Hey everyone! Welcome back to another important discussion on the Face Of It Question Answer Class 12 English for the upcoming HS Final Exam 2024 to secure 100% marks in the exam.
Here in this article on On the Face of It Question Answer, we have discussed all the textual question answers from the chapter On the Face of It. Moreover, we have added the previous year’s question solution for you.
- You Can Also Read:
We have already mentioned many times that the summary of any chapter helps you to understand the basic parts that you can utilize to get 100% marks in the exam. So let’s get started.
Textual Question Answer: Think as you read
1. Who is Mr. Lamb? How does Derry get into his garden?
Ans: Mr Lamb is an old man who lives in a big house and has a garden. One of his legs is of tin. It was blown off in the war.
Derry thinks that there is nobody inside. He climbs the wall and gets into the garden. His intention is not to steal. He likes to be lonely and in lonely places.
2. Do you think all this will change Derry’s attitude towards Lamb?
Ans: Mr Lamb has left a deep impression on the mind of Derry. He is sad and angry about his burnt face. He is sad and angry about his burnt face. He is frustrated. It is Lamb who motivates him to see life positively. So, Derry goes back to Mr Lamb, in spite of prevention from his mother.
Textual Question Answer: Reading with Insight
1. What is it that draws Derry towards Mr Lamb in spite of himself?
Ans: Derry suffers from a sense of inferiority complex. He has a burnt face. This makes him lonely and withdrawn. He gives up man’s company. He can’t stand people’s uncharitable remarks on his face. One day, he meets Lamb. It is a meeting of two minds which are totally different, Derry is withdrawn. Mr Lamb is very social. Derry hates people who laugh at him. But Lamb doesn’t mind, being called Lamey Lamb’.
Derry takes time to open his mouth. But finally, he does, as he finds a man who listens so cautiously. Lamb accepts life as it comes. He is always cheerful.
He advises Derry to come up in the world as he has everything of a man which is needed to rise. So, he should not be upset. If he wants, he can be the best of all.
2. In which section of the play does Mr Lamb display sighs of loneliness and disappointment? What are the ways in which Mr Lamb tries to overcome these feelings?
Ans: In the life of Mr Lamb, there is no room for loneliness and disappointments. He has a positive way to think about life, the world and nature. He welcomes everyone. He likes to talk and enjoy people’s company. He has a lot of friends. He likes children and their adventures. He has a tin leg. It was blown off in the war. But he never scares of that. When Derry once asks him whether the leg hurts him. Lamb gives a philosophical reply. That pain is nothing before his pleasure. He likes people, flowers and nature.
Lamb gets the better of his own loneliness and disappointment with the help of positive activities. He plucks the crab apples. He climbs himself with his tin legs to make jelly from them. He accepts life as it comes and never feels sad. He has his own garden to keep himself busy with his flowers, fruits and weeds.
In this way, Lamb overcomes these feelings of loneliness and disappointment. He never closes the gate and keeps always his windows open. He loves life and that love makes him love everything and everyone in the world.
3. ‘The actual pain or inconvenience caused by a physical impairment is often much less than the sense of alienation felt by the person with disabilities. What is the kind of behaviour that the person expects from others?
Ans: The remark is true. The actual pain of a disabled person is not caused by his disability alone, but by the behaviour that others show to him. People think that disabled people are unlucky. They never show any love towards the disabled. What they exhibit is sympathy mixed with antipathy. Therefore, a disabled person becomes withdrawn. He doesn’t want to meet or face people.
In the drama, Derry, a small boy, thinks he can’t be like others. That idea is penetrated in his mind by the behaviour of the able person of a society. The comment of the woman who says that Derry is only loved by his mother exhibits the notion of society as a whole toward such an unfortunate. Derry has no friends. He remains aloof from the society. He thinks that with a burnt check, he is not fit to be a part of society. He feels that no one will love and kiss him. Thus, he becomes a pitiful victim of depression and an inferiority complex. He avoids people.
