A LETTER TO GOD

Notes by- Abhilasha Shrivastava

Reference to Context-

1. One of the employees, who was a postman and also helped at the post office, went to his
boss laughing heartily and showed him the letter to God. Never in his career as a postman
had he known that address.
a. The letter to God contained-
I. a plea
II. an order
III. a complaint
b. What made the employee laugh heartily?
I. the address on the envelope
II. the foolishness of the writer of the letter
III. his own ignorance.
c. What did the postmaster do?
I. Decided to sustain the faith of the writer of the letter
II. Told the postman to reply
III. Sent the desired amount of money.
2. Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money; such was his confidence but
he became angry when he counted the money. God could not have made a mistake nor
could he have denied Lencho what he had requested.
a. What made Lencho angry?
I. God’s inefficiency
II. Less money in the envelope
III. The cheating done by post office employees.
b. How did God help Lencho?
I. By sending money
II. Through the goodness of the postmaster
III. By sending him a little more than half of the money demanded.
3. How did Lencho express his happiness on falling rain? 2
4. ‘In the heart of all who lived in that solitary house in the middle of the valley, there was a
single hope:’ What hope is the author talking about? How did that hope help? 5
5. Explain the irony in the story?
The story ends ironically because Lencho calls those very employees of the post office as
crooks who actually collected money for him as an act of charity. But since, they were only
able to collect 70 pesos which made Lencho think that 30 pesos were stolen by the post
office employees.
6. What incidents in the story bring out the utter simplicity of Lencho?

After the hailstorm, the crops of Lencho were completely destroyed and nothing was left. His writing letter
to God and not to his relatives, friends or a govt. organisation for help brings out his utter simplicity as it is
known that God helps us through humanity only. The second incident is when Lencho received 30 pesos
less and blamed the post office employees for taking away that money without realising that the money
was collected as an act of charity by the post master and other employees.

Theme of the story- The story ‘A Letter to God’ talks about the unshakable faith of a hardworking farmer in
God but at the same time he had almost no faith in humanity. The faith of the farmer is rewarded but the
story also brings about a harsh reality that the good deeds sometimes go unappreciated and may even be
disregarded if hidden from the person getting the benefits as happened with the post master who gave a
part of his salary and collected money from the others to help the farmer. The story also brings out two
types of conflicts- between man and nature and between the humans themselves.

Character sketch of Lencho- Lencho was a hardworking farmer who worked in his fields knew them very
well. He was also an independent man which is evident from the fact that he lived in a place where he had
no neighbours. After the destruction of the crop by hailstorm, we come across the undaunted faith of
Lencho in God when he decides to write a letter to God sure of getting the help. This also highlights his
innocence. The firm belief of the farmer in God also impressed the post master. We can also call Lencho
foolish as we all know that God comes to our help through helpful human beings but he calls the post
office employees as a ‘bunch of crooks’. He blamed those people who actually helped him and never tried
to find out who sent the money.

Character sketch of the post master- We see the postmaster as a sensitive and a sympathetic person. He
immediately decides to help the needy farmer. The postmaster’s deep understanding of human behaviour
makes him send the money without revealing his identity. He does not want to shake the faith of Lencho in
God. He was also a very kind and generous man as he also contributed a part of his salary to help the poor
farmer.

Explain the two types of conflicts in the story.

There are two types of conflicts highlighted in the story which also form an integral part of the theme. The
first conflict is between the nature and man where we see that the nature overcomes and destroys the
farmer’s fields. Lencho is left helpless as he has no saved money to help him in his bad days. The second
kind of conflict is between the humans where we see that Lencho has no faith in humanity and writes a
letter to God to help him least realizing the fact that God comes to our aid only through human beings.