Summaries for Heritage of
Words
Summaries (XII English – compulsory and major) Prepared by Mahesh Paudyal
A Child is Born
This essay basically contrasts the western and
eastern ways of looking at child birth. In the traditional eastern societies,
childbirth is a social and familiar occasion. The mother, who conducts the
pregnancy is given psychological and moral support. She is supported from every
angle. In many societies women are formally accepted in the mother-in-law's
house only after she bears a child. The Western people criticize this
tradition. Even in conferences the westerners dominate the minorities, and they
impose their views. In the traditional eastern families a child's relationship
with the extended family is considered more important. Children are therefore
born not merely at the will of the parents, but under the pressure of the group
and the relatives. By bearing a child, a woman uphold a family desire. A
pregnant mother is taken great care. The baby and the mother are given new
clothes and great feasts are organized. Women are even sent to their mother's
houses as a reward. In Bangladesh, children under the age of five or six are
looked after by the whole family. They are given collective baths. They play
outside with natural objects and in the afternoon, they are told fairy tales.
But at night, they sleep with their mothers. The western medical science has generated
a lot of problems in the traditional east. The patients are given strong dozes
of medicines, which cost a lot. In some delivery wards in developing Africa
women can be seen growing with pain in pools of blood during delivery. The
doctors and the nurses watch them but they keep them busy with machines and
ignore the actual struggle of the women. This is devastating. If it continues,
women will not offer their bodies and minds to such cruel acts. They need moral
support and love; medicine is not enough. They need to be praised for their
courage. The author is of the opinion that occasional natural deaths in
tradition society control birth, and has positive ramification. The traditional
eastern ways of looking at births and treating mothers is far better than the
mundane, mechanical western methods, where birth is reduced to a mere physical,
clinical privacy of an individual woman.
Anton Chekhov's "About Love"
'About Love' by Anton Chekhov gives a realistic treatment
to the idealistic theme: LOVE. Love is a great mystery and this is the only
truth about love. A statement other than this about love cannot have a
universal validity. Love is not always what we tend to explain it to be. It
develops even in the oddest and the most unexpected places without any
justifiable reason. Nikanor, an old and ugly cook, falls in love with young and
beautiful Pelageya, who wants to live 'just so' without getting married.
Alyohin's one-time girl friends puts questions related to her monthly wages and
the price of beef, when in the ecstasy of love, he wants to discuss celestial
things that idealize love. The legally married life of Anna and Luganovich
lacks trust and confidence even though they have children and have been living together
for many years. Alyohin, a confidant of the Luganovich family, falls in intense
love with Anna and the latter too acknowledges the same, though both of them
know that their love is erupting in an unusual situation. This new relations
fosters the breaking of the Luganovich family, and culminates in their mere
confession of love for each other inside the railway compartment, and not in
marriage, or any other sort of conjugate life. Everywhere contrasts, ironies
and paradoxes surround love. It is not everytime as pure and ideal as the world
tends to define it. Many times it is surrounded by ugly realties, which are not
very often exposed.
The Last Voyage of the Ghost
Ship
The story is the description of a boy's imagination
that begins with a child's faint fantasy and ends with a matured man's strong
and confident assertion. Many years ago, the boy sees a huge ship in the bay,
sailing in the opposite direction. It appears in darkness, and disappears when
the light of the lighthouse falls on it. It strikes the sand bars, breaks into
pieces and sinks without a sound. This puzzles the boy, but doesn't tell
anyone. He thinks that but a dream. The next March, he again sees the ship.
This time, he told his mother and implored that she should watch with him. The
mother says he had gone mad, but ultimately agrees to watch. But she has to go
the market to get a new chair and so, she asks a boatman to go with her and see
what he sees. He doesn't see the ghost ship, but sees the fish and hairs of
dead people and animals floating in the sea. The mother dies of excitation, and
she could never see it. The boy as an orphan hates to live on charity. She opts
to steal fish and live. So he often goes to the sea. Another March night, he
sees a big whale and shouts at the bystanders to watch. They beat him instead
and twist him. He resolves that he would prove them he is. On the eve of the
appearance of the ship next March, he rows his stolen boat in the bay. There
was the ship, huge and fearful, moving again in the wrong direction. He sees a
lot of drowned animals floating. Suddenly it occurs to him that he should lit
his lantern, and this time, the ship corrects its motion, and doesn't
disappear. The animals corpses go the bottom, and everything appears normal. He
rows his boat in front of the ship, as though he were guiding the pilot. All of
a sudden, a whistle burst forth, and a dazzling light brightened the village,
and the ship broke. The boy was satisfied to see the disbelievers looking at
the ghost ship, the largest of the ships they had ever seen in their life; a
ship ninety seven times bigger and the village, and taller than the church. The
boy proves his strength and manliness.
