A Wedding in Brownsville NCERT Solutions | Class 12 English Kaleidoscope - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

Stop and Think

Q1: Who were the Senciminers?
Ans: Senciminers were the town of Sencimin's native Jewish residents. They were, however, compelled to flee the town after the Germans destroyed it. Many Senciminers were tortured, burned, and gassed, but only a few managed to escape the camps and make it to America.

Q2: Why did Dr Margolin not particularly want his wife to accompany him to the wedding?
Ans: Dr Margolin refused to bring his wife to the wedding because he was ashamed of the shambles that American Judaism had become. He had to apologise to his wife every time he took her to a wedding or a Bar Mitzvah. This time, however, he was free of it.

Q3: What is the Hippocratic oath?
Ans: The Hippocratic Oath is an oath sworn by physicians in the past. It is considered one of the most well-known Greek medical works. In its actual form, it required a new physician to take an oath to preserve certain ethical norms before a number of healing gods.

Q4: What topic does the merry banter at the wedding invariably lead to?
Ans: The deaths of the Senciminers are always brought up during the wedding's boisterous banter. Every conversation inevitably led to it, and the protagonist was periodically questioned about his own family and their deaths.

Q5: Who was the woman that Dr Margolin suddenly encountered at the wedding?
Ans: Dr Margolin ran upon Raizel, the daughter of Melekh the watchman, who was his one true love. He, on the other hand, had no luck with her and was unable to marry her. Dr Margolin last heard of her after she married someone else and was later murdered by the Nazis.

Q6: What were the events that led to his confused state of mind?
Ans: When Dr Margolin observed that his wallet was missing but couldn't figure out how he'd lost it, he realised something was wrong. He also couldn't understand why Raizel appeared to be too young, and he assumed she was her daughter, mocking him.

Understanding the Text

Q1: What do you understand about Dr Margolin’s past? How does it affect his present life?
Ans: Dr Margolin in his early life used to give most of his time to his community. He was very much involved in his duty that he was not able to give some of his time to his wife. His responsibilities would not allow him to take time out for his family. He also referred to himself as an agnostic. He used to be conscious of his diet. According to Dr, his career had gone well. Apparently, he was a success. But now he thinks that He still lies awake at night, always trying to resolve the mysteries of the universe. He suffered from hypochondria (chronic anxiety) and Thanatophobia (fear of death) that haunted even his dreams. Hitler’s actions had destroyed all his faith in humanity. Despite his advanced age, he still wants to impress people with his image.

Q2: What was Dr Margolin’s attitude towards his profession?
Ans: In his last years, Margolin was so much into his work, his responsibilities were so much that he was not able to spend some good time with his wife. Dr Margolin was a board member of Jewish society and had become an academic Jewish quarterly. He sometimes referred to himself as agnostic and non-believer. He used to treat rabies, refugees, and Jewish writers without charge. He also provided medicines if needed and a bed in the hospital if necessary.

Q3: What is Dr Margolin’s view of the kind of life the American Jewish community leads?
Ans: The American Jewish community-led lifestyle was not appreciated by Dr Margolin. According to Dr, Jewish laws and customs were completely misleading life and false impressions on people. Those who were not considered Jewishness were wearing skull caps. Dr felt irritated in the wedding as well by the Jewish plus English jazz, both at a time an ear-splitting confused mixture of music and unruly dances. He also feels ashamed whenever he takes his wife to a wedding or bars.

Q4: What were the personality traits that endeared Dr Margolin to others in his community?
Ans: Dr Margolin in his early life used to give most of his time to his community. He used to treat rabies, refugees, and Jewish writers without charge. He also provided medicines if needed and a bed in the hospital if necessary.

