Short Questions

Q No:1 Define a short story. What is the difference between a short story and a novel?
Ans: A short story is a fully developed story which is shorter than a novel and longer than a fable.
It often has a few characters in the plot. The main difference between short story and novel is their
length; a short story is generally shorter than a novel as it is intended to be read in a single setting.
Short stories generally range anywhere from 1,500 to 30,000 words whereas novels start from
about 50,000 words.
2: What does the cage symbolize in "A Hunger Artist"?
Ans: The cage in "A Hunger Artist" symbolizes the protagonist's alienation from society. The
spectators who watch his performance do not understand the artist's striving for perfection. Instead
of an artist at work, all that the audience can see is a madman who's cheating them, pretending to
fast when he actually isn't. The cage can also be said to symbolize security, something that protects
the artist from a hostile society.
3: How does the hunger artist represent humankind?
Ans: The huger artiest represents the humankind because he is dying to earn some coins to buy
bread like many people of the world who are striving hard to earn their living. Similarly, many
people die of hunger every year across the world like the hunger artist who are ignored like the
hunger artist. This story represents an interesting paradox that someone is dying to earn his bread.
4: What is the principal motivation for hunger artist?
Ans: He wanted more publicity. Unlike the artist, the impresario's motivation is to develop the
artist's career by creating a public image designed to please the crowds. The impresario limits the
artist's fasting performances to a maximum of forty days, because he knows that the crowds lose
interest after this point.
5: How does the prisoner manage to escape from the ceremony in “The Three Strangers”?
Ans: The prisoner escapes from the christening celebration by going out with the search party and
then doubling back to the house, eating and drinking a bit more, and then leaving for “home,” as
he tells the executioner. No one realizes that this gaunt man in the chimney corner is actually the
escaped prisoner until he is long gone.
6: Why is the title of the story appropriate in "A Cup of Tea"?
Ans: The tile of ‘A Cup of Tea’ is appropriate because whole story revolves around a cup of tea.
The plot of the story hinges on a nameless and hungry young woman who asks the very wealthy
Rosemary for the price of a cup of tea. Rosemary finds this extraordinary and thinks it will be an
adventure to take her home.
7: What kind of a relationship do Rosemary and Philip share in "A Cup of Tea"?
Ans: Rosemary's husband, Phillip treats Rosemary like a child. The identity that Phillip gives her
is value from beauty and wealth. Phillip called smith pretty, which stripped the value from beauty.
a seemingly Troubled girl who came up to rosemary and asked for tea.
8: What is the theme or central idea of the story “A Cup of Tea”?
Ans: The basic theme of the story is womanly jealousy, which, when aroused in a woman, negates
her good qualities and she becomes petty. Rosemary's action illustrates this well. The basic conflict
in “A Cup of Tea” is as removed from us as the society in which it is set.
09: What is the symbolic significance of the old man and his enormous wings?
Ans: Wings represent power, speed, and limitless freedom of motion. In the Christian tradition,
angels are often represented as beautiful winged figures, and García Márquez plays off of this
cultural symbolism because, ironically, the wings of the “angel” in the story convey only a sense
of age and disease.
10: What were the three questions that occurred in the tsar's mind?
Ans: The tsar wants to know the answers to three questions that he hopes will make him a more
effective ruler. The three questions are; What's the right time to begin everything? Who are the
right people to listen to and whom to avoid? What's the most important thing to do?
11: What were hermit's answers to the tsar's three questions in "The Three Questions"?
Ans: The hermit's answers to the king's three questions in "Three Questions" are that the right time
to begin everything is now, the most important person is the one that you're with, and that the most
important thing to do is to do good to the person that you're with. Unbeknownst to the king, he
already answered all his questions by tending to the wounded man.
12: How did the hermit answer the questions of the king through his actions as a live
example?
Ans: The hermit finally pointed out the answer to the king’s questions of through the incident that
had just occurred deliberately tested the king's patience and made him dig the ground and wait for
the answers. From the incident that had just occurred. Hermit made the king realise that the most
important time for every action is present, the most important person is the one who you are with
at the time and most important to do is to do good for that person.
13: What is the message of “Eveline” by James Joyce?
Ans: Eveline” addresses the subject of death both literally, as when Eveline lists off the people in
her life who have died, and figuratively, in several other life events that become metaphors for
death. She seems to be very aware of death, and the fact that she has been left behind, either by
people dying or leaving.