Formal Invitations, Notes of Regret and Notes of Acceptance

Invitations, notes of regret and notes of acceptance are part of the short composition section of the higher-order writing skills syllabus for grade twelve, English Core of the CBSE. Invitations may be one of the choices in question four of the Board paper including advertisements, posters, and notices.

Types of Invitations

Invitations can be of two types, namely formal invitations (like the ones that are printed on ornate and well-designed cards) and informal invitations that can be written in the form of informal letters.

What are Invitations?

Invitations are formal or informal communications inviting people to attend various events. Formal invitations are sent out by schools, institutions, organisations for various functions like the School Annual Function or Fete, Inauguration of new building blocks, Computer Lab, Science Lab, New Multimedia Room, New office…etc. Some of the less formal invitations would be sent by individuals inviting friends, relatives, and important people to wedding celebrations, birthday celebrations, celebrations of wedding anniversaries, and even the inauguration of shops. These invitations however can be drafted using a formal format besides being written as an informal letter.

One example of the institutional formal Invitation is given below:

Note: Mind your capitals, since much of what you write is in sentences, apart from headings, avoid using upper case. In such cases, adjectives and prepositions should not be capitalised! The Annual Day Function is in Capitals because it is an event!

One example of a Formal Institutional invitation in the formal format is given below:

One example of the institutional formal family (wedding) Invitation is given below:

Wedding card type invitation

One example of an individual inauguration formal card invite is given below:

Letters of Formal Invitation

In some cases, letters of invitation can be sent in the form of formal letters. These include sending an invitation inviting someone to preside as a chief guest. An example is given below:

Green Bells Public School

B-26

Roop Nagar

New Delhi

10th of October, 2022

Mr Mukesh Virmani

B 26

Maharani Bagh

New Delhi

Subject: Invitation to preside as Chief Guest.

Dear Mr Virmani

We would like to invite you to preside over the annual day function of our school which will take place on the 20th of October, 2022. The function will start at 10:00 a.m. and end at 12:00 p.m. It will take place on the school ground.

It will be a great honour to have you as our Chief Guest as your presence will be a source of inspiration for all those who are present.

We will be arranging a pick-and-drop for you. Kindly spare some of your valuable time for us. We look forward to having you with us on the occasion.

With best wishes and regards

 Mr A.K. Ganguly

(Principal-Green bells Public School)

What are Notes of Regret and Notes of Acceptance?

When someone is invited with such grace and is not able to attend the function, then decency requires the person to at least send a note of regret.

A note of regret for the first invitation given above can be drafted as under:

D-23

Sector 14

Faridabad

7th of January, 2015

The Principal

Golden Lion Public School

Sector 54

Gurugram

Dear Mrs Kumari Sudesh                                                                                                            
Mr. Ankur Garg regrets to state that he will not be able to attend the Annual Day Celebration of the Golden Lion Public school on the 25^th of February due to some prior commitments. His best wishes are however with the organisers of the event, and the grand success of the event.

Regards and thanks                                                                                  
A.G.

A note of acceptance for the second invitation may be drafted as under:

                                                                                           

B-26

Sector 13

Rohini    

New Delhi                                                                                                                                                                                                
20^th January 2016

Mrs and Mr S.N.Gupta

H-26

Malkaganj

New Delhi

Dear Mrs and Mr S.N.Gupta

Mrs and Mr. Rakesh Sinha are glad to accept the invitation to attend the wedding of Gauri with Sarthak on the 28^th of January, 2016. They will be present on the occasion to give their blessing to the newlywed couple and lend any assistance should the need arise.

With best wishes                                                                                                            

Mrs and Mr Sinha

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few interesting questions for practice are given below:

1.Draft an invitation for the Annual Sports Day of your school on behalf of the Principal. Supply your own details.

a) Write notes of regret/acceptance for the same.

2.As the Director of Regency Office Equipment and Furniture Suppliers Ltd, B-38, Nehru Place, New Delhi, draft an invitation for the employees and important guests to attend the annual foundation day of the firm.

a) Write notes of regret/acceptance for the same.

3. You are Anil Kumar Singh, and you have just opened a gift shop, (Sweet Memories) at G-23, M-Block, Mukherjee Nagar, New Delhi. The inauguration for the same has been fixed for October 20, 2015, at the shop itself, and you would like the invitees to be present by  eleven in the morning. Also, gift items will be sold at highly discounted rates.

a) Write notes of regret/acceptance for the same.