Ray Young Bear's Grandmother
Some terms Diaspora: A person, living in a foreign
land Nostalgia: A feeling of remembering the past, a tendency to go back to
one's own past Image: A picture (visual picture, taste, temperature, smell,
sensation) produced in the mind by words. Idiosyncrasy: A writer's own
personalized style of using language unconventionally. Simile: Comparing two
things for one similar quality. It is identified by the use of works like as,
like, similar to, same as, just like, etc. SUMMARY The poet, who lives in a
foreign land far away from his original homeland, remembers many minute details
of his dead grandmother. He can tell that it is she, if he sees from a mile
away the purple scarf on her head and the plastic shopping bag she used to
carry. He can remember the touch of the damp hands that bore the smell of the
roots. Those hands had the warmth of love that he misses today. If he hears a
voice coming from the stones in the jungle, he is reminded of his grandmother's
words, and the words enter his ear like the light from a dying fire that enters
the observer's eye when it is stirred at night. Meaning Purple scarf: A
cultural element. By this symbols he wants to remind us of a culture he is
missing. Plastic Shopping Bag: The loving and caring nature of the grandmother.
She used to go the market and bring things for the family. Roots: Beet roots,
tapioca, yam or the like. It reminds of the agricultural background of the
poets family in his land. Warm and Damp: Hard-working personality of the poet's
grandmother. Her hands are damp because she works, and are warm because she
bears the warmth of love. Rock: It is symbolic of death. The grandmother is
dead, and the poet remembers her posthumously. Images: Visual (seeing): Purple
scarf, plastic shopping bag, and fire coming from the stirred ambers. Tactile
(touch): Touch of her hand, warm and damp Olfactory (Smell): Smell of the root
Audio (hearing): Her words, coming from the rock.
I Have a Dream
The present text is a speech
delivered by Martin Luther King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington. His is addressing a mass of American Negros who had been assured
emancipation by Lincoln a century back, and has been denied till today. The
Negroes feel that they are neglected and discriminated, and forced to live as
exiles in their won land. Only the whites have enjoyed all rights and
privileges. King appeals for a peaceful struggle. Racial injustice, he believes
will make America a weaker nation. The Negro community, he appeals, should not
take rest until they are given their due. He dreams of an America where the
police does not torture the blacks. When they are tired, they must be allowed
rooms in the hotels and motels. They should get the right to vote. King
encourages the mass to keep fighting till justice and freedom are guaranteed.
They should not lose hopes, because one day or rather, they are sure to get
what they are seeking today. His dream is the rooted in the dreams of all
Americans, and they cannot walk alone. The whites and blacks should walk hand
in hand. Man's merit should be judged, not the color of the skin. A sweet music
of liberty should be heard coming from all parts of America, and freedom should
come to everyone.
The Boarding House
Mooney, a butcher's daughter marries one of her
father's servants. After her father dies, they take up the business. But the
husband turns out to be a drunkard, and the family relation weakens. One day,
he chases Mooney with a knife. She takes shelter in a neighbor's house and
saves her life. Soon, their family breaks and Mooney moves out with her
children and some money. With ii, she starts a boarding house. Tourists and
visitors came and stayed there. Polly, the daughter of Mrs. Mooney is a young
girl of nineteen. She is beautiful with soft hair and a small mouth. Her eyes
are grey and green and they look up at the ceiling when she spoke with
everyone. Mrs. Mooney engages her in household works so that she could meet
young and handsome men and get a nice husband. Soon, Polly starts having
affairs with Mr. Doran, a young businessman who lodged in the boarding house.
Late one night, Polly comes to his room in night clothes. He smells her skin
and they are engaged in sex. This continues for many nights. Even on those days
when Doran comes late, Polly give served him fresh dinner. People in the house
begin to talk about them, but Mrs. Mooney keeps quiet. But Mr. Doran feels
uneasy about the whispers. One morning, Mary a waiter comes and tells Mr. Doran
that Mrs. Mooney wants to see him. He feels bitter, as he knows that he is
trapped. Down, they talk and probably, Mr. Doran is made to marry Polly. But,
he wants to clear certain things with Polly.
