General English Summaries

1. Lot’s wife: ( short version - while escaping from the city of Sodom shortly

before God destroyed it with fire and brimstone, Lot and his family were told not

to look back on the destruction of the city. Lot’s wife disobeyed this order, and

became a pillar of salt.)

The poem begins by aligning with the biblical account in that it calls Lot a

“just man” and explains that he “followed…his angel guide”.

The speaker describes the angel as “hulking and bright”. The use of the

word “hulking” seems almost contradictory to the “bright” descriptions

usually used for angels. It gives the reader the sense that the speaker

does not necessarily side with the angel, although the speaker never

blatantly disregards him. The speaker then identifies strongly with Lot’s

wife when she describes the “wild grief” in her “bosom”. Many who have

read the biblical account may never have considered the sadness in the

heart of Lot’s wife as they left their home. But the speaker of this poem

brings Lot’s wife to life by allowing the reader into her thoughts. Italics are

used for the very thoughts of Lot’s wife, as the speaker portrays them, to

allow the reader to feel her pain. The speaker imagines that Lot’s wife was

filled with thoughts of her old life as their home burned behind them. She

may have thought, “It’s not too late, you can still look back” and she

describes the city she once called home.

Still engaged in the thoughts of Lot’s wife, the reader is able to

empathize with how she must have felt leaving behind the home where

she “loved husband” and where her “babes were born”. The speaker

guides the reader outside of the thoughts of Lot’s wife by changing from

italics back to regular font. The speaker is, again, a third-person outside

perspective as is the reader. At this point, however, the reader experiences

a newfound sympathy for Lot’s wife.

The speaker continues to engage the reader in empathy for Lot’s wife

when she describes her decision to turn and look back as one that

resulted in a “bitter view”. She describes her eyes as being “welded shut

by mortal pain” which again, allows the reader to feel the pain she must

have felt as she turned and looked at her old home, burning, knowing that

was the last sight she would ever see. That was also the last step she ever

took. The speaker describes her feel as being “rooted in the plain” when

her “body grew” into “transparent salt”.

In the final stanza, the speaker takes a step back and asks a question.

“Who would waste tears upon her? Is she not the least of our losses, this

unhappy wife?” The speaker is aware that most who have read the biblical

account of this story would feel no compassion for Lot’s wife. After all, she

disobeyed what the angel commanded. This speaker, however, sets herself

apart from the rest by claiming that even if every one else looked on Lot’s

wife with scorn, she would not. This speaker would continue to think of

Lot’s wife with compassion in her heart. She would remember her fondly

when she thinks of this story, because Lot’s wife “for a single glance, gave

up her life”. With this line, the speaker implies that Lot’s wife was not

merely foolish and unable to control herself, but that she made a

conscious decision to give up her life for one final glance at the place she

once called home.

2. Dance with me to the End of Love:

“Dance Me to the End of Love” written in 1984 by Leonard Cohen. Many

people consider it a love song with its up and down melody. Leonard Cohen,

however, wrote the song as a hymn to death.

a deliriously romantic song by Leonard Cohen that is brilliantly visualized

through the sensual paintings of Henri Matisse... Cohen's (poem) is a lyrical

tribute to the miracle of love, the grace it bestows on us and its healing,

restorative power. Originally recorded on his Various Positions album, and

featured in Cohen's most recently published anthology, Stranger Music, this

poetic song is gloriously married to twenty-one works of art by Henri Matisse,

perhaps the greatest artist of the twentieth century. I had this dance within

me for a long time", Matisse once said in describing one of his murals. Here is

a perfect book for art lovers, song lovers and all the other lovers as well.

Summary: The song title 'Dance Me to the End of Love' is explaining that

something, anything that seems strong or eternal, even love, has an end. This

relates directly to the song itself.

The song is about the string quartet who were forced to play beside the

crematoriums in the death camps. The members of the quartet were going to

be killed after in the crematorium but were allowed to play music. This

playing of music is joy and happiness to the members of the quartet, the last

piece of love and joy they will experience before their end.

The song lyrics themselves describe a man and woman who are dancing, yet

the man is asking for the woman to dance him or help him to do many things.

This couple are exactly like the string quartet. Both of these groups of people

are going to be killed in the crematorium but, they can experience joy,

whether it'd be playing music or dancing, for the last time until before their

end. It shows that both these groups, predominantly the couple, are enjoying

themselves through something they love and are forgetting all their troubles

and concerns of their deaths. He is asking her to take them back to happier

times and reflect on their lives and realise the happiness in their lives before

their end.

Chap 5 – selections from Toto chan : the little girl at the window

Totto-Chan: the little girl at the window is exactly about the school life of a girl which will change
stereotypical perception about education system, ways of learning and leading life. This book is so
inspiring that no description can do justice to it. Only reading the book can give that pleasure of
leaving in those moments and reliving the fun with the characters.

