The Little Girl (Class 9th)

CHAPTER 3

THE LITTLE GIRL

By Katherine Mansfield

Chapter Sketch

The title of the story refers to the main character - the little girl named Kezia. The theme of the story is the relationship between children and their parents. The writer Katherine Mansfield wants to tell us that children share a very important bond of love with their parents. Although when children are young they do not feel that their parents love them because their parents are strict and many actions of the parents seems unjustified. But as children grow up they realize that all the acts done by their parents were beneficial for them. The parents were concerned for them and beneath the strictness lies a heart full of love for the children. And this bond of love between parents and their children has been highlighted through this story.

About the Characters Kezia: she is like a normal little girl. She is afraid of her father as we all do. She almost hated her father. But, later she realized her father loved her and he care about her.

Kezia’s Father: He is a strict Man. But he loves and cares for her daughter. He made Kezia feel better, when she was getting nightmares.

Kezia’s Grandmother: She is an old humble lady. She took care of Kezia when she was scolded and beaten by her father. She wanted Kezia to have good friendship with her father. She always used to encourage Kezia to talk to her father,to give him surprise gifts.

OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTER ‘The Little Girl’ is the story of a little girl, Kezia who misunderstood her father’s strictness and usually remained scared of him. She kept a distance from him, whenever he would be at home. She considered him to be as big as a giant. She would often get nervous and stutter while talking to him. She longed for his love and affection like her neighbour Mr Macdonald.

Once she was kept indoors as she was affected by cold. Her grandmother suggested that she make a gift for her father’s birthday next week. They decided that Kezia would make a pincushion for him. Kezia made a beautiful pin-cushion; but she accidentally made a mistake. She filled it with bits of paper that she got by tearing her father’s important speech. She was punished for that. This incident further estranged Kezia from her father.

She would often look at the neighbours, the Macdonalds playing joyously in their lawn. Mr. Macdonald was such a good father and played so lovingly with his children. She wondered he might be a different sort of father.

Once her mother fell ill and was hospitalized. She was left alone at home under the care of the cook. At night she had a nightmare and woke up screaming. She found her father standing by her bedside. He picked her up and took her to her room. He tucked her up in his bed and soon fell asleep. Kezia felt secure lying near her father. She realized that her father was not as big as a giant. She felt the beating of her father’s loving large heart. Finally, she realized her father was very loving and had a generous heart.

Chapter Highlights

• Kezia is a little girl, growing in her loving grandma’s care.

 • Kezia has formal relations with mother and father. She is afraid of her strict father so she stammered while talking to him. She thought him to be giantsized.

• On Sundays, Grandma sent her to spend time with parents but Kezia found her father lay down on the sofa to relax and mother busy in reading.

• One day grandma, suggested her to prepare a gift for father’s birthday.

• Kezia prepared a pincushion with a beautiful yellow silk cloth. For that, she needed scrap to fill it.

• She took some papers from father’s room and store them up to stuff them in the pincushion. It was the father’s important speech for the Port Authority.

• When Kezia was questioned, she admitted her act. Father beat Kezia with a ruler and she cried bitterly. She clung to grandma who consoled her.

• Next door neighbour Mr. Macdonald plays with his children in the evening. After watching him, Kezia concludes that all fathers are not like hers.

• One day, her mother got admitted to the hospital, she was alone at home under the care of the cook. Old nightmare haunted her – a butcher with a knife in his hand. She was too much afraid of it.

• Father came to her room hugged her, carried her to his room to comfort her.

• She realized that he was not so bad, but he was too busy to express his love. That night, she felt that her father had a big heart.

WORD MEANINGS

 a figure to be feared - a person to be feared

Glad sense of relief - feeling relaxed

Fainter and fainter - to lessen or reduce

slip down - come down quietly and unwillingly

Stutter to stammer - to speak with pauses

Wretched - unhappy, sad

on the brink of suicide - about to commit suicide

Gravely - seriously

Laboriously - with lot of effort or difficulty

Wandered into - went into, by chance

Scraps - small pieces of cloth or paper etc that are not needed

Hue and Cry - angry protest

The damned thing - used to express anger at something

Clung - to attach yourself to something

Nightmare - a bad dream

Butcher - a person who cuts animals, who cuts meat tucked up covered up nicely in bed

Snuggled - moved into a warm, comfortable position, close to another person

Question Answers

1.     Why was Kezia afraid of her father?

Kezia’s father never talked to her lovingly. He never played with her Kezia thought her father was a cruel person. She was terribly afraid of him.

2.     Who were the people in Kezia’s family?

The people in Kezia’s family were: Kezia, her father, her mother, her grandmother and the servants.

