A Letter to God is an interesting story of a believer who believes in God but has little faith in man. Here is a detailed paragraph wise analysis of the story. Once you finish reading this one you may also go through a detailed vocabulary analysis and word note on A Letter to God.
A Letter To God; Paragraph wise Analysis, and discussion
[Line: The house- the only one in the entire valley………..towards the north-east]
The house of Lencho is the only one in the entire valley. This is a solitary house. The uniqueness of this house lies in its solitariness. The house as it sits ‘on the crest of a low hill’ is in a strategic location. The view from the house is extraordinary. The views of the river and the views of the corn field are really outstanding from Lencho’s house. It is quite evident that the house is located in a desolate place. The things that come to Lencho’s view are the river and the field of ripe corn. The field of corn evidently occupies a great portion of Lencho’s thought throughout the year.
Lencho is an experienced farmer. He knows his field very well. He knows exactly when his field of corn requires a downpour. The issue of rain is a sensitive issue for Lencho. His life and the future of his family depend on rain because rain brings the much-needed nourishment for his field of corn. So Lencho eagerly waits for rain.
The opening paragraph of the story tells us about the isolated life of Lencho at the top of a mountain. His life is closely connected with nature. In fact, his life is closely dependent on nature. Over-dependence on nature for livelihood has made Lencho extremely helpless. This is evident from his action of doing nothing but looking at the sky throughout the morning in the hope of rain. Thus the vulnerabilities of Lencho as a farmer are also exposed to the reader.
[Line: “Now we’re really going to get……the little one’s are fives”]
In the second paragraph we see that Lencho’s long wait is about to come to an end. It appears from Lencho’s words that his patience has finally paid off. He is not going to return empty-handed.Lencho says to his wife, “Now we’re really going to get some water, woman.” Lencho sounds positive. His wife, too, sounds positive. She has faith in God. She says if it happens, it is by the grace of God. Normal day’s work is in progress. In the meantime rain begins. The effect of rain on Lencho is a very important phenomena to look at. The rejuvenating effect of rain on Lencho is quite clear to the reader. Lencho goes out to welcome rain by feeling the rain on his body.
But does that qualify Lencho as a lover of nature? The answer to this question lies in how does he look at rain? He is not a lover of nature. To him, rain symbolises money. Rain is the harbinger of money. Money ensures a good future for him. So rain symbolises security, prosperity, positivity, and hope. This symbolic function of rain pointed out in this paragraph is really a touching phenomenon to look at.
The metaphor used in the comparison between big drops of rain and ten cent pieces and little drops and five cent pieces are really illuminative of what Lencho thinks of rain. He sees no beauty in rain drops falling. He only sees the prospect of earning money and more money in those drops. So Lencho’s pleasure is money-centric and not driven by any emotional exuberance triggered by a natural phenomenon.
Lencho , here, appears to be representative of a particular section of the society- the section that is engaged in a never-ending struggle with all the odds of life in order to make ends meet. The battle and the hardship of life make them think only of money and food. It reminds us of the words of teenaged Bengali poet Sukanta Bhattacharya who in one of his poems said,
“In the state of hunger, the earth looks like a piece of hard prose
Even the full moon appears to be a piece of burnt bread.”
[Line: “With a satisfied expression…….frozen pearls.”]
Rain is the harbinger of hope, prosperity, and happiness. Lencho was satisfied. Rain came down on his field as a blessing. Rain was something like a security shield for Lencho’s field of corn. His field was encircled with a security shield but the mood of the weather was uncertain. So was the future of Lencho. Rain was a blessing for Lencho’s field. But the strong wind certainly was not. Nature is least bothered about Lencho. A strong wind began and as if it was not enough, it was accompanied by very large hailstones. The whimsicality of nature began.
The pieces of hailstones resembled new silver coins. The boys were inexperienced. So they ran out to collect those hailstones that looked like frozen pearls. The boys were truly charmed by the beauty. They lacked experience. They did not realise that enjoying beauty was only a luxury for them. They were unable to realise they could not afford that at the cost of their field and at the cost of the ripe corn.
[Line: “It’s really getting bad now,”….. covered with salt.”]
Lencho wanted rain. Rain was necessary for good production of corn but who on earth wanted a hailstorm? Lencho would have been the last person on earth to have wanted a hailstorm; particularly at a time when his field was dotted with flowers. He wanted the condition to pass by soon. Things did not unfold the way Lencho wanted. The hour-long hailstorm turned the field white. His ripe cornfield turned white.
Lencho, thus, fell prey to nature’s whims. Nature is the preserver and the destroyer of what it preserves. It destroys the very thing it preserves and nourishes. Lencho is helpless. He cannot do anything but to observe nature, the destroyer.
The paragraph ends with a simile. The white hailstorm looked like salt. The use of the word ‘salt’ is meaningful. It is used in a way as if it tells us that the life of Lencho has been salted. The word ‘salt’ effectively brings out the sad state of Lencho’s life.
[Line : Not a leaf remained on the trees…. “We’ll all go hungry this year.”]