Totto-Chan is childishly notorious and excited about everything around her. The story begins with the
description of events during her way to new school. The reason for that is she had been expelled from
her previous school. Her activities in the previous school were really funny but it created complexities
for her teacher that she became fed up with Totto-Chan. She couldn’t take classes as no one could
concentrate. So, she was kind of forced to expel Totto-Chan.
After arriving at the new school Totto-Chan became astonished. She couldn’t believe what she was
seeing. Train compartments as class rooms! She became excited to study in that school. Her mother
who was tensed told her that if she has a proper word with the principal she would be able to study in
that school otherwise not. After thinking Totto-Chan decided to abide by it.
The principal was old but jolly. He had a different kind of way while dealing with children. He made
her comfortable and listened to Totto-Chan attentively. She actually talked for four hours
continuously. The principals behaviour made her feel secure and wanted. She maybe was a little
different from others but she also had capabilities of being successful if leaded with care and warmth.
The book describes the friends Totto-Chan makes, the lessons she learns, and the vibrant atmosphere
she enjoys at Tomoe Gakuen. Kobayashi introduces new activities to interest the pupils. Mr Kobayashi
understands children and strives to develop their minds and bodies. He is concerned for the physically
challenged and he emphasises on how all children are remarkable in their individuality.
Totto-Chan makes best friends with a Christian boy who has polio. Another classmate was raised in
America for all his life and cannot speak Japanese, and the headmaster tells the children to learn
English from him, despite governmental restraints of using the ‘enemy's’ language. The epilogue
explains how headmaster Kobayashi had good connections with leaders in the government.
But in this the school, the children lead happy lives, unaware of the things going on in the outside
world. World War II has started, yet in this school, no signs of it are seen. There are hints of something
awry when Totto-Chan cannot buy caramel candies from the vending machine on her way to school,
and it becomes harder for her mother to meet the requirements for a balanced lunch.
But happiness always comes to an end, just like every childhood must. With the approaching of war
and food shortage, Totto-Chan slowly learnt the harsh truth of life through the death of her friends.
The small wonders and adventures of the children was slowly and surely engulfed by war, eventually
Tomoe Gakuen was burnt to the ground during a bombing, and was never rebuilt, even though the
headmaster claims that he looked forward to building an even better school the next time round. This
ends Totto-Chan’s years as a pupil at Tomoe Gakuen.
Totto-Chan is a story, which touches the heart of the reader. It has everything that a reader needs —
laughter, innocence, happiness, warmth, hard work, love, tears and realisations. No wonder it never
fails to amaze both children and adults alike.
In one sense, this can be termed as a children literature. It is the story of the journey of a child from
what she was to what all she can become. It poses a sharp satire on the machine of formal education
in Japan. It proves that a child whom the normal education system rejected can become a bestselling
author, journalist, and above all, a loved personality.
Another crucial aspect of the book is war. Children realise the cruelties and difficulties of war through
this book. By interspacing happiness and war, Tetsuko has succeeded in embroidering the pains of
war and gains of happiness to the hearts of the reader. This is so valuable since the readers are mainly
children.
In present world, learning has become only a way to success. Parents want children to study hard to
earn money and lead a luxurious lifestyle. No one wants to settle for less. But it is really important to
make people understand that the competitiveness from small age, forcing children to do things
without their interest is creating problem for their mental health. Learning should be interesting. It’s
high time that the education system not only give importance to result but also to teach the children
real meaning and purpose of life.
Totto-Chan-the little girl at the window will not only give readers a pleasant time but also create
social awareness. How many times you may have read it you can’t get enough of it. It is truly a book
to read and cherish. It is a true combination from which readers get to enjoy and also have some
inspiration.

Chap 4 – Persepolis

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic memoir about Satrapi’s
experiences growing up in Tehran, Iran before and after the revolution in 1979.

Persepolis is both an autobiography as well as a bildungsroman or coming-of-age tale.

Satrapi begins her story with an Introduction including brief historical context about Iran
and the events leading up to the revolution. Iran as a nation and cultural entity persists
despite centuries of outside influence and invasion this sets up Satrapi's book as a means to
help preserve Iranian culture as she knows it in spite of the oppressive fundamentalist
regime.

The story opens in Tehran in 1980, a year after the revolution, as Satrapi and her female
peers are forced to wear a veil. Her coed bilingual school closed and reopened because it
was initially seen as a symbol of capitalism. She and her family are disoriented by the rapid
changes and rise in Islamic extremism in Iran and are struggling to adjust.

