My Financial Career

Story https://americanliterature.com/author/stephen-leacock/short-story/my-financial-career

Summary
Stephen P. H. Butler Leacock FRSC was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and
humorist. Between the years 1915 and 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humorist
in the world. He is known for his light humour along with criticisms of people's follies. 

My Financial Career is a funny and humorous story that reflects the

writer's fear and embezzlement whenever he entered the bank. Everything
related to the bank made him vexed and rattled. He became an irresponsible
idiot.

It occurred once, he got his salary increased to fifty dollars and he thought to
deposit that amount in the bank that seemed to him a safe place. Having
fear, he entered the bank and asked the accountant about the manager.

The accountant took him to the manager where the writer informed the
manager that he wanted to talk to him in solitude. The manager got anxious
and looked at the writer in some alarm and took him into a separate room.

He locked the door and misunderstood that the writer had some awful secret
to tell and he might belong to some detective agency Pinkerton. The writer
informed him that he was not from any secret agency and was there to just
open an account.

The manager thought him to be a big businessman and wanted to deposit a

big amount in the bank. But he got disappointed on hearing that the writer
wanted to deposit fifty-six dollars only in the bank.

The manager called the account in a loud voice and instructed him to open
an account for the writer and said the writer goodbye. The writer found an
open door in that room and entered the door considering him the exit but it
was safe.

The writer was ordered to go out and the accountant brought him out. The
accountant deposited fifty-six dollars in his account and returned him the
rest amount. Suddenly the writer thought that he needed six dollars for his
routine use.
He signed on the cheque and headed it to the accountant but he wrote fifty-
six dollars instead of six. The accountant was surprised to see all that and
inquired him if he wanted to withdraw the whole deposited amount.

The writer felt his fault but he did not want to be laughed at. He felt that he
was insulted in that bank. He had no intention to deposit the amount in the
bank. The accountant returned him fifty-six dollars. 

The writer came out of the bank and heard a burst of laughter behind him.
Since then the writer did not go to the bank and started to put the cash in
his trousers' pocket and saving amount in his socks

Short Questions and Answers

Q.1: What light do the following expression throw on
Leacock's state of mind when he entered the bank; looked
timidly round, shambled in?
Ans: These expressions show his nervousness and confusion. When he
entered the bank, he got rattled and embezzled. He could not face the clerks
and the other members of the staff. He became an irresponsible stupid.

Q.2: Why did the manager come to think that Leacock had
an awful secret to reveal?
Ans: When the writer told the manager that he wanted to see him alone, he
looked at him in alarm and thought that he was a detective who had a
horrible secret to reveal.

Q.3: What was the attitude of the manager towards

Leacock on hearing that he wished to deposit only 56
dollars in the bank?
Ans: When the manager learned that he was neither a detective nor a
millionaire, he looked relieved. On knowing that Leacock wanted to deposit
only 56 dollars, he grew unkind and cold. He got up, opened the door, called
the accountant and asked him to open the account and coldly asked the
writer to leave.

Q.4: Write at least two blunders  Leacock committed after

leaving the manager's office?
Ans: He stepped out into the safe instead of going out of the manager's
room. He rolled his fifty-six dollars in the shape of a ball and pushed it at the
accountant. Later, he deposited all the money. But suddenly, he remembered
that he needed six dollars for the present use. He wrote a cheque, but
instead of writing 6, he wrote 56 dollars.

Q.5: After this misadventure in the bank where did

Leacock keep his money?
Ans: After this misadventure in the bank, the writer began to put his money
in cash in his trousers' pocket and his saved amount in silver dollars in a
sock.

Q.6: Give as many examples as you can to show that

Leacock was feeling completely lost in the bank all the
time he was there.
Ans: First of all, he created confusion by asking to meet the manager alone.
Then he entered into the safe mistankenly and in confusion. In the last, he
wrote the cheque for fifty-six instead of six dollars. This shows that he was
completely lost there.

Humour and Satire in My Financial Career

Stephen Leacock, a Canadian humorist has employed his creative genius to satirize the
absurdities of the world where a common man like the narrator experiences fear which creates
distrust in him on the occasion of opening a bank account in his much acclaimed short story ‘My
Financial Career’. Humour stems from the peculiar behaviour of an ordinary fellow who finds the
way of this world highly incomprehensive and challenging. The story focuses on the sad reality
that how the vulnerable people feel when they have to face the bureaucrats.

