PRESENTATION BY

NEETA HUIREM,
JNV-THOUBAL
&
SHANTA KANGJAM,
JNV-BISHNUPUR
TOPIC : “THE LITTLE GIRL”

BY: KATHERINE MANSFIELD

 THEME/INTRODUCTION
• The lesson the little girl written by
Katherine Mansfield is about the
relationship between parents and their
children. In this lesson the writer wants
to show that parents always share a
strong bond of love with their children,
but when the children are young they
feel that their parents don’t love them
as they are strict and many of their
actions towards them are not justified.
As they grow up they realise that the
strict nature of the parents are for the
benefits of them. Beneath their
strictness lies a heart full of love for
them.
 SUMMARY
• Kezia’s father was a person to be afraid of for her. So she
avoided him but before going to work, he would come to
her. He would give her a casual kiss. When he went away
Kezia would feel a great relief.
• In the evening when Kezia’s father came home, Kezia would
hear his loud voice calling for tea, newspapers and slippers.
Kezia mother would ask her to be a good girl to take off her
father’s shoes. But she was terrified to go near him. When
she would take off his shoes, he would ask if she had been
a good girl that day. She would stutter while talking to her
father due to fear. Her father would scold her for that Kezia
would think her father was like a giant.
 SUMMARY
• On Sunday afternoons grandmother asked Kezia to have a nice
talk with father and mother. But Kezia always found mother
reading and father sleeping soundly. So she waited for father
to wake up staring at him. When he woke up he asked her not
to stare. She looked like an owl.
• One day Kezia was down with cold. She stayed inside the
house. Grandmother told her that her father’s birthday was
next the following week. She suggested Kezia to make him a
pin-cushion of yellow silk. So Kezia stitched the three sides of
the cushion. She needed something to stuff her case. So she
gathered a few shuts of fine paper from her parent’s bed table
and tore them into pieces to put them into it. These papers
contain an important speech which her father was to deliver.
 SUMMARY
• That night there was a hue and cry in the house. Father’s
great speech for the port authority had been lost. Rooms
were searched servants were questioned. Mother went
to Kezia and asked her about them. She told her that she
had torn those papers. Mother asked Kezia to come to
the dining room. Her father was facing to and fro. He was
very angry. Kizia was greatly frightened. He asked kezia if
she had done that. She just whispered. Father asked
mother to go to Kezia’s room and bring those torn
papers. Later her father came to Kezia’s room and told
her to hold out her hands. He beat her on her pink
palms. He did so to teach her not to touch anything that
didn’t belong to her.
 SUMMARY
• Kezia replied that what she did was for his
birthday. Hours later, her grandmother
wrapped her in a shawl. She clung to her when
she was being rocked in the rocking chair. She
sobbed, “What did god make fathers for?”
• The Macdonalds lived next door to Kezia’s
house. They had five children. Mr Macdonald
played with the children laughing and running
round and round the flower beds. Kezia
thought that there were different fathers.
 SUMMARY
• One day Kezia’s mother fell ill. She had to be
hospitalised. Kezia’s grandmother was with
her. Kezia was all alone with Alice, the cook
she asked Alice what would happen if she had
a nightmare. But Alice asked her to sleep, she
also asked her not to scream and not to wake
up her poor father. But Kezia had a nightmare.
She saw a butcher with a knife but she could
not move. She screamed and woke up her
father. Father came to her bed. He asked her
what the matter was. After hearing her he
took her to his room.
 SUMMARY
• In his bedroom Kezia’s father lay down beside
her. Kezia crept close to him. He asked Kezia to
rub her feet against his legs to get them warm.
Kezia felt a funny feeling, perhaps of
understanding. She thought that father was
harder than grandmother. But it was a nice
hardness. Every day he had to work harder. He
got too tired to be a Mr Macdonald. And she
had torn up his writing. Thinking this she
stirred. Father asks what the matter was she
told him that her head was on his heart. She
could hear it beating. She told him that he had
a big heart.
 SLOW LEARNERS MATERIALS & HOTS BASED
QUESTIONS.
Q1. Why was Kezia afraid of her father?
OR
“To the little girl he was a figure to be feared and
avoided” Why was Kezia’s father such a figure for
her?
Ans: Kezia was afraid of her father. He never spoke to
her with love. He was strict and made demands. He
scolded her every time he looked at her. So she
avoided him. She felt relief in his absence.
 SLOW LEARNERS MATERIALS &
HOTS BASED QUESTIONS.
Q2. What was Kezia’s father’s routine before going to his
office?
Ans:Before going to his office Kezia’s father would come to
her room and gave her a casual kiss to which she
responded with “good bye father”.
Q3. How would Kezia’s father behave in the evening after
he came from work?
Ans:In the evening when he came from work he would
speak in a loud voice to get his tea in the drawing room. He
would ask for the newspaper. He would also ask for his
slippers.
SLOW LEARNERS MATERIALS & HOTS
BASED QUESTIONS.
Q4. What happened on Sunday afternoons?
Ans: On Sunday afternoon Kezia’s grandmother
asked her to have a nice talk with her father and
mother. But Kezia found her mother reading and
father stretched out on the sofa, his handkerchief
on his face, his feet on one of the best cushions,
sleeping soundly and snoring.
Q5. What did Kezia’s grandmother ask her to do
for her father’s birthday?
Ans: Kezia’s mother asked her to make a pin-
cushion of yellow silk for her father’s birthday.
 SLOW LEARNERS MATERIALS &
HOTS BASED QUESTIONS.
Q6. Why was there a “hue and cry” in the house that night?
Ans: Kezia made a pin cushion as a gift for her father’s birthday. She
stuffed it with papers; these were her father’s speech. He was due to
deliver in an important meeting. Rooms were searched and servants
were asked. Due to this, there was a “hue and cry in the house”

