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Chapter 18 Immigration and Identity
Class 11 English
Exercise
Jonathan Yardley
The Washington Post
Ways With Words
A. Words from the text to solve the crossword puzzle:
Across
2. as is certain to happen – inevitably
4. famous and respected – eminent
6. a temporary stay – sojourn
7. knowing everything – omniscient
Down
1. the state of being preoccupied – preoccupation
3. anxious or fearful that something bad will happen – apprehensive
5. a person of mixed white and black ancestry – mulatto
B. Find the meanings of the following words in a dictionary as they are used in
the text.
a. melancholy
a deep feeling of sadness that lasts for a long time and often cannot be
explained
b. elusive
difficult to find, define or achieve
c. motif
a subject, an idea that is developed in a work of literature
d. disdain
the feeling that somebody is not good enough to deserve your respect or
attention
e. fabricate
to produce something false to deceive someone
f. intoxicate
to cause somebody to lose control of their behaviour or their physical and
mental abilities
g. resentment
a feeling of anger or unhappiness about something that you think is unfair
Homophones
D. Choose the right word to fill in the blanks.
a. Can you bury the box in the back garden? (bury/berry)
b. Alex could not break the branch off the tree. (break/brake)
c. Whose pencil is on the floor? (Who’s/Whose)
d. We have got very few (phew/few) tasks left.
e. Some tribes worship their gods before they prey. (prey/pray)
f. Damn it. Everything is messed up. (Dam /Damn)
g. What a wonderful lesson the professor presented. (lesson/lessen)
Comprehension
Answer these questions.
a. How is Willie Chandran different from the rest of his family?
Answer: Willie Chandran is different from the rest of his family as he is insecure
about himself and his own identity.
b. Who is the main character of Half A Life? How is he described?
Answer: Willie Chandran is the main character of Half A Life. He was born in
India to a Brahmin father and a poor mother 40-some years ago. His middle
name comes from the name of an English writer called Somerset Maugham.
c. Why does Willie leave India?
Answer: Willie leaves India because he had no identity in India being born as a
child of a high caste father and a low caste mother. He is hateful to his father
and manages to get a scholarship to a college in London.
d. What is the revelation that Willie begin to feel in college and in London?
Answer: Willie begins to feel that he is secure and free unlike in India where
racial discrimination plays a vital role. There he could remake himself, his past
and his ancestry.
e. Why does Willie accompany Ana?
Answer: Willie accompanies Ana because she has a kind of high status in her
colonial world and he can also find complete acceptance there.
f. What is the central issue Naipal has raised in the novel?
Answer: In the novel, Naipaul has raised an issue of identity crisis regarding
ethnicity and culture.
Critical Thinking
a. What kind of divided identity is depicted in the novel ‘Half a Life’? How do
characters in the novel try to create new identities for themselves? Explain.
Answer: According to the review of the novel ‘Half A Life’, there are three
characters having mixed racial or divided identities. They are Willie, Ana and a
big light eyed man. Willie, the central character of the novel has a divided
identity because of his birth from a Brahmin father and a low caste mother.
Because of racial discrimination that prevails in India, Willie feels unsecure and
loss of identity. He is unhappy in India and to find his freedom and identity he
migrates to London. Ana is another character having the same kind of divided
identity. She belongs to a mixed African identity (part Portuguese and part
African) similar to the identity of Willie. Willie and Ana like each other. Ana has
also come to London in search of her identity but later after meeting Willie, she
feels that she may have a high status in her Portuguese African country even to
be a second rank Portuguese than mimicking other’s behavior to hide her past.
Willie also follows her to her home country in a hope of complete acceptance
there. But he also feels there lack of identity. He sees the plight of an
illegitimate man illegally born out of an African mother and a Portuguese
landowner father. Such people are abused by Portuguese people because of the
same of their birth.
b. Discuss the similarities between the author and the protagonist in the novel?
