Download class 11 english summary note and more Study Guides, Projects, Research English in PDF only on Docsity!
Class: 11
Subject: English
Book Name: magic of words
Chapter: the recurring dream
Summary: A Story from England
The story starts with a description of Kimberly Clark, the protagonist of the story, who is twenty-five years old with all qualities of a normal young woman. She is pretty, she loves to dance, and she has many friends and a good position in the office of a large company. Despite these all, she has a problem. She has been troubled by a strange and mysterious dream that haunts her every night. The strange dream always begins on a country road. Kim stands on this road and sees a lane with a white fence and a hedge on each side. At the end of the lane, on the top of a little hill, she sees a small white cottage with green shutters. Then she walks up the lane to the house, goes in and looks around. In one of the rooms, she finds a man asleep in bed. He is a little old man with white hair and a white beard. When she comes near his bed, the man wakes up. Then he sits up and looks at her. When she tries to speak to him, she wakes up. She is very surprised troubled by the dream because she has never known any little old man like that and neither the place. Kim's roommate knows everything. So, one day she proposes Kim to visit her (Janet’s) parents’ farmhouse to feel peace in mind. As they pass through a country road, Kim sees a similar scene which she sees in her dream. They stop there. Janet does not want Kim to go and see the small cottage but Kim goes. The house was exactly the same, except for a sign in front of the house which said ‘FOR SALE’. Unlike her dream, Kim goes to the door of the house and knocks and to her surprise, the same old man answers the door who immediately closes the door. After Kim’s request, he opens the door. Kim again asks why the house is for sale. The old man reveals that the house is haunted by a ghost. Kim tries hard to think to say something instead asks who the ghost is. The old man gets surprised and shocks her by replying that she herself is the ghost.
Chapter: the lost doll
Summary: a story from Colombia, South America
The lost doll is the story laid on the background of South America. Carmen was a daughter of Roberto and Rosa. She was beautiful, bright and loving. But she was sick from the day of her birth. When she reached at the age of four, her condition became worse and she died. Her body was taken to the cemetery in the small wooden coffin.
After a few days, Rosa collected all the clothes and playthings of Carmen and gave a priest who had come from the next village down the valley. Because the doctor had told that she wouldn’t have any children but Roberto had still hoped to get another baby again. He asked about the doll to Rosa which she used to play with her friends. Rosa replied that she had not given that doll.
On the anniversary of the death of Carmen, Rosa gave birth to another baby girl. The name was kept, Evangelina. She was healthy. When Evangelina reached almost four she said that she had been sick for a long time ago. And she had a doll with a red dress and blue eyes. Rosa’s sister also had come from Bogotá. Both sisters were surprised when they listened to Evangelina talking about the lost doll. She added that she had been sick before and a priest had prayed with his hand on her hand then Evangelina fell asleep.
But a nice man woke up her and told to leave the doll and he took her with him and he helped her to put her doll under the ground. When they dug up the place showed by the girl, they found the doll. When Evangelina told her past, Rosa couldn’t say anything. This is a story about reincarnation. Reincarnation is when the soul or spirit of one body is reborn in another body. Evangelina is the reincarnation of Carmen. This explains why Evangelina “remembers” being sick and why she knows where the lost doll was hidden.
Chapter: the house call
Summary: a story from Germany
The story took place on 26th December, 1903 in Berlin, Germany. The famous German surgeon, Dr. Emil Braun, was sitting alone in the dining room of his apartment trying to write notes about the surgery while having his dinner. Soon he dozed off but woke up when he heard the doorbell ring. He
starts beating faster. He holds the wad of money tightly because the amount he had was the whole world to him and his family. As they had many people to feed, the couple has earned the money with great difficulty. Their dream is to buy a house to live which will be a house that they could call their own. It will be the happiest day of their life. But the dream is in danger now because Armando thinks that he could be robbed at any moment and the dream would be stolen from him. He regrets having not taken the cheque. As Armando waits for the right bus, his fear increases more when he sees the same heavy man standing next to him. After getting on the bus he finds the heavy man there too, it greatly adds to his fear and horror. He thinks the heavy man and the other three boys talking to him are the members of a street gang and are going to rob him. He has the same feeling when other people on the bus look at him. He thinks that they are looking at him because they know he has money in his pocket. Actually people are looking at him because he has still his hat on backwards. He becomes very nervous and can’t think straight. With this in mind, Armando decides to change the bus so that he will be safe from potential robbers. To his great surprise, the three boys get off the bus at the same station as Gonzalez. At this, feelings of hot and cold run through his body. He finds himself in an area without buildings nearby. The boys walk in the direction of Armando. He thinks they are after him and cries frantically for help. He goes to an area full of rubbish and junk and stumbles over something. Though he asks the scavengers for help they can’t hear him. The three boys come near him and he weeps like a baby. He asks them to leave a poor and honest man alone. The boys ask him if they can help him, Armando can’t believe his ears because he had thought that they are there to rob him. The boys introduce themselves as students who had come to the city for a football tournament. The boys also explain that they had taken the wrong bus and had to get off. After asking the boys many questions, Armando confirms that he is safe. He stops sweating and puts his hat straight. His dream of buying and living in his own house is not harmed.
Chapter: the loving mother
Summary: a story from the island of Hokkaido, japan
The story The Loving Mother is about a mother’s love for her child. It talks about how a mother’s spirit is not in peace after leaving behind a small child. Even after death, the mother comes back to the child in order to look after her. Since it talks about spirit and ghost it is a supernatural story.