Such a person wants to be normally treated. He needs a human touch of love and motivation. Uncharitable remarks offend him. Only a balanced and human attitude adopted by Lamb towards Derry can comfort those persons.
4. Will Derry get back to his old seclusion or will Mr Lamb’s brief association effect a change in the kind of life he will lead in future?
Ans: Derry had a quite negative attitude towards life, the world and people before he met Mr Lamb. He had shut himself up in his own self. His burnt face made him desolate and depressed. So, he avoided people. Their cruel, uncharitable remarks offended him. He, thus tamed a deep feeling of hatred for such people. But after meeting Mr Lamb, Derry understands that he should not give attention to others’ comments. He has a burnt face, besides he has everything, a person needs to rise in life. Mr Lamb is also an impaired person. Children tease him calling him ‘Lamey Lamb’. But he doesn’t mind that. He accepts life as it comes. He always feels happy. The world is full of joy. Every object of it is a subject of great pleasure and happiness. So, with a tin leg, he has nothing to object to. He leads a life of pure effort with his big house and his garden. He gives away toffees among children. He likes flowers, fruits and even weeds equally. He is positive and productive.
Derry will never get back to his old seclusion. His burnt face can no more cat away his self-respect, poise and belief. He will surely find his place in society like a normal man.
On the Face of It Question Answer: Previous Year
1. Why and how did Derry enter Mr Lamb’s garden? (2012,13,15,16,17)
Ans: Derry entered the garden by climbing over the garden wall. He thought the garden was empty and nobody was in the house.
2. Why aren’t there any curtains at the windows of Mr Lamb’s house? (2012,2018)
Ans: There are no curtains at the windows of Mr Lamb’s house because Mr Lamb is not fond of them. He thinks curtains shut things out or in. He has no problem with light or darkness and likes his windows open to hear the wind.
3. ‘Though both Mr Lamb and Derry suffer from physical disability their attributes to life are different. Justify the relevance of this statement with reference to the story of “On the Face of It”? (2012,16,19)
Ans: In this play ‘On the Face of It’ Susan Hill portrays two physical characters- Mr Lamb and Derry who are poles apart in their attitude toward life.
Derry a young boy of 14, suffers from a sense of inferiority complex because of his burnt face. He is always conscious that his face is ‘bad’, ‘terrible’, and ‘the ugliest thing’. Even people are afraid of him for his physical disability. Derry feels offended by the cruel and uncharitable remarks made by the people on his burnt face. His complexity leads him to live in an isolated world and consequently, he has developed quite a negative view of life.
On the contrary, Mr Lamb has a positive attitude toward life, people, and things. Despite being a physically impaired person, he never allows his physical disability to spoil the peace and pleasure of life. He accepts life as it comes. He tries to find and give a definite meaning to life. He is always cheerful and appreciates each and every creation of god even the trifle things like ‘weed’. Mr Lamb is social, frank, and open-minded. He opens his heart to everyone and even keeps the garden gate open for all. He likes to talk with everyone who enters his garden and wants to have company. Even though children tease him by calling him ‘Lamey Lamb’, he never minds it. Rather he welcomes them to his garden and shares apples, pears, and toffees with them.
In short, unlike Derry, Mr Lamb is a man with a positive frame of mind who enjoys and cherishes the beautiful objects of nature. Loneliness and disappointment don’t find any place in his mind.
4. Why does Derry go back to Mr Lamb in the end? (2013,17)
Ans: In the end, Derry returned back to Mr Lamb as Mr Lamb had inspired him through his words which nobody had ever done. Moreover, he promised Mr Lamb that he would return back. He felt if he did not go back to Mr. Lamb then he would never go anywhere in this world again.
5. Who should be friends, according to both Derry and Mr Lamd? (2014)
Ans: According to Derry to be friends the persons must know each other and must meet from time to time. But according to Mr Lamb, all those people we come across are friends because they are not enemies.