Q5: Why do you think Dr Margolin had a curious experience at the wedding hall?
Ans: Margolin had experienced so much in the wedding like people, music, food, bar, dancing people, men with men and women with women. There was a hodgepodge of music like American jazz with oriental flourishes and Israeli march. He saw black as well as white skull caps, bare heads. Guests kept arriving through the crowd. The hall echoed with screaming, laughing, clapping, stamping and the flashbulbs went off blindingly as the photographer's photos. It was after so long that he attended any wedding otherwise for him, the wedding was a burden. Later on, realization occurs that what Dr Margolin had experienced at the wedding hall was just a result of his own death. He met with an accident on the way to the wedding. That is why he thought that he lost his wallet as well when talking to Raizel. He unexpectedly had a meeting with Raizel. Dr loved Raizel but was not able to marry her in the past and was shot by Nazis’.

Q6: Was the encounter with Raizel an illusion or was the carousing at the wedding hall illusory? Was Dr Margolin the victim of the accident and was his astral body hovering in the world of twilight?
Ans: At the wedding hall, carousing was actually illusionary. Raizel died in the past and was shot by Nazis. Dr had an unexpected meeting with Raizel because of his own death as He was the victim of the accident when coming to the wedding and his body was in the dark. Both were spirits.

Talking About The Text

Q1: Fiction often deals with human consciousness, rather than with the reality of existence.
Ans: Yes, fiction frequently deals with human consciousness rather than existential fact. Fiction turns hallucination into reality in a person’s state of mind that the mind starts to think it is reality, but it is not. So, as a result, it brings consciousness so bad that a person would not be able to decide whether the situation is reality or just imagination and making of his own mindset. It affects a person’s social living and memories as well as prediction including communication mechanisms.

Q2: The ways in which survivors of holocausts deal with life.
Ans: The ways in which survivors of holocausts deal with life are as follows-

• In spite of all the hardships, life goes on. All survivors feel the pain of leaving their own country.
• Always missing the family members and friends they have lost in the holocaust.
• They do not have any other choice and live mixed-culture (culture of a foreign land where they have been living as well as that of their own country)

Appreciation

Q1: Surrealism was an artistic and literary movement in France between the two World Wars. Its basic idea is that the automatic, illogical, and uncontrolled associations of the mind represent a higher reality than the world of practical life and ordinary literature. Do you think this story could be loosely classified as surrealistic? What elements in this story would support the idea?
Ans: Yes, this story can be categorized as surrealistic.
The climax is a section of such surrealism. Margolin is dead and is a spirit. His body was in the dark.
The story depicts him as a participant in the wedding, dancing along with the people around there, drinking, talking to guests, etc. His meeting with Raizel who was his love and earlier shot by Nazis also explains surrealism.

Q2: Comment on the technique used by the author to convey the gruesome realities of the war and its devastating effect on the psyche of human beings through intensely personal experience.
Ans: The author uses josh at the wedding. The conversation between some of the guests sketches the realities of the conflicts of the war. At the party, people contact each other and have conversations. People discussing with Margolin the deaths of their family and the destruction of their community. By showing this, the author wants to convey the gruesome realities of the war and its devastating effect on the psyche of human beings through intensely personal experience.