‘My Financial Career’ is one of the earlier pieces of Leacock which is autobiographical in
character and pokes fun at the social absurdities and irrational behaviour of the bureaucrats
towards the simple man like the narrator of the short story. It delineates how it creates fear and
distrust among the common men when they have to visit the institutes like the bank.

The title of the story is itself humorous as the title of this short story tempts the readers to
believe that the writer must be talking about major ups and downs in the financial investments
of the narrator in shares, acquisition of land or gold but they are disillusioned soon as it is a
story of an ordinary employee, earning meagre amount every month. He is contented with what
he gets and minor increment of fifty dollars leads him to the bank for the safety of his saving. His
first encounter with the bank creates a kind of fearfulness.
The situation in which the narrator is caught clearly suggests that it requires a special skill to get
your work done easily; it is the common experience of the vulnerable people that the
government officials are hardly co-operative or willing to extend any help needed.
My Experiments with Truth
The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Gujarati: Satya Na Prayogo athva
Atmakatha, lit. 'Experiments of Truth or Autobiography') is the autobiography of Mohandas K.
Gandhi, covering his life from early childhood through to 1921. Starting with his birth and
parentage, Gandhi has given reminiscences of childhood, child marriage, relation with his wife
and parents, experiences at the school, his study tour to London, efforts to be like the English
gentleman, experiments in dietetics, his going to South Africa, his experiences of colour
prejudice, his quest for dharma, social work in Africa, return to India, his slow and steady work for
political awakening and social activities. The book ends abruptly after a discussion of the Nagpur
session of the Congress in 1915.

Themes

Philosophical Viewpoints: Non-violence

In a world where war is common, violence can start to seem kind of acceptable…as long as it's against the baddies. After all, many

people would fight to defend themselves or get revenge—which they might consider to be justice.

Gandhi fully rejects this approach in The Story of My Experiments with Truth. But his philosophy of non-violence, or ahimsa, means more

than simply refraining from striking your opponents. It means seeking to do them good. Some seriously inspiring quotes are headed

your way—after all, some of these gems inspired Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Truth
What is truth? According to Gandhi in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments
with Truth, it's God and the greatest good after which we should be seeking. While
most of us associate the term "experiment" with controlled settings in laboratories
(and maybe with Frankenstein), Gandhi applies it to his actions in the everyday
world.

He seeks to find truth by participating in politics, restraining his passions, and being
honest in business and law. The foundation of his search for truth is ahimsa, or non-
violence. Check out these quotations to better understand his view.

Religion
Inspired by his devout mother and the religious tolerance of his father, Gandhi
sought to understand all the religions he came across…and he describes this
process in The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

His own view is that God is truth and that to realize yourself fully—which he sees as a
religious quest—you must participate in all areas of life, including politics. Whereas
many feel religion to be a private matter, something you shouldn't discuss with
others, Gandhi, while tolerant, is forthright about his own beliefs.
Justice and Judgment
Often we know the basics of history's social justice movements—what legislation
was passed, the names of leaders—but less often do we see behind the scenes. In
his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi shows us what
made him able to lead India to independence.

His spiritual training was the source of his power, and he also developed strong
views on how public workers should handle money and conduct their lives. Take a
look at these quotations to understand Gandhi's advice on making the world a better
place.

Duty
Duty is, well, what you have to do. But what happens when your sense of duty
conflicts with other ideals? In The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi
explains why he participates in war on the side of the British Empire despite his
commitment to non-violence.

Since he demands rights from the empire, he feels he's obliged to defend it when
called upon to do so, and he thinks this choice might develop in him the capacity to
resist war. Besides the war shenanigans, Gandhi also tells us about his and the
community's duty to fight for political rights.

Morality and Ethics

In The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi displays an admirable dedication
to morality and ethics—far more than most people can claim. But by no means is he
perfect; he tells us how he learns from his own wrongdoing.

But from honesty to vegetarianism, from keeping vows to self-denial, these

quotations reveal the depth of Gandhi's commitment to doing what he believes is
right. After all, he thinks that morality is the basis of all things, including the
experiments by which he lives his life.

Society and Class

The caste system in India is a centuries-old system dividing up people by profession
and birth, but it's changed in recent times, with discrimination based on caste
becoming illegal. That's in part thanks to Gandhi, who tells us in his
autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth about prejudice against the
untouchables, or members of a group considered below the four main castes.
The caste system is part of his religion of Hinduism, but Gandhi thinks his faith must
be changed to abolish untouchability. These quotations depict what untouchability
was like in Gandhi's day.

