the use of any
water for sanitation or bathing, he is given just enough food to survive. He is regularly beaten, and his life is spent
in the stinking animal pens, herding them, feeding them, milking them and walking them. And so, his ‘Goat Days’
had begun. The book also tells us about how Najeeb dealt with his loneliness, his broken dreams and his pain, and
also how Najeeb meets and suffers at the hands of his villains just as accidentally as his heroes rescue him.
However, Najeeb’s connections with the animals that are ironically, and innocently, the reason for his bondage are
the highlight of the tale.
 RELATION OF IDENTITY AND SURVIVAL IN
THE TEXT
•Najeeb finds himself, alienated among the herd of goats and yearns to meet his family. His desolation pushes him into a
psychological trauma where he starts to identify himself with the goats. In their faces he sees former crushes, early lovers
and even local actors and politicians. Najeeb’s relationship with the goats evolves through the stages of hostility,
adjustment, and acceptance and eventually one of deep dependence and friendship.
• Over time, the division between the goats and him blur and ‘I had become a goat’, becomes a frequent train of thought.
He identifies with the goats because they, like him, lack all agony and are at the mercy of the temper and knife. Najeeb
suffers from identity crisis as he has lost his past identity, back at home in the complex situation of his present life.
•Goat Days delves into the human instinct for survival and hope for escape. Deprived of the fundamentals of food, water,
companionship, could it be that Najeeb survives only because of a desire to live and an infinite faith in Allah.
 REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE
• A life which we haven’t got to experience ever is just like a
story to us

• This is the real life experience of a young widow, Subaida,

who travels to Saudi Arabia as a domestic servant or
Gaddama. She was promised a good job as well as a steady
salary. Upon arrival at her destination, it quickly becomes
clear that she joins the rank of hundreds of other domestic
servants, Gaddamas, initiated into servitude through
exploitive working conditions with little food and sleep at
her employer’s residence. Even the children used to torture
her. One of the sponsor’s son cut her arm with a blade just
for fun. She used to be punished for not understanding their
language and her inability to act quickly. Because of these
harsh conditions and tortures at the hands of her sponsors,
she decides to escape. Unfortunately, she was caught by the
police and imprisoned. And finally she died in the
deportation camp due to neglect and disease.

• The film speaks for thousands of wretched lives caught in

the vicious cycle of no means of escape not hope, they
Conclusion
our analysis on the text ‘Goat Days’, we pointed out the facts on how identity crisis
and survival, interconnected together play a major role in shaping the gist of the story.
The problem of arising identity crisis could lead to metal trauma and instability within
an individual, due to which their plan on searching for a better opportunity could fail.
It is also important to note that being set down in a position like this, grieving and
being in sorrow wouldn’t be of much help to make a living out of what one is doing.
Highlighting the prominence of immigration to a foreign land in the text, it becomes a
defined mean of survival in all, along with having an identity to be known by to get
through these crucial times. Without having an insight on whom one really is and what
their purpose might be in any situation, it makes it hard to get through a time of crisis
like in the story, which all leads to the point that having a minimally strong presence
and the ultimate goal of survival through this dilemma would be the only major
solution.