12th English – Lesson 5 – Supplementary – All Summer in a Day
1.
Based on your understanding of the story, answer the following questions in a
sentence or two.
(a)What do children get ready for at
the beginning of the story?
Answer:
Children get ready to have a glimpse of Sun in the planet Venus after a passage
of seven years.
(b)How
is life in the planet Venus described?
Answer:
It was raining continuously for seven years without Sunlight. Trees grew and
perished in the planet.
(c)Who
is Margot? How is she different from the rest of the children?
Answer:
Margot had joined the children recently. She had spent her first five years in
Ohio. She was sent to Venus by her parents. She remembered the appearance of
Sun vividly. Other children had seen it only when they were 2 years old. Her
knowledge of Sun made her different.
(d)What
does Margot like the most – the sun or the rain?
Answer:
Margot liked Sun the most.
(e)What
was Margot waiting for? Why did William say that it was a joke?
Answer:
Margot was waiting for the reappearance of the Sun. She believed in the prediction
of reappearance of Sun on the 7th year. William hadn’t seen the Sun after
(i.e.) for seven whole years. So, he called the possible reappearance of Sun as
a joke.
(f)Why
does Margot wish to return to the earth?
Answer:
Margot is accustomed to the systematic change of day and night on the earth.
She hated the wretched rain which lasted for seven years. She even refused to
take a shower because she never felt like living a normal life in Venus. So,
she wanted to go back to the earth.
(g)Why
did the children lock Margot in a closet?
Answer:
The children, like those in the novel, “Lord of the flies”, consider the logic
and reasoning of Margot as stupid. Her faith in the definite appearance of the
Sun is ridiculed by her classmates. She asserts that the prediction of the Sun
will be true. She even describes Sun like a lemon but hot in nature. Fed up
with her optimism, the children lock her up in a closet.
(h)Margot
could recall what the sun looked like while the other children could not. Why?
Answer:
Margot had come only 4 years ago to Venus. She had seen the sunlight almost
everyday in Ohio. So, she could recall the appearance of the Sun vividly.
(i)How
long did the Sun shine on Venus?
Answer:
The Sun shined for only one hour in Venus.
(J)Why
did one of the girls wail?
Answer:
One of the girls wailed because rain resumed after one hour of sunlight. She
caught a droplet of rain in her palm and reacted to the abrupt end of sunlight
and resumption of rain.
2. Based on your understanding of the story, answer the following
in three or four sentences.
(a)What
is the significance of the particular day described in the story “All summer in
a day”?
Answer:
That particular day all the children were clamouring for a glimpse of sunlight
which was predicted for an hour. Only Margot had a clear memory of sunlight
that she had seen five years ago. Others had not seen the Sun for about seven
long years. Her explanation was an orb like a penny and its colour was that of
a lemon, the children were annoyed and could not believe her words of
experience.
(b)What
happens to Margot while the teacher is out of the classroom?
Answer:
Margot was gazing out of the glass window. William asked her what she was
looking at. She didn’t speak. They shoved her and edged away from her. The
children in the school hated Margot, the snow faced girl. They hated her for
her knowledge of the Sun. She was firm that they would see sunlight that day as
per the prediction of the scientists. The boys got annoyed. They seized her
roughly and took her to a closet and locked her ignoring her pitiful cries of
protest.
(c)How
did Margot describe the sun to others?
Answer:
Margot explained that Sun looked like a penny. When other children objected she
said, “It’s like a fire in the stove”. She even wrote a poem, “I think the Sun
is a flower, that blooms for just one hour.” One of the boys even protested
that Margot did not write the poem.
(d)How
did the children react when the sun came out after seven years?
Answer:
It was the colour of flaming bronze and it was very large. And the sky around
it was blazing in blue tile colour. The jungle burned with sunlight and the
children released from the spell, ran out, yelling into the spring time.
(e)Why
did William and the other children bully Margot?
Answer:
William and other children did not have deep living knowledge about the Sun.
They had seen it for an hour seven years ago when they were only two years old.
But Margot had the fortune to enjoy the warmth of Sunlight till she was 5 years
old in Ohio. Others got used to live in the dark but Margot wasn’t comfortable
living in the dark planet in the underground tunnel. She longed to see the Sun.
She wrote poem on the Sun. She distanced herself from others . and spoke less.
The feeling that she was different from them was a cause that made the other
students in the school bully her.
(f)What
were their feelings towards Margot at the end of the story?
Answer:
At the end of the story, they felt sorry for Margot whom they had locked up.
They realized that they had done a cruel thing to her. Their faces had become
solemn and pale as they were feeling guilty and moved slowly towards the closet
and opened the door to let her out.
(g)What
does the title of the story convey?
Answer:
The title of the story suggests, the summer in Venus does not last a few
months. It lasts only for an hour in a day. The entire season is capsuled in a
single day which is unusual.
3. Answer the following questions in a paragraph of about 100-150
words each.
(a)What
is the conflict between Margot and the other children in the story, “All Summer
in a day”?
Answer:
Margot had a vivid memory of having seen the Sun till she was five years old on
the planet earth. Though she had come to Venus planet school, her heart longed
for the ‘Sunny day’. Preparations were going on to send her back to earth
because one day she threw tantrums refusing to take a shower. Her intended
visit could cost thousands of dollars to her parents. She drew paintings of the
Sun and clarified the shape of the Sun and the warmth it generated. All the
other students hated her superior understanding of the Sun and her possible
return to the earth. She was not their “kind”. She kept her convictions. She
refused to mix with them. This was the conflict with Margot and other children
in the story.