Satrapi reveals she believed herself to be a prophet at the age of six, but she no longer
believed this once the revolution began. She becomes fascinated by socialist revolutionary
icons like Che Guevara and Karl Marx and wishes to join her parents, who go to daily
demonstrations. When Satrapi overhears that 400 civilians are killed in a movie theater, she
pleads with her parents to let her join the protests, but they tell her it is too dangerous.

Satrapi’s parents are educated and progressive, and they tell her that her grandfather was
once an Iranian prince. The shah appointed her grandfather as prime minister, but
eventually imprisoned and tortured him. When she hears that her grandfather was held in a
“water cell” for hours a day, she soaks in the bathtub for as long as she can to better
understand his plight. These family stories fascinate Satrapi and she becomes obsessed
with asking questions about the heroes of her family.

Desperately wishing to better understand what is going on in her country and what her
parents are demonstrating for, Satrapi immerses herself in books. Despite the differences in
social class, Satrapi befriends her maid, Mehri, and helps her write love letters to the boy
next door in exchange for a day at the protests. But later that evening, they learn that these
protests ended in a massacre.

As violence and tensions escalate, more and more massacres occur; yet, political prisoners
are also freed. Satrapi meets her parents’ friends who had been imprisoned and tortured,
as well as her Uncle Anoosh, all of who share stories of resistance. Uncle Anoosh tells her
about the time he spent in Moscow, where he earned his PhD. Then he suddenly vanishes.
Satrapi learns he has been imprisoned for espionage. She visits him in jail; he is executed
shortly afterwards, which is a tragedy breaking Satrapi’s heart.

The family takes a vacation in Europe, but right before they return home, the Iran-Iraq War
breaks out. The fundamentalist regime cracks down on “Western” ideas, closing schools
and universities as well as forcing women to wear the veil. Satrapi and her family grow
more anxious, which is exacerbated when her mother is assaulted. A family friend’s house
is destroyed in a bombing, and while they stay with Satrapi and her parents, they hear
other Iranians gossiping about “refugees.” Satrapi’s mother despairs that Iranians are
fighting against and looking down upon their fellow citizens.

Although she is instructed not to draw attention to herself and to keep her head down,
Satrapi and everyone around her still find moments of fun and joy, playing illegal music and
making and drinking illicit alcohol. But as the war continues, Satrapi grows more and more
disillusioned and rebellious. Her Uncle Taher, whose health is declining, is unable to receive
adequate medical treatment in Iran; Satrapi’s father attempts to get him an illegal passport,
but the man who will forge the passport for them is raided and Taher dies.
A year after Taher passes away, Iran reopens its borders. Satrapi’s parents travel abroad
and bring her back illegal Western clothes and music, which get her into trouble with the
law and results in a close call with the Guardians of the Revolution. Tehran becomes the
target of Iraqi bombings, and Satrapi’s next door neighbor’s house is destroyed, killing the
girl who lived there who was close in age to Satrapi.

Terrified of what will happen to their daughter, Satrapi’s parents send her to a French
school in Austria to keep her safe. They tell her they will soon join her abroad, but she
knows they are lying to her. When they drop her off at the airport, she turns around one
last time to say good-bye, only to find her mother has collapsed from heartbreak.

Chap 6 – The continuity of parks

“Continuity of Parks" begins by describing a wealthy landowner returning to his estate by train after
"some urgent business conferences" (63) and reading a novel which he'd begun to read before his
business called him away from his estate. He reads the novel on the train and then, upon returning to
his estate, situates himself comfortably in the green velvet armchair in his study, which looks out onto
a tree-lined park. The novel absorbs the estate owner with its romantic tropes; the hero and heroine
meet in a cabin in the woods and plot what seems to be a burglary and murder of some sort. They
corroborate their alibis and work out every painstaking detail of the mysterious crime they're
preparing to commit and then part ways. The heroine runs off deeper into the woods, and the hero
advances in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, the estate owner luxuriates in the passive act of reading his novel. All of his desired
comforts are within reach, and the tree-lined park which is a part of his estate stretches out before
him through the large window. As the estate owner reads, the hero of the novel emerges from the
woods and onto a large estate. Everything goes as planned. The estate manager is not there because
of the late hour. The guard dogs do not regard him. And the hero enters the house through the porch,
following the directions his lover gave to him. He moves through the house, knife in hand, until he
reaches the study, where he sees the head of the estate owner peeking over the back of his green
velvet chair, looking out onto the park of his estate, reading his novel.

