VISTAS

LESSON-5

ON THE FACE OF IT

THEME OF THE LESSON

The play revolves around the idea that people with physical disabilities suffer from
loneliness and mental pain. The play gives us an insight into how appearances are
deceptive.

SETTING OF THE LESSON

The story starts with a teenage boy (Derry) who enters a garden. Due to an accident
when acid befell on his face and got burned on one side. He was afraid of facing people
that's why he has gone there to hide. Because other people tease him for having such a
face.

MESSAGE OF THE LESSON

The play's message is that scars do not transform a person and that handicaps must be
embraced by both people and society." Deny had to confront prejudice as a result of his
scarred face, and he had become gloomy as a result.

GIST OF THE LESSON

The play depicts beautifully yet grimly the sad world of the physically impaired.

It is not the actual pain or inconvenience caused by a physical impairment that trouble
a disabled man but the attitude of the people around him.

Two physically impaired people, Mr. Lamb with a tin leg and Derry with a burnt face,
strike a band of friendship.

Derry is described as a young boy shy, withdrawn and defiant.

People tell him inspiring stories to console him, no one will ever kiss him except his
mother that too on the other side of his face

Mentions about a woman telling that only a mother can love such a face.

Mr. Lamb revives the almost dead feelings of Derry towards life.

He motivates him to think positively about life, changes his mind set about people and
things.

How a man locked himself as he was scared-a picture fell off the wall and got killed.

Everything appears to be the same but is different- Ex. of bees. And weeds
 The gate of the garden is always open.

Derry is inspired and promises to come back.

Derry’s mother stops him but he is adamant saying if he does not go now it would be
never.

When he comes back he sees lamb lying on the ground

It is ironical that when he searches a new foothold to live happily, he finds Mr. Lamb
dead.

In this way the play depicts the heart rendering life of physically disabled people with
their loneliness, aloofness and alienation.

But at the same time it is almost a true account of the people who don’t let a person
live happily.

LESSON -6

MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD

THEME OF THE LESSON

Memories of Childhood explore a common universal theme of prejudices and

humiliation faced by marginalized communities from mainstream culture and how both
brave girls use their talent, understanding, wit and education to stand up for their own
and community rights. Both use the power of pen to fight oppression.

MESSAGE OF THE LESSON

The lesson 'Memories of Childhood' is a portrayal of two autobiographical accounts.

One by American Indian woman and the second by a Tamil Dalit writer. Both stories
highlight the women's oppression, class barriers, racialism, discrimination and
exploitation that tend to pull them down.

GIST OF THE LESSON

The story begins with the introduction of the Carlisle Indian School. The narrator
describes her first day at school. It was very cold and unpleasant as there was a lot of
snow around. The entire extract deals with Zitkala-Sa’s shingling of hair. When she came
to this school, she found it a strange place where everything seemed to be mechanical.
A very loud and metallic bell rang for breakfast. There was an annoying clatter of feet on
the entire bare floor. She is unnerved because of so much noise.

Here, she finds that all the girls start marching to the dining room after hearing the
bell. They have been supervised by a pale-faced woman. Small girls wore aprons and
had shingled hair. The girls were dressed in clinging clothes. The breakfast was served
and eaten very mechanically. There was a bell to stand, another to sit, next to pray and
after that another to start the breakfast. All this was totally new for the narrator.

Her friend Judewin warned her that the pale-faced woman was talking about the
cutting of her long hair. The narrator did not want her hair to be shingled because, in her
community, shingling of hair was considered as inauspicious and undignified. Only the
traitors or the mourners had their hair shingled. Though her friend told her that they
would have to submit as others were stronger. The narrator decided to struggle and not
to submit. She creeps upstairs unnoticed and hid herself under the bed in a dark corner.
But finally, she was discovered and dragged out. She scratched and kicked but was
forcibly taken downstairs and was tied fast to a chair. Her thick braids were cut off. And
with this, she lost her spirits. She realised the indignities suffered by her after she was
separated from her mother. She was tossed here and there like a wooden puppet and
felt humiliated like a coward. She was treated like an animal and no one came to
comfort her.

FLAMINGO

LESSON-7

THE INTERVIEW

GIST OF THE LESSON

Part – I

Interview has become a commonplace of journalism. Opinions on the functions,

methods and merits of Interview vary considerably.

Some claim it to be the highest form, a source of truth and in its practice, an art.

Some despise the interview as an unwarranted intrusion into lives, which diminishes
their personality.

