YEAR 10 - EXTENSIVE READING – WORKSHEET MARCH 2021

British and American Short Stories

The Barber`s Uncle, by William Saroyan

The facts behind the short story:

1. Research on the Armenian genocide and William Saroyan in order to be able to
complete the following cloze tests.
The author:

individuality everyday self-taught Armenian California atmosphere tragedy

William Saroyan (1908–81), an Armenian born in 1 California, was a 2 self-taught

writer with a gift for creating 3 tragedy in his stories. He wrote about the 4 atmosphere
and comedy of 5 everyday life in the 6 Armenian community, emphasizing the 7
individuality of ordinary folk.

The Armenian genocide:

historians Turks second-class systematic acknowledge Armenians

genocide exterminate Muslim expel and massacre

The Armenian genocide was the 1 systematic killing and deportation of 2

Armenians by the 3 Turks of the Ottoman Empire. In 1915, during World War
I, leaders of the Turkish government set in motion a plan to 4 expel and
massacre Armenians because they were Christians in a 5 Muslim region and
therefore considered 6 second-class citizens with no rights whatsoever. By the
early 1920s, when the massacres and deportations finally ended, between
800,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were dead, with many more forcibly
removed from the country and sent on death marches through the
Mesopotamian desert without food or water. Frequently, the marchers were
stripped naked and forced to walk under the scorching sun until they dropped
dead. People who stopped to rest were shot. Women were raped and children
separated from their families. Today, most 7 historians call this event a 8
genocide: a premeditated and systematic campaign to 9 exterminate an entire
people. However, the Turkish government still does not 10 acknowledge the
scope of these events.

The short story:

1. How would you describe this boy?

From my point of view, this was a pure boy, quite a dreamer who enjoyed every
minute of his day and paid no attention to the opinion of others.
 He uses the word ‘the world’ three times. What do you think he means by this
word?

I think the fact that the boy keeps referring to the word "the world" shows the
admiration he has for the little part of the world he sees and dreams of.

Why does the boy think that the world is angry with him? Do you feel like this
sometimes?

The boy sometimes felt that the world was against him, as we all have. We
simply live surrounded by constant judgements, and questions, and rules and this
affects everyone.

2. How does the boy feel about being alive in the world?
This boy was happy to know that he was lucky enough to have a house and
everything he needs to live and be happy, which shows a little of his personality.
On the other hand, this one felt a little bit sad because he felt lonely and that
silence is annoying for all of us.

3. What are the boy’s two feelings about being alive?

As I said in the previous question, I think that the two feeling that he had
about being alive are sadness and happiness.

4. What does he dream of?

In my opinion, this boy dreams of a perfect world, where everyone
would be good and everything would be amazing, there would be no bad and
evil people.
Deep down, he dreams of a world that everyone else also dreams of.
5. Why does the boy really go to the barber’s?
Despite what all the people were telling him about his hair, the only
reason the boy finally went for a haircut was when a bird tried made a nest in his
pout.

6. ‘There was an Armenian barber on Mariposa Street named Aram who was really
a farmer, or perhaps a teacher’. Why do you think the boy goes to a barber who
is not really a barber (and he knows)?
I don't know the real reason why he went to a barber who wasn't really a
barber at all, but perhaps it could have been because he thought that this man,
being a farmer or perhaps a teacher, would know more about life and would
have lived it more intensely, and therefore he could tell him some of the lessons
he learned from it, and afterwards find a friend to count on and not feel alone.

7. Why do you think the barber makes coffee?

 I think the barber made coffee so the boy would feel more comfortable
and welcomed. For the boy to realise that the most important thing for the
barber, unlike the rest of the people in the world, was not the money he was
going to make but the time for conversation that they were going to have.

8. What is similar about the barber and the boy?

Both the barber and the boy, cared little for the "stereotypes" of society
and the impressions they passed on to the people around them.

12. Why does the boy find the barber so interesting?

I think that the boy finds the barber so interesting, because he identified with
him and with his perspectives of life. During the conversation between the two of them,
the barber realised that just like him, this boy also enjoyed life and didn't really care
what other people thought about him.

13. How can one laugh ‘in Armenian’?

14. The narrator tells us he gets a very bad haircut (p.14) but he doesn’t care. Why not?

The boy, after leaving the barber shop, realised that his haircut was not very well
done, but he did not care.

For him, what really mattered was his conversation with the barber and the fact
that he had made a friend for life, as opposed to the hair that would grow back.

15. Why is Uncle Misak ‘poor’? (How often is the word used about him?)

16. Design a cover for a book starting with this story. The cover must reflect the idea
that everything is beautiful and ugly, happy and sad, good and evil at the same time.

17. Do you think that people who adapt to the standards and expectations of the society
they live in are not so lonely as those who do not? Or is loneliness an unavoidable part
of human life for everybody? Do you believe in the contradictory nature of reality?

I think that people who adapt better will more easily have many people around
them and will not feel so lonely. But after a while, if they have changed just to please
others, they obviously won't feel like themselves and will therefore feel even sadder and
lonelier.

So, I think loneliness is an inevitable part of human life, where we will have
days where we will feel more or less alone.

18. Choose the best sentence(s) from the whole story (because you relate to, because it
is meaningful, powerful, enlightening, makes you think, etc).
 “’That is the way with the world’, he said. ’Always telling you what to do.
What’s wrong with a little hair? Why do they do it? Earn money, they say. Buy a farm.
This. That. Ah, they are against letting a man live a quiet life”

I liked this sentence a lot, because it shows the feeling and perspective of a
person who, deep down, only wants to be happy and, around him, he sees a group of
monitored people who do everything that society imposes and, thus, he starts to feel
alone.