Q7. What did Kezia’s father do to her after Kezia told that she had
torn his speech?
Ans: Kezia’s father was very angry. He went to Kezia’s room and beat
her on her little hands. He did so to teach her not to touch anything
that didn’t belong to her.
 SLOW LEARNERS MATERIALS & HOTS BASED
QUESTIONS.
• Q8. Describe the Macdonald family that lived next
door.
• Ans: The MacDonald family had five children Kezia
would look at the children playing with their father.
The baby, Mao would sit on the father’s shoulders;
two little girls would hang on their father’s coat
pocket and ran round and round. They played and
laughed together.
• Q9. Why was Kezia alone in the house with Alice?
• Ans: One day Kezia’s mother fell ill, she had to be
hospitalised. Kezia’s grandmother was with her. So
Kezia was alone with Alice, the cook.
 SLOW LEARNERS MATERIALS & HOTS BASED
QUESTIONS.
• Q10. What did Kezia usually see in the nightmare? What
would grandmother do to her?
• Ans: Kezia saw a butcher with a knife and a rope in the
nightmare. He came nearer to her while she could not
move. She would then cry out when she had the nightmare.
Grandmother would take her into her bed.
• Q11. What happened when Kezia had a nightmare?
• Ans: Kezia had a nightmare. She saw a butcher with a knife
rope. He came nearer, but she couldn’t move. She
screamed and woke up her father. Father came to her bed.
He asked what the matter was. Then he took her with him
 SLOW LEARNERS MATERIALS & HOTS
BASED QUESTIONS.
• Q12. What did Kezia’s father do to Kezia after she had a nightmare?
• Ans: Kezia’s father took her to his bed. He tucked her up carefully. He
lay down beside her. Kezia crept close to her father fearing the
butcher and the knife. She held her father’s shirt tightly. He asked
her to rub her feet against his legs to get warm.
• Q13. “A funny feeling came over her”. What was that funny feeling
that came over Kezia?
• Ans: When Kezia was lying close to her father she saw a different
father in her father. She understood her father now. She fell that he
was really poor. He had no one to look after him. He had to work
every day and was too tired to be a Mr Macdonald. She had torn his
beautiful writing. She told him that he had a very kind heart.
SLOW LEARNERS MATERIALS & HOTS
BASED QUESTIONS.
• Q14. What is the moral of the lesson: the little girl”?
• Ans: The lesson “the little girl” teaches that parents cannot be bad
as Kezia thinks. When there is a problem parents come to their help
as Kezia’s father does. Thus the story teaches that children should
understand their parents.
• Q15. The little girl sobbed. “What did god make fathers for”? Explain
the statement.
• Ans: Kezia was a little girl. She was afraid if her father. He never
spoke to her with love. He scolded her every time he looked at her.
She wanted him to be like their neighbour Mr. Macdonald. Mr
Macdonald used to laugh and play with his children. Kezia also
wanted her father to do the same. One day she tore up the papers to
stuff into the pin-cushion. She had made it for her father’s birthday.
But it had her father’s important speech on it. The father beat her for
tearing his speech. She sobbed and asked her grandmother as to
what for were fathers’s made by god. It shows her strong dislike for
such a father as her father is.
 SLOW LEARNERS MATERIALS &
HOTS BASED QUESTIONS.
• Q16. Kezia slept one night with her father and changed her
opinion about him. What was her opinion about her father
before?
• Ans: One day Kezia had to stay a night in the house with
her father only. She used to have nightmares. She went to