A possible note of regret for the above invitation could be written as under:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

D-56, A block
Ashok Vihar
Delhi-56

6 July, 2015

Mr. Singh

H.No, 34

Sector 13

Rohini

New Delhi

Dear Mr Singh

Mr. Ashok Kumar regrets to state that he will not be able to attend the inauguration ceremony for the gift shop, Sweet Memories, on the 20^th of October 2015 because of some urgent work that has cropped up, however, his best wishes are for the grand success of the gift shop. His blessings and prayers are with Mr Singh and his endeavour.

With best wishes

Mr A.K.

                                                                                                                       

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. You are Ananya Sharma, on behalf of your sister, Anya Sharma, draft an invitation to invite friends, and relatives to your sister’s 16th birthday celebration on the 20th of July, 2016. Furnish your own details.

a) Write notes of regret/acceptance for the same

5. You are Avdesh Kumar and Meenakshi Gupta, both brother and sister. Frame an invitation to invite friends, and relatives to the silver jubilee wedding anniversary of your parents. Furnish your own details.

a) Write notes of regret/acceptance for the same.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Important Note:

Formal invitations are written in the third person narrative, although informal invitations might be written as informal letters.

Technorati Tags: Formal Invitations for grade twelve

Words

Words are like building blocks that a structure create!

The right choice of words would a message create

Of images sharp and ideas clear, to remove blunders

That cause an embarrassment so sure!

Of verbs I know that actions describe, and nouns so

Dear that name my friends, adjectives so

Fair that define my friends and prepositions

So pat that make positions so clear!

The linkers I know that connect all I know, verbs and

Nouns and  sentences that flow, to remove the clutter and  bind

The structure that I make, for all to see! For I would not like

To ramble on, but to Convey message all so clear.

And to cement my words with dancing words,

I use participles  and gerunds

And play with past participles because

I would not like to end my action so!

 My prepositions I use so fans should hang from ceilings.

While I pour tea into my cup,  ideas I place in sentences

That glow, and so I dive into rules that confuse me so,

Thus, Will I walk a mile with you if it pleases you so

Of adjectives I know, that the red ball pleases you so,

For you are a good friend and I like you so!

And if a short lesson in rules would please you,

A lesson crisp I will share with you.

Modals I would give, as advice to help you,

For I dare not leave alone one so innocent like you,

For When in Rome you must obey the elders -

In Greece you ought to visit the Parthenon!

Three important strands in literature that the CBSE develops through grades eight to twelve in its textbooks

By the time the students of English Core reach grade level twelve, they will have gone through similar strands at different grade levels to build an understanding of specific genres of literature. Here I would like to reiterate the ideal case scenario where students typically take up English elective till the grade ten level and then switch over to the English Core syllabus till grade twelve. In such a case, the curriculum framers have made a judicious collection of short stories, poems and drama pieces. Here I would like to specifically state that I am limiting myself to an analysis of lessons in the textbooks. Thus, if I were to divide the Literature lessons into themes or units, then I would like to trace the following themes or strands or even genres that run through grades eight to twelve as follows: Satire: exposing the foibles or weaknesses of individuals or weaknesses in the society, Transformational Literature, whether it is the transformation of the individual that has been brought about by intrinsic factors or for that effect extrinsic ones, Relationships, filial, familial, Aesthetics, a study of what makes things beautiful, and so on. I will now break up the English course through grades in the form of the following strands:

1. Exposing the foibles of the society through Satire: ( The Collins COBUILD Student’s Dictionary 2006 edition explains satire to be ‘the use of humour to mock or criticize political ideas or the way that people behave.’) Satire as a genre is one of the important strands that the CBSE develops from grade nine English Elective to grade twelve English Core. Take for example the lesson ‘Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger’ that students study in grade nine.

Grade nine (Elective): The short story criticizes the foibles weaknesses and vanity of the upper-class British women’s society during the British Raj. The only reason  Mrs Packletide wants to shoot a tiger in India is not that she wants to leave India a safer place, but rather because she wants to put to shame her social rival Loona Bimberton who flew eleven miles in a plane flown by an Algerian Aviator! The short story by Saki makes use of irony, hyperbole, and paradox to poke fun at the vanity, and undercurrents of jealousy that drive the upper-class society of women. The dramatic irony of Mrs Packletide aiming her gun at the old tiger weakened by senile decay which has an echo in The Tiger King, a short story in Grade twelve written by Kalki and the literary irony of Louisa Mebbin naming her cottage Les Fauves all are important elements of a satire that exposes the hollowness of a particular section of the society.

