Literatus

 

Allusion: An allusion is a reference or an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication. An example of allusion in this poem is ‘cardboard’ which actually refers to the photograph.  Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of the initial sound (generally a consonant) of several words marking the stressed syllable in a line of poem. Examples of alliteration in this poem are ‘stood still to smile’, ‘terribly transient’, ‘Its silence silences’ etc.  Transferred Epithet: An Epithet is an adjective. If it gets transferred from its literal place to a metaphoric place ‘Transient feet’ is an example of the transferred epithet in the poem. It refers to human feet but it is used to describe the lack of permanence of human life.  Oxymoron: In this literary device, there are two opposite ideas that are joined to create an effect. ‘Laboured ease’ in the poem is an example of an oxymoron. Laboured meaning with ‘great difficulty’ and ease means ‘comfortably’. B...

Lines 1-4:  The cardboard shows me how it was  When the two girl cousins went paddling,  Each one holding one of my mother’s hands,  And she the big girl - some twelve years or so.  I n these lines, the poet describes looking through a photo album, the pages of which seem to be made of cardboard. The cardboard here refers to the thick stiff photo paper used in the pre-digital photography era to store memories. She is looking at one picture in particular. It is a picture of three girls, the tallest and eldest one in the middle and two younger and shorter ones on each side of her. The girl standing in the middle is the poet’s mother, and the poet speculates that her mother must have been around twelve years old when the picture was taken. The other two girls are two of her mother’s cousins. Each of the cousins is holding on to one of the elder girl’s hands for support. The picture was taken on a day when the three girls had gone paddling at the beach.  Lines ...

The title of the poem is much appropriate as it reminds the poet of her mother. A photograph is something that captures a certain moment of someone’s life. The person might change in course of time but the memories attached with the photograph are eternal. In this poem, the poet’s mother is no more but the photograph makes her memories come alive. The mother’s sweet face and her cousins have changed with time but the moment captured in the photograph still gives happiness to the poet’s mother when she views it thirty to forty years later. The poet reminisces that the sea holiday was the past of her mother and for her the laughter of her mother is past now. Both the moments of life have been permanently etched in the poet’s mind with the feeling of eternal loss. Death now has overpowered the innocence of these moments and the pleasure they treasured. The poet concludes the poem on a melancholy note with the comment that there is nothing to say or comment upon this sad event. The silence...

 

Introduction   Khushwant Singh Was One Of The Prominent Indian Writers. In The Story, The Author Draws A Pen Portrait Of His Grandmother. He Has Beautifully Written An Account Of His Relationship With Her Grandmother.  Pen Portrait Of Grandmother  Khushwant Singh Draws A Pen Portrait Of His Grandmother. Old Woman  Its Hard To Believe That Once  She Had Been Young And Pretty His Grandfather’s Picture Hung Above The Mantelpiece  He Looked At Least A Hundred Years Old  Appearance of grandmother   Old, Short, Fat, Slightly Bent  Wrinkled Face  She Looks The Same For Last Twenty Years  She Couldn’t Walk Straight   She Wears White Clothes And Roams In The House. She Keeps Her One Hand On Her Waist To Balance Herself. She Held A Rosary In The Other Hand.  Her Silver Locks Scattered Over Her Pale Face. Her Lips Constantly Moved. She Always Prayed To Herself. Close Friends  Narrator And His Grandmother Were Good Friends. ...

Khushwant Singh is one of the prominent Indian writers and columnists. He has written on various themes and issues. In this lesson, he gives a detailed account of his grandmother who had a long association with him. He had intimate relations with her since his chilhood.Their friendship was broken when they had to move to the city. The English school, science and music did not appeal to her. The narrator went abroad for higher studies. His arrival after five years from abroad was an occasion for celebration. The old lady tired herself and fell ill. Her death was mourned not only by the narrator’s family but also by the sparrows she fed regularly in the afternoon. The old, stout, short and a little bent grandmother is clad in white clothes and keeps on telling beads of her rosary. During their long stay in village, the grandmother used to wake up the narrator in the morning and accompanied him to school. She took care of all small things and continued her regular prayers and reading of s...

 

In the story, ‘Should Wizard hit mommy’, the writer, John Updike examines the issues of parenting and the flaws that inadvertently creep in. The adult tendency to quell the questioning mind of a child and also the intrusion of the beliefs held by adults to represent the only valid viewpoint, are areas that find mention in this simple yet powerful story. Jo, the four-year-old daughter of Jack, has been subjected to a bedtime story telling by her father ever since she was two years of age. As the story has a slight variation of a basic talk. It follows a simple unchanging plot in which the various characters all bear the name of Roger and the ending is predictable. Jack prides himself on what he thinks of as his ingenuity, and is especially proud his ability to enact the role of the old wizard, an integral part of each story, changing his voice so much better when Jo was smaller and would go to sleep sooner. He things of her two-year-old brother, Bobby, peacefully asleep and is almost pl...

Themes Storytelling and Control In “Should Wizard Hit Mommy?” the process of crafting a story is as important as the story itself. Indeed, Jack uses the Roger Skunk story to exercise control and decisiveness that he feels like he no longer possesses in his own life, and also to delay helping his pregnant wife, Clare, repaint the living room (and, in the process, delay confronting the fact that his family is about to get bigger). Far from merely a mechanism to get his daughter to sleep, the story becomes a way for Jack to re-contextualize his personal unhappiness, exercising total control over his simple narrative to compensate for a lack of control he feels in life. As a result, Jack is incredibly protective over his story and its hero, Roger Skunk, and views Jo’s attempts to change the structure of his story as more sinister attempts to control him as well. “Should Wizard Hit Mommy” was written in 1959 when John Updike was married to his first wife Mary Pennington. The couple lived in...

Short questions What was the regular routine of Jack in the evening and for Saturdays? (p-49 , 1st para) Which animal did Jo suggest for the story that day? Why? (skunk, must have heard about skunks at nursery school) Do you think Jack and Jo could identify with Roger skunk as a victim of the hatred of other creatures (Jack brought the story to life when he narrated the tale remembering certain humiliations of his own childhood. The corners of Jo’s mouth drooped down and her lower lip bent forward. A tear flowed along the side of the nose. This shows that even Jo could identify with Roger skunk.) Which two opposite forces acted on Jack while he was telling Jo the story? (p-49 , last para) What was the cause of Roger Skunk’s sadness? (p-50 ,4th para, Mr Owl) Why did Roger Skunk go in search of the wizard? (SP) (-Everybody made fun of Roger Skunk because he gave out a bad smell.- he was upset about this-He met the old owl who advised him to go to the wizard, which would help him and give...

Gist of the Lesson The chapter captures a very sensitive reaction of a small girl to an important aspect of the story that her father narrates to her. The story reveals the worldview of a little child to a difficult moral question that shows her mental or psychological richness. Jo is a little girl of four years. She is engaged in a story session with her father. Jack, the father used to tell her a story every evening and especially for Saturday naps. Jo feels involved with the characters and the happenings. The story always had an animal with a problem. The old owl advises him to visit the wizard who would solve the problem. Skunk’s problem‐ he smelt bad, visited the wizard who changed it to the smell of roses. Skunk’s mother was unhappy with it and took him back to the wizard. She hit the wizard and asked him to restore the original smell. She wanted her son to keep his identity as a skunk and wanted his friends to accept him for himself. So the...