A Letter to God
Who is the protagonist? What does he do in the story?
Lencho is a farmer. He is the protagonist of the story. He writes a letter to God seeking help from the Almighty after witnessing his entire crop has been destroyed by a devastating hailstorm. Although his wish is fulfilled partially, he is ungrateful in the end and questions the honesty and integrity of the postal employees who actually anonymously helped him with money in the name of god.
Discuss Lencho's faith. What did he do?
A. Lencho had a deep faith in God. He considered Him the ultimate savior. He decided to write a letter to God conveying his grievances and asking for 100 pesos for survival and rejuvenation of crops.
What did Lencho hope for?
A. Lencho hoped for a decent rain shower for the maximum crop yield.
Conflicts in the story: between humans and nature, and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated?
The story "A Letter to God" describes two types of conflicts; one between man and nature and the other among men. In the beginning of the story, the farmer hopes for a rain shower for the benefit of his corn field. When the rain arrived, he became overjoyed and started daydreaming about all the profit that would come in. Soon, his joy turned into sorrow when the wind became stronger leading to a terrible hailstorm. This shows the disagreement between man and nature. Humans want nature to act according to their aspirations. The second divergence appears when Lencho begins doubting the honesty of the post-office employees who actually assisted him with the money and that too, anonymously. This is the conflict among men themselves. We are ready to trust God and in His existence but we are not ready to trust each other.
Who read the letter?
A postman who was also an employee of the post office read the letter.
Who does Lencho blame for having taken the rest of the money? What is the irony?
Lencho thought that the postmaster or the employees of the post-office had stolen his remaining amount. In his second letter, he asks God not to send money by mail next time. Actually the postmaster and the employees collected the money out of their clean intent to keep Lencho's faith intact. But they are the ones who ended up getting blamed for stealing the missing amount.
What made Lencho angry?
A. Lencho was displeased when he found that the money was less than what he had asked for. He squarely blamed it on the naive postal employees.
Who does Lencho have complete faith in?
Lencho has immense faith in God.
Discuss the story’s theme.
The story’s main theme is faith. The man has deep faith in God and sends Him prayer for the one hundred pesos. God answered his prayers through the post office clerks, who sympathized with the poor farmer and collected the money themselves. However, they could only collect sixty pesos.
Another theme revolves around greed and appreciation. The man receives the sixty pesos but writes another letter to God asking him to send the other forty pesos. He even writes to Him blaming the post office clerks for stealing the 40 pesos. Rather than be appreciative that he received the help at all, though it wasn't everything he asked for, the man is ungrateful as he makes claims against the post office. He asks God to refrain from sending the remaining money through the post office.
Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like 'new coins'?
The phrase is denotative of greed in humans. After the rain shower, everything was going as per Lencho's plan. He was sure his harvest would yield substantial profits. Thus, he referred to the droplets as "new coins”, the larger ones being equivalent to ten pesos and smaller ones, five pesos.
How did the rain change to the chagrin of Lencho's fields?
Soon after the rainfall had begun, the wind became stronger and more turbulent leading to a hailstorm. As a result of which, Lencho's crop fields withered, the trees had shed their leaves and the flowers had fallen. There was a total devastation. There was no promise of harvest and money.
Discuss the background of the story.
The story, "A Letter to God" by G.L Fuentes revolves around the idea of having unquestionable belief in something. The story is narrated from a third person point of view. The story is set in a Latin American country. A Letter to God is a story written by Gregorio Lopez Y Fuentes, a Mexican writer, who was one of the most important chroniclers of the Mexican Revolution and its effects. The story presents the infinite faith of a man in God but just the opposite in living men.
What were Lencho's feelings when the hail stopped?
A. Lencho was extremely disheartened and his soul was filled with immense sadness.
What did the postmaster do seeing Lencho’s unfathomable faith in God?
A. The postmaster was very surprised at Lencho's unshakeable faith in God. In order to retain it, he decided to collect money for him from his post office colleagues.
Was Lencho grateful to find a letter for him with money in it?
Lencho was not at all surprised on receiving the letter because he was sure of getting God’s reply. Instead, he was unhappy when he found that the amount was less than what he had asked for.
Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter 'God'?
A. The postmaster was a kind hearted man. He did not want to shake the writer's faith in God, the Almighty. With virtuous intentions, decided to collect money for "an act of charity". He also signed the letter in the name of God to conceal his identity as he wanted Lencho to think it was actually a reply from God. The man doing charity keeps himself hidden. Then post master being a pious man adhered to this postulate.
Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not?
Lencho never bothered to find out the sender. His unshakeable faith in God did not leave him any scope to even dwell upon it.
Disclaimer: The images have been taken from Google sites
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