English Class 10 - Class X CBSE Chapter 1 A Letter to God Material

 INTRODUCTION

A Letter to God by G. Fuentes is a short story written in third-person, about a farmer named Lencho. When a hailstorm destroys his year’s harvest, he writes a letter to God asking for money and sends it to him through the post. A Letter to God is a humorous story about a man’s faith, the dependence it brings along, and the fine line between faith and ignorance that exists in the world.

CHARACTERS

1. Lencho - He had a firm belief in God and was very innocent. He was very caring for his family and that is why he decides not to give up and find some way to help his family.

2. Postmaster - He was a nice, very helpful, and genuine man whose natural instinct was to help Lencho and therefore he collects money for him and even deducts some money from his own salary.

WORD MEANINGS

1. Crest - top of a hill, top

2. Amiable - friendly and pleasant

3. Contentment - satisfaction

4. Exclaimed - cry out suddenly in surprise, strong emotion, or pain. 

5. Regarded - consider or think of in a specified way

6. Blow - hard stroke with a fist

7. Boss - person in authority

8. Bunch - gang or group

9. Career - a profession

10. Caused - made

11. Charity - benefaction

12. Confidence - faith

13. Conscience - an inner sense of right and wrong

14. Comment- a remark

15. Correspondence - communication by exchanging letters with someone

16. Crook - rogue

17. Daybreak - the time in the morning when daylight first appears

18. Deny - refuse

19. Dotted - full of

20. Downpour - heavy rain

21. Draped - adorn, cover, or wrap

22. Effort - attempt

23. Entire - complete

24. Exposing - make (something) visible by uncovering it.; reveal

25. Expression - aspect of face

26. Goodwill - friendly, helpful, or cooperative feelings or attitude

27. Hailstones - a pellet of hail

28. Harvest -season’s yield of crop

29. Instruct - teach/inform

30. Intimately - closely

31. Lick pass the tongue over

32. Obliged - grateful

33. Ox of a man - hardworking

34. Perform - do

35. Predict - say in advance

36. Regarded - looked closely

37. Resemble - have a similar appearance

38. Resolution - a firm decision to do or not to do something.

39. Shake - weaken

40. Slightest - very little

41. Solitary - a lonely

42. Stuck - remained determined

43. Throughout - all through

44. Upset - worried

45. Wrinkling - have wrinkles

SUMMARY

Lencho’s house and crop 

Lencho had his lonely house in the valley. It was situated on the top of a low hill. From there one could see the river and the fields. Lencho had a good crop. But it needed rain badly.

It starts raining

Lencho saw the sky in the north. It had rain clouds. His wife was preparing the dinner. He told her that God willing it would rain. Soon big drops of rain began to fall. Lencho went out to feel the rain on his body. He was very glad. He said that the drops of rain were new coins.

Hailstorm and loss therefrom

But soon the hail rained on everywhere. The fields became white as if covered with salt. The crop was totally destroyed. Lencho became sad. He felt that they would go hungry that year. Also, they would have no seeds for the next crop.

Lencho writes to God

But Lencho had a single hope: help from God. He was sure that no one dies of hunger. He had a great belief in God. The following Sunday he went to the post office. He wrote a letter to God to send him one hundred pesos. He wrote ‘God’ as the address.

Postmaster collects money for Lencho

An employee of the post office showed this letter to the postmaster. The postmaster laughed seeing the address. He wished to have such faith in God. He had an idea to answer the letter. But reading it he found that the writer needed money. It was to keep the faith of the writer. So he asked all his friends and employees to give him some money.

Money was sent to Lencho

The postmaster could collect only seventy pesos this way put the money in an envelope and addressed it to Lencho. He wrote a single word on it ‘God’ as a signature.

Lencho receives the money

The following Sunday Lencho came to the post office. He asked if there was any letter for him. He was given that letter. Lencho did not show any surprise on seeing the money. He got angry when he counted the money. He felt that God could not have made a mistake.

Lencho’s letter to God, calls post office employees crooks

Immediately Lencho wrote another letter to God. He put it into the mailbox. The postmaster opened it. Lencho had written in that letter that he had received only seventy pesos. But he had asked for one hundred pesos. He asked God to send him the rest. But God should not send it through the mail. It was because the post office employees were crooks.