Summary of Oliver Goldsmith's A City Night-Piece

 

A City Night-Piece

-          Oliver Goldsmith

Introduction

Oliver Goldsmith is a poet, dramatist, essayist and a novelist.  He has contributed to English literature in all its forms.  His works are known for their observation of his society.  He explains in detail about the people and the setting of age in all his works.  A City Night-Piece is a short essay about Goldsmith’s experience during a night.  He walks alone by 2.00 a.m. and observes the people and the happenings in the streets of London.

London at 2.00 a.m.

Goldsmith comes out by 2.00 a.m. and finds the taper busy rising and falling into the socket.  The watchman is almost asleep.  People who worked hard are asleep.  People who are suffering from guilt and despair, drunkards, robbers and people who commit suicide are the ones who are awake.

Goldsmith’s Philosophical Thoughts

Goldsmith stops his observation and decides to walk around the streets.  All streets are empty without people.  A few hours before all the streets were full of people, who were very proud.  By 2.00 a.m., there are no people and no pride.  The sound of a dog and a chiming clock is heard.  All human beings are silent.  It is like a mockery of human pride.  Goldsmith thinks of a period where a future traveler like him may come and look at the empty city.  The traveler would see bushes and plants in the place of churches.  Reptiles will be seen in temples and theatres.   All places would have fallen and become empty.  The rich and influential people would become dead.  Every human being and their pride will become nothing.

The People at 2.00 a.m.

Goldsmith looks at the few people who are found in the street at that part of the day.  They are the people who wear a mask during day time.  These people will hide themselves during day.  These people are strangers, wanderers and orphans, who usually stay in the streets and before the houses of the rich.  These people horrify Goldsmith and they create pity.  Some people are without proper clothes and many are with diseases.  There are some women, who are turned to be prostitutes by rich men.  These women were beautiful once.  They were misused by villains who are rich.  These women are now suffering and shivering in snow.  The villains who ruined their life are happy and peaceful.

Conclusion

Goldsmith finds it difficult to see the suffering of all these people.  The world, for him, will give him only sufferings.  People are suffering because of the small habits of the rich people.  The powerful people destroy their life.  The poor people only cry out of pain.  Even laws become an enemy to the poor.  Goldsmith feels bad for observing such people, because it pains him.  He cannot help them and this makes him suffer more than those people.

Summary of Francis Bacon's "Of Adversity"

 

Of Adversity

-          Francis Bacon

 

Introduction

Francis Bacon is called as the father of English prose.  He was the first to write prose pieces in English, during Elizabethan period.  He writes about common topics.  He deals the topics in a straight forward manner by using less number of words.  Of Adversity is one such essays, which is about the positive features of adversity.  Adversity means bad or difficulty times.

 

Positivity of Adversity

Bacon opens the essay by quoting Seneca, a Roman Philosopher, who has said that prosperity is always related to good things, so it is often wished for.  Adversity should be admired and appreciated.  He quotes another Latin saying which means, things of victory are desired and adversity is wonderful.  Through these quotes Bacon wants us to see adversity in a positive way.

 

Miracles and Adversity

Miracles happen during adversity.  These miracles are created by God, to save normal human beings.  These miracles prove our faith in God.  Bacon again quotes a Latin proverb, which says that greatness is in the man’s prayer to God during the times of adversity.  When we accept that we are powerless, we are great before God.

 

Adversity through Poetry

Bacon says that these miracles happen in poetry.  The calamities and adversities of our life are better explained through the imagination in poetry.  Bacon shares the story of Hercules and Prometheus to explain this.  Prometheus was a brave man, who wanted to help human beings, but he was punished by God.  Hercules, who was Prometheus’ friend, went to rescue him.  Hercules crossed an ocean in a very small vessel to save his friend.  This story in the form of poem helps us to think of adversity in a positive way.

