Page 42 - Success Plus English Language and Literature Class 10
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A Letter to God
Thinking about the Text
1. Who does Lencho have complete faith in? than God would send him the money. He
Which sentences in the story tell you this? was not even surprised at receiving the
envelope.
Lencho has complete faith in God. The
sentences in the story that illustrate the 4. Who does Lencho think has taken the rest
extent of his faith are: of the money? What is the irony in the
situation? [Remember that the irony of
(i) All through the night, Lencho thought
only of his one hope: the help of God, a situation is an unexpected aspect of it.
whose eyes, as he had been instructed, An ironic situation is strange or amusing
see everything, even what is deep in because it is the opposite of what is
one’s conscience. expected.]
Lencho thinks that the postal workers have
(ii) The following Sunday, at daybreak,
he began to write a letter which he taken the money. The irony is in the fact
himself would carry to town and that the generous postmaster and postal
place in the mail. It was nothing less workers did everything they could to
than a letter to God. not disappoint the simple farmer, but are
themselves branded as thieves.
(iii) “God,” he wrote, “if you don’t help
me, my family and I will go hungry 5. Are there people like Lencho in the real
this year …” world? What kind of a person would you
say he is? You may select appropriate
(iv) God could not have made a mistake, words from the box to answer the
nor could he have denied Lencho question.
what he had requested.
greedy naive stupid ungrateful
(v) It said: “God: Of the money that
I asked for, only seventy pesos selfish comical unquestioning
reached me. Send me the rest, since
I need it very much … .” Sample response: Yes, there are people like
Lencho in the real world. The person we
2. Why does the postmaster send money to
Lencho? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’? encounter in the story is naive, i.e., he is
innocent and foolish. Although his heart is
The postmaster is moved by Lencho’s in the right place – he has complete faith in
absolute faith in God. He does not want God – his ignorance and lack of awareness
to disappoint him, so he decides to send of the world around him cause him to
money to Lencho and signs the letter ‘God’. behave in a foolish manner.
He believes it will serve to keep the simple
man’s faith that God has responded to him. 6. There are two kinds of conflict in the story:
between humans and nature, and between
3. Did Lencho try to find out who had sent humans themselves. How are these conflicts
the money to him? Why/Why not? illustrated?
No, Lencho did not try to find out who The conflict between humans and nature
had sent the money to him. This is because is shown by the destruction of Lencho’s
his faith in God was so absolute that it crops by the hailstorm. The tenuous and
did not occur to him that anyone other unpredictable relationship between man
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