The hailstones brought devastating consequences for Lencho’s cornfield. All the leaves were eaten up by the hailstones. Such was the intensity of the calamity. The flowers that promised good produce were also gone. We can feel what Lencho was going through at this moment. His hope for a secured future was shattered, at least for the coming year. We see that he stands in the middle of the field.
Here we sense a feeling of being alone. The plants are almost killed. Lencho stands among the dead bodies. He is among the dead. The prospect of living a decent life has been dead. We sense a vacuum in the mental realm of Lencho. He is in a state of intense grief but there is no outburst of either pain or anger. We do not see him bitterly crying or cursing anyone.
Did he accept his fate? The case appears to be so. He has perhaps resigned to his fate. He has no power to defy the providential will. He calmly told his sons about the imminent hardship they were about to face. He alerted them of a hardship of unnatural proportion- an unprecedented one.
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[Line: But in the hearts of all……..‘That’s what they say: no one dies of hunger.”]
The author’s observation of Lencho and his family is significant. Faced with natural disasters of gigantic proportions, people often lose all hopes. This was certainly not the case with Lencho. He and his family members did not lose all hopes. Lencho had one hope left. He hoped to get help from God. People even forget to remember the almighty at the suddenness of a disaster. Their mind goes blank out of shock.
Lencho’s faith in God is remarkable. This remarkable faith prompts him to say to the other members of his family, “Don’t be so upset,” and “ no one dies of hunger.”His unfailing faith in God makes him utter these words of courage. Courage is a peculiar thing. It often leaves one who is faced with danger or any other trying situation. It often abandons one when one needs it the most.
Lencho’s unshaken faith in God is a blessing to him. It makes him retain his courage. It also makes him retain his hope in life. This gets reflected in his assertion that “no one dies of hunger.”
[Line :One of the employees, who was a postman and also helped at the post office, ……….. Starting up a correspondence with God! ]
A postman came across the letter and laughed at it. We know how serious Lencho was in penning down the letter. Why? We know that incongruity is the source of laughter. Writing a letter to God and mailing it to God appears to be incongruous enough for the postman to break into laughter.
‘Incongruity’ is a condition that always contradicts the normal state of affairs. It defies the common norms of our day to day functioning or the normal norms of society. Though this contradiction is not an open challenge or rebellion against those norms anyway.
Lencho breaks the norm by writing a letter to God. The postman at the post office laughs at the incongruity. So we see that what the postman sees as incongruity is a glowing reality for Lencho. It depends on what situation one belongs to.
When the matter comes to the knowledge of the postmaster, he also breaks out laughing.But each individual possesses distinct mental make up. So reactions vary from one to another. The postmaster initially laughs at Lencho but his sensitive nature soon makes his reaction somewhat refined and he realises the degree of faith behind such a letter.
He recognises Lencho’s faith. He says, ‘What faith!...’ In this exclamation the postmaster recognises the enormity of Lencho’s faith. Then he says, ‘I wish I had the faith of the man who wrote this letter.’ By making such a comment, the postmaster expresses his admiration for Lencho. This admiration is mingled with surprise.
What do you think about the postmaster’s comment? Is he trying to make up for his initial insensitivity expressed through his laughter? We do not know but what we can guess is that the postmaster is a person with a reflective mind. He knows what is appropriate and what is not. And he can change himself accordingly.
[ Line: So,in order to shake the writer’s faith in God……. ‘For an act of charity.’]
Now how do we assess the postmaster’s decision to help the ‘writer of the letter to God’? Does he do so only out of sympathy to safeguard the writer’s faith in God or does he do so to quench his curiosity to know as to how the writer further reacts when the reply from God reaches him. Does he want to play a prank - a practical joke on him? We can rule out the third possibility considering the postmaster’s previous reactions. The first two possibilities are equally likely.
It might be either out of sympathy or out of curiosity but certainly not out of charity or philanthropic zeal. As soon as the postmaster opened the letter, the task of sending a reply to the letter turned out to be a matter of charity. In his letter Lencho demanded money from God. God should not and cannot disappoint a devotee as faithful as Lencho. What should the postmaster do now?
To help Lencho keep his faith in God, the letter by Lencho must not only be answered but also be answered with a positive reply. It meant the postmaster should send a hundred pesos to Lencho. The postmaster collected the money from his employees. He himself, along with some of his friends, contributed a part of the money and sent the money to Lencho, the writer of the letter.
The postmaster’s determination
What do we assume about the postmaster? The subject matter of the letter would have put many people in a fix as there was explicit demand for money. Most people in the postmaster’s position would have abandoned the plan of sending a reply to the writer of the letter. But the postmaster ‘stuck to his resolution’. This choice of sticking to the resolution speaks about the determination and the courage of the postmaster. He was determined; he was courageous; and he was philanthropic.
In addition to all these, he showed managerial and coordinating skills in involving all around him in his act of charity. He played the role of God - a God in human form. And Lencho had no knowledge about it.