Grade eleven (English Core): Students come across the poem by Vikram Seth in the supplementary reader titled, ‘The King of Melon City”. This is a poem, unlike the two other pieces. Vikram Seth uses satire and irony along with hyperbole and paradox to expose the great blame game that bureaucrats and leaders like to play when things go wrong. First and foremost, the King of Melon City claims to be ‘just and placid’ so when he orders that someone should be hanged for the effrontery done to the state when the  Crown was dashed to the ground by the low arch, it is clear that he would have to be hanged since it was he who had ordered changes in the blue-print of the arch. Also, the poem pokes fun at the people of the melon city who are happy to have a melon as their king because they don’t like any interference in their lives. There is an oblique comment about the randomness of the democratic system of electing leaders for responsible posts. This is an important poem that should be taught to students of grade eleven as an important example of satire. Students should be made to understand the importance of satire and how it can be an important vehicle for social and individual transformation!

Grade twelve (English Core): In grade twelve, students get to read ‘The Tiger King’, a short story by Kalki. ‘The Tiger King,’ a satire draws a parallel with Saki’s ‘Mrs Packletide’s Tiger’  because the climax of the story lies in the incident where the Tiger King thinks he has shot his hundredth tiger, but in fact misses his aim. Like in Saki’s ‘Mrs Packeltide’s Tiger’ the tiger in  ‘The Tiger King’ is in an advanced stage of ‘senile decay’.  Kalki’s short story like the previous works of literature is a comment on the political and bureaucratic system existing in the country. The attitude of the mighty and powerful towards wildlife and nature is questionable, and so is the kind of relationship of hierarchical protocols with subordinates is brought under the scanner. The selfishness of bureaucrats, putting the self before the state, their obsession with all things foreign, their expectation that others will give them gifts like the maharaja expected the shopkeeper to give him the wooden tiger free and not take any money for it are all exposed in this short stories as foibles and weaknesses of the bureaucratic system that is almost as aristocratic as the British Raj. The Tiger King thinks he can go scot-free after killing all those tigers, he thinks he can bully his servants and minions into doing what he wants, he thinks he is above the law, but then although he might dictate terms and conditions of jurisprudence,  he is however not beyond Divine Justice! The manner of his death is ironical enough, and it is a message to all those bureaucrats who think that they can get away with their excesses that the sword of Damocles hangs over each one’s neck. The Indian society is full of instances of the rich and powerful trying to destroy wildlife whether it is in the form of shooting blackbucks or killing deer, either way, history has shown how the long arm of the law does finally catch up with such people! The theme of a holistic responsibility of protecting our environment and ecology is developed all the way through grade nine, grade eleven and grade twelve with a culmination in the lesson, ‘The Tiger King.’

2. Using literature as a vehicle for the Transformation of the individual: 

Grade Ten (Elective course) ‘The Letter’ by Dhumaketu in grade ten, English literature is an important short story that has the theme of transformation at its core. The postmaster in the lesson is a hard-hearted man, unfeeling and insensitive by nature. He calls Coachman Ali ‘a pest’ and wonders why he keeps visiting the post office for a letter that never comes. Coachman Ali’s persistence and patience with which he visits the post office without fail for five years speak of a father’s love for his daughter, a conviction that she will send him a letter one day. A story so touching and full of pathos, it fills the reader’s heart with sympathy. The transformation that takes place in this lesson is in the postmaster’s attitude. The postmaster who initially thought of letters as mere pieces of paper, now realises that there is a beating heart inside each letter. The postmaster understands how it is to be a father when his own daughter in another town falls ill and he doesn’t get to hear from her for a few days, compare this with the five years of no news in the case of Coachman Ali! The story also describes the transformation that takes place in Coachman Ali himself. He was a shikari with an exceptionally good aim and a sharp eye and he did not have any scruples in killing wild game even if it meant orphaning their offspring. The change in Coachman Ali, however, takes place when his daughter Mirriam marries an army man and leaves her father to settle in a faraway town in Punjab. This separation from his daughter makes Ali realise how the offspring of the wild animals and birds must have felt on being separated from their parents.

