Novels, Society and History: 10th SST

Question: The novel revolves around Surdas who is visually impaired and belongs to an untouchable caste. Identify the novel.

Answer: Rangbhoomi

Question: The novel is an epic of the Indian peasantry and tells the moving story of Hori and his wife, Dhania. Identify the novel.

Answer: Godan

Question: Who is the author of the novel ‘Robinson Crusoe’?

Answer: Daniel Defoe.

Question: Which of the following novel was written by Potheri Kunjambu and deals with the caste oppression?

Answer: Saraswativijayam

Question: What Is a novel? Mention any two features of novel.

Answer: Novel is a modern form of literature that describes fictional characters and events, usually in the form of sequential story. Features:

1. Novels began to be written from the 17th century, but really flowered from the 18th century.
2. Most of the novels were written on social issues such as marriage relationship, the proper conduct of men and women etc.

Question: Explain the themes and issues of the novels of Thomas Hardy.

Answer:

1. Thomas Hardy was a British novelist of the 19th century. He wrote about traditional rural communities of England.
2. This was actually a time when large farmers fenced off land, bought machines and employed laborers to produce for the market. The old rural culture with its independent farmers was dying out.
3. In his novel Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) Thomas Hardy has exclusively written about industrialization and rural life. The novel is about Michael Henchard, a successful grain merchant, who becomes the mayor of the farming town of Casterbridge. He is an independent-minded man who follows his own style in conducting business. He can also be both unpredictably generous and cruel with his employees. Consequently, he is no match for his manager and rival Donald Farfrae who runs his business on efficient managerial lines and is well regarded for he is smooth and even- tempered with everyone.
4. We can see that Hardy mourns the loss of the more personalized world that is disappearing, even as he is aware of its problems and the advantages of the new order.

Question: What do you mean by epistolary novel? Give One example.
Or
State the meaning of epistolary novel. Give one example for this type of novel.

Answer: The form of novel which used the private and personal forrri of letters to tell a story are known as epistolary. Samuel Richardson’s Pamela written in the 18th century explain much of its story through an exchange of letters between two lovers.

Question: Mention any three features of Pickwick Papers.

Answer:

1. Pickwick Papers were written by Charles Dickens.
2. These papers were serialized in a magazine in 1836.
3. Serialization allowed readers to relish the suspense, discuss the characters of a novel and live for weeks with their stories like viewers of television soaps today.

Question: “The novels bring together many cultures”. Explain.
Or
How did the novels bring together different cultures?

Answer:

1. Language: The novel uses the vernacular, the language that is spoken by common people. By coming closer to the different spoken languages of the people, the novel produces the sense of a shared world between diverse people in a nation. Novels also draw from different styles of language. A novel may take a classical language and combine it with the language of the streets and make them all a part of the vernacular that it uses.
2. Bridging the gap between rural and urban culture: Many novelist like that of Thomas Hardy write exclusively about vanishing rural communities.
3. New culture: Under colonial rule, many of the English educated class found new Western ways of living and thinking attractive. So many Indian novelists started writing about this new culture developing in India.

Question: Who is the writer of the novel Germinal? What was the theme of the novel?

Answer: Emile Zola, the French novelist wrote Germinal (1885). The novel is on the life of a young coal miner. In the novel, the writer tried his best to explain the harsh conditions under which the miners worked. It ends on a note of despair: The strike the hero leads fails, his co-workers turn against him, and his hopes are shattered.