(b)How
do the children react to the long awaited event in the story?
Answer:
Children get really excited. They want to see the touch of sunlight on all form
of life in the planet. They want to tan themselves in the new found warmth of
the Sun. Children persist that they be allowed to go out to the Sun. The
teacher allows them with a warning that they must be back in two hours. They
start running and turning their faces up to the sky and feeling the Sun on
their cheeks like a warm iron. They take off their jackets to allow the Sun to
bum their arms. They gladly shouted “Oh, its better than Sun lamps. Children
stood in the great jungle in the Venus. The jungle was in the colour of stones
as they had not seen the Sun for years.
The children lay
out laughing on the jungle mattresses and heard it sigh and squeak under them
resilient and alive. They ran among the trees, they slipped and fell and pushed
one another. They played hide and seek. But most of them squinted at the sun
until tears ran down their faces. They put their hands up to the yellowness and
the amazing blueness, they breathed off the fresh air and listened to the
silence in a blessed sea of sound lessness. They looked at everything and
savoured everything. Like animals escaped from their caves, they ran shouting
in circles. Their mirth continued for one hour.
(c)The
sun brought about a positive change in the attitude of the children. Illustrate
the statement.
Answer:
After really enjoying the brief summer that lasted for an hour, they quietly
returned to the tunnel. Suddenly they remembered that they had locked Margot in
a closet and a sense of guilt pervaded among all the students. Margot, who was
most anxiously waiting to see the Sun had been locked up. They had the opportunity
to play in the brief summer but she had to stay in the dark, feeling lonely.
She did not deserve that punishment. Realizing their folly, they went back and
opened the door very slowly. There was silence. They let Margot out slowly. The
arrogance in their behaviour was gone. They were sorry for Margot who they had
punished just because she was sharing her real experiences of ‘sunlight’. She
had lost the chance to see the Sun.
(d)Did
the children regret having locked Margot in a closet? Answer citing relevantly
from the story.
Answer:
Yes, the children did regret. Young children can’t keep feelings like anger and
hatred for long. The collective sense of guilt tormented them. The joy they
experienced under the sunlight for an hour vanished. A kind of uncomfortable
gloom and silence fell among them. They looked at one another with
remorsefulness. They couldn’t meet each other’s glances. They felt as if
someone had driven them like so many stakes into the floor.
One of the girls
said, “Margot”. Another girl whispered, “go on.” They could perceive only
silence behind the door. They unlocked the door even more slowly and let Margot
out. After all, all her descriptions of the Sun turned out to be correct. They
had unjustly punished her. Their arrogance and aversion had abandoned them.
They were guilt-driven. They did not know how to appease her. They were
penitent but had no words to seek Margot’s forgiveness.
4. Based on your understanding of the story, complete the story
map.
middle: Margot locked up sun emerges
End: Guilty Students release Margot
Beginning: Children await for sun
Title: All summer in a day
Author: Ray douglas bradbury
Setting: Venus, school tunnel boarding
Characters: Margot, William, Teacher,
Fellow Students
Now read the sentences below. Complete
them appropriately with the words you identified from the grid.
The scientists ______ that the Sun
would come out on Venus that day after seven years.
The children are getting ready for the
_____ event.
The children Margot as she _____ the
Sun.
William and other children have
bullied her and _____ her in a closet.
When the Sun comes out, the children
_____ the sun.
Answer:
predicted
anticipated
discriminate,
recalls
locked
experience
Speaking Activity
Pair Work
Ray Bradbury’s “All
Summer in a Day” is a piece of science fiction. Discuss plots of similar
stories with your partner and share your ideas with the class.
We read a story
called “The thief’. Yarmuk is one of the top thieves of the solar system. He
overhears a secret about planet ‘X’. There is no crime in planet ‘X’. There are
no policemen. Most of the shops had no assistants. They were all honesty
stores. Yarmuk wanted details about the location of the planet so that he could
steal from a jewel store there and settle for life. He mixes a tranquillizer in
his friend’s Makin’s second drink. When Makin loses his consciousness, he
obtains the address of a man who knows the coordinates of the planet ‘X’. He
steals into the house of that man. He uses a hallucinogen to get the
information he wants from the man. He prowls the space parking lot. On visiting
a space ship dealer, he collects information on different spacecraft and
narrows down on MIG-31 spacecraft for his trip to planet ‘X’. He finds a newly
married couple parking in a hotel. He takes a room just next to the couple.
Using a false key,
he enters their room. He gasses them both and takes space-port parking lot
pass; the electronic card which opens their spaceships air lock and controls
its engines and the hyper-wave radio key. He vacates the room explaining that
he got a video call from his wife that she was sick. Yarmuk enters the
spaceport and explaining his wife’s sudden illness get permission to blast off.
He reaches planet ‘X’. The parking charges in the space port are ridiculously
cheap. To try to find out, if alarm goes off, he stealthily picks up socks in
an unmanned textile showroom. Nothing happens. Emboldened by the attempt he
goes to one of the posh jewellery shops.
He makes a mental
note of which ever jewels he wants to steal the following day. He takes two big
suitcases and stuffs all valuable jewels and rushes back to the hotel. Nobody
checks him. He sleeps gladly. The next morning when he leaves the hotel, he is
stopped by the security guards with stenguns. He does not understand how his
theft got found out. Later he learns that planet ‘X’ is full of telepathists,
mind readers and clairvoyants. Stray customers who had seen him at the
jewellery and the hotel staff have read his thoughts and just communicated in a
flash of a second through their minds. He is sentenced to 20 years in the
alien’s jail.