Answer: Surprisingly, there is a startling amount of parallelism between Willie
Chandran and the Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul. Naipul is of Indian
descent and was born in the country of Trinidad in 1932. He left his home
country at the age of 18 to pursue higher education and went to England on a
scholarship grant in the year 1950. Naipaul studied at University College of
Oxford and after four years he realized he wanted to be an author. He took up
the pen and paper and found himself, realizing that his occupation would
forever be as a writer. His prowess as a writer is incredible. In addition to Half a
Life, Naipaul has written A House for Mr Biswas, A Bend in the River, Between
Father and Son, A Way in the World, Beyond Belief, and many more, totalling
more than 20 fiction and non-fiction books in his lifetime. As mentioned
before, he is a Nobel Laureate and now lives his life in Wiltshire, England. The
similarities of all these characteristics with Willie Chandran is so astounding
that some would have guessed Naipaul was writing an autobiography. Willie is
also of Indian descent and left his home country at the age of 18 to go study abroad; both of them were able to do this because of a scholarship. Willie went
to England to study at a university for four years as well. He took up writing
and published a book while he was studying in London and briefly pursued
writing, which is Naipaul’s occupation. They both eventually find themselves
living in a foreign country other than the one they were born in. It is clear that
V.S. Naipaul used aspects of his own life to craft and mold a protagonist and a
story that would be powerful and compelling enough to keep readers glued to
the page.
Writing
B. Write a review of a book/film you have recently read or watched.
Answer:
The Time Machine
1. Title of the Book: The Time Machine
2. Author of the Book: H.G. Wells
3. Country: United Kingdom
4. Language: English
5. First originally published by: William Heinemann, London in 1895.
6. Genre: Science Fiction Novel
7. Cost of the Book: Rs. 300
8. Name of the Publisher: Dover Publications
9. Edition and year of Copyright: April 3, 1995
10. No. of pages: 80
11. Writing style: Narrative
12. Characters: The Narrator-Hillyer, Eloi, Morlocks, Weena
13. Plot: The story follows a Victorian scientist, who claims that he has
invented a device that enables him to travel through time, and has visited the
future, arriving in the year 802,701 in what had once been London. The
narrator recounts the Traveler’s lecture to his weekly dinner guests that time is
simply the fourth dimension and demonstrates a tabletop model machine for
travelling through the fourth dimension. He reveals that he has built a machine
capable of carrying a person through time and returns at dinner the following
week to recount a remarkable tale, becoming the new narrator.
14. Summary: A group of men, including the narrator, is listening to the Time
Traveler discussing his theory that time is the fourth dimension. The Time
Traveler produces a miniature time machine and makes it disappear into thin
air. The next week, the guests return, to find their host stumble in, looking
disheveled and tired. They sit down after dinner, and the Time Traveler begins
his story.
15. My Impressions: The time traveler’s machine is described in such sketchy
terms that it can scarcely be believed as an instrument of science, and the time
traveler’s account is similarly sketchy and bizarre. The very nature of time
travel means that he’s away for only a short period of time, and the only
“proof” of his travels is a crunched up flower. And given that the narrative is
told in a twice-removed manner, the reader can’t help but wonder whether
any of the novels is true at all. Did the time traveler truly engage in such
chronological shenanigans, and did he experience what he claims? Or is he
simply using an imagined future to provide a warning about the current state
of society? But the reality is that neither the truth nor the journey matters: it’s
only the outcome.
Grammar
Change the following into indirect speech.
a. She said, “While I was having dinner, the phone rang.
➤ She said that while she was having dinner, the phone rang.
b. My friend said, “Where are they staying?”
➤ My friend asked where they were staying.
c. Jamila said, “I travel a lot in my job.”
➤ Jamila said that she travelled a lot in her job.
d. She said to me, “We lived in China for five years.”
➤ She told me that they had lived in China for five years.
e. He said to me, “Do you like ice-cream?”
➤ He told me if I had liked ice-cream.
f. They said, “Hurray! We’ve won the match.”
➤ They exclaimed with delight that they had won the match.
g. He said, “I’d tried everything without success, but this new medicine is
great.”
➤ He said that he’d tried everything without success, but this new medicine
was great.
h. Sony said, “I go to the gym next to your house.”
➤ Sony said that she went to the gym next to my house.
i. He said, “Be quiet after 10 o’clock.”
➤ He told me to be quiet after 10 o’clock.
j. He said, “I don’t want to go to the party unless he invites me.”
➤ He said that he didn’t want to go to the party unless he invited him.
k. He said to me, “I will see you tomorrow if you meet me.”
➤ He told me that he would see me the following day if I met him.
l. She said, “If I were you, I would give up the work.”
➤ She said that if she were me, she would give up the work.
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