Literature Lover

Introduction Memories of Childhood is a collection of two autobiographical episodes written by Native American writer Zitkala – Sa and Tamil writer Bama. Both these writers belong to marginalised communities and talk about their experiences of discrimination in their childhood. Zitkala – Sa remembers how she was taken away from her mother to be introduced into a school run by white Americans. She remembers her first day at Carlisle Indian school when the people who run the school force her to cut her hair. She feels anguish and helplessness as she is completely opposed to that action.  Bama recounts her childhood the social injustice imposed upon her community in the form of untouchability. A simple funny event that she experiences turns out to be an ugly form of discrimination.  Summary of Chapter Zitkala remind her school days when she had to become part of the American culture. She felt bad when her shawl was taken forcefully by the school authorities before entering into ...

  Q1. Who is Mr Lamb? How does Derry get into his garden? Ans.   Mr Lamb is an old man with a tin leg. His real leg was blown off years ago during the war. He lives alone in his house. There is a garden near the house. It has ripe crab apples looking orange and golden in colour. Mr Lamb is sitting in his garden when Derry climbs over the garden wall to get into his garden. Though the gate is open, the boy does not use it. Q2. Do you think all this will change Derry’s attitude towards Mr Lamb? Ans.   Mr Lamb learns from Derry that the latter does not like being near people. They stare at his face and feel afraid of him as half of it has been burnt by acid and looks very ugly. Mr Lamb offers him a new way bf thinking. He tells him about a person who was afraid of everything and locked himself in a room. A picture fell off the wall on his head and killed him. Derry finds that the old man says peculiar things. He is further surprised to learn about the old man’s habits. ...

The Tiger King  was a brave king of Pratibandhpuram. His death had been predicted by an astrologer at the time of his birth. He said that the royal child is born in the hour of the bull and tiger is enemy of bull so king’s death would come from a tiger. The brave prince warned all tigers to beware of him. He came to be known as the ‘Tiger King’.   The prince became king at the age of twenty and came to know about the prediction about his death. He started killing tigers and put a ban on tiger hunt in his state. A high ranking British officer was also not allowed to kill tiger in his state. In order to secure his state from British Officer, he sent 50 diamond rings to the officer’s wife. According to the astrologers he needs to be careful with the 100 th tiger. Within ten years the maharaja successful killed 70 tigers. But after that, there were no tigers left in Pratibandapuram. Hence, to complete his target of killing a hundred tigers he marries a princess from the royal sta...

The Third Level The Third level is a story of 31 years old man named Charlie. He  was returning to his home from his work and was in a hurry, so he decided to take a subway from the Grand Central station instead of a bus. He says that the station was growing like a plant and he has often bumped into new corridors and doors. He was walking through a secret tunnel and reached the third level of the station. There he saw small rooms, wooden ticket windows, information booths with dim lit and train gates. People were dressed in old fashion clothes. There were brass spittoons. People had fancy beards and moustaches. His suspicion was confirmed by the date printed in the newspaper, June 11, 1894. After realizing his time travel, Charlie wanted to go to Galesburg with his wife Louisa. He went to buy two tickets but his currency was not valid in that time. Next day he withdrew all his savings and converted into old century currency. This distressed his wife. He does not find the third leve...

  Prose The Last Lesson 1.        What tempted Franz to stay away from school? Or Why did Franz not want to go to school that day? 2.        Why did Franz find the whole school to be strange and solemn? 3.        When Franz thinks of M Hamel as a ‘’poor man!”, what was the boy’s thoughts and feelings? 4.        Who did M. Hamel blame when Franz was unable to answer a question on French participles?                       What was M Hamel’s regret on the day of the last lesson? 5.        How did M Hamel offer his tribute to the French language? 6.        How and why was M. Hamel dressed differently   that day? 7.       What did the French teacher tell his students in    his last   French ...

  The Enemy The Enemy is a story set in Japan during the Second World War. In this story, an injured American soldier washes up on the beach near the home of a Japanese surgeon, Dr. Sadao Hoki. He had lived in America to pursue his medical course. His family lives a traditional Japanese life. Dr Sadao is in a dilemma to leave the American man to die, to throw him back into the sea, to hand him over to the army or to save his life. He reluctantly takes him home and decides to save his life. The presence of an enemy disrupts his family life. His wife is against his idea of operating upon and taking care of the soldier. The servants of the house oppose the idea and leave their master. Yet, Dr Sadao shelters him, operates upon him, and saves his life. Out of the fear of being accused of sheltering an enemy, he narrates the incident to a general in the Japanese military. The general helps Dr Sadao and offers to get the man killed by hired killers. However, the killing doesn’t take...