[ chapter Analysis : In "Continuity of Parks" Cortázar explores the relationship between narrative and
reality; in this story, he creates a meta-fictional feedback loop that concludes at the very point of
convergence between the narrative that the estate owner is reading and the estate owner's lived
reality. Cortázar portrays the estate owner as the ultimate non-actor, passive in everything he does.
The story begins by describing the engagements that keep the estate owner from reading his book,
and those engagements include "some urgent business conferences" and "writing a letter giving his
power of attorney and discussing a matter of joint ownership with the manager of his estate" (63).
These engagements suggest a transfer of power and responsibility away from the estate owner and
into the hands of other people. He seems to have arrived at a point in life where he's willingly
relinquishing his power of attorney and forfeiting his holdings, and the story takes place in the midst
of the estate owner's expanding passivity.
Once he settles into his study, after making all of the necessary phone calls, the estate owner returns
to his book. Cortázar emphasizes the estate owner's passivity as he reads the novel; the estate owner
allows the novel to happen to him—his remembrance of the characters and plot elements is
"effortless"; Cortázar writes that "the novel spread its glamour over him" and that "he tasted the
almost perverse pleasure of disengaging himself line by line from the things around him" (64). It is
almost as if the estate owner, in his passivity, barely exists. He relinquishes his agency and allows
stimuli to wash over him.
In an important moment of transition buried in the middle of a long paragraph, Cortázar transfers the
perspective from the estate owner to the scene inside the novel he's reading, and in so doing, he
transfers the perspective of the story to the characters in the novel. The characters in the novel are
called hero and heroine. They are passionate, archetypal lovers at a crossroads. They are plotting a
robbery and murder. And though their short scene in the woods may seem literarily recognizable and
perhaps even cliché, their urgency and propensity for action dominates the narrative and acts as yet
another force usurping the "real" estate owner. Of course, the actual agency of the novel's characters
is minimal as a function of being characters in a novel and also by the scene's characterization by
Cortázar, who writes that their "lustful, panting dialogue raced down the pages like a rivulet of
snakes, and one felt it had all been decided from eternity" (64).
The story could be interpreted as an indictment of the passive pleasure of reading, and it proposes,
through a meta-narrative experimentation in form, a conequences of this passivity, in which the
stories that give us this pleasure magically breach the fourth wall and affect our lives in a real way.]

Chap 8 – Blackout

The story is set on a West Indian island city during the Second World War, and describes an encounter
between a black West Indian man and an American girl. It was the era of segregation with separate
schools, buses, restaurants for blacks and whites.

Right from the title onwards, the term “black” emphasizes the racist tension in a society where colour
prejudice is widespread. The street lights being off points to a relative lack of safety but “the
atmosphere of exclusive respectability” conveys that the girl is in a relatively safe zone where
suburban householders live. She is confident and feels that if there is trouble, “one good scream” can
bring a number of people to her rescue.

The first inkling of black-white tension is given when Mais states that the slinking black shadow
materializing out of the darkness did not initially disconcert her. When it grows into a conventionally
dressed black young man, she is “intrigued”. What further ruffles her smugness is his asking for a
match as he has observed her smoking. As she doesn’t have a matchbox, she lets him use her
cigarette to light his. The racial divide seen in juxtaposition with her hesitating offer to allow the use
of a lighted cigarette (in use) to light the black man’s stub, actually generates a tension of its own. The
vividness of this description is striking against the backdrop of “partial blackout”. There is also a
contrast between the race, gender, class divide which separates the two, and the relatively intimate
gesture of allowing someone to light a cigarette from that which one is using. The tension assumes a
dimension of gender – man versus woman. The black man’s steady gaze affects her momentarily. It
breaks her resistance. She allows him to light his half a cigarette from hers. Apart from this, the
potential negative energy of a tiny spark (of fire) keeps coming to mind in this delicate situation with
dangerous possibilities.

It is then that an unthinking act on her part leads to a dramatic move in the story. Instead of returning
her cigarette to her lips, she casually throws it away and the black man sees this happen. He looks at
her “with cold speculation”. As it turns out he was interested in the cigarette she had thrown away.
But his gaze does unnerve her. So we can see the race and gender issues at work. The American girl
doesn’t like his insolence and he apologises for making her waste a whole cigarette. In spite of her
cold and rather indifferent and unprovocative behavior, the American girl still manages to evoke a
confrontational response in the black young man. They get into an unpleasant exchange and the
language the man uses is one of understated threat.

When the man says “This isn’t America” we need to know that the West Indies were a British Colony.
Politics enters the language of gender—”In this country there are only men and women, you’ll learn
about it”. He seems to be talking about issues of equality as well as of democracy which were a major
concern among blacks in those times. (”Is he talking in the universal context of mankind we ask
ourselves”). This is the language of the mob although the young man denies any indecent intentions.
Meanwhile, the bus arrives and the American young woman leaves.

The black young man, strong, aloof and proud to have shaken her supreme confidence, picks up the
discarded cigarette she had thrown away. The class divide has also manifested itself in the swift,
hungry movement of grabbing the leftover. The beauty of the story lies in the intensity of interest that
is sustained throughout this socially and politically relevant piece as it touches livewire issues of race,
gender and class.