A letter to god – Introduction, Theme, Summary, Meaning, QnA.
A Letter to God Additional Questions and Answers
About the Author – (G.L Fuentes)
Gregorio Lopez Fuentes (G.L Fuentes) was a Mexican writer. He was born on 17th November 1897. He was known for his best work A Letter to God. He was one of the main leaders of the Mexican Revolution. He became a teacher at a school in Mexico City. In 1921 he began to write under the pseudonym G.L Fuentes. He was awarded the National Prize of Arts and Science in 1935. He died in the year 1966 on 10th December.
Introduction
The story A Letter to God is a fictional story written by G.L. Fuentes. This story shows the nature of a theist person. It also revolves around the idea of having an undoubted belief in something. This story was set in the Latin American Country. The protagonist of this story is Lencho. He is a farmer. Being an optimist and a theist as well he writes a letter to god to get help. His entire crop yield was destroyed by a highly destructive hailstorm. His belief proved true but partially not totally. At last, we observe that he is very ungrateful and starts questioning the modesty and honesty of the postmasters who actually helped him with money selflessly in the name of god.
A Letter to God Additional Questions and Answers
Theme of the story
This story signifies three points.
- Firstly, it shows the strong confidence and belief of Lencho in god.
- Secondly, we can understand the innocence level of the Farmer Lencho.
- Thirdly, the story illustrates that even the work that we do selflessly might go disregarded at times.
We might not receive any identification for our selfless work and giving. People can sometimes misunderstand us.
A Letter to God Additional Questions and Answers
Brief Summary of A Letter to God
- Lencho was an innocent farmer. He was expecting for rain shower to irrigate his field of corn. He was confident that this year his harvest would give him a huge profit.
- His faith came true and it rained heavily. But his happiness was only a short-lived guest.
- That soothing rain turned into a devastating hailstorm destroying his entire crop field along with his happiness.
- This damage broke the farmer. He became so hopeless about the survival of his family.
- He was a theist and believed that god would not let anyone die due to hunger. So to express his situation he wrote a letter to god in which he demanded a hundred pesos for survival.
- He takes the letter to the local post office, believing that god will come and receive his letter.
- Seeing his strong belief in god, the postmaster along with other employees became so amused and decided not to break his belief.
- They collected their money together, but the amount was not full. They decided to send seventy pesos.
- Lencho received the money, but it was only seventy pesos.
- Again he wrote a letter thinking that rest of the money was kept by the employees.
- Despite not getting the full amount, his faith in God did not waver.
A Letter to God Additional Questions and Answers
Word Meaning
| Word | Meaning | Hindi Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| crest | top of a hill | शिखा |
| draped | covered (with cloth) | लिपटी |
| locusts | Crystal | टिड्डी |
| conscience | an inner sense of right and wrong | अंतरात्मा की आवाज |
| peso | currency of several Latin American countries | पेसो |
| amiable | friendly and pleasant | सुशील |
| contentment | satisfaction | संतोष |
| dotted | full of | छितराया हुआ |
| downpour | heavy rain | मूसलधार बारिश |
| intimately | closely | परिचित |
| supper | dinner | रात का खाना |
| predicted | forecast | भविष्यवाणी करना |
| approaching | coming towards | समीप आनेवाला |
| exclaimed | cry out suddenly in surprise, or pain | कहा |
| regarded | consider | माना |
| hailstones | crystal | ओले |
| resemble | same kind of appearance | समान होना |
| exposing | reveal | उजागर |
| plague | Crystal | विपत्ति |
| solitary | desolate, alone | अकेला |
| ox of a man | a very strong man | बहुत मजबूत आदमी |
| correspondence | talking by exchanging letters with someone | पत्र-व्यवहार |
| goodwill | reputation | सद्भावना |
| resolution | decision | संकल्प |
| obliged | grateful | कृतज्ञ होना |
A Letter to God Additional Questions and Answers
Exercise questions and answers (NCERT)
Q1. What did Lencho hope for?
Ans: Lencho hoped for good rain as it was very much needed in his field of ripe corn for a good harvest.
Q2. Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like “new coins’?
Ans: The crops of Lencho’s field were ready to be harvested. And raindrops will help him to get a good return. So when it rained, he saw it in the form of “new coins”.
Q3. How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s fields?
Ans: The rain suddenly changed into a very devastating hailstorm. It fell on Lencho’s house, the hillside, the garden and in the cornfield. And it destroyed Lencho’s crop field completely.
Q4. What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?
Ans: Lencho felt broken and hopeless. That rain left nothing to him. He felt that they would not have corn that year.
Q5. Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?
Ans: Lencho had faith in God. He feels that God is everywhere. He is watching everything. So he wrote a letter to god.
Q6. Who read the letter?
Ans: The postman and the postmaster both read the letter.
Q7. What did the postmaster do then?
Ans: After reading the letter postmaster felt very amazed and decided to help him by sending money on behalf of god. The postmaster didn’t want to break Lencho’s faith in God so he collected money and sent it to him.
