NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Snapshots Chapter 2 – The Address
The Address NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers
The Address Reading with insight
Question 1.
‘Have you come back?’ said the woman. ‘I thought that no one had come back.’ Does this statement give some clue about the story? If yes, what is it?
Answer:
Yes, the above said statement in question gives us a clue about the story. It clearly proves that the lady, whom the young girl had paid a visit, knew her already and didn’t want to meet her.
Question 2.
The story is divided into pre-war and post-war times. What hardships do you think the girl underwent during these times?
Answer:
The girl suffered severely. She was severed from every precious household things, house, even her relations during the period. The story tells clearly, earlier she was a happy soul but during post-war period, she was a lost soul living in a rented room in very miserable condition.
Question 3.
Why did the narrator of the story want to forget the address?
Answer:
The narrator of the story is a young girl, a victim of war. The war had left her a desolate soul. But the narrator appears to be a very optimistic sort of girl. After paying a tributary visit to see her long served household articles, she decided to forget everything about her past even the address as she wanted to start a fresh. Everything linked with her past had lost its value to her.
Question 4.
‘The Address’ is a story of human predicament that follows war.’ Comment.
Answer:
Yes, it’s quite aptly said that ‘The Address’ is a poignant story of human predicament that follows war. The story seems to discuss about the loss of a little girl after war in Holland. The protagonist was Mrs S’s daughter leading a very happy and peaceful life with her family luring pre-war time.
She had almost all the luxuries and decorations at her home, large vases, silver cutlery, antique plates, crockery, Hanakkah candle-holder, pewter plates, white pot with a gold border on the lid. So to say, the girl had nothing to :
complain.
Then the fatal war broke out and a mysterious old acquaintance appeared from nowhere named Mrs Dorling living at Marconi Street No. 46. She ‘helped’ the protagonist’s mother to keep safe their household possessions. She took away all their household goods to her own home and never looked back. The losses for the poor girl also never hesitated to befall on her.
War created havoc to her not only material life but also in her emotional life. She lost her all the relations, home everything else having relation with her happy past life. When she paid a visit to have a look at her old possessions, she felt like a lost soul. She felt so heavy-hearted, that she left the place, never to return. War made her so severed that she resolved to erase the address from her memory.
The Address Extra Questions and Answers
The Address Extra Questions Short Answer Type
Question 1.
Why does the narrator think that she has rung the wrong bell?
Answer:
The narrator thinks so as the woman owner of the house shows no sign of recognition. She refuses to recognize the narrator.
Question 2.
How does the narrator realize that she has rung the right bell?
Answer:
The woman occupant of the house was wearing the green knitted cardigan of the narrator’s mother though the wooden buttons had become pale from washing. When she realized that the narrator was looking at her cardigan, she became conscious and half hid behind the door. Then the narrator knew that she had rung the right bell.
Question 3.
Who was the woman with the broad back? Why did she take away all the nice things from the narrator’s house?
Answer:
The woman seemed an old acquaintance of the narrator’s mother whom she hadn’t seen for years. The war for liberation had broken out. It was supposed that they would have to leave the house. In that case, all the household articles would be left behind. Perhaps the woman Marconi Street, the woman with a broad back was unaffected with the war. So to keep safe the nice things at the narrator’s home, she carried them away.
Question 4.
To what extent did the life assume its normal self after the war for the narrator?
Answer:
Life returned to its normal self after the war gradually for the narrator also but only upto the extent that the bread became lighter in colour. Now she could sleep unthreatened. But the loss of relations and possessions made her feel about them.
Question 5.
Why did the narrator go to Number 46, in Marconi Street?
Answer:
Number 46, in Marconi Street, was the address, where the valuable possessions of her household were supposed lying safe. So the narrator went there as to see them, touch them and remember them once again.
Question 6.
Why did the old possessions of the narrator lose their value?
Answer:
After war, when life returned to normalcy, the narrator decided to see her old possessions at Number 46, in Marconi Street. But as he reached there the things lost their, value firstly because they were arranged in a tasteless way. Secondly and more importantly, the things had an association with the relations which no more existed. So the narrator better felt it right to leave them behind.
Question 7.
What was the narrator’s reaction as she found herself in front of her old household things?
Answer:
The narrator was horrified and oppressed as she found herself in front of her old household things. She also felt a sense of estrangement with those things finding them arranged in a tasteless and strange atmosphere.
