The short Story, The Fawn was written The Fawn by the famous Indian Short Story writer, Khushwant Singh. Known famously for his wit and comical satire, this is a story that speaks of his love and empathy for nature and its inhabitants. It is also a scathing indictment of man and his so called humanity.
By contrasting the maternal feelings of the doe with the murderous desire of the hunter, Singh is trying to show us how sometimes man is worse than an animal itself.
The main characters of the story are two hunters who have gone for a weekly hunt to the village, so that they can get away from the monotony of a busy city life. The narrator feels that all his actions are ruled by the watch and so finds it impossible to live his life to the fullest. He has come hunting , not to kill, but just to enjoy the beauty of nature and the peaceful country life.
The other hunter, however, is much more involved in hunting. He has a terrible family life in the city, having being forced to take care of a number of step mothers, brothers and sisters, whom he hates. The frustration he feels in his personal life finds an outlet in hunting. The anger and hate that he cannot show towards his family, he shows on the animals he hunts. He hunts only for sport, and does not feel any sadness or empathy for nature.
The two hunters had planned to hunt birds, but unfortunately there were no more as another party had been there before them. So they decided to hunt deer. But because of the location of the deer on an open field they were easily seen, and the deer all ran away. Their expedition began at dawn, yet it was only in the afternoon that they actually got a chance to shoot something. As they were walking by a forest, a doe ran into their path. But it stopped halfway and turned around as if waiting for something. The other hunter realised that there was a fawn nearby, and so they waited patiently. Suddenly, a fawn appeared walking unsteadily on its legs. The hunter fired 2 shots and wounded the fawn. But he did not stop there. He also took out a razor blade and cut the fawn’s throat, killing it.
All this was seen by the doe, who began to follow the hunters as they went back to their car with the fawn’s body. It was dusk, and though they were sharing a drink, the other hunter was well aware of the doe. Suddenly the narrator hears a shot and looks to the boot of the car, where the fawn’s head was hanging out, and saw that the mother had also been shot. The other hunter wasted no time in repeating his ritual of cutting the throat, with a great deal of happiness.
Thus Singh shows us how human beings behave towards animals. They look at nature and its inhabitants as only a source of fun. They are meant to be higher beings than animals because of their humanity, but unfortunately, they are more inhuman than human.
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