Q8. Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?
Ans: No, Lencho was not surprised to find a letter for him with money because he was sure that God would help him.
Q9. What made Lencho angry?
Ans: While counting money, he found only seventy pesos. But he demanded a hundred pesos. He was sure of his belief in God that he could neither make a mistake nor deny him what he had wished for. So, he stated that the post office employees must have taken the remaining thirty pesos.
A Letter to God Additional Questions and Answers
Thinking about the Text
Q1. Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the story tell you this?
Ans: Lencho has complete trust in God as he said that God is watching everything he will not let us die due to hunger. Some sentences show us his belief in 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.
- All through the night, Lencho thought only of his one hope: the help of God, whose eyes, as he had been instructed, see everything, even what is deep in one’s conscience.
- “God”, he wrote, “if you don’t help me, my family and I will go hungry this year.
- He wrote ” To God” on the envelope, put the letter inside and, still troubled, went to town.
- God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested.
Q2. Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter God?
Ans: The postmaster sends money to Lencho so as not to break his belief in God. When the postmaster reads the letter of Lencho, which he has written to God, he is amazed to see this kind of belief in God. He collected the amount of money demanded by Lencho from god with the help of his employees. But they were not able to collect the full money. So they send the money collected on behalf of God and sign The letter’ so that Lencho’s faith does not get shaken.
Q3. Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why or why not?
Ans: No, Lencho did not try to find out who had sent the money to him. Because he was sure that God had sent him money. His trust in God was so strong that he never suspected that it could be anybody else other than God who would send him money.
Q4. Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the irony in the situation? ( Remember that the irony of a situation is an unexpected aspect of it. An ironic situation is strange or amusing because it is the opposite of what is expected.)
Ans: Lencho thought that the postmaster along with his employees had taken the rest money as he did not receive the full amount of money that he demanded from God. And he is sure that God cannot make such a mistake. So, he blamed the postmaster and his employees.
The ironic situation in this is that Lencho blamed those people who helped him in his need selflessly not to break his trust in God.
Q5. Are there people like Lencho in the real world? What kind of a person would you say he is? You may select appropriate words from the box to answer the question.
Greedy ➜ Naive ➜ Stupid ➜ Ungrateful ➜ Selfish ➜ Comical ➜ Unquestioning
Ans: No in the real world it is impossible to find a person like Lencho as he is an honest and naive person. He is not stupid if he doesn’t know who has sent him money or a letter will reach to God without any particular address. It is nothing but Lencho’s trust in God. In the real world, people are selfish, greedy and ungrateful as well. And Lencho is totally unquestioning person.
Q6. There are two kinds of conflict in the story between humans and nature and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated?
Ans: Conflict between Humans and humans: This story also demonstrates the conflict between humans themselves. The postmaster along with his friends and staff tried to send Lencho money that he demanded from God although they didn’t know Lencho. On the other hand, Lencho blamed them for taking away some amount of money. He called them a bunch of crooks. This shows that mankind doesn’t have faith in men, and gives rise to this conflict.
Conflict between Humans and Nature: This conflict is demonstrated by showing the destruction of Lencho’s crops by the hailstorm he expected a good rain to get a good harvest as that was the only solution for him to get rid of his poor situation. He worked so hard to manage his family, but nature turned violent and destroyed his crops and broke his hope as well.
A Letter to God Additional Questions and Answers
Thinking about Language
I. Look at the following sentence from the story.
Suddenly a strong wind began to blow and along with the rain, very large hailstones began to fall.
‘Hailstones’ are small balls of ice that fall like rain. A storm in which hailstones fall is a ‘hailstorm’. You know that a storm is bad weather with strong winds, rain, thunder and lightning.
There are different names in different parts of the world for storms, depending on their nature. Can you match the names in the box with their descriptions below, and fill in the blanks? You may use a dictionary to help you.
gale, whirlwind, cyclone, hurricane, tornado, typhoon
- A violent tropical storm in which strong winds move in a circle: cyclone
- An extremely strong wind: gale
- A violent tropical storm with very strong winds: typhoon
- A violent storm whose centre is a cloud in the shape of a funnel: tornado
- A violent storm with very strong winds, especially in the western Atlantic Ocean: Hurricane
- A very strong wind that moves very fast in a spinning movement and causes a lot of damage: Whirlwind
II. Notice how the word ‘hope’ is used in these sentences from the story:
(a) I hope it (the hailstorm) passes quickly.
(b) There was a single hope: help from God.
In the first example, ‘hope’ is a verb that means you wish for something to happen. In the second example, it is a noun meaning a chance for something to happen.
