A Letter to God

- G.L. Fluentes
- Lencho, a
farmer; rainfall;
waiting for his
crops to bloom
Rainfall/ heavy
downpour; Happy
Lencho; Big
raindrops + 10 cent
and small raindrops
+ 5 cents

God, please send me the rest of the

money; Don’t send it through the post
office.

Lencho finds the response from

God; very angry; writes again Rainfall converts into HAILSTORMS; the field
is destroyed; everything around looks as if
they are covered with salt

The Postmaster finds

that letter; he doesn’t
want lencho’s faith in
God to be broken ;
accumulates money;
70 pesos
‘No one dies of
hunger’ – Writes
a letter to God;
Lencho seeks 100
pesos
The short story, a letter to God, showcases a farmer’s immense faith in God and how he resorts
to the Almighty in times of crisis.
Characters:
 Lencho – the protagonist
 The postmaster
 The omnipresent Almighty.

Plot:
The story revolves around a farmer named Lencho and his field of corns. Lencho, a farmer, has
toiled day and night in the cornfield and is now expecting the fruits. He is elated as the downpour
begins and compares the rain drops to coins. According to him, the bigger raindrops equal 10
cent pieces and the smaller ones equal 5 cent pieces. However his happiness is short lived as the
rainfall soon converts to hailstorm and covers the fields and houses. The entire valley appeared
as if covered with salt. Lencho is filled with sorrow as the field was ruined and his family will be
left without any food.
He chooses to resort to God and happens to write a letter seeking a hundred pesos for him to sow
his field and make ends meet until the next batch of corns. He goes to the post office, addresses
the letter ‘To God’ and drops it in the mailbox.
On seeing the letter, the postman and the postmaster laugh out heartily. However, the postmaster,
who happens to be a kind gentleman, denies to let Lencho’s faith in god to be broken. He leaves
no stones unturned to gather money for the poor farmer. However, he was able to accumulate a
little more than half for Lencho. He puts the money in an envelope and uses ‘God’ as a signature.
On receiving the letter from God, not an iota of surprise was seen on Lencho’s face. It appeared
as if he was sanguine that a response from the almighty would come. On opening the letter,
Lencho’s face oozed out an expression of disbelief. Lencho was sure that God could have never
made such a mistake of sending him 70 pesos instead of 100. Immediately, he rewrote to God
seeking the rest 30 pesos. The author brings in a situational irony in the end where Lencho asks
God not to send the money through the post office and refers to the employees as ‘a bunch of
crooks’. He happens to doubt those who helped him in the real senses.
Figures of Speech:
1. Metaphor-
- Huge mountains of clouds
- The big drops are ten cent pieces and the little ones are fives.
- Curtain of rain
- Frozen pearls
2. Simile-
- The field was white, as if covered with salt.
- working like an animal in the fields
3. Animal imagery
- An ox of a man
Question/Answers
1. Lencho has complete faith 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.’
‘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 could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had
requested.’

2. The postmaster came up with an idea to send the money to Lencho because he did not
want to shake Lencho’s faith in God.
The postmaster signed the letter as ‘God’ for two reasons apparently. He did not want
Lencho’s faith to be broken. It also might be a matter of fact that a hardworking
individual like Lencho would not have accepted monetary help from anyone except God.

3. No, Lencho did not try to find out who sent the money to him.
He had complete confidence in the fact that god would answer him and even when he
opened the letter he hence showed not the least signs of surprise.

4. Lencho thought that the remaining 30 pesos were stolen by the employees at the post
office.
Lencho requests God not to send the money through the post office for he feared it to be
stolen by the employees. The irony of the situation lies in the fact that the very people
who helped Lencho were called by him ‘a bunch of crooks’. Despite the fact that the
postmaster put in a part of his salary and also sought for help from his friends, his efforts
go in vain as Lencho blindly believes that it was God who helped him and not his fellow
human beings.

5. Students’ own viewpoint

Naïve and unquestioning

6. The conflicts in the story:

Lencho had worked day and night for a good harvest. While the rain brought in promises,
the hailstorm changed it all. All of Lencho’s hard work went down the drain. This
showcases the ancient conflict between man and nature.
The other conflict present in the short story is between man and man. Lencho doubts the
postmaster and writes a letter complaining about him to God. This shows the instinctive
nature of a man to distrust another man.