Education
In The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi tells us his own theories on
education—learn multiple languages, strengthen your body, and mind your
handwriting. He thinks children learn best from their parents and strives to teach his
own kids—but says he neglects their literary training.

He also believes teachers should practice what they preach—so his students took up
spiritual studies and learned about liberty. What would it be like to have had Gandhi
as your teacher? We're pretty sure it'd be a different experience.

Foreignness and "the Other"

In The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi describes the relationship between
the foreign British rulers and the subjugated Indian members of the empire's colony.
The story starts with himself as he travels to England to study law. He temporarily
adopts some British customs but sticks to his vows instead of taking up meat eating
and liquor drinking.
When he returns to India years later, he advocates for the speaking of the native
languages over the rulers' English, demonstrating the importance of language in
identity formation. These quotations show how the idea of foreignness played out in
the life of the famous Indian leader.

Possible questions

1. What might have happened if Gandhi hadn't been assassinated?

2. What do you think about Gandhi's self-purification and self-restraint? Is there any
benefit to indulging your passions and having wild feelings?
3. Is non-violence the only correct way to change society? Is there ever justification for
violence? Consider, for example, the case of self-defense. Is it okay to attack
someone who has attacked you or who might attack you?
4. What does Gandhi say about atheism? Is it possible to accomplish the things he
accomplished without religion?
5. Could Gandhi have had the success he had as a woman? What is the status of
women in this book?
6. What might Gandhi try to do if he lived today? What campaigns to make the world a
better place might he launch?

The Last Leaf

 https://edumantra.net/learn-english/the-last-leaf-theme-title-message/#:~:text=The
%20story%20is%20based%20on,the%20situation%20is%20not%20bad.

Nissim Ezekiel’s" The Professor"

Message
Nissim Ezekiel through his poem " The Professor" explores the Urban
thinking pattern of the Indians and is a satire on the typical indian
mentality , where success is measured on the basis of a person's
materialistic wealth, the age-old inequality of gender prevails , son's
success is measured by his managerial jobs and daughter's  marriage
in a well-to-do family.

The poet has ridiculed the pretence of the Indians, who claim that
they are changing with time , but this change is merely a pretence.
There is no visible change in their thoughts.
Remember me? I am Professor Sheth.
Once I taught you geography. Now
I am retired, though my health is good. My wife died some years back.
By God's grace, all my children
Are well settled in life.
One is Sales Manager,
One is Bank Manager,
Both have cars. (Satire on Indian way to measure success on the basis of materialistic
wealth}
Other also doing well, though not so well.
Every family must (a) have black sheep.
Sarala and Tarala are married, (gender inequality- daughter’s happiness on the basis of
her husband’s material wealth)
Their husbands are very nice boys.
You won't believe but I have eleven grandchildren.
How many issues you have? Three?
That is good. These are days of family planning. (Satire again that on the days of family
planning he is happy with 11 grandchildren)
I am not against (it). We have to change with times.
Whole world is changing. In India also
We are keeping up. Our progress is progressing.
Old values are going, new values are coming.
Everything is happening with leaps and bounds.
I am going out rarely, now and then
Only, this is (the) price of old age
But my health is O.K. Usual aches and pains.
No diabetes, no blood pressure, no heart attack.
This is because of sound habits in youth.
How is your health keeping?
Nicely? I am happy for that.
This year I am sixty-nine
and hope to score a century.
You were so thin, like stick,
Now you are man of weight and consequence.
That is good joke.
If you are coming again this side by chance,
Visit please my humble residence also.
I am living just on opposite house's backside.
Main Themes
This poem is written in the form of a monologue. This means that there is only
a single speaker in the poem, and he speaks to someone who listens to him
silently, never once responding to his comments or queries with any words.
Here it is only Professor Sheth who speaks and never his former student. The
diction that the professor uses would be quite unusual for native English
speakers, but it is very common for Indian speakers of English. Ezekiel has
deliberately used such diction to mimic and parody the way in which most
Indians speak English.

Ezekiel often satirizes Indian English in his poetry, as seen here and in another
poem such as ‘Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T. S.’ What is also remarkable
about this poem is the way in which Ezekiel has focused on the generation
gap in the form of the professor’s realization. While speaking to his former
student, the professor realizes that times have changed drastically since his
youth and his old age and that such changes are happening at an alarmingly
fast rate.
Even though the professor is old-fashioned and doesn’t have the best sense of
humor, he is quite endearing in his own way. He speaks in a rather uninhibited
fashion. He also doesn’t hesitate to stop in the street to talk to a man who had
been his student years ago. Perhaps this episode is drawn from Ezekiel’s own
life. As we know, both Ezekiel and his father had been eminent professors in
their own time. So meeting former students would have been an altogether
too common experience for them, especially since they had lived the majority
of their lives in Bombay, which is where they had taught as well. Perhaps
Ezekiel cherished his memories of meeting his own or his father’s students
fondly, and that is why he has written this poem to commemorate such
memories.

