Class 12 English Chapter 14 Notes Memories of Childhood

Class 12 English Chapter 14 Notes Memories of Childhood, AHSEC Class 12 English Notes will find the very Students useful for exam preparation. The experts of Roy Library provide Class 12 English Chapter 14 Notes Memories of Childhood for every textbook Question Answer to help students understand and learn the language quickly. Class 12 English Chapter 14 Notes Memories of Childhood Solutions are free to use and easily accessible. HS 2nd Year English Notes PDF For English Medium Students Learn and understand Easily.

Class 12 English Chapter 14 Notes Memories of Childhood

Class 12 English Chapter 14 Notes Memories of Childhood gives you a better knowledge of all the chapters. HS 2nd Year English Important Question Answer, The experts have made attempts to make the solutions interesting, and students understand the concepts quickly. NCERT Class 12 English Solutions, will be able to solve all the doubts of the students. Assam Board AHSEC Class 12 English Book Question Answer, provided are as per the Latest Curriculum and covers all the questions from the Class XII English Textbooks Question Answer. are present on Roy Library’s website in a systematic order.

Memories of childhood

VISTAS

TEXTUAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Reading with Insight

1. The two accounts that you read above are based in two distant cultures. What is the commonality of theme found in both of them? 

Ans. ‘Memories of Childhood’ presents autobiographical accounts of two women based in distant cultures. However, the theme is common to both – it is about a prejudiced society and the discrimination and oppression prevalent in the system. The first account is by an American Indian born in late 19th century. Native Indians in America were deprived of the basic human dignity and respect by the Christians. They were ‘marginalized and compelled to follow the customs and traditions of Christians. The author was a young girl who was a victim of such religious and racial prejudice but, unlike others, she had the will to fight for her rights, and she did. 

Similar is the second account from an Indian Tamil girl, discriminated on account of her caste. She looks back at her childhood to recount an incident when she learnt about her being an ‘untouchable because she was born to a particular community. The caste system was so deeply ingrained in Indian society that people of so-called lower castes had to remind the world that “We too are human beings…

The commonality of theme lies in the discrimination and oppression faced by these women belonging to distant and different cultures at the hands of the supposed superior castes or cultures. Both fight and struggle against exploitation and racial prejudices and also for the empowerment of the underprivileged.

2. lt may take a long time for oppression to be resisted, but the seeds of rebellion are sowed early in life. Do you agree that injustice in any form cannot escape being noticed even by children?

Ans. The two accounts we have read now emphasizes the fact that injustice is noticed by children and adults alike. In fact, children refuse to give in to the system of discrimination and do not care about consequences. In adult life, one tends to reconcile with the system or compromise on several other factors. But seeds of rebellion are sowed at an early age as we see in the story of the two girls belonging to two different parts of the world. As a young girl, Zitkala-Sa fought physically with her oppressors but was overpowered by their combined strength. There were others with her who had submitted, accepting it and their fate. But for her, the fight continued. She could not accept indignation and humility based on culture.

Bama had learnt about caste discrimination when she was a child and understood its implication. She decided never to give up her fight for equality and thus advocated the cause of the victims of caste based inequality. So we see that children are as aware of being humiliated and disrespected as their elders.

3. Bama’s experience is that of a victim of the caste system. What kind of discrimination does Zitkala-Sa’s experience depict? What are their responses to their respective situations? 

Ans. Zitkala-Sa’s experience depicts discrimination based on race and culture. The Native Indians in America were persecuted by Christian missionaries. The Whites imposed their culture and values on the indigenous communities stripping them of their culture and heritage, and most importantly their pride. In a missionary school, she was humiliated and emotionally tortured by the white- skinned teachers. Her hair was shingled which, in her culture, symbolised a coward. She rebelled and resisted but was physically overpowered.

Though both the girls were victims of discrimination yet they never let the oppressors crush their spirit. They were undeterred and worked very hard to fight the evils prevalent in society. They used their pen to criticize the system that perpetrated such oppression. Zitkala-Sa’s works criticized dogma, and her life as a Native American woman was dedicated against the evils of subjugation and cruelty. Bama’s works reveal the condition of victims of caste and racial prejudice.

S.L. No.	CONTENTS
	PROSE SECTION
1	The Last Lesson
2	Lost Spring
3	Deep Water
4	Indigo
5	Going Places
6	Memoirs Of A Chota Sahib
	POETRY SECTION
1	My Mother At Sixty-Six
2	Keeping Quiet
3	Notes A Thing Of Beauty
4	A Roadside Stand
	VISTAS
1	The Tiger King
2	The Enemy
3	On The Face Of It
4	Memories Of Childhood
5	Magh Bihu Or Maghar Domahi

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS

1. The trauma of a child is painfully revealed in the incident of hair-cutting at the missionary school. Comment. 

Ans. Judewin, who knew little English, told Zitkala-Sa she had overheard the pale-face woman talk about cutting their long hair. This piece of information terrified Zitkala-Sa because their mothers had taught them that only unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair shingled by the enemy. Among their people, short hair was worn by mourners and shingled hair by cowards. Though Judewin had suggested that she submit, but the narrator had decided to fight against such oppression. She disappeared from there and crawled under a bed in the darkness of a room. Everyone started hunting for her and footsteps neared the bed. She was dragged out but she did put up a strong fight, scratching and clawing them wildly. She was then carried downstairs and fastened to a chair. Her long and beautiful hair was mercilessly cropped off as she cried for her mother. There was none to comfort her. Humiliated and traumatized, she lost her distinct cultural identity and had to live like one of many little animals driven by a herder.