 

Adversity and Bible

Prosperity and adversity are gifts of God.  Prosperity brings moderation and adversity brings courage.  Prosperity is the sign of Old Testament and adversity is the sign of New Testament.  Bacon narrates the story of Job from Bible.  Job faces many difficulties or adversities during his life, which has a happy and blessed ending.  Bacon wants us to accept a life of adversities, so that we become stronger and courageous.

 

Adversity compared with Embroidery

Bacon says that prosperity is not always with joy and happiness.  Adversity is not always with sorrow and grief.  He explains this by comparing it with an embroidery.  It is good to see a bright embroidery with a dull background.  If the background is good and the embroidery is dull, it will not be attractive.  We cannot complain the embroidery work.  We should judge something by heart and not with our eyes.

 

Conclusion

Bacon concludes the essay by saying that the true smell of a flower will be experienced only when it is crushed.  Similarly, our true strength and courage will be known to everyone only during the times of adversity.

 

Summary of Bacon's Of Truth

 

Introduction

Francis Bacon is called as the father of English prose.  He was the first to write prose pieces in English, during Elizabethan period.  He writes about common topics.  He deals the topics in a straight forward manner by using less number of words.  Of Truth is one such essays, which talks in favour of truth.  Bacon argues about the values of truth.

 

Truth and Lie

Bacon begins the essay by quoting an incident, where Pilate, a Roman governor, asked what is truth but he did not wait for an answer.  People usually do not like truth because of the following reasons:

1.      Truth affects free thinking

2.      It takes a long time to prove

3.      People like lies

The philosophers who talked about truth are no more alive.  The modern philosophers who talk about truth are not that vigorous as the old philosophers.  Bacon says that lie gives pleasure in poetry, it gives gains to business men and people like it for the sake of it.  He compares truth to the day light, which shows everything as it is.  Lie is compared to a candle light, which shows and hides things.  Truth is like a peal, which shines only during day time.  Lie is like a diamond, which shines during night and changes its shade with different colours of light.  Lie adds some pleasure to our life.  Life would be dull and melancholic, when there are no false valuations, imagination and lie.

 

Qualities of Truth

People normally blame poetry because it is filled with lie.  This is not true.  Poetry is a reflection of reality.  A lie that passes over the mind is good, but the lie that sinks into the mind hurts.  Truth can be defined only by itself.  The best part of human nature is to find truth, love truth and to believe in truth.  Bacon compares truth to light through Bible.  He says that God created light on the first day and He created man on the sixth day.  After creating man, He gifted him the light of reason.  Bacon says that it is better to be present in the ship, which is in the sea and to be in the battle field and fight, than to stay in a place and look at the happenings.  Such people, who are in the field, would look and at the human errors with pity and not with pride.  Truth makes a man move in charity and this would heaven in earth.

 

Truth in Normal Life

            After talking about truth in a religious and philosophical tone, Bacon talks about the role of truth in normal life.  He compares lie mixed with truth with a gold coin mixed with copper.  The copper makes gold better, but it reduces the value of gold.  Speaking lie is like a snake that moves with its belly and not upright upon its feet.  There is not shame for a man other than speaking lie.  Bacon quotes Montaigne, who said that a man who speaks lie is brave towards God but a coward towards human beings.  By this Bacon means that a man who speaks lie will face the judgement of God.

 

Summary of Margaret Atwood's Survival

 Introduction

            Margaret Atwood is a famous Canadian writer.  She has written many novels.  The prose Survival talks about her reading habits, when she was young.  It also talks about her introduction to Canadian literature.

 

Atwood’s First Books

            At her young age, Atwood started reading Canadian literature without knowing that she is reading Canadian literature.  Later she reads comics like Captain Marvel, Plastic man and Batman.  She reads comics because her parents asked her not to read them.  She also read some animal stories.

 

Reasons for her Reading

            Nobody says her that she was reading Canadian literature.  Even if someone had said her that she was reading Canadian literature, she would not have thought much about it.  She reads for entertainment.  She did not see different literature in her reading.  She read books for entertainment. 