bed with great fear on her mind. She had a nightmare. She
woke up shivering and crying. Her father came when he
heard her cry. He took her in his arm and carried her to his
bedroom. He laid her on his bed beside himself. He even
asked her to rub his feet on his legs to make them warm.
The little girl was touched by her father’s love and concern;
she began to understand her father better. She knew that
her hatred for her father had been all wrong. Her feelings
for her father changed from fear to understanding. She was
not afraid of him now.
 QUESTION BANK
• Answer the following questions in about 30-40 words each.
• Why was Kezia afraid of her father?
• How did Kezia’s father behave with her? Why?
• What did Kezia’s grandmother ask Kezia to do on a Sunday
afternoon?
• How did Kezia’s father react when he saw Kezia staring at him on a
Sunday afternoon?
• Why did Kezia’s father beat her one day? How did Kezia react to it?
• Why was there a hue and cry one night in the house?
• What happened to the speech if Kezia’s father? How did he punish
Kezia?
• How did the Macdonald family spend their time? What did Kezia
think of it?
• What did Kezia see in the nightmare? What did her father do to
her?
• How did Kezia’s feeling for her father undergo a change?
 QUESTION BANK
• ANSWER THE FOLLOWING IN ABOUT 80
WORDS EACH.
• What made Kezia fear her father? How did she show her
fear?
• Why did Kezia’s father beat her? What did she think of after
that?
• Kezia’s effort to please her father resulted in displeasing him
very much. How did this happen?
• Kezia decided that there were different sorts of father. How?
Which kind do you consider better. Why?
• When and how did Kezia’s feelings about her father change?
 GRAMMAR RELATED EXERCISE
• Verbs of reporting.
• Study the following sentences.
• “What!” screamed mother.
• “N-n-no,” she whispered.
• “Sit up,” He ordered.
• The underlined words are verbs of reporting. We quote or report
what someone has said or thought by using a reporting verb.
Every reporting clause contains a reporting verb.
• For example:
• He promised to help in my project.
• Seema asked, “How are you doing?”
• We used verbs of reporting to advise, order, report statements
thoughts, intentions, questions, request, apologies, and manner
of speaking and so on.
 GRAMMAR RELATED EXERCISE
• EXERCISE-I: UNDERLINE THE VERBS OF
REPORTING IN THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES.
• He says he will enjoy the ride.
• Father mentioned that he was going on a
holiday.
• No one told us that the shop was closed.
• He answered that the price would go up.
• I wondered why he was screaming.
• Ben told her to wake him up.
• Rattan apologise for coming late to the party.
ANSWERS: (1) says (2) mentioned (3) told (4) answered
(5) wondered (6) told (7) apologised.
 GRAMMAR RELATED EXERCISE
• EXERCISE-II: SOME VERBS OF REPORTING ARE
GIVEN IN THE BOX CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE
VERBS AND FILL IN THE BLANKS IN THE
FOLLOWING SENTENCES.
Were complaining shouted replied
Remarked ordered suggested
•“I am not afraid,” ____________ the woman.
•“Leave me alone,” my mother _________ .
•The children _________ that the roads were crowded and noisy.
•“Perhaps he is not a bad sort of a chap after all,” _________ the
master.
•“Let’s go and look at the school ground,” _________ the sports
teacher.
•The traffic police _________ all the passes-by to keep off the
road.
 GRAMMAR RELATED EXERCISE
• Answers: (1) remarked (2) shouted
(3) were complaining (4) replied
(5) suggested (6) ordered.
 Skit of ‘The little girl’
- Katherine Mansfield
Characters

