THE ADDRESS
by Marga Minco
Questions for Practice
Long Questions:
1.
Does the social atmosphere
described in the story differ from your social atmosphere? How?
2.
What are moral lessons that the
story put forward?
3. Compare
and contrast the character of Aram and Mourad.
4. What picture
of rural life does the story paint?
5. Describe
Aram’s horse-riding lesson.
Short Questions:
1. How does
Mourad has a ‘way with the dogs’?
2. How does
Mourad have a ‘way with farmers’?
3.
Even when Aram knew that Mourad
was sitting on the back of the horse that morning, he could not believe his
eyes?
4.
Does Uncle Khroshrove resemble
Mourad in any way?
5. Bring out
the frustrations in the farmer John Byro after losing his horse.
Short
Answer Questions
1. “I was in a room I knew and did not know.” Why does the narrator say
that she was in a room which she knew and yet she did not know?
Answer:
The second time the narrator went to Mrs. Dorling’s house she was taken inside
the house by Mrs. Dorling’s daughter. When the door of the living room was
opened to her, she went
inside and she was immediately horrified by whatever she saw inside the
room. The room was full of all their belongings which had been taken away by
Mrs. Dorling at the beginning of the
war. She felt she ‘knew’ the room because it was full of all her
belongings and as the room was not theirs but was a different room and the
things were kept in a different manner she felt she ‘did not’ know the room.
2. Why does the narrator come
back without claiming her belongings?
Answer: The narrator came back without claiming her belongings. She says
that the objects which are linked in our memory immediately lose their value
when those objects are seen after some time in strange surroundings. All her
belongings, the silver cutlery, the clothes etc. had
lost their charm when they were seen in Mrs. Dorling’s house. She knew
that if taken back they would again seem strange in her new small rented room.
She noticed that various things
were missing. – Mother was surprised that she noticed so quickly
– told that Mrs. Dorling would
keep things safely.
3. Why did the narrator resolve
to forget the address, No 46, Marconi Street?
Narrator turns up to collect the
belongings – they aroused nostalgic feeling – true owner no more
– the ‘stored’ things reminded the uncharitable Mrs. Dorling and her own
tragic past – better to forget.
4. Justification of the title
Short story revolved around the No 46, Marconi Street – starts with the
address where the Jewish family suffer – ends with the narrator forgetting the
address.
Long
Answer Questions
‘Have you come back?’ said the woman. ‘I thought that no one had come
back.’ Does this statement give some clue about the story? If yes, what is it?
Answer: The sentence uttered by the cruel woman Mrs. Dorling gives us
clinching clues about the story.
The story has been set on the aftermath of the destructive Second World
War. By the end of the war in 1945, some 60 lac Jews who were staying in
Germany and other territories occupied by the German Nazi forces, had been
killed systematically by the German Nazi forces led by Adolph Hitler, something
which is known as the Holocaust. Hitler and the other like-minded Germans had
considered the Jews along with some other races of people as people of inferior
racial quality and as enemies and threats to the German society and nation and
that is why they targeted the Jews and robbed them of all human rights and
first put them in confinement centers known as ghettoes and from the ghettoes
they took them to the concentration camps which were built in many places in
Germany and other occupied territories and killed them in millions by putting
them in gas chambers and also by other all types of cruel methods. When the war
ended in the year 1945, some of the Jews got liberated from the concentration
camps by the Allied Armies.
The narrator in the story is unmistakably such a survivor of the
concentration camps. While others from her family had died she survived the war
and came back in search of her belongings which had been taken away by Mrs.
Dorling from her mother at the start of the war. By the quoted sentence Mrs.
Dorling refers to the holocaust saying that she had thought that none of the
narrator’s family members had been lucky enough to come back.
2. The story “The Address” is divided into Pre-War and Post-War times. What
hardships do you think the girl underwent during these times?
-War
affects the fortunes of many
– Mrs. S
and her family left their town for safety purpose
– she died – the
daughter returned
– told
the tragic story.
-Before
the War the narrator returns home
– finds
things missing
– Mrs.
Dorling takes things away
– – the
narrator doubts Mrs. Dorling. After War narrator returns to take her belongings
– – the uncharitable Mrs. Dorling’s behaviour and ‘stored’ things
unsettles her – things reminds her mother’s memories
– – Becomes nostalgic – wants to forget tragic past – resolves to forget the address
and does not take things.
3. “The
Address” is a story of human predicament that follows war. Comment.
-Wars
always bring death and destruction. Wars cannot end conflict.
- In
Holland a Jew family suffered
– disrupted the life of Mrs. S and her family -before War left town for
safety
– Mrs.
Dorling took chance
– grabbed
her costly things.
-Mrs. S
died – the daughter returns – visits Mrs. Dorling, No. 46, Marconi Street
– in her
second visit the narrator found the daughter of Mrs. Dorling
– found her belongings – became nostalgic – recalled mother – felt sorry for her tragic death
–
– ‘things’ reminded the tragedy she had to undergo – resolved to leave things and forgot
the address –
– War
changed narrator’s life – lost mother and costly things.
Questions
for Practice
Long
Questions:
1.
What picture of corrupt human
mind you find portrayed in the character of Mrs. Dorling. What is your idea
about her daughter?
2.
What are the character traits of
the narrator? Why is that she has been given no name in the story?
Short
Questions
1. Highlight
the pain of loss and frustrations and helplessness in the mind of the narrator.
2.
Is the story able to paint the
horrible pictures of the inhuman Nazi atrocities on the European Jews during
the Second World War?
3.
You find out that the narrator
managed to come back from somewhere. Where has she managed to come back from?
(From the Nazi concentration camps, the death camps, gas chambers, from the
jaws of death)
4.
Why does the narrator say she
knew and did not know the things? What does that mean?
5.
What changes of normalcy does the
story speak about? (bread of a lighter colour, which was of a darker colour for
Jews during the War etc.)
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