The Children Who Wait
In this essay, the author advocates for changing
norms in questions related to the adoption of children. All kinds of children
are adoptable at present. There was a time when only white healthy children
could be adopted. But now Timmy, a five and a half year old child suffering
from alcoholic syndrome had been legally considered adoptable. He social worker
is seeking for a host family to adopt her, preferably black or biracial family
with other children. Tammy may show the stoppage of mental growth at any time,
the family should overlook this. There are many factors that have contributed
to this changed outlook about adoption. Various civil right movements, birth
control, changing social values, social sciences research are some of them.
Healthy babies are not available for adoption, and so, interested parents are
even going for unhealthy children for adoption. This had increased the
frequency of adopted children. Between 1960 and 1978, the number of children in
the foster home reached half a million. It was quite expensive to confine them
in foster home, and this could also lead them to cruelty and criminal
tendencies. So the social workers are trying hard to find homes for them. The
social workers should find families according to the nature of the children to
be adopted. For example, for a fifteen year old boy who is bad at school and
who keeps on fighting, a strong male who allows him reasonable freedom and who
sets some control could be fine. For an eleven year old boy with Down's
syndrome, a heart defect and a hearing disability, a religious family of
working class would be suitable. The social workers should also change their
attitudes. They must advocate that handicapped children too are adoptable. They
should hold regular meetings, and make advertisements. It can then be hoped
that all sort of children will find families to adopt them, one day or the
other.
W.B Yeats' "Lamentation
of the Old Pensioner"
Like in many of his other
poems, WB Yeats has taken up TIME as the subject of this poem. Time to him is a
very powerful force, and it imposes on man certain unwanted and unwelcome
changes. He is an old man taking rest under a broken tree when it is raining.
The rain curtails his motion anywhere, and the broken tree, weak and destined
to perish like himself, is not likely to shelter him. He remembers his youthful
time, when he used to be an active participant in discussions about love and
poetry. Boys around him are still busy making pikes and hatching conspiracies
against their adversaries, as he used to in his youthful days. That used to be
time, when beautiful girls in love would surround him. But today, as he takes
shelter under the tree, no woman turns her face towards him. A mere memory the
past inhabits his mind. He is angry at the cruel time, and spits in its ugly
face to show his anger. Theme: Time is very powerful. You welcome it or not, it
will impose on you certain imminent changes. Accept it. You cannot win a battle
against time.
Two Long Term Problems
As many as fifteen hundred Nobel laureates in 1992
issued a warning that the human activities are inflicting harsh damages on the
environment and soon many species may die out. The Royal Society of London and
the US National Academy in the same year suggested that the future of the earth
lies in a balance between the human activities and the environment. Yes, the
world is already overpopulated. Environment is deteriorating and many animal
species like the great auk, passenger pigeon,, the moa and the cetaceans are
extinct. Because of indiscriminate deterioration of forest, and pollution, the
environment is no longer safe for living freely. Every year more than 80
million people are added to the world's population. In Nepal alone, a mere
population of 9 million in 1951 is more than 2.5 million now, which in 2028 may
cross the watermark of 46 million. The maximum
pressure in seen on the
forest. Less than 20% of the world area is under forest now. Deforestation has
multiplied the risk of respiratory diseases. In the US more than 60,000 people
die of respiratory diseases every year. Desertification, depletion of renewable
resources, ozone layer depletion are some other alarming effects of
deforestation. To deliver ourselves from this havoc, we should control
population. Germany and Sweden have already set examples by controlling their
population. Modernization, literacy, media campaign, and easily available means
of family planning and contraceptives can be instrumental. Forestation and
recycling should be encouraged. Alternative technologies should be developed;
smokeless chulhas should be used. More than anything, we should bring change in
our attitude and our action, if we want to secure a world for our future
generations to come. Women's Business Lydia Pinkham became famous for her
product that healed feminine a problem. She combined her business with women's
rights, temperance and economic reform and hence quickly rose to esteem. She
also encouraged women to approach female doctors. She claimed that her product
could solve other female related problems like hysteria, nervousness and even
marital conflicts. Following Lydia, other women too tried their hands in
business, but they earned more than what they served. Elizabeth and Helena
emphasized on their glamorous role, and they married European aristocrats.