Grade eleven (English Core): One lesson that is no longer in the course is the play Titled, ‘Mother’s Day’ by J.B.Priestly highlighted the transformation in the attitude that a husband and their two children undergo when Mrs. Annie Pearson is helped by Mrs Fitzegerald an esoteric neighbour who is adept in switching bodies! The play, a humorous one, depicts the reaction of Mrs Pearson’s family when she tries to stand up for her rights. The play written in the 1950s, is a humorous and satirical depiction of the status of the mother in the family. The play that portrays various issues and problems that are relevant even today delivers a strong message of social reform especially in the way mothers are treated in the family.

Grade twelve (English Core): There are three lessons in grade twelve that have transformation as a very strong central theme and these include the Play, ‘On The Face Of It’ by Susan Hill,’ ‘Deep Water,’ by William Douglas, and ‘The Rattrap’ by Selma Lagerlof, all deal with the transformation of the self. The only difference between the three is that while the transformation in the central characters in ‘On The Face of It,’ and ‘The Rattrap’ are brought about by external agents, the transformation that takes place in the author in ‘Deep Water’ is self induced. Also which ‘On The Face of It’ is a drama, ‘The Rattrap’ is a short story belonging to the allegorical genre written as a fable or a fairy tale. William Douglas's ‘Deep Water,’ however belongs to the  autobiographical genre. In the Drama, ‘On The Face Of It’ the central character Derry undergoes a transformation when he comes across Mr Lamb. That one conversation convinces Derry that he can overcome his handicap, pessimism and live a life of joy, only he has to make a choice. In the case of ‘The Rattrap’ the transformation in the peddler is brought about through his interaction with three people, The old Crofter, The Iron Master, and finally, Edla. The moral of the lesson is that there is goodness in all human beings, and this goodness can be brought out through the kindness and generosity of others. The power of unconditional kindness and generosity in transforming human nature has been highlighted here. ‘Deep Water’ is however different from the other two because it highlights the importance of self-motivation in bringing out visible transformation of the self. ‘Deep Water’ is like a self help book that tells you about the processes and means for bringing about your own transformation. A task analysis of ‘Deep Water’ will reveal that what it takes to overcome one’s handicaps include accepting the one has a problem, taking an expert’s help, persistence, determination, and hard work, doing things on your own, and finally pushing your limits!

3.Literature and  Aesthetics: (The Collins COBUILD Student’s Dictionary, 2006 edition, states, ‘Aesthetic is used to talk about beauty or art and people’s appreciation of beautiful things.’

Grade eight:The poem ‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth is taught in grade eight as an example of Romantic Poetry and to describe Worsdworth’s appreciation for the beauty of nature as seen by him and his sister while taking a stroll in the mountains. The image of the dancing daffodils was to remain in his mind long after the day they saw the flowers, and the author mentions how when he was down at heart he fell back on the memory of the dancing daffodils and how that memory helped bring good cheer to him. Now that is what aesthetics is! While the poem describes the meaning of beauty as something that never dies, it also highlights the beauty of nature.

Grade Twelve (English Core): The Poem, ‘A Thing of Beauty’ by John Keats, like the poem, ‘Daffodils’ as read by students in grade eight highlights the meaning of beauty as something that never fades away, and in fact beauty, real beauty is something whose value grows as time passes. Keats moves ahead of Wordsworth when he adds a list of beautiful things that includes, lambs, trees, musk rose blooms, clear rills of water, and even the stories of bravery and sacrifice of people who laid down their lives for a good cause. Keats, himself a romantic poet goes further to suggest that beauty has a spiritual source since it flows from a fountain in heaven to help us tide over difficult times and bear the brunt of indifferent minds, malicious intentions, and ‘dearth of noble natures’.

I have identified three very deep strands of theme that run through the CBSE English course from grades eight to twelve. This analysis is limited to the textbooks prescribed by the CBSE and prepared by the NCERT. It doesn’t mean that other strands don’t exist, in fact they do, but then I guess I would pick them up some other time! 

Technorati Tags: Important Literature strands developed by CBSE

Are Written Annual Board Exams Good or Bad?