 

Reading at a Later Age

            Her level of reading changes when she grows up.  She reads Captain Marvel as a fantasy escape.  She reads animal stories because she finds them real.  She reads a few books on recipes.  She says that only a few recipes are good when cooked and others are bad.  The animal stories were about the struggle to survive.  It is like a riddle to her.

 

Her Christmas Gift

            When she grows up someone gives her Robert Weager and Helen James anthology Canadian Short Stories.  For the first time she reads a story named Canadian literature.  The stories have animals in the form of human beings.  The stories are about human beings chased away by other human beings.  The stories are about dead bodies.  This gives a different feel to her.

 

Conclusion

            Atwood concludes the essay by saying that she has read some her literature but other do not read their own literature.  She also says that the more she reads Canadian literature she comes to know more about her country Canada.

 

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Summary of Ruskin Bond's Pret in House

 

Introduction

            Ruskin Bond was born in India for a British couple.  He was educated in India.  After completing his college he started to write stories and novels.  He has won many awards for his stories and novels.  “Pret in House” is an excerpt from Ruskin Bond’s “Ghosts of a Hill-Station”.  It introduces a mischievous ghost, Pret.  It narrates a few tricks played by Pret and how it makes the people at a home to move to another house.

Pret in the Peepal Tree

            A small boy is the narrator of the story.  He starts the story by introducing the house of Pret.  In India, prets usually live in peepal trees.  The Pret, in this story, lives in a peepal tree, which has grown in between a compound wall that divides the narrator’s house from the road.  Pret does not trouble the people inside the house because it is busy disturbing the people in the road.  It would frighten the pony pulling a cart.  It would get into the engine of a bus or car and make it breakdown.  It would knock the topis of the men.  Everyone will be confused.  Pret can be heard and felt but not seen.

Pret and Jaspal

            Jaspal is a tailor.  He stitches grandmother’s clothes.  In India people will not yawn by standing under a peepal tree.  Once Jaspal yawns under the tree without closing his mouth with his fingers.  Pret easily enters into his mouth and upsets his stomach, so that he is not able to finish his work on time. 

Pret Enters the House

            One day the PWD officers ask grandfather’s permission to cut down the peepal tree, so that they could extent the road.  Grandfather agrees to this.  The Pret loses its house.  It finds difficult to cope up with the PWD officers.  So the Pret enters the narrator’s house and gives a lot of trouble to the people inside the house.

Pret and Grandmother

            After Pret’s stay, the grandmother’s spectacles will always be found missing.  She keeps it in one place and it will be found in some other place.  One day her spectacle is seen in the nose of the stuffed wild boar hanging in the veranda wall.  Another day it is found dangling in the parrot’s cage.  Pret also cuts all the sweet peas, which are grown by the grandfather.

Pret and Aunt Minnie

            Pret disturbs Uncle Ken during his sleep by pulling away his bed sheet.  Aunt Minnie comes from Burma to stay with them.  Pret replaced her tooth paste with grandfahter’s shaving cream.  She brushes her teeth with shaving cream and her mouth foams.  One day Pret hits her hardly with grapes and she is wounded.  Pret also disturbs the young narrator by hiding his ink bottle.

Grandmother’s Decision

            The grandmother decides to vacate the house, so that they can be peaceful and happy.  They pack two carts with their households.  They also load their car and move to the new house.  As they move they hear some noise above the car.  The grandfather and others confirm that it is the voice of the Pret and it is happy to occupy their new house.

Pret’s Character

            Pret is mischievous and sadistic.  It disturbs others so that it is happy.  Pret makes fun of others by its deeds.  It can also be called as selfish.  It does not have a companion, so it disturbs and plays with everyone it sees.  As readers, we enjoy the pranks played by Pret.  Its actions are disturbing, yet enjoyed by kids and readers.