08: The Blue Bead By Norah Burke : Icse-x-english

Change Unit Change Subject Last Menu

ICSE-X-English

08: The Blue Bead by Norah Burke

with Solutions - page 4

Note: Please signup/signin free to get personalized experience.

10 minutes can boost your percentage by 10%

Note: Please signup/signin free to get personalized experience.

#1-a
The writer presents a vivid graphic picture of a huge crocodile which is a significant character in the story. How does she achieve it?

Ans :
Norah Burke begins the story with a dramatic presentation of a huge crocodile. She refers to it as 'he' to make it appear like a character out of a suspense thriller. "Out of black water, curved with whirlpools, and into the frill of gold shallows by the stepping stones", came the crocodile. This vivid description, full of life and visual details marks the appearance of the huge animal that can fill us with awe and trepidation.
The description of the beast, "Twice the length of a tall man", "Fed mostly on fish but also on deer and monkeys that came to drink perhaps a duck or two and half-burned bodies of Indians" conceives a physical image of sheer viciousness. Apart from this, it is referred to as a prehistoric juggernaut, ferocious and formidable, a vast force in the water, propelled by the power of his huge tail. "His mouth almost the whole length of his head, closed in a fixed evil bony smile" completes the picture of the awesome creature.
The survival instinct showed by the animal also portrays its brainless craft by which he has lived for a hundred years. The whole description is to create an awesome image in the reader's mind, so that Sibia, the young girl who fights with the crocodile rises to a heroic proportion.

#1-b
Sibia is a little frail girl with a zest for simple things in life. How does the author bring out the simplicity of the girl?

Ans :
Sibia lived in a mud house above a ford in which dangerous creatures like crocodiles lived. She is described as a starveling child dressed in rags. She had ebony hair and great eyes and her skin was creamy brown. A child of twelve years old, she was born to toil.
In all her life, she had never owned anything but a rag. She did not even have a pi to buy even a single glass bead which she admired in the market. She would often pause before the sweetmeat stall, gazing longingly at the display. Yes, she sometimes tasted wild honey or sugar cane at home but never the green and magenta sweets. There were other wonders like soft silk fabrics and stones like turquoises and opals but these wonders of the world were not for a forest girl like her. She was marked for work, husking corn, putting dung to dry, gathering dry sticks and fetching water. Her only adornment could be the black and red jungle beads, but that too was denied to her as the needle to thread them was broken.

#1-c
How does the unassuming simple girl of the village assume an aura of heroism in the story? What is the dramatic irony at the end of the story?

Ans :
Sibia was walking along with the stepping stones when she saw a Gujar woman approaching to fill her earthen pots. It was at that time when the crocodile lunged at her and slashed at her leg with his sharp teeth. The huge animal tried to drag her away. Sibia sprang into action. From boulder to boulder, she came leaping like a rock goat. She seemed to come on wings, choosing her footing instinctively, without thinking about it. In a moment, she was beside the screaming woman. Seeing the girl, the crocodile struck, throwing the water twenty feet high. Sibia did not hesitate. She aimed at the animal's eyes. With all the force of her body, she drove her hayfork into one of its eyes. The crocodile reared up in convulsion, crashed back and disappeared into the bloody water. It would die in a few days. But Sibia did not think about its fate. She put her arms around the woman, dragged her from water, stopped her wounds with sand and bound them with a rag and helped her home.
The dramatic irony is that Sibia was not aware of the heroic deed she had done. She went through an adventurous battle with a ferocious creature and arrived home to her worried mother. Instead of stating her courageous and adventurous rescue act, she simply said: "I found a blue bead for my necklace, look!" The readers may marvel at her heroism, but for the girl, it was the blue bead that mattered by which she could make a beautiful necklace.

#2-a
How does the author paint the majesty, ferocity and strength of the giant animal?

Ans :
The huge crocodile lived in the deep black water. It was twice the length of a tall man. It did not have to hide. It came to rest in the glassy shallows, among logs with its eyes and nostrils raised above the water to breathe the clean sunny air. Its tail had irresistible power to move with a vast force in the water. Its mouth ran almost the whole length of its head. It lay with its eyes closed with an evil smile and where the yellow underside came up to it, it was green in colour. The mugger crocodile, blackish-brown above and yellowy-white under, lay motionless, ready to wait forever till food came.
The body of the crocodile was covered with the inch-thick hide that nothing could pierce it. Even the rifle bullets would bounce off. Only the eyes and the soft underarms were exceptions. It was ferocious and formidable. It propelled in the water by the irresistible and unimaginable power of its tail. It lived well with other crocodiles, muggers and fish-eating gharials.

#2-b
What is said about, Sibia, the child-woman, and her routine life?

Ans :
Sibia, the main character or the protagonist of the story, is called a happy immature child-woman at the age of only twelve years just because of her appearance and the burden which she bore to help in household chores. Her hair was black and she had great eyes. She had to carry the household duties. She husked corn, gathered sticks, put dung to dry, cooked and weeded and fetched water and cut grass for fodder. She went with her mother and other ladies to get paper grass from the cliffs. She lived in a mud house in a village above the fort. She had no proper clothes but her body was covered with rags. Those rags were also torn to make a skirt and a saree. She ate chapatti wrapped round green chilli and rancid butter. She was poor and never owned anything except a rag. She was interested in the natural jewellery made by seeds that rattled around her neck. She appreciated little things in life like watching Kashmiri merchant selling silks, the smell of the wonderful dressing of the cloth stall and much more. She was brave, laborious, courageous and extremely observant.

#2-c
Describe in detail, the ferocious fight between the crocodile and Sibia.

Ans :
When Sibia saw the Gujar woman carried away by the giant crocodile, she immediately ran beside the shrieking woman without thinking anything and without wasting a moment. With a quick presence of mind, she came into action and sprang up. She jumped from boulder to boulder leaping like a rock goat. She came on wings, choosing her footing mid-air and without even thinking of it she reached beside the shrieking woman. She did not hesitate and with all the force of her little body, drove the hayfork at the crocodile's eyes and one prong went in while the other scratched past the thorny cheek. The crocodile reared up in convulsion, till half his lizard body was out of the river, the tail and nose nearly met over his story back. Then he crashed back, exploding the water and in an uproar of bloody foam, he disappeared. Sibia got her arms round the fainting woman and somehow dragged her out of the water. She stopped her wounds with sand and bound them with rags and helped her home to the Gujar encampment where the men made a litter to carry her to someone for treatment.