6. How do people comment so painfully about Derry’s face? and Why? (2014,15)
Ans: People comment that Derry’s face was terrible and that only a mother could love such a face. It was because one side of Derry’s face was burnt by acid leaving a horrible scar on it.
7. What impression do you form of Mr Lamb? How does he look at life? (2015)
or
The character of Mr. Lamb.
Ans: Mr. Lamb is an old man with a tin leg. One of his legs was blown off in the war. He lives alone in a big house with a garden.
Mr. Lamb has a positive attitude toward life, people, and things. Despite being a physically impaired person, he never allows his physical disability to spoil the peace and pleasure of life. He accepts life as it comes. He tries to find and give a definite meaning to life. He is always cheerful and appreciates every creation of god even the trifle things like ‘weed’.
Mr. Lamb is social, frank, and open-minded. He opens his heart to everyone and even keeps the garden gate open for all. He likes to talk with everyone who enters his garden and wants to have company. Even though children tease him by calling him ‘Lamey Lamb’, he never minds it. Rather he welcomes them to his garden and shares apples, pears, and toffees with them.
In short, unlike Derry, Mr. Lamb is a man with a positive frame of mind who enjoys and cherishes the beautiful objects of nature. Loneliness and disappointment don’t find any place in his mind.
8. What is it that draws Derry towards despiten spite of himself? (2018)
or
How did Mr Lamb try to give courage and confidence to Derry? (2020)
or
What is Derry’s attitude towards life? How is it transformed?
Ans: Derry a young boy of 14, suffers from a sense of inferiority complex because of his burnt face. This makes him lonely and withdrawn and he has developed quite a negative view of life.
A chance meeting with Mr. Lamb changes his attitude toward life. Mr. Lamb, an old man with a tin leg, enjoys every creation of God. He is always cheerful and accepts life as it comes. Mr. Lamb tells Derry about all the things in this world that can be enjoyed and cherished like the light, darkness as well as the social of wind. Emphasizing the power of the mind, Mr. Lamb relates to Derry that if he had the determination he could excel in life leaving others far behind. The old man urges Derry not to mind what others say about his burnt face. In short, Mr. Lamb shows the young boy the bright side of life and motivates him to think positively about life, people, and things.
Mr. Lamb’s positive words leave a deep impression on the mind of young Derry. For the first time in his life, Derry meets a man like Mr. Lamb whose positive attitude has given him a new meaning in life.
9. How did Derry get his face burnt? (2019)
Ans: One side of Derry’s face was totally burnt. Mr. Lamb guessed that Derry’s face got burned in a fire. Derry corrected him. He got acid all down on that side of his face. The acid burned it all the way. It ate his face up.
Important Additional Question Answer
1. Why was Zitkala-Sa terrified when Judewin told her that her hair would be cut short?
Ans: Zitkala-Sa was terrified because their mother had taught them that only unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair shingled by the enemy. Moreover, among her people, short hair was worn by mourners and shingled hair by cowards.
2. How was the narrator inspired by the words of her elder brother?
Ans: The narrator was highly inspired by the words of her elder brother. She realized that they can attain honour and dignity if they are learned. She studied hard and stood first in her class. Eventually, she made a lot of friends.
3. ‘Now I was only one of the little animals driven by herder’. Why did the narrator feel so?
Ans: The narrator had suffered extreme indignities since the day she was taken away from her mother. People had stared at her and she had been tossed about in the air like a wooden puppet. Her long and beautiful hair was shingled against her wish. In her anguish, she moaned for her mother but there was no one to comfort her. That is why she felt like one of the many little animals driven by a herder.
4. How was the land of apples like?
Ans: The land of apples was a bitter cold one. The snow covered the ground and the trees were bare. It was full of noise and disturbances.
5. What were the different noises that sound to upset the narrator?
Ans: The different noises that sound to upset the narrator were
The loud metallic sound of a bell.
The clatter of shoes on bare floors.
Muttering in an unknown tongue.
Constant clash of harsh noise.