A familiar grouse amongst students and parents alike is that you can’t assess what a student has learned throughout the whole year in a three hour written examination! What if the student fell ill, or was in a bad state of mind, wouldn’t this affect the student’s performance in the written exam? For others, the very idea of a written examination is effete, obsolete and outdated in times when word-processing is the norm! Come on, we are talking about building up 21st century skills, so how does a written board exam fit into the scheme of things? “Sir, can’t you send us these observations by e-mail, this is too much of writing, we are tired!”- all for half to one page of written matter!

But then, let us pause and review the things that went on well and things that went on not so well since the CBSE brought in drastic and radical changes overnight in the system of education from grade one to grade ten, six years of confusion, eye-wash and a drastic deterioration of the academic standards of students and teachers! First and foremost, the “no fail policy”- much appreciated initially by parents who spoke about the stress of preparing for term papers, today a large number of parents advocate written exams and stricter norms regarding promotion of wards to the next class. Today, statistical research has shown that very few  of the students at the elementary level have  grade-specific skills in languages, both Hindi and English, and basic Mathematics. These students are presently passed on, or promoted to the next grade under the ‘no fail’ increasing the learning gaps with each year that passes!

The introduction of the Comprehensive Continuous Evaluation brought a sigh of relief to teachers and students and parents alike. Teachers were happy that they would not have to prepare regular term papers and check them, students were happy that they would not have to study hard for regular term papers, and parents were relieved that they would not have to pay exorbitant amounts to the neighbourhood aunty who gave  tuitions in all subjects from grade one to grade ten! A few years into CCE, however exposed the fallacy of such wishful thinking, for under the CCE, teachers had to prepare regular assessments under the system of “Formative Assessments” which included group activities, projects, and near about any kind of assessment that would help trace the “Formative Cognitive Growth” of the   learner. Students who had to prepare on regular intervals for term papers now had to prepare continuously without break. Parents who bothered about looking into the notebooks of their children just a few days before exams now now had to on their feet, running to the market to buy models and projects before the impossible deadline given by the teachers.    The immense scope and possibilities under CCE assessment strategies meant that teachers began devising their own activities, some of which so outrageously impractical since they were not backed up by a robust rubric. Some of the projects/activities were so ambitious that they ended up leaving the students and teachers confused about what they were being tested on, or what they were really testing. The end result of the CCE was that there were no standardised testing procedures. Also, the group activities did not cater to differential learning, thus a group presentation would depend on the probably the leader of the group who would do all the work, research, and drafting the presentation, while the other members would simply stand in a group while their leaded made the presentation. Thus if the teacher gave a perfect ten on ten, then it should have been more about awarding the single leader of the group who did all the work than the rest of the group members, literally hangers on. What happens in reality is that the perfect ten on ten is given to all the members of the group irrespective of the amount of work they might have put in – something that questions the very validity of the activity!

The next favoured assessment tool under CCE is the project. Topics are given to students and then they are told to prepare a written essay on the topic. Students then enter key words on the Google search bar, and lo and behold, the magic of the internet is that it spews out a plethora of websites on the topics chosen by the student. A few students might cite sources but most don’t even know about plagiarism. Matter is word processed, a few pleasing sketches are made on the cover pages,  and then the neatly spiral bound booklet is presented with a flourish to the teacher. The teacher is impressed by the presentation and the promptness of the student in presenting the project well in time and he gives the student a ten on ten! The same goes for models. Topic is given, the student then talks to the neighbourhood aunty who can prepare any model or a project paper for a reasonable amount of money. The topic is given to her and then after a few days, a gleaming colourful model is done, all ready to be presented to the teacher. The teacher looks at the model, gets impressed by the quality of workmanship, and awards the student a ten on ten!

Things become bad when the student “passes high school” that is grade ten with a ten CGPA and then seeks admission in another school, or then decides to get into one of the more popular streams, that is Science stream with Engineering based subjects, including Maths, Physics and Chemistry. The principal of a Govt. Aided school in Roop Nagar where I once served, lamented that even students with a 10 CGPA who came from other schools for admission in the science stream at the grade eleventh level failed to clear the exams and thus had to be either detained at the grade eleven level or worse had to seek admission somewhere else. These were by all means students who had been through the rigours of the Continuous Assessment System which had made the process of learning a cake-walk, the students had plagiarised liberally from the net, gotten models made from a shop and had ended up with a 10 CGPA! Ironically enough, a 10 CGPA is not a valid indicator of student learning, capability or even ability to take up a particular stream! Probably the only good thing about CCE or CCA is its continuity rather than the tools!