3.     What was Kezia’s father’s routine a) before going to his office b) after coming back from his office c) on Sundays?

a)     Before going to his office, he would come into Kezia’s room and give her a goodbye kiss.

b)     After coming back from his office , he would sit in the drawing room. There he would have his tea and read the newspaper.

c)     On Sundays, he would stretch himself out on the sofa in the drawing room. He would put his handkerchief on his face and his feet on a cushion. There he would sleep soundly and snore.

4.     In what ways Kezia’s grandmother encourage her to get to know her father better?

On Sundays, she would encourage Kezia to go to her father and have a nice talk with him. Then once she suggested that she should make a pin-cushion for her father. She could give it to him as a gift on his birthday.

5.     Kezia’s efforts to please her father resulted in displeasing him very much. How did this happen?

Kezia wanted to give her father a pin-cushion as a birthday gift. She made a beautiful pin-cushion of yellow silk. In order to stuff it , she tore some sheets of paper into small pieces. Unfortunately, these sheets contained an important speech to be given by her father. When the father came to know what Kezia had done, he was very angry. He hit her hands with a ruler.

6.     Kezia decides that there are ’different kinds of fathers’. What kind of father was Mr. Macdonald, and how was he different from kezia’s father?

Mr. Macdonald was a loving father. He loved to play with his children. The children felt very happy in his company. But Kezia father was very different. He never played with her. He never talked to her softly. He always talked to her angrily. Thus Kezia came to feel that her father was very cruel. She saw in him the image of a butcher.

7.     How does Kezia begin to see her father as a human being who needs her sympathy?

OR

How did Kezia’s feelings towards her father change?

Kezia used to think that her father was a cruel person. She feared and avoided him. One night, she had a nightmare. She cried for her grandmother. Her father came there. He took her in his arms. He took her to his own bed. Suddenly, Kezia realised how good and loving her father was. She realised that her father had to work hard all day. He became too tired to play with her. She lovingly placed her head on her father’s chest. Nowshe realised that her father truly needed her sympathy.

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

Question 1: To the little girl he was a figure to be feared and avoided. Every morning before going to work he came into her room and gave her a casual kiss, to which she responded with ‘Good Bye Father’. And oh, there was a glad sense of relief when she heard the noise of the carriage growing fainter and fainter down the long road! ,

1.   What was the daily routine of the father?

2.   ‘When did the daughter feel relief?

3.   Trace a word from the passage which means “answered”. 

Answer:

1.    The daily routine of Kezia’s father was to visit her daughter’s room, meet her and give her a kiss before leaving for work.

2.   The daughter felt relief when the carriage went away from the house.

3.   Responded.

Question 2: But the same old nightmare came the butcher with a knife and a rope who came nearer and nearer, with that dreadful smile, while she could not move, only stand still, crying out “Grandma!”. She woke shivering to see father beside her bed, a candle in his hand. “What is the matter?” he said.

1.   Why did she get the nightmare?

2.   Where was the butcher?

3.   Find a word from the passage that means “shake in fear and cold”.

Answer:

1.   She got the nightmare as she was alone with her father at home and her mother and granny were in the hospital.

2.   The butcher was in her dream.

3.   Shivering.

Question 3:“But it was for your b-b- birth day.” Down came the ruler on her little, pink palms. Hours later, when grandmother had wrapped her in a shawl and rocked her in the rocking-chair, the child clung to her soft body. “What did God make fathers for?” she sobbed.

1.   Who is responding in the first line and before whom?

2.   How did the father react?

3.   Find a word from the passage that means “wept”.

Answer:

1.   Kezia is responding before her father.

2.   The father became angry and beat her pink palms with a ruler.

3.   Sobbed.

Question 4: On Sunday afternoon, Grandmother sent her down to file drawing room to have a “Nice talk with Father and Mother”. But the little girl always found mother reading and father stretched out on the sofa, his handkerchief on his flee, his feet on one of file best cushion, sleeping soundly and snoring.

1.   Who was ‘she’ and why did the grandmother send her down?

2.   What did she notice about her parents?

3.   Trace a word that means “undisturbed”. 

Answer:

1.   “She” is Kezia. Grandmother sent her down to have a nice talk with her parents.

2.   She noticed that her father was sleeping and snoring and mother was reading.

3.   Soundly.

Question 5:
She sat on a stool, gravely watched him until he woke and stretched, and asked the time – then looked at her. “Don’t stare so, Kezia. You look like a little brown owl”.

1.   Who is Kezia watching gravely?

2.   Why was she sitting there waiting for him to wake up? ;

3.   Trace the word in the extract which means “seriously”. 

Answer:

1.   Kezia was watching her father gravely.

2.   On a Sunday afternoon, her grandmother sent her to have a nice talk with father and mother. But Kezia always found her father sleeping on the sofa.

3.   Gravely.