Language Work

A. Grammar: Sentence Variety
A long series of sentences of similar structure and length would be monotonous. Sentences of varied length and pattern contribute to a lively style. Let us look at this paragraph
(1) Usually after breakfast on Sunday, he and his wife took a walk in Central Park, or, when the weather was mild, went to the Palisades. (2) But today Solomon Margolin lingered in bed. (3) During the years, he had stopped attending functions of the Senciminer Society; meanwhile the town of Sencimin had been destroyed. (4) His family there had been tortured, burned, gassed. (5) Many Senciminers had survived, and, later, come to America from the camps, but most of them were younger people whom he, Solomon, had not known in the old country. (6) Tonight everyone would be there; the Senciminers belonging to the bride’s family and the Tereshpolers belonging to the groom’s. (7) He knew how they would pester him, reproach him for growing aloof, drop hints that he was a snob. (8) They would address him familiarly, slap him on the back, drag him off to dance. (9) Well, even so, he had to go to Sylvia’s wedding. (10) He had already sent out the present.
The paragraph has ten sentences in all. The word lengths of the sentences in the order in which they occur in the paragraph are 25, 07, 20, 08, 29, 19, 19, 15,10, 07. We find the range to be between 7 and 29.
We find a similar variation in sentence patterns
Sentence (1) Compound sentence. Two independent clauses joined by the coordinating conjunction ‘or’
Sentence (2) Simple sentence
Sentence (3) Two simple sentences joined by a semi-colon. Conjunction: meanwhile Sentence (4) Simple sentence
Sentence (5) Compound-Complex sentence consisting of two independent clauses joined by ‘and’; the third part has another independent clause joined with the second by ‘but’. It has a relative clause joined to it by the subordinator ‘whom’ Sentence (6) Simple sentence. A main clause followed by two non-finite clauses set in apposition to the main clause
Sentence (7) Complex sentence. One main clause and three parallel subordinate clauses, hinging on the subordinator ‘how’, ‘they’ and ‘would’ going with each clause and another subordinate clause depending on ‘drop hints’
Sentence (8) Parallel independent clauses following the same subject ‘They’. The auxiliary ‘would’ goes with each verb
Sentence (9) Simple sentence
Sentence (10) Simple sentence.
You will also notice the use of the past tense, past perfect for events and the future. The story is narrated in the past. The protagonist’s remote past are in the past perfect. The protagonist’s expectation of what would happen at the wedding is in the future. Note that the variation of form emerges from the emphasis in meaning.
TASK
Examine the paragraph beginning ‘Some time later the taxi started moving again...’ for variety in sentence length and sentence structure.
Ans: (1) Sometime later the taxi started moving again. (2) Solomon Margolin was now driving through streets he had never seen before. (3) It was New York, but it might just as well have been Chicago or Cleveland. (4) They passed through an industrial district with factory buildings, warehouses of coal, lumber, scrap iron. (5) Negroes, strangely black, stood about on the sidewalks, staring ahead, their great dark eyes full of gloomy hopelessness. (6) Occasionally the car would pass a tavern. (7) The people at the bar seemed to have something unearthly about them, as if they were being punished here for sins committed in another incarnation. (8) Just when Solomon Margolin was beginning to suspect that the driver, who had remained stubbornly silent the whole time, had gotten lost or else was deliberately taking him out of his way, the taxi entered a thickly populated neighbourhood. (9) They passed a synagogue, a funeral parlour, and there, ahead, was the wedding hall, all lit up, with its neon Jewish sign and Star of David. (10) Dr Margolin gave the driver a dollar tip and the man took it without uttering a word.
Sentence 1. Simple Sentence
Sentence 2. Simple Sentence
Sentence 3. Simple Sentence
Sentence 4. Simple sentence with description separated by commas
Sentence 5. Complex sentence consisting of one subject with subclauses
Sentence 6. Simple sentence
Sentence 7. Complex sentence consisting of main clause and a subclause
Sentence 8. Compound-complex sentence consisting of two independent clauses separated by comma; the first clause has several sub clauses joined with ‘who’ and ‘had’
Sentence 9. Compound-complex sentence consisting of two independent clauses joined by ‘and’; the second clause has a sub clause joined with ‘with’
Sentence 10. Simple sentence

B. Pronunciation

In a word such as ‘afternoon’ the third syllable (noon) is the most prominent. This is called the primary stress
after’ noon
You will also notice that the first syllable is less prominent than the third syllable. This is called the secondary stress. In the dictionary, the primary stress and the secondary stress are indicated as
,after ‘noon
The middle syllable is unstressed.
TASK
(a) Say the following words with correct stress. These words carry stress-pattern similar to the example given above.
understand - apprehend - rearrange
refugee - addressee
Ans: ‘un’ der’ stand - ‘ap’ pre’ hend - ‘re’ ar’ range    
‘ref’ u’ gee - ‘ad’ dress’ ee

(b) Given below are some words chosen from the lesson. Mark the primary and secondary stresses for each word.
invitation - responsible - seventeen
American - illustrious - ambulance
association - honourable - permanent
creator
Ans: ,invi’ tation - ‘re’ spon’ si’ ble - ,seven’ teen
‘A’ merican - ‘il’ lustrious - ‘am‘ bu’ lance
a’ ssoci’ ation - ‘honourable - ‘perma’ nent
,cre’ ator