[Line: It was impossible for him to gather together the hundred pesos. ……….. A single word as a signature:God]
The postmaster could not gather together the money Lencho demanded. The money accumulated from different sources was put in an envelope. It contained a letter that had a signature in the form of a single word - God.
The manner in which the letter was sent to Lencho instills in us a feeling as if God appeared before the devotee, blessed the devotee and disappeared at the blink of an eye leaving the devotee mesmerised giving him no scope to say anything. There was only one word in the whole letter, i.e. God.
There was no communication. There were blessings from God in the form of money sent to Lencho; but not the amount Lencho demanded. So we may take it as a wish only partially fulfilled by God. It was as if God wanted more from the devotee to fulfill all the wishes of the devotee. It was as if God put the devotee in a test before giving him all that the devotee wanted.
[Line: The following Sunday Lencho came a bit earlier than usual …… looked on from his office.]
Lencho went to the post office the following Sunday. He was eager to get a response for his letter as soon as possible. The postman handed him the letter. He was the taker or the recipient. The postmaster, the giver never appeared before him.The taker and the giver never met one another. God does not easily appear even before the greatest of his devotees; but sees how happy the devotee is upon receiving the blessings. The postmaster also looks at the man. God is happy when the devotee is happy. The postmaster is also satisfied for being able to perform a good deed.
Giving is not losing. Being able to give something to someone who needs it the most gives satisfaction to the giver. It fills one with joy and a sense of completeness.
The giver should not unnecessarily appear before the taker. He or she should rather stay away from the public eye and should not long for credit for what he or she has done. This mars the beauty of giving. The postmaster did the most appropriate thing. He stayed back and did not seek to come into the limelight showcasing his act of giving.
[Line: Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money;..... What he had requested.]
The depth of Lencho’s faith in God
When Lencho received the letter and saw the money he was not at all surprised. But he was angry. Why was Lencho not surprised? Lencho was not surprised because he had no doubt in the existence of God. He had no doubt that God fulfills everybody’s wish. Lencho is neither a skeptic nor a cynic. Nor does he belong to the class of those intellectuals who question the justifiability of such dependence on God.
Why was Lencho angry? Did Lencho think that God had made a mistake by not sending the entire amount? No. Lencho believed that ‘God could not have made a mistake.’ He was sure about the infallibility of God. Did Lencho think that God had wilfully sent him only a portion of the amount he needed? No. He did not think so. Lencho’s burning faith in God did not allow him to doubt God but at the same time his faith did not prevent him from getting angry at not receiving the money. This shows Lencho’s dissatisfaction. He was deeply unhappy. But soon his suspicion fell elsewhere and he took immediate steps.
Regardless of Lencho’s faith in the existence of God, his faith in the benevolent nature of God is quite evident here. But his anger at not receiving the entire amount of money is significant. But he did not put the blame on God.
[ Line: Immediately, Lencho went up to the window to ask for paper and ink. ….. the post office employees are a bunch of crooks. Lencho.”]
Lencho was angry because he did not get the money he demanded. He did not sit still. He knew how to write. He made use of his knowledge of writing. He started writing another letter to God. While he wrote, his eyebrows wrinkled.
According to the author, his facial expression spoke about the amount of effort he had to put to express his ideas in words. This shows that Lencho was unaccustomed to writing letters. He was not comfortable with this job. It proved to be a really difficult job for him. The wrinkling eyebrows may also indicate Lencho’s seriousness. His problem was only partially addressed. And that evidently could not make him happy. The manner (in which) Lencho bought the stamp, licked it and affixed it to the envelope with a blow of his fist showed his urgency.
Now we may come to the subject matter of the letter. The letter is brief and pinpointed. The subject matter can be divided into two distinct parts. In the first part Lencho directly asked for the rest of the money due to him. In the second part, there was a request from Lencho. Lencho requested God not to send the money through mail. The reason was that he considered the post office employees ‘a bunch of crooks.’
The story ends with Lencho’s request that God should send him the due money by means other than through the post office. These concluding lines open up some interesting aspects . Lencho’s request comes as a surprise - a sudden jolt for the reader. The element of surprise is created by the tic irony in which the reader has much more knowledge of the events than the characters themselves.
Lencho has supreme belief in God. But he has no faith in man. This is self-contradictory because man is the greatest source through which God manifests itself upon earth. How can Lencho accept the existence of God while having no faith in the goodness of man? This lack of faith in man only makes Lencho a shallow character.
Lencho’s letter might have hurt the postmaster who made monetary sacrifices for Lencho. But we, as readers, have enough reason to laugh at Lencho because of his foolishness and ignorance. The postmaster might have learnt a lesson the hard way. An act of charity may give one pleasure but he or she should not expect anything from one who has been benefitted by his or her act of charity.
Conclusion
have you finished reading this one? Now is the time to have a look at another useful piece comprising a list of 2 marks short type questions along their answers on Long Way to Freedom. Also read a detailed line by line analysis of Long Way to Freedom part I to get a clear idea of the inner message presented in the text.
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