A Letter to God (Language and Literature class IX)

A Letter to God Ch. 1 (IX B)

Summary: 

This story is written by G L Fuentes. This is a story about the great faith of a simpleton in the God. The story begins with Lencho hoping for rains so that his crops would give a better yield. The rain does come but is followed by a devastating hailstorm. Hailstorm destroys all the standing crops and leaves Lencho staring into the bleak future ahead. But Lencho is a strong believer in the God and decides to write a letter to the God; asking for some monetary help. Lencho also wishes to repay the debt when the next crop would give him enough money. After seeing Lencho’s letter, the postmaster is deeply touched by the strong faith of Lencho in the God. The postmaster collects money from his colleagues and sends some money to Lencho. But the money sent by the postmaster is less than what the Lencho had demanded through his letter. Lencho once again writes a letter to the God in which he expresses his doubts about the honesty of post office employees. He called them “Bunch of Crooks”

Expected Questions:      

Question 1: What did Lencho hope for?

Answer: Lencho hoped for rains; because the crop in his field needed rains.

Question 2: Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like ‘new coins’?

Answer: As raindrops would have helped in getting a better harvest, resulting in more prosperity, so Lencho compared them with new coins.

Question 3: How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s fields?

Answer: The rain changed to hailstorm. All the crop in the field was destroyed.

Question 4: What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?

Answer: After the destruction caused by hail, Lencho was shattered. He could see a bleak future for him and his family. He was worried about lack of food for the coming year.

Question 5: Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?

Answer: Lencho had faith in God. He believed that God could see everything and would help him out. Lencho wrote a letter to the God, explained his situation and asked for some money from God.

Question 6: Who read the letter?

Answer: The postmaster read the letter.

Question 7: What did the postmaster do then?

Answer: Postmaster was deeply touched by Lencho’s faith in the God. The postmaster asked his colleagues to contribute some money so that they could send that to Lencho.

Question 8: Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the story tell you this?

Answer: The following sentences explain Lencho’s faith in the God, “But in the hearts of all who lived in that solitary house in the middle of the valley, there was a single hope: help from God. “Don’t be so upset, even though this seems like a total loss. Remember, no one dies of hunger.”

Question 9: Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’?

Answer: Postmaster was moved by Lencho’s complete faith in the God. So, he decided to send money to Lencho. Moreover, the postmaster did not want to shake Lencho’s faith in God. So, he signed the letter ‘God’. It was a good ploy to convey a message that God had himself written the letter.

Question 10: Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not?

Answer: As Lencho had complete faith in God, so he did not try to find out the actual sender of money.

Question 11: Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the irony in the situation?

Answer: Lencho had all his doubts on people working in the post office. The irony of the situation is the finger pointing on those who had tried to help out Lencho. In real life also we come across such situations. Many a time you would have tried helping someone and he may get a wrong message.

Question 12: Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?

Answer: Lencho was not surprised to get the money.

Question 13: What made him angry?

Answer: The fact that he received half the amount he had requested for, made him angry.

Question 14: There are two kinds of conflict in the story: between humans and nature, and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated?

Answer: In the initial part of the story the episode of rainfall turning into a hailstorm shows the conflict between man and nature. When it is a rainfall the man is very happy dreaming about happy days ahead. But once the rain turns into hail the man is ruing the happening of hailstorm. The way Lencho is feeling sad and gloomy after the storm appropriately projects the conflict of the nature and the man. In the later part of the story when Lencho blames post office people for stealing part of the money then it is showing the conflict between humans. Although nothing is written what happened after that, but anybody can imagine the mental situation when postmaster read the letter.