Formative assessments would  been wonderful and more effective if the tools were standardised across grades, and they came with standardised rubrics. Also, if there was a more subjective from of assessment, an assessment that could do away with using the subject teacher himself/herself as the examiner. Assessments other than written ones, (projects, group activities, research papers and presentations) can be effective only in classes where the students’ strength does not exceed twenty-five students. In situations where class strength goes up to seventy students, we might as well forget about any other form of assessment  than the written one. What might work in ideal situations where the student teacher ratio is 20-1, will not work in any other situation such as those found in Government schools. Formative assessments other than the written kind are also highly dependent on Information Technology and they require teachers to have more than a basic Information Technology skills. In a country where the fruits of Information Technology is yet to reach many schools and where even now only a few teachers have good IT skills, it is doubtful if formative assessments can be accurately recorded.

The question of whether written board exams are good or bad however is difficult to answer, it is like being forced to choose between two necessary evils and deciding which is less harmful. Whether one should trust the probably fudged ten CGPA of a student passing out of the tenth grade, or the 95 % marks that a student gets in four subjects in the grade twelve board exams is for the reader to decide! The crux of the matter is whether our assessments are valid enough, whether they test actual learning and thereby indicate  capability is yet to be established. It is a known fact that even H.J.Eysenck’s  battery of tests are only indicative of what they are supposed to measure, that is I.Q. and not definitive indicators of intelligence. Even they can be challenged. The fact of the matter is that no single test is accurate enough whether it is formative or summative, and it is only after the learner has been subjected to a large number of tests and the average of all these tests is calculated that we might arrive at a more definitive score that indicates that significant learning has indeed taken place! However, it is not practical nor healthy for the learner to undergo too many tests since then, there would be less of teaching and learning taking place in the class room. There needs to be a proper balance between the teaching – learning process and assessments.What the percentage should be between actual teaching and assessments needs to be studied, the fact of the matter is that these days, there seem to be more continuous assessments taking place till grade ten than actual teaching. As a result of being used to a  reduced time for instruction as opposed to an increased time for assessment, students when they go to grade eleven find it difficult to cope with a system of education that is  all of a sudden  more about  formal instruction, written summative assessments than the fun to do formative assessments of the past grade.

I have personally come across students with a good ten CGPA in English struggling with sentence structures, and skills of expression when it comes to writing extended articles, speeches and debates in grade twelve. These students who have exceptional skills in spoken English however struggle when it comes to appearing for a written exam. One of the favourite requests from my students is to send them notes on e-mail, they will not, rather can not take down notes because they have not done enough writing in the lower grades, what with the focus being on group tasks, projects,  and other formatives that did not require much writing. The reader might ask me, so  what do such skills have to do with assessments? My answer is that written skills are an important part of assessments and they will continue to be till at least we stop witting entirely and instead use some kind of an input devise; till then, our assessments will continue to focus on the written component of assessments.

Till we come up with a better alternative to the formative assessments in high school grades eight to ten and the summative assessment in grade eleven and twelve, we will somehow have to do with a system of assessment that will take up the best of both, it should be standardized, conducted by an external agency, not the subject teacher, and it should be conducted at more regular intervals. My suggestion is for board exams to be re-introduced on these lines at the grade ten level, although these should  not be annual, rather, they should be biannual exams so that the average scores of the two would be better indicators of student learning. Also formatives should be reduced if not removed entirely from grade ten. In education boards should spend more time in improving the quality of formative assessments and these should take place only in primary classes, that is up to grade five or six. From grade seven onwards, students should focus on regular  summative assessments, like we had a few years ago, before the introduction of CCE/CCA. For grade twelve, the single annual summative board exam should stay although an additional weight age should be given to internal assessments in the form of an average of all the home exams or tests taking place throughout the academic session. The average of internal assessments should be to the tune of 25 % of the annual written board exam. A similar  system is already being followed in subjects that have a practical component like Physical Education, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.