V. S. Naipaul feels that ‘some people are wounded by interviews and lose a part of
themselves.’

Lewis Carroll never consented to be interviewed for he believed it to be ‘a just horror of

the interviewer’. Rudyard Kipling considered it ‘immoral, a crime, an assault that merits
punishment’.

H. G. Wells referred interviewing to be an ‘ordeal’,

Saul Bellow describes it ‘like thumbprints on his windpipe’.

Despite the drawbacks interview is a supremely serviceable medium of

communication. The most vivid impression of our contemporaries are the interviews
Part – II

An extract from an interview of Umberto Eco interviewed by Mukund Padmanabhan.

Umberto Eco was a professor with a formidable reputation as a scholar for his ideas
on Semiotics, literary interpretation and medieval aesthetics before he turned into
writing literary fiction. He attained intellectual superstardom with his publication “The
Name of the Rose’.

In the interview Eco shares his idea of empty spaces in our lives just as they exist in an
atom, which he calls ‘Interstices’. He says that he makes use of these empty spaces to
work.

Eco’s essays were scholarly and narrative. He likes to be identified more as a

university professor who writes novels.

Eco’s ‘The Name of the Rose”, a serious novel, which delves into metaphysics,
theology and medieval history, enjoyed a mass audience. It deals with medieval past.
He feels that the novel wouldn't have been so well received, had it been written ten
years earlier or later

LESSON -8

GOING PLACES

GIST OF THE LESSON

Sophie dreams to have her own boutique that will be the best in the city. She wishes to
buy it as soon as she gets money. She also says that she can become an actress if she
gets to run a boutique on the side. Since she has no experience and no money to make
her wish come true, it can be called a dream and not a plan.

Jansie is practical and knows that both, she and Sophie are destined to work at the
biscuit factory. She advises Sophie to be sensible as she does not have the money or
experience to own a boutique. Jansie is very well aware of her financial background.

Sophie and Jansie are extremely different. Sophie is an escapist and dreams big. She
wishes for things that are far away from her reach. Jansie is practical and knows her
stature. She is aware of her situation and that money and experience can take one a
long way.

Casey is a young Irish football player who plays for United. He was skilled enough to
dodge the defenders easily and score goals. Sophie’s father admired him even though
he was majorly into the old heroes. He also had 3 colored photos of Casey on his
bedroom wall.
 Sophie’s dreams and disappointments are all in her head. She worships heroes and
imagines meeting Casey. She turns out to be sad because of her fantasies. They are far
from reality.

The story uses a lot of metaphorical expressions.

Sophie never really met Danny Casey. She had only seen him from a distance that too,
during the football matches.

The title ‘Going Places’ is suitable as the protagonist, Sophie, is a daydreamer and
goes to places solely in her mind. She practically started believing that Casey was a part
of her life, even though it was all her imagination. The unknown always fascinated her,
the reason why she was attracted towards her elder brother’s life.

POETRY

POEM-4

A ROADSIDE STAND

GIST OF THE POEM

The rural folk have erected a roadside stand by adding a shed to an old house by the
side of the road.

They sell berries, squash, etc.

The 'polished' city people feel irritated at the shabby stand which is clumsily painted
and the signs turned into wrong direction.

The roadside people have self-respect, their aim is not to beg but to earn some cash to
improve their living standard.

The rural folk are promised a better life by re-locating them near cities and
rehabilitating them.

But the 'greedy good doers' and `beneficient beasts of prey'(politicians, etc.) exploit
and cheat these honest, hardworking rural people.

The stand owners suffer a 'childish longing' i.e. a desire that city people would stop
and purchase a few items, thus helping them to earn hard cash.

But this longing is `vain'(useless) as the car owners stop only to enquire about fuel,
where the road was leading to and for taking a U-turn.

The poet feels the pain and disappointment of the people at 'roadside stand'.

THEME OF THE POEM

The poem A Roadside Stand depicts the lives of the rural poor. Robert Frost is critical of
the contemptuous way in which the city dwellers look at the villagers who yearn to sell
their vegetables by setting up a roadside stand by the side of the high way. He reminds
us that the economic well- being of a country depends on a balanced development of
the villages and the cities.

MESSAGE OF THE POEM

There is a universal appeal to the rich and the government for the upliftment of the poor
rural folk. The poor rural folk can make progress only when the rich do not exploit them.
The government and the big money magnets should take the responsibility to improve
the condition of the poor. Instead of promises grass root action should be taken the
right direction for their betterment. Let their hopes not shatter in this materialistic and
dazzling world.