Kezia’s father Alice, the cook

Kezia’s mother Mr. Macdonald
Kezia Children of the Macdonald
Kezia’s Grandmother

Scene I: A room in Kezia’s house.

Father enters into Kezia’s room

Father: [In a hurry giving a casual kiss] I am off to work.

Kezia : [With fear] Goodbye, Father

Then sighs, O! what a relief he has gone
In the evening in the drawing room,
Father: (Shouting) Mother, bring my tea. Hasn’t the paper come yet?
Where are my slippers?
Mother: Kezia, if you’re a good girl come down and take off father’s boots.
Father: Well, Kezia hurry up and pull off these boots and take them
outside. Have you been a good girl today?
Kezia: [Terrified] I d-d-don’t know father.
Father: [Imitating her] You d-d-don’t know? If you stutter like that mother
will have to take you to the doctor.
Kezia: [Frighteningly] I…..
Father: What’s the matter? What are you looking so wretched about?
Mother, you teach this child not to appear on the brink of suicide.

On a Sunday afternoon in the drawing room

Grandmother: Kezia, go to drawing-room and have a nice talk with your
father and mother.
In the drawing room Kezia found mother reading and father stretched out
on the sofa sleeping soundly and snoring. She sat watching her father to
wake up.
Father: Don’t stare so Kezia. You look like a little brown owl.

Scene II Inside the house when Kezia was kept indoors with a cold.

Grandmother: My dear why don’t you make a pin cushion for a gift for your
father’s birthday?
Kezia: Sure Granny. I will stitch this beautiful yellow silk to make the
cushion. But what to fill it with. I will take these papers from my father’s
table and tear them into pieces. I will stuff my case and sewed up the fourth
side. O, my pin cushion is ready.

On that night
Father: (with angry protest) where are the papers I have kept on my table?
Mother asked the servants and look for it
Father: Sit up and hold your hands. You must be taught once and for all not
to touch what does not belong to you.
Kezia: But it was for your b- b- birthday
Father: [ignoring her] Now take this (beat her)
Grandmother: (Hugging), Oh my baby stop crying pet. Here’s a clean hanky,
darling. Blow your nose. Go to sleep. You’ll forget all about it in the morning. I
tried to explain to father but he was too upset to listen tonight.
Kezia (sobbing): What did God make father's for?

Scene III
In the garden of Mr. Macdonalds who were Kezia’s neighbour. He had five
children.
Mr. Macdonald: Come on darlings. Lets play ‘tag’
Daughters: Papa, Papa, we are coming to catch (with laughs) you.
Sons (turning the hose on him): Papa how is it?
Mr. Macdonald (laughing): I am coming to catch you
Kezia (watching the Macdonalds): Oh there are different kinds of fathers
One day mother became ill suddenly, and she and grandmother went to
hospital.
Alice: Well, Kezia let me take off your socks. You just go to sleep, child and
don’t you scream and wake your poor Pa.
Kezia: What’ll I do if I have a nightmare? I often have nightmares and Granny
takes me into her bed. I can’t stay in the dark….it all gets whispery….
Kezia (while sleeping): Grandma ! Grandma !
Father: (Beside her bed, a candle in his hand) What’s the matter?
Kezia: Oh, a butcher___a knife___I want Granny.
Father (carrying her): Come sleep in my room ( carefully tucked up the child
he lay down beside her. Kezia crept close to him, smuggled her head under
his arm. The dark did not matter). Here, rub your feet against my legs and
get them warm.
Kezia: (with a funny feeling perhaps of understanding. Poor father, not so big
and with not one to look after him. Everyday he had to work and was too
tired to be a Mr. Macdonald. Oh, I had torn all his writing) Sighs.
Father: What’s the matter? Another dream (with concern)
Kerzia: Oh no, my heads on your heart. I can hear it going. What a big heart
you’ve got Father dear
Mother: Kezia, I suppose you didn’t see some papers on the table in our
room?
Kezia: Oh yes, I tore them up for my surprise
Mother: [screaming] what! Come straight down to the dining-room this instant

Mother explains everything to father.

Father: (Angrily staring) Well, did you do that?

Kezia
Mother: Kezia, I suppose you didn’t see some papers on the table in our
room?
Kezia: (with fear whispering) N-n-no.
Father: Mother, go up to her room and fetch down the damned thing-see that
the child’s put to bed this instant.
Kezia: (in her room crying) why is my father so cruel to me?
Father: (with a ruler in his hand in Kezia room) Kezia,I am going to beat you
for this
Kezia: (screaming) Oh, no, no
Activities required in the chapter

1. Group discussion.
Was Kezia’s father right to punish her? What kind of father was he?

2. Speaking.
Prepare a speech on
Relationship between children and parents