The inevitable and compulsive comparision between Keshava Reddy’s “ He conquered the jungle” and Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”.

                        There are many similaries between Keshava Reddy’s “He Conquered the Jungle” and Ernest Heminway’s “The Old man and the Sea”.

                        The vast canvas in “The old man and the sea” is the Sea with abundant aquatic life; Keshava Reddy’s is the Forest with full of terrestrial animals. The Man is alone in the both novellas. These novellas present the well-informed aspect about their canvases of the novelists. They succeeded in taking the reader with them to the dreadful forest and aloof sea.

                        The two protagonists, Santiago in the American novel and Old man in Telugu novel are the old men having their life at setting side. Strangely, both these old men are strong in their will power. Whoever reads these two novellas, they feel that these two fictional old men are brothers.

                        The other living things which take much space in these novellas are: the Giant fish in The Old man and the Sea and the sukka sow in He Conquered the jungle. The protagonists fell in love with those animals. They were very proud of their loved ones.

                        Strangely, the boys in the both novellas are so affectionate towards their old men. They wait for their oldie’s return. They are the protogonists’ only human companions in these novellas.

                        These novellas present aloneness on the sea and the forest. It suggests the elemental human condition about his/her existence: though the Man is surrounded by lots of humans, he is always alone, at the womb and at the graveyard. These novellas pass through undercurrent philosophy of human existence, though not consciously.

                        Though the themes are different and specificity and temporality of the both novellas are different, the reader can be compelled to assume that Keshava Reddy might have read the Old Man and the Sea and that novella might have had an unconscious and fruitful effect on this proven Telugu novelist.

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