TITLE OF THE POEM

The poem “A Roadside Stand” is an apt title. It highlights the poignant picture of the
deprived section of the society who are born in misery, spend their life in misery and die
in misery. Their wish to live a life of dignity is a just a dream never to be fulfilled. On the
one hand the affluent city dwellers enjoy the dazzle of the world to the fullest of their
desire. But on the other hand the poor rural

POEM-5

AUNT JENNIFER’S TIGERS

GIST OF THE POEM

The desire of a woman for freedom & strength has been brought out by the poet.

Aunt Jennifer has embroidered bright yellow tigers on a screen.

These tigers move about freely, fearlessly & confidently in the green forests.

They are not afraid of the hunters.

In contrast, Aunt Jennifer is weak & nervous.

To make her embroidery she finds the ivory needle hard to pull.

The wedding ring is symbolic of the burden of commitments & bindings of married life.

Her marriage with uncle has taken away her freedom & confidence to live life the way
she wishes.

After her death, the mark of the wedding ring will continue to show her sad, burdened
life.
 She is mortal (dies) whereas the embroidery of tigers (Art) that she has made is
immortal.

THEME OF THE POEM

1. Marriage is unequal due to male domination/Inequality: The woman is the centre of

the poem, Aunt Jennifer, is a nervous and fearful wife. She lacks inner conviction or
‘certainty’, unlike the tigers she portrays. Aunt Jennifer is ‘mastered’ in her life. She lives
a life of inequality. She is so nervous that her fingers ‘flutter’ through the wool she is
using in her tapestry or panel. The poet portrays the marriage of Jennifer as an unhappy
one for her. Aunt Jennifer feels the burden of duty and obedience. This is shown by the
symbol of the wedding ring that she wears. It is described as her husband’s property:
‘Uncle’s wedding band’. It ‘sits heavily’ on her hand because he dominates her life. Her
life with her husband is described as a life of ‘ordeals’. The poem, therefore, provides a
negative picture of marriage. The poem is probably saying that the ‘Uncle’ or husband is
behaving like a tiger, and the tigers are ‘chivalric’ like the husbands. Each world is the
reverse of what it should be.

2. The world of art is happier than the real world/Dream versus Reality: Aunt Jennifer’s
hobby is making designs and pictures from wool. Jennifer produces wool tapestries that
she places on panels. The creatures she places there are free and proud, the opposite
to herself. She is ‘ringed’ or mastered in marriage and, therefore, she is not free, but
controlled. It seems that she creates a happier looking world than the one she lives in.
She makes precise and brightly coloured pictures like the sharp yellow tigers of the
poem, pictured against a green background. These bright contrasting colours are
probably much more vivid than Jennifer’s everyday world. Her artistic work will live on
after she dies, as, according to the poet, her tigers will ‘go on prancing’. The figures she
creates are stronger and happier than she is. They are proud and ‘prance’ about, unlike
their creator, who is nervous and fears her husband. The word ‘prance’ or parade
contrasts sharply with ‘fluttering’, meaning trembling. The tigers do not fear the men the
aunt places under some trees in her tapestry. Therefore, the imaginary tigers produced
by Aunt Jennifer live a type of proud and free life that she can only dream about. Perhaps
Aunt Jennifer uses art as an escape from her troubles. In her artwork Jennifer imagines
the kind of life she would have liked.

TITLE OF THE POEM

“Aunt Jennifer’s Tiger” is an appropriate title in that it refers to a tapestry Aunt Jennifer
has made. It contains some ferocious tigers. The title also suggests the “tiger like terror”
Aunt’s husband was. She was in constant fear of him and felt trapped and suffocated in
marriage. She felt that her husband was her master and she was a tame animal who
must carry out his command. It is a very suggestive title, indeed.

CENTRAL IDEA OF THE POEM

"Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" by Adrienne Rich is how the power of the patriarchy controls
women's bodies but not their minds. The poem makes this point by presenting the wild,
exotic, powerful tigers embroidered by Aunt Jennifer and contrasting them with Aunt
Jennifer herself.

MESSAGE OF THE POEM

“Aunt Jennifer's Tigers” is a statement of conflict in women, specifically between the

impulse to freedom and imagination. Aunt Jennifer wants a life that she embroiders on
the panel. She wants a colourful vibrant life which every woman should have the power
to create.