The Professor: Theme

Satire on Indian English: Ezekiel satirizes the way in which Indians speak in
English through this poem. This is noticeable in the use of present continuous
tense, where simple present tense should be the norm. For example, the
professor says, “I am going out rarely,” when he could have just said, “I go out
rarely.” The professor also often omits certain parts of speech while speaking.
That is why he says “I am not against” instead of saying “I am not against it” or
“Every family must have black sheep” instead of “Every family must have a
black sheep.” His phrases are repetitive, as in “Our progress is also
progressing,” and he uses such formal and outdated words as “issues” in place
of “children.” Even his puns are centered on the use of language, such as when
he compares reaching the age of 100 with scoring a century or when he uses
the double meaning of the word “weight” to make a joke. Ezekiel is masterful
in observing these peculiarities of Indian English and transferring them
effortlessly into his poetry. They make his poems humorous and enjoyable to
read.

Generation gap: Professor Sheth realizes that many changes have happened

since he was a young man and after his retirement. In his generation, it was
quite common to have a large number of children. However, in subsequent
generations, that number had reduced as a result of the use of birth control.
Moreover, India has become more and more advanced in terms of
technological and scientific innovations. All this is happening so fast that he
cannot even keep track of all the progress. This does not sadden him, though.
He does not seem to especially affected by it. He accepts it as a fact of life
that is out of his control, and so he is indifferent to it.
Analysis of Prelutsky’s “Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face”

“Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face” published in 2008 is another of Jack Prelutsky’s comic
poems written especially for children. In his poem, he asks the readers to be glad of their
nose, because it is where it should be – if it were someplace else, we might have disliked our
“nose a lot”.
Had our noses been placed between our toes, attached on top of our heads or even inside our
noses, it would have been rather inconvenient for us. He further provides various comic
analogies until wrapping up with “be glad your nose is on your face!”

The theme is also the moral of the poem – be grateful for what you have. Prelutsky provides
various humorous imagery of placing the nose in the oddest places and then adds the equally
bizarre consequences to describe why it is best to be satisfied with what one has. The poem
reads like a simple nursery rhyme, even the lexis is rather basic so that children can find sheer
pleasure by reading it without scratching their heads.

Jack Prelutsky’s attempt to give children an understanding of core values is praiseworthy – he

ropes them in by the playfulness of the poem and then enlightens them. Although he uses
“precious” to describe the nose, his metaphorical jest starts when he places the nose all over
the body – the toe, the head, and the ears.

When the nose is “sandwiched in between your toes”, the nose would be forced to do nothing
but smell feet all the time. This shows us that the nose is already in its best position, and
placing it elsewhere will make it a nuisance. In the last stanza, the message asking “to be
glad” for what one has is provided again, so that the readers do not lose the underlying
message in all the razzmatazz of the “nose-placement”.

Still I Rise
BY  MA YA A NGE LO U
“Still I Rise” is a poem by the American civil rights activist and writer Maya
Angelou. One of Angelou's most acclaimed works, the poem was published
in Angelou’s third poetry collection And Still I Rise in 1978. Broadly
speaking, the poem is an assertion of the dignity and resilience of
marginalized people in the face of oppression. Because Angelou often
wrote about blackness and black womanhood, "Still I Rise" can also be
read more specifically as a critique of anti-black racism.

“Still I Rise” presents the bold defiance of the speaker, implied to be a black woman,
in the face of oppression. This oppressor, addressed throughout as “you,” is full of
“bitter, twisted lies” and “hatefulness” toward the speaker, and hopes to see the
speaker “broken” in both body and spirit. However, despite all the methods of the
oppressor to “shoot,” “cut,” or “kill” her, the speaker remains defiant by continuing to
“rise” in triumph.

Angelou was a staunch civil rights activist, and “Still I Rise” can be taken as a
powerful statement specifically against anti-black racism in America. At the same
time, its celebration of dignity in the face of oppression feels universal, and can be
applied to any circumstance in which a marginalized person refuses to be broken by
—and, indeed, repeatedly rises above—prejudice and hatred.

