Here we are providing NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Snapshots Chapter 5 Mother’s Day. Students can get Class 11 English Mother’s Day NCERT Solutions, Questions and Answers designed by subject expert teachers.
Mother’s Day NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Snapshots Chapter 5
Mother’s Day NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers
Question 1.
This play, written in the 1950s, is a humorous and satirical depiction of the status of the mother in the family.
(i) What are the issues it raises?
(ii) Do you think it caricatures these issues or do you think that the problems it raises are genuine? How does the play resolve the issues? Do you agree with the resolution?
Answer:
The play, written in the 1950s, is a humorous and satirical depiction of the status of the mother in the family.
It raises very poignant social issues of women, as housewives, being taken for granted by the family. The husband, son and daughter—all take the mother for granted. She gets no respite and no gratitude for all that she does. The day, she refuses to attend to them, they are outraged.
These issues are genuine, especially in a country like India where there is still a gender bias. The housewife is supposed to perform all the chores of the house as her duty. The scenario is now, however, showing some signs of change although we still have a long way to go before we achieve equality.
Question 2.
If you were to write about these issues today what are some of the incidents, examples and problems that you would think of as relevant?
Answer:
Hints-problems related to this issue:
- mother working at a job and struggling with the housework alone
- generation gap
- sibling rivalry
- marital discord in parents
- single parent family
Question 3.
Is drama a good medium for conveying a social message? Discuss.
Answer:
The modem artist is, in the words of August Strindberg, “a lay preacher popularising the pressing questions of his time.” Millet, Meunier, Turgenev, Dostoyevsky, Emerson, Walt Whitman, Tolstoy, Ibsen, Strindberg, Hauptmann and a host of others mirror in their work as much of the spiritual and social revolt as is expressed by the most fiery speeches of the propagandist. And more important still, they compel far greater attention. Their creative genius, instilled with the spirit of sincerity and truth, strikes root where the ordinary word often falls on barren soil.
The medium mirrors every phase of life and embraces every strata of society, showing each and all, caught in the throes of the tremendous changes going on, and forced either to become part of the process or be left behind. Ibsen, Strindberg, Hauptmann, Tolstoy, Shaw, Galsworthy and the other dramatists represent the social iconoclasts of our time. They know that society has gone beyond the stage of patching up, and that man must throw off the dead weight of the past, if he is , to go free to meet the future.Drama is the dynamite which undermines superstition, shakes the social pillars, and prepares men and women for the reconstruction.
Question 4.
Read the play out in parts. Enact the play on a suitable occasion.
Answer:
The play’s title Mother’s Day indicates that a suitable occasion for it to be performed may be the 2nd Sunday in May, when Mother’s Day is most commonly celebrated. This day has been set aside every year to honour mothers and motherhood all over the world. The foundations for this day being celebrated as Mother’s Day were laid by Anna Marie Jarvis in the United States. She chose this day to honour her mother and all mothers at a church memorial ceremony in West Virginia in 1908.
However, as the play portrays how mothers are taken for granted in the family, any occasion may be suitable for a performance of this play. This is a common social issue across the Indian subcontinent and the world, mothers everywhere are taken for granted by their families’ all the time. Like the family depicted, people are often so self- involved that they forget about the amount of responsibilities shouldered by mothers. The lesson this play seeks to convey is that other members of the family must learn to share responsibilities, and not leave everything for the mother to do.
Question 5.
Discuss in groups plays or films with a strong message of social reform that you have watched.
(Answers may vary.)Sample answer:
Answer:
Some plays with a strong message of social reform include:
The Good Person of Szechwan –
This is a play written by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht. This play is about a young poor condemned Chinese woman who offers shelter to Gods who visit one evening and they bless her with money to open a business. Other people in her village who earlier shunned her then take advantage of her and oppress her, forcing her to invent an alter ego to fight against their cruelty. The play portrays the changing attitudes of people towards members of different classes, and the necessity to be strong to fight oppression in society.
The Death of a Salesman –
This play, written by the Irish playwright Arthur Miller, describes the trajectory of a salesman who focuses most of his time and energy on his career and neglects his family in the process. His son blames him for not having a role model to follow and destroying his possibilities for a stable future. After the salesman loses his job, he feels he has lost everything. This play highlights how difficult career struggles can be, and how they can destroy our lives and that we should not neglect family in the process. Both as parents and as children it is important to recognise and appreciate people close to us.
A Raisin in the Sun –
This play, written by African-American playwright Lorraine Vivian Hansberry, describes the financial struggles of an African-American family living in a poor neighbourhood in Chicago. After the family receives an inheritance each of them wishes to use this sum in different ways to better their lives. It touches upon how important staying together as a family can be during difficult circumstances. The play also portrays racial discrimination against African-Americans in America, when the family tries to move into a neighbourhood of white people they are threatened by a racist white association. The message the play leaves us with is a need for change in the way we treat each other.
Some films with a strong message of social reform include:
English Vinglish –
This Indian film is about a housewife who is taken for granted by her daughter and husband, who ridicule her for her poor English speaking skills, making her suffer from confidence issues. She starts taking classes to improve her English keeping this secret from her immediate family. Gradually this helps her become more confident and feel better about herself, changing the way her family view her. This film leaves us with the message that we should learn to appreciate everyone’s strengths and not mock people who have not received the same education we have.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas –
This British-American film is set in World War II and describes the experiences of the Jewish people who were forced into concentration camps by Nazi soldiers. This depiction is portrayed through a friendship that develops between two 8-year-old boys who live on opposite sides of the camp – a Jewish prisoner and the son of a Nazi commander. The film ends with both of them being executed inside the gas chambers, while the commander and his Nazi soldiers desperately search for his son. This film depicts the violence of war and the cruel methods in which prisoners were made to live and disposed of.
12 Years a Slave –
This American film is based in 1841, when slavery was still legal in certain parts of the world. It describes the experiences of a free American man who is drugged and sold into slavery. The film highlights how slaves were brutally whipped and beaten by white overseers of estates and their masters. It also highlights the experiences of female slaves who were abused and exploited by these white men. This film seeks to remind us through its heart¬breaking account, how historically cruel people with power working at such plantations were towards their poor and oppressed slaves.