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A Letter To God

Question
CBSEENEN10000427

There are two kinds of conflict in the story: between humans and nature, and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated?

Solution
In the story, the conflict between man and nature is depicted by the rainfall. Lencho had been awaiting the rainfall since that morning as the corn fields were ready to be harvested and they needed a shower only before the harvest. He was very happy when it started raining. He thought that he would be able to earn a lot by selling the harvest. He went out to feel the rain. It was nature's blessing to him. As soon as the big rain drops got converted to hail storms, he started feeling sad and gloomy because it ruined the corn harvest leaving Lencho destined to stay hungry throughout the year. The conflict among human themselves is depicted by Lencho's unshakable belief in God. It is surprising that a human has unshakable faith in God whom he has never seen but he doubts the concerns of the fellow beings.

Some More Questions From A Letter to God Chapter

Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?

What made him angry?

Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the story tell you this?

Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’?

Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not?

Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the irony in the situation? (Remember that the irony of a situation is an unexpected aspect of it. An ironic situation is strange or amusing because it is the opposite of what is expected.)

Are there people like Lencho in the real world? What kind of a person would you say he is? You may select appropriate words from the box to answer the question.
     
 greedy  naive  stupid  ungrateful  
 selfish  comical  unquestioning

There are two kinds of conflict in the story: between humans and nature, and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated?

Look at the following sentence from the story.
Suddenly a strong wind began to blow and along with the rain very large hailstones began to fall.
‘Hailstones’ are small balls of ice that fall like rain. A storm in which hailstones fall is a ‘hailstorm’. You know that a storm is bad weather with strong winds, rain, thunder and lightning.  

There are different names in different parts of the world for storms, depending on their nature. Can you match the names in the box with their descriptions below, and fill in the blanks? You may use a dictionary to help you.

gale, whirlwind, cyclone, hurricane, tornado, typhoon

A violent tropical storm in which strong winds move in a circle: __ __ c __ __ __ __
2. An extremely strong wind : __ a __ __
3. A violent tropical storm with very strong winds : __ __ p __ __ __ __
4. A violent storm whose centre is a cloud in the shape of a funnel: __ __ __ n __ __ __ 5. A violent storm with very strong winds, especially in the western Atlantic Ocean: __ __ r __ __ __ __ __ __
6. A very strong wind that moves very fast in a spinning movement and causes a lot of damage: __ __ __ __ l __ __ __ __

Notice how the word ‘hope’ is used in these sentences from the story: (a) I hope it (the hailstorm) passes quickly. (b) There was a single hope: help from God. In the first example, ‘hope’ is a verb which means you wish for something to happen. In the second example it is a noun meaning a chance for something to happen.

Match the sentences in Column A with the meanings of ‘hope’ in Column B  

 

1.Will you get the subjects you want to study in college? I hope so.

2. I hope you don’t mind my saying this, but I don’t like the way you are arguing.

3. This discovery will give new hope to HIV/AIDS sufferers.

4. We were hoping against hope that the judges would not notice our mistakes.

5. I called early in the hope of speaking to her before she went to school.

6. Just when everybody had given up hope, the fishermen came back, seven days after the cyclone.

 

 -a feeling that something good will probably happen

 – thinking that this would happen (It may or may not have happened.)

 – stopped believing that this good thing would happen

– wanting something to happen (and thinking it quite possible)

– showing concern that what you say should not offend or disturb the other person: a way of being polite

– wishing for something to happen, although this is very unlikely