Society relentlessly tries to humiliate and demean the speaker, who has little power
to fight back. The speaker acknowledges that society “may” enact violence upon her.
It also has the ability to write “lies” about the speaker and present them as facts. The
speaker does not have the ability to prevent any of this, and, in fact, the attempts to
harm the speaker only escalate as the poem continues. This “you” may crush the
speaker into the dirt; it may “shoot,” “cut,” and eventually even “kill” the speaker with
“hatefulness.” An oppressive society, the poem is saying, presents a clear and
pressing danger to the speaker’s body and mind.

Yet the speaker responds to this treatment not only by surviving, but by thriving—
something that provokes anger from her oppressor. The speaker wonders—her tone
tongue-in-cheek—why the oppressor is so “upset,” “offend[ed],” and “gloom[y].”
Perhaps, she proposes, it is because of her confident “walk,” generous “laugh[ter],”
or dazzling “dance.” In other words, the speaker presents her joy—her refusal to
bend to the speaker’s will—as its own act of defiance. Moreover, all of her acts are
associated with traditional signs of wealth in the form of “oil,” “gold,” and “diamonds.”

Regardless of the oppressor’s negative and hateful responses, the speaker

continues to prosper. The speaker even explicitly rejects the oppressor’s desire to
“see [her] broken.” The oppressor wants to elicit “lowered eyes,” “teardrops,” and
“soulful cries” from the speaker, to see her downtrodden. Thus simply living with joy,
pride, and dignity is an act of resistance against and triumph over oppression.

Indeed, the speaker “rise[s]” repeatedly over the oppressor’s violent hatred and
prejudice. The speaker’s rise is first compared to the rise of “dust,” a reference to the
earth. Later, her rise transforms from the rise of “dust” to “air,” which is located
physically above the earth. The progression of these comparisons over the course of
the poem reinforces the speaker’s rise over oppression. And just like the rise of
“moons and … suns,” the speaker’s rise is inevitable and unstoppable. Her dignity
 and strength are qualities that society can’t touch, no matter how hard it tries. The
speaker is thus able to ascend out of “history’s shame” and “a past that’s rooted in
pain,” both of which are particular references to slavery, by living with pride and joy.
Indeed, her rise—a powerful form of resistance against oppression—is the ultimate
“dream” and “hope” of oppressed peoples.

Given this context, the poem has clear and particular resonance for black
Americans. More broadly, the poem is a ringing assertion of the dignity of
marginalized people and an insistence on their ultimate, inevitable triumph over
violence and hate.

Still I Rise
BY  MA YA A NGE LO U
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

“The Professor” -A poem by

Nissim Ezekiel
JANUARY 28, 2019/NISHEEDHI

Remember me? I am Professor Sheth.

Once I taught you geography.
Now I am retired, though my health is good.
My wife died some years back.
By God’s grace, all my children
Are well settled in life.
One is Sales Manager,One is Bank Manager,
Both have cars.Other also doing well, though not so well.
Every family must have black sheep.
Sarala and Tarala are married,
Their husbands are very nice boys.
You won’t believe but I have eleven grandchildren.
How many issues you have? Three?
That is good. These are days of family planning.
I am not against. We have to change with times.
Whole world is changing. In India also
We are keeping up. Our progress is progressing.
Old values are going, new values are coming.
Everything is happening with leaps and bounds.
I am going out rarely, now and then
Only, this is price of old age
But my health is O.K. Usual aches and pains.
No diabetes, no blood pressure, no heart attack.
This is because of sound habits in youth.
How is your health keeping? Nicely?
I am happy for that.
This year I am sixty-nine and hope to score a century.
You were so thin, like stick,
Now you are man of weight and consequence.
That is good joke.
If you are coming again this side by chance,
Visit please my humble residence also.
I am living just on opposite house’s backside.

Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face

Jack Prelutsky - 1940-

Be glad your nose is on your face,

not pasted on some other place,
for if it were where it is not,
you might dislike your nose a lot.

Imagine if your precious nose

were sandwiched in between your toes,
that clearly would not be a treat,
for you'd be forced to smell your feet.

Your nose would be a source of dread

were it attached atop your head,
it soon would drive you to despair,
forever tickled by your hair.
Within your ear, your nose would be
an absolute catastrophe,
for when you were obliged to sneeze,
your brain would rattle from the breeze.

Your nose, instead, through thick and thin,

remains between your eyes and chin,
not pasted on some other place--
be glad your nose is on your face!