Grossinger ran a hotel for food and entertainment. Margaret Rudkin marketed the
additive free bread that she had developed of her asthmatic son. Elizabeth
Arden introduced her own cosmetics, and also gave other health care advices.
Helena Rubinstein sold books on the advantage of eating raw food. Gertrude
Muller invented child care products and preached about child rearing, and got
support from many angles. Annie Turbo Malone ran a hair dressing business. She
ran schools and training centers too. Because many of them earned more than
their service, government had to interfere and crack down their business. Few
women like Lydia survived because they could connect their business with true
social service. They too are not purely innocent, because Lydia herself sold
liquor even as she supported temperance.
Purgatory
Purgatory is a play that carries the typical
Yeatsian themes of Life-Time Correlation. It shoots beyond the ethereal
experience of living and projects of life and experiences after death. Bring
presents a cyclical view of experiences from life to death and back to life. An
old man grows up in a culture of violence and acquires such traits. His father
had had a very rough upbringing. He never was in good terms with his mother. He
would undertake adultery and drinks, and the axe of his intoxication would fall
on his mother, who faithfully served her husband as a newly married bride. The
man takes is as a server crime upon a poor soul, and stabs his father to death.
Later, he finds in himself the vestiges of his father's crime. There is an unconscious
communication with the culture his father established. He also has an uneven
marriage, and an uneven life. Crimes come prodigally in his life too and he
strongly feels that he inherited from his father. He has a son, who often
questions the authenticity of his fatherhood as he has failed to nourish the
son with right culture and right education. One day, when the man comes to his
father's house to see how it stands, the son puts a question on his integrity
as a father and asks if he could murder him as he had murdered his father for
going wrong. This puts the man on the altar of spiritual crisis rising out of
sense of guilt and self-pity and in a fit of rage kills his son. He validates
this crime by saying that the death of his son deletes all possibility of
inheriting the crime in that family line, because his father was dead, and
killing of his son deletes the chance of getting any other children with the
same crime-infected blood. But, this doesn’t solve the problem. The phantom of
his dead mother and the sounds of hoof the horses
continue coming. It means that the
earthly explanation of dead souls is not valid. Their needs and nature do not
conform to our ordinary explanation, and it is meaningless to draw their cases
down to earth and view them from our petty human perspective. Moreover, one
crime can not be a reason to clean the blot of other crimes. We can not always
escape the charges of our crimes by directing them towards others. A groom
working in the house of a well-to-do family marries the landlord's daughter. He
receives of property. They get a son too. The man is a drunkard, and spends the
entire property of his wife in drinks, gambling and prostitution. When the son
reaches sixteen years old, the father burns the house in a fit of intoxication.
He can no longer tolerate the extravagant and cruel nature of his father, and
stabs him to death. To escape the trial, he runs away and becomes a trader.
Today is the anniversary of the marriage of his parents, and he has come to
have a look at the house. He has his son with him. They are standing in front
of the ruined house with a bare tree at its back. It is a moonlit night, but
the house is eclipsed by a black shadow of the cloud. This is the hose where
the peddler had been born. His father had not sent him to school, but he had
learnt something from his neighbors and others. The old man is occupied by the
sad memory of the past. He sees the image of his mother, young and freshly
married, standing by the window; waiting for his father. He also hears the
trot-trot of the hoofs of his father's horse, and imagines that his father is
returning home from a pub, to his mother. He shouts at his mother not to allow
the drunker man to touch her, because that touch will impregnate her and a
child, who carries the bad blood, will be born. Even as the man tells his
story, the boy remarks that he was a mad man. In the mean time, he grabs the
man's money bag and claims his share as a son. He complains that as a father he
had done nothing for him. He had not even given him any education, and so, it
was right for him to kill him as he had killed his own father. At the climax of
this struggle, the boy too sees the phantom of his grandmother in the window.
But this doesn't last long because the old man stabs the child to death. He is
happy that he has put the possible continuity of the polluted blood to an end.
He hopes that the mother's image will now disappear and the sounds of the hoofs
will be silent. But they continue. He concludes that the unfulfilled desires of
his dead mother will always remain unfulfilled. Hopelessly he prays to God to
have mercy on the tormented souls.