Question 8.
What impression do you form of the girl of the woman with a broad back?
Answer:
The girl is about 15 years old. She seems to be a simpleton fellow. She let the narrator inside the house, though a stranger to her. She showed her the collection of her mother’s valuable articles. She offered the narrator a cup of tea also.
Question 9.
What is the present state of life for the narrator?
Answer:
The narrator now is severed from her every important relation and possession. Now she lives in a small rented room only. War really has a heavy toll on her personal life.
Question 10.
What is the narrator’s final resolution?
Answer:
The narrator after paying a visit at Number 46, in Marconi Street, resolved to forget the address. She didn’t want to keep the memory of the things also which reminded
her of her loss. It marks a note of optimism in the narrator’s attitude. She has decided to start afresh.
The Address Extra Questions Long Answer Type
Question 1.
Give the pen portrait of the narrator.
Answer:
The narrator lives in Holland. Life has changed drastically for her after the liberation war. Her early life. She enjoyed a happy life, with her family. She had all the belongings in her house to make life comfortable and cosy. Transformation in Her Life. The liberation war in Holland brought a sea-change in her life. Earlier, she had all the things to cling to; relations and possessions; now she has none. She even had to leave her house. Now she lives in a rented small room trying hard to collect the loose ends of life.
Her Final Resolve. After war, life had once again started treading upon the normal, track. She became curious to have a look, touch of her old stuff lying ‘safe’ in house No. 46 in Marconi Street. She took a train and went there. But Mrs. Dorling refused to recognize her. The girl had no option except to return. But again she tried. This time Mrs Dorling’s daughter, a fifteen-year-old girl opened the door.
She let her in. The narrator found her old familiar things lying in ugly way in a strange atmosphere. She felt horrified and oppressed. She decided to forget everything about her past and to start her iife in a new way with her rented room and less cutlery. The narrator’s final resolve talks about her optimistic view of life. Life has to go on. Better forget the sour past to make your future a bit easier.
Question 2.
Justify the title of the story ‘The Address’.
Answer:
The Address is quite an apt and appropriate title for the story. The story starts with the search of ‘the address’ by the protagonist. It ends with the narrator’s departure from ‘the address’ only Moreover her visit to the address brings a change in her life and motivates her to forget the sad past.
The liberation war had broken out in Holland. An old acquaintance Mrs Dorling took away all the possessions from the narrator’s house to keep them safe. The war laid the poor narrator homeless and relationless. She started living in a rented small room. One day she got curious to see her old belongings. She reached the address told by her mother a few years ago.
At the first attempt, she had to return empty-handed. She went there a second time. She was let in. But the sight of her old stuff arranged in an ugly manner in a strange atmosphere made her feel horrified. She felt as if she didn’t know the things in spite of the fact those were her familiar things.
So much so to even notice them. She felt, it’s never too late to repair the bum marks in life and realizing this, she left in a fresher mood to start her life afresh in her own way without the crutches of the sour past which would pierce sharp into her emotions. She leaves the house feeling dejected from the old things for whom she had seen hunting just to touch.
Question 3.
Give a brief note on Mrs. Dorling.
Answer:
Mrs. Dorling appears a very mysterious lady with a greedy heart and a shrewd mind. She contacted Mrs. S, only at the time when the war in Holland was about to break. She convinced Mrs. S to hand her all the possessions to her sole self to keep them safe. Mrs. S is taken in. She is too simple to question the appropriateness of the demand. Mrs Dorling insisted to take away Mrs S’s belongings.
She would come early in the morning so that she could complete her ‘errands’, unnoticed by the neighbors. One by one she took away all the stuff from Mrs S’s house. But she didn’t keep those things ‘safe’. She used them; the narrator came to know about it on her visit.
Her meanness didn’t stop here only. When the narrator (Mrs. S’s daughter) visited her, she refused to recognize her. When the narrator recognized the cardigan as her mother’s she was shrewd enough to hide herself behind the door. It was clear that she didn’t want to return those valuables.
Later when the narrator visited her house the second time, her fifteen year old daughter told that her mother was out on her important ‘errand’.It all clearly proves that Mrs. Dorling was such a fellow who would go to any extent to profit herself. Her character is typical of such rogues who crop, soar at the time of wars. Such people are after gold only.