Shoji Sakota is a pharmacist in Sapporo, a city in the northern part of Japan. He lives alone in an apartment behind the drugstore. His wife has died earlier. The building being the same he sometimes works till late. One stormy night Shoji Sakota is busy preparing his annual business report. At about midnight there is a knock at the door. He ignores the knock and goes back to his work. When there is s knock for the second time he thinks it could be the wind. The knock is louder next time and he goes towards the door thinking that it could be an emergency. He turns on the light and is surprised to see a young woman standing there. Thinking that it might be a trick to rob him he doesn’t open the door. Rather, he says that the pharmacy will be opened at 8 o’clock the next morning.
But the woman pleads that her daughter needs something immediately. Thinking it to be an emergency he lets her in. A thin, young woman stands in front of Mr. Sakota bending her head. Her dress is worn out and her hair is uncombed. But as she raises her head and looks at Mr. Sakota, it seemed that her eyes are looking through him and not at him. She says that she needs ame for her baby. The doctor gives her name and she goes her way. For him, it was a strange request in the night. Not long after he is back at the desk, he decides to stop working for the night because he can’t remove the image of the strange visitor out of his mind.
The next two nights the same thing happens. It is strange why she comes at night and not during the day when the shop is open. When she comes for the fourth night the pharmacist’s photographer friend takes some photographs of the woman from a hiding place. When the film is developed, the things in the store are there but not the picture of that woman. When she comes the fifth night they decide to follow her so that they could find out who she was and what she was doing. The woman finds that she is being followed but it doesn’t matter to her. She acts as though she wants them to see where she is going.
A few blocks away, she enters an old apartment building and disappears through a door at the end of a dark narrow hallway. They go inside and find the switch despite the darkness. They see a baby, perhaps eight or nine months old, licking ame on a stick. The child looks happy and satisfied. Beside her a woman lies, appearing to be asleep. They think that it is the same woman and couldn’t be asleep so fast. They think she is perhaps acting. Mr. Sakota goes near her and touches the shoulder. Finding her body cold and lifeless he says she is dead. He looks more closely and finds that she has been dead for a number of days.
Chapter: MY heart leaps up when I behold
break up in America just due to the children. As a whole, mothers of plural children have no peace in their life. They have to sleep with startling suddenness and finality or determination. So, this essay is against having many children.
First terminal chapter finished Now second terminal chapter starts
Chapter: look at a teacup
Summary: Patricia Hampl
Look at a Teacup is an essay written by the feminist writer of America, Patricia Hampl. This essay is written in the narrative style which narrates the history of feminism in America. The two major themes of this essay are the relationship between mother and her daughter (the author) and the connection between the past and the present. Both of these themes are represented by the teacup. In this essay, there are two different stories. The first story is the essayist’s mother’s story. The mother married in 1939 with an American who had been born in Czechoslovakia. She had bought china cups and plates for her marriage. These cups and plates were made in Czechoslovakiaand they are beautiful. In fact, she was very happy in her world of her cups and plates. For her, marriage and the family were the most important things of life. Many years later, she gave these cups to the writer because the writer is her daughter. The second story in this essay is the story of the Second World War, which also started in 1939. Many things fell that year. Basically, ‘that year’ means the time of war that caused many things to fall, for example, human bodies fell dead in the streets by falling bombs. Countries, cities, industries, and a lot of other things fall. Even Czechoslovakia stopped the production of beautiful teacups. In this period, bombs fell on the innocent women and children. Thus, women in America revolted against the crime and atrocities done on women. They considered the crime as a male oppression and tyranny against women. This is why, women’s liberation movement started. The women of this new generation show their anger by rejecting old traditions. They consider work as the most important thing in a person’s life. So, marriage and family lose their importance
because feminists take it as a kind of slavery. Tea cups are no more a symbol of marriage and family life for the writer but they are actually the symbols of the war against women. On the other hand, the essayist’s mother used to emphasize on family. Even the mother wanted her daughter to get married. The essayist thinks past is very important but her mother thinks it is the future that matters .In this way, ‘the teacup’ in the essay connects the mother, the daughter, the past and the present because it was made in 1939 in Czechoslovakia. We can guess that by giving the teacup, the essayist’s mother intends to give her other things like information about the past, but her mother does not explicitly tell her about the past any more. This means that the only way the daughter can find about her mother is by looking at the teacup.
Chapter: a worn path
Summary: Eudora Welty
‘A Worn Path’ is a story about an old black woman named Phoenix, who is courageous and endangers her life to get the medicine for her grandson, who is suffering from extreme throat pain. Literally speaking, the story is the story of journey of old woman who walks towards the city on the cold winter day. She is taking a long trip to the city to visit the hospital and bring some medicine for her grandson. This is not the first time she is going to the city. She goes there frequently for the medicine. She loves her grandson so much that she faces many trouble and obstacle on the long trip. This story is the live description of the journey of the old Negro woman. The writer presents live description of the real character so that the events of that story seem convincing. Phoenix comes up against several troubles between the valley and wagon track. She has to walk across thorny bushes and deep woods. She has to cross a river and even climb a steep hill. Her dress is caught and scratched by thorns. But, she frees herself with hard struggle. She has to creep and crawl under the barbed wire. She is even disturbed by the scarecrow, which she thinks to be a ghost. Later, she falls into a ditch when she tries to protect from the black dog. In spite of all these difficulties, she is successful to reach her destination. It is quite strange to the reader that she keeps talking to herself because she is alone on the way. Also, she is very old and talking alone has because her habit. By talking to herself, she tries to forget hardships and troubles that come on her way. Monologues add a lot to the total portrait of her habits, nature and attitude. Through the monologue we can read her mind. From her monologue she seems weak, kind-hearted and loving woman. She
But again he thought that what had happened in the past might have been good. This feeling made him happy. Bill and Nick started to talk as previously. Carrying guns they went out for hunting delightfully.