2. Why did Zitkala-Sa feel miserable in the dining room?

Ans. It was Zitkala-Sa’s first day in the school. When they entered the dining room, a small bell was tapped. She pulled out her chair and sat on it. She realized that she was the only one seated there. Just as she was about to rise, the second bell sounded and then all were seated. A man’s voice was heard from one end of the room and everybody hung their heads over their plates. She saw that a pale-tace woman was watching her closely. On the third bell, everybody picked up their knife and fork and began eating. The author was so scared and confused that she started to cry.

3. What terrible warning did Judewin give Zitkala-Sa?

Ans. Judewin, who knew little English, said she had overheard the pale-face woman talk about cutting their long hair. This piece of information terrified Zitkala-Sa because their mothers had taught them that only unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair shingled by the enemy. Among their people, short hair was worn by mourners and shingled hair by cowards.

4. …for now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder. Who is “I” here? What made her feel so? (…for now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder. 

Ans. There is the narrator, an American Indian woman named Gertrude Simmons Bonnin who adopted the pen-name Zitkala-Sa. This was the feeling which came to her mind when, against her wishes and despite her resistance, her hair was cropped off as an oppressive measure by the Christian missionaries. She had suffered extreme indignities since the day she was taken away from her mother. She had been tossed about like a wooden puppet. In her grief at her hair being shingled, she moaned for her mother; but there was none to comfort her. She realized that her life henceforth would be like one of the many little animals driven by a herder.

5. Discuss Bama’s innocent pleasures as experienced by her.

Ans. Bama’a walk home from school was so filled with fun that she prolonged the ten minute walk to almost thirty. She watched all sorts of entertaining things like the performing monkey or the snake-charmer, the man who cycled non-stop for days or the spinning wheels. She was fascinated by the Maariyaata temple, its magnificent bells and the offerings that people made during festivals. Nothing escaped her notice. She stopped by for the political rally or the street play, the puppet show or the fabulous stunt performance. Even the daily activities like the waiter cooling coffee or people chopping onions attracted her attention and she always delayed her reaching home.

6. When did the narrator first learn about untouchability?

Ans. Bama, the narrator, was very young when she learnt about untouchability and that she too belonged to such a caste. One day, as she was on her way back home from school, she was amused by a strange scene. A threshing floor had been set up at the corner of her street. The landlord was watching the men working there. Then came an old man from the bazaar, carrying a food packet but holding it only by the string. The sight amused her because she felt the packet might fall off any moment. She related the incident to her brother but he was not at all amused. He explained the reality of the situation. The landlord belonged to a high caste while the old man belonged to a low caste. Therefore, he couldn’t touch the food packet since, doing that, the food would be considered polluted and the landlord would not eat it. Bama was so enraged and provoked that she felt like touching the packet herself straightaway.

7. What occasioned the feeling of anger and revolt in the young Tamil girl? 

Ans. The anger and revolt in the young girl was provoked by the knowledge that she and people of their caste and community were considered untouchables because of their caste. When she learnt that the old man carrying the food packet for the landlord was not allowed to touch the food because he belonged to a caste considered as ‘low’, she was enraged. They were never considered as equal human beings by those who belonged to high’ castes.

8. Describe the important social issues raised by the two women in Memories of Childhood’.

Ans. The important social issue raised by Zitkala-Sa is racial discrimination arising out of one’s cultural differences and supposed supremacy, and also due to the difference in skin colour. It is about the atrocities perpetrated by Christian missionaries on Native Americans.

Bama’s issue is casteism or discrimination and subjugation of so-called lower castes by the upper castes. It is about ‘untouchability which was very common in some parts of India.

9. We too are human beings’. Explain the relevance of these words in the context of present Indian society. 

Ans. This is a cry from the soul of every underprivileged person in society. Even today, there are reports in newspapers about casteism and gender bias. It is very sad that in the twenty – first century, when technology has made unimaginable progress, people are still precising caste politics and gender discrimination. In India, we still have remote villages where the caste system strongly prevails. So does the oppression on the girl child. It is a sorry state of affairs though there have been several constitutional provisions for equality and social justice.

10. What were the words that changed Bama’s life and he future? 

Ans. Bama was ignorant of the concept of casteism till her brother told her about it. One day, when she related an incident of a man from her street carrying food for the landlord but holding the packet merely by its strings, her brother explained the reality behind the scene that had so amused her. He told her that there was nothing funny about the man when he carried the packet like that. Everybody else believed they belonged to an upper caste and therefore must not touch people of the caste to which Bama belonged. If they did, they would be polluted. That is why the man dared not touch the food. Because they were born into that community, they were stripped of their honour, dignity or respect. It is only through education that they can progress and throw away the indignities. He told her that if she could remain ahead in studies, others would naturally come to her or attach themselves to her.

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