A Letter to God Additional Questions and Answers
Match the sentences in column A with the meaning of ‘hope’ in column B.
| A | B |
|---|---|
| 1. Will you get the subjects you want to study in college? I hope so. | a feeling that something good will probably happen. |
| 2. I hope you don’t mind my saying this but I don’t like the way you are arguing. | thinking that this would happen (it may or may not have happened.) |
| 3. This discovery will give new hope to HIV/AIDS sufferers. | stopped believing that this good thing would happen |
| 4. We were hoping against hope that the judges would not notice our mistakes | wanting something to happen (and thinking it quite possible) |
| 5. I called early in the hope of speaking to her before she went to school. | showing concern that what you say should not offend or disturb the other person a way of being polite. |
| 6. Just when everybody had given up hope, the fishermen came back, seven days after the cyclone. | wishing for something to happen, although this is very unlikely. |
Answer:
| A | B |
|---|---|
| 1. Will you get the subjects you want to study in college? I hope so | thinking that this would (it may or may not have happened) |
| 2. I hope you don’t mind my saying this but I don’t like the way you are arguing. | showing concern that what you say should not offend or disturb the other person a way of being polite. |
| 3. This discovery will give new hope to HIV/AIDS sufferers. | a feeling that something good will probably happen. |
| 4. We were hoping against hope that the judges would not notice our mistakes. | wishing for something to happen, although this is very unlikely. |
| 5. I called early in the hope of speaking to her before she went to school. | wanting something to happen (and thinking it quite possible) |
| 6. Just when everybody had given up hope, the fisherman came back, seven days after the cyclone. | stopped believing that this good thing would happen. |
III. Relative Clauses
Look at these sentences
a) All morning Lencho – who knew his fields intimately – looked at the sky.
b) The woman, who was preparing supper, replied, “Yes, God willing.”
The italicized parts of the sentences give us more information about Lencho and the woman. We call them relative clauses. Notice that they begin with a relative pronoun who. Other common relative pronouns are whom, whose and which.
The relative clauses in (a) and (b) above are called non-defining, because we already know the identity of the person they describe. Lencho is a particular person, and there is a particular woman he speaks to. We don’t need the information in the relative clause to pick these people out from a larger set.
A non-defining relative clause usually has a comma in front of it and a comma after it (some writers use a dash (—) instead, as in the story). If the relative clause comes at the end, we just put a full stop.
A Letter to God Additional Questions and Answers
Join the sentences given below using who, whom, whose, which, as
suggested.
1. I often go to Mumbai. Mumbai is the commercial capital of India. (which)
➜ I often go to Mumbai which is the commercial capital of India.
2. My mother is going to host a TV show on cooking. She cooks very
well. (who)
➜ My mother who cooks very well, is going to host a TV show on cooking.
3. These sportspersons are going to meet the President. Their performance
has been excellent. (whose)
➜ These sportspersons, whose performance has been excellent, are going to meet the President.
4. Lencho prayed to God. His eyes see into our minds. (whose)
➜ Lencho prayed to God, whose eyes see into our minds.
5. This man cheated me. I trusted him. (whom)
➜ This man whom I trusted cheated me.
A Letter to God Additional Questions and Answers
IV. Using Negatives for Emphasis
We know that sentences with words such as no, not or nothing show the absence of something, or contradict something. For example:
(a) This year we will have no corn. (Corn will be absent)
(b) The hail has left nothing. (Absence of a crop)
(c) These aren’t raindrops falling from the sky, they are new coins.
(Contradicts the common idea of what the drops of water falling from
the sky are)
But sometimes negative words are used just to emphasise an idea. Look at
these sentences from the story:
(d) Lencho…had done nothing else but see the sky towards the northeast. (He had done only this)
(e) The man went out for no other reason than to have the pleasure of
feeling the rain on his body. (He had only this reason)
(f) Lencho showed not the slightest surprise at seeing the money.
(He showed no surprise at all)
Now look back at example (c). Notice that the contradiction in fact serves to
emphasise the value or usefulness of the rain to the farmer.
Find sentences in the story with negative words, which express the following ideas emphatically.
- The trees lost all their leaves.
Not a single leaf was left on the tree. - The letter was addressed to God himself.
It was nothing but a letter to God. - The postman saw this address for the first time in his career.
Never in his career as a postman had he seen that address.
V. Metaphors
The word metaphor comes from a Greek word meaning ‘transfer’. Metaphors compare two things or ideas: a quality or feature of one thing is transferred to another thing. Some common metaphor are
- the leg of the table: The leg supports our body. So the object that supports
a table is described as a leg. - the heart of the city: The heart is an important organ in the centre of our
body. So this word is used to describe the central area of a city.
In pairs, find metaphors from the story to complete the table below. Try to say what qualities are being compared. One has been done for you.
| object | Metaphor | Quality or Features Compared |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud | Huge mountains of clouds | The mass or ‘hugeness’ of mountain |
| Raindrops | New coins | too much valuable like money and metal |
| Hailstones | Frozen Pearls | artistic value, hugeness of ice. |
| Locusts | Plaque of Locusts | An epidemic (a disease) that spreads very rapidly and leaves many people dead |
| Farmer | An ox of a man | An industrious and hard-working person. |
A Letter to God Additional Questions and Answers
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