RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Snapshots Chapter 1 The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse

RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Snapshots Chapter 1 The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse

Text Book Questions and Answers

About the Author

William Saroyan (13 August 1908 – 18 May 1981) was an Armenian-American novelist, playwright and short story writer. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film adaptation of The Human Comedy.Saroyan wrote extensively about the Armenian immigrant life in California. Many of his stories and plays are set in his native Fresno. Some of his best-known works are ‘The Time of Your Life’, ‘My Name Is Aram’ and ‘My Heart’s in the Highlands’.

Main Theme

This story is about two Armenian boys and a white horse in a village in San Joaquin Valley, California one summer. Aram is nine years old and Mourad is thirteen years old. They belong to the Garoghlanian tribe which is known for its honesty. The two boys are extremely fond of riding, but they and their tribe are very poor. One day Mourad comes to Aram’s house on a white horse and invites him to ride. Aram knows that the horse is stolen, but cannot resist the chance to ride. Mourad keeps the horse in a deserted barn and takes good care of it. He is able to discipline the horse because he has a way with horses.

A month passes. Then John Byro, the owner of the horse, visits the family and speaks about the loss of his horse. The boys decide to keep the horse with them for some more time.

After two weeks, John Byro meets the boys walking with the horse. He says it is exactly like his own horse. He also says if their family did not have such a formidable reputation for honesty, he would think it was his horse. He does not accuse the boys of stealing his horse.The next morning the boys take the horse to John Byro’s vineyard and leave it in his barn.

Reading with Insight

Question 1.
You will probably agree that this story does not have breathless adventure and exciting action. Then what in your opinion makes it interesting?
Answer:
This story does not have breathless adventure and exciting action, yet it is immensely interesting for its refreshing innocence. It is a beautiful reminder of what life was like before materialism gained sway. The story poignantly brings out the point of intersection between the fading influence of old country values and the evolving realisation of the younger characters that might at a point of time lead them away from the values of the community. Bom into a family famed for its honesty, Mourad and Aram hide the white horse and ride it for a long period.

At the same time, the two children—Aram and Mourad—despite the fact that they take away the white horse and put the owner, John Byro, through a lot of inconvenience—do not emerge as delinquents. They are simple innocent youngsters, who are led by temptation of possessing a horse but intend to return it to the owner. The moral fibre of the community brings them back to the path of righteousness. One waits in anticipation to know how the events will take a turn and how the two youngsters will react.

Question 2.
Did the boys return the horse because they were conscience-stricken or because they were afraid?
Answer:
The boys returned the horse because they were conscience-stricken and not because they were afraid. Various pointers in the story lead to this conclusion. Firstly, the tribe had been famous for their honesty for eleven centuries and they took pride in their values. Secondly, when John Byro said that his white horse was stolen last month and was still untraceable, Aram went straight to Mourad’s house and asked him to promise not to take it back until he leamt to ride.

Mourad was outraged. He said that a member of the Garoghlanian family would not steal. “The horse must go back to its true owner.” Thirdly, when on the way to Fetvajian’s deserted vineyard they met John Byro who studied the horse and said that he would swear that it was his horse if he didn’t know their parents, and he would rather believe his heart than his eyes they had no reason to fear. It was their sense of right and wrong that made them return it.

Question 3.
“One day back there in the good old days when I was nine and the world was full of every imaginable kind of magnificence, and life was still a delightful and mysterious dream…” The story begins in a mood of nostalgia.
Can you narrate some incident from your childhood that might make an interesting story?
Answer:
I grew up at a time when pranks were innocent. Children would often tie a piece of string to someone’s door handle and run around the street after knocking at the door—when the householder came to answer the door they had difficulty opening it. One such memory that is etched in my mind is when I was barely eight-years-old.

We ran into trouble when we challenged each other to eat as many sweets as we could. It was inspired by one of the ‘dare’ shows on television. We were told of the repercussions of various stunts performed, so eating sweets was not only safe but satisfied our gluttonous instincts as well.

But as Mom was very strict and gave us a portion a day, we tried to get the sweets ourselves. With our minds set on this purpose and in absolute silence, we started to Climb towards the wardrobe, which in those times, seemed as high as a 500 metre tall sky-scraper. We managed to get on a tall chair and from there on to the window’s sill, which was near the cupboard. Then, we aimed for the top of the cupboard where the sweets were kept, towards which we jumped and managed to hold on to with our hands while hanging in the air.

After that, we reached out for the sweets, with the other holding on to the cupboard. Once we grabbed a piece of chocolate or a candy, we were supposed to jump on the floor and enjoy our ‘prize’ without anyone knowing about it.

Despite our ‘perfect plan’, something went wrong. I was the first one to reach the top of the cupboard and I jumped. But when my sister, Geeta’s turn came, she wasn’t as lucky as me: she got stuck on the handle of the cupboard and remained hanging by her trousers. She looked very funny hanging head over heels. She started to panic, and we made desperate attempts to free her. At that moment of ‘crisis’, entered Mom, who was shocked to see the sight and we didn’t know where to look.

Question 4.
The story revolves around characters who belong to a tribe in Armenia. Mourad and Aram are members of the Garoghlanian family. Now locate Armenia and Assyria on the atlas and prepare a write-up on the Garoghlanian tribes. You may write about people, their names, traits, geographical and economic features as suggested in the story.
Answer:
Armenia is a country located in Eurasia, which is surrounded by nations like Turkey and Iran in the west, Georgia in the North and Azerbaijan in the east. Assyria refers to the cultural region inhabited historically by the Assyrian people which includes parts of Turkey, Iran and Syria. The Assyrians also form minority communities in nations like Armenia. Both Armenia and Assyria are considered amongst the oldest kingdoms in the world with histories dating back to before 6th century BC.

William Saroyan’s book My Name is Aram published in 1940 set in Fresno, California, is based on his own personal experiences of growing up in an Armenian family.In the story Saroyan describes how every branch of the Garoghlanian tribe was living in poverty and no one, including the old men in the family, knew how they managed to make ends meet.

He mentions that the defining feature of their tribe was their honesty, their pride and strong belief in what was right and wrong, and for over eleven centuries they were recognised for these characteristics.

Whether it was in the past when they were wealthy or more recently when they live in poverty, their honour was more important to them than anything else. Their honesty was so widely recognised that even when the Assyrian farmer John Byro finds his stolen horse with Mourad and the narrator, he calls it a twin of his horse and lets them go rather than doubt and confront them. Byro out of respect for their family also walks 10 miles to confide in their uncle Khosrove, despite the lack of concern shown by Khosrove who expresses more anger at the Garoghlanian family having lost their homeland.

RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Snapshots Chapter 1 The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse, Study Learner