Important Metaphors in Selma Lagerlof's The Rattrap

The short story, the Rat Trap by Selma Lagerlof is full of distinct metaphors that describe the peddler's world. The peddler refers to some of them for the world he lives in and the situations he experiences. The most important of all the metaphors is the metaphor of the rattrap (which incidentally also forms the title of the lesson). The forest is another important metaphor (in which he loses himself). Yet another metaphor to consider is the metaphor of the ‘lion’s den’. The fourth metaphor incidentally, is the metaphor of the letter, the letter that the pedlar addresses to Edla at the end.

It is interesting to see how Selma Lagerlof uses metaphors in this story to create, not just interest in the reader, but also to convey a very strong message about how the essential goodness in a human being can be brought out through understanding and love. These metaphors are integral to the allegorical genre, fables and fairytales such as which this lesson happens to be. The author begins the story like a fairytale, and like a fairy tale, the lesson delivers a specific message. The metaphors used by Selma are like cues and symbols that deliver a message in the form of images, whether it is the image of the rattrap, the dense forest or even the lion’s den! Metaphors are images that structure our thinking. Metaphorical thinking underlies the way we make sense of the world conceptually. It governs how we think and how we talk about our day-to-day lives. (Libby Brooks, 2015). It is important that as we go deeper into the lesson each metaphor comes out strongly. This story, like all fables, parables and folktales has a moral as a message.

1.The Rattrap: The reader shouldn’t be surprised to see how even a peddler can fall into a philosophical line of thought when it comes to thinking of the world in terms of images. He had naturally been thinking of his rattraps when suddenly he was struck by the idea that the whole world…was nothing but a rattrap. It had never existed for any other purpose than to set baits for people. (The Rattrap) This is an extreme view of the world - rather pessimistic, negative, and vitiated in nature. He looks at the world as a rattrap where even ordinary things like joys, shelter and food, heat and clothing have become dangerous baits and traps for the unsuspecting victim. For the peddler with his rather twisted perception of the world, anything he doesn't have, (because of his impoverished circumstances)  even basic necessities of life, becomes a bait, talk about rationalising one's lack of success! All the successful people he has known are victims of the rattrap simply because they are successful while he is not! The author explains that this extreme view of the world was his way of getting back at a world that had never been good to him - it was his way of taking revenge on a world that he had perceived to have slighted him. He enjoyed such thoughts while plodding along. This rationalising is similar to the wolf rationalising that the grapes were sour when he couldn't get them in the folktale we heard as children. That the peddler should see the world as a rattrap shows how vitiated, vindictive and revengeful the peddler can be, and it is in this aspect of his character that Selma Lagerlof wants to show a transformation taking place in him. In the allegory of the rattrap, Selma wants to show how good people like the old crofter, the ironmaster and Edla, all happen to be agents of change,  agents that bring about a change in the peddler's character.

2. The Woods: The peddler dares not walk on the public highways after stealing the thirty Kroner lest he should be arrested for the crime, so he takes to the woods. In the beginning, he had no problems, but then later in the day, things became worse, for it was a big and confusing forest which he had gotten into. He tried, to be sure, to walk in a definite direction, but the paths twisted back and forth (The Rattrap) and it was only then that he realised that he had become trapped in a forest that had become an impenetrable prison from which he could never escape. (The Rattrap) The woods can be seen as a metaphor for the circumstances into which the peddler has fallen, all because of stealing the thirty Kroner from the old crofter. The irony of the situation is that in the forest, the peddler gets a taste of his own medicine! Why on earth did he think so poorly of the world, even if he was not that successful as an entrepreneur?  One could end the lesson at this point with the peddler dying because of his crime - he is a recipient of “Divine Justice, or Divine Retribution”. This ending, however, would defeat the very purpose of the allegory - for more is yet to come, and it is the sound of the hammer strokes of the Ramsjo Ironworks that give him hope and draws him to the relative warmth of the factory. The moral? Well, one should not think ill of others lest the same should happen to the person who harboured such thoughts. What goes up comes down, and you reap what you sow!

3. The Lion’s Den: Later when accosted by the Ironmaster as Nils Olof and not denying that he has made a mistake, believing that he would get a few Kroner, the peddler gets more than he had bargained for when the former invites him to the manor. No, I couldn’t think of it! … To go up to the manor house would be like throwing himself voluntarily into the lion’s den. (The Rattrap) The vagabond dimply does not want to go to the manor. What if someone recognises him for what he is - the petty thief who stole the thirty kroner?What if the Ironmaster sent for the sheriff to arrest him? No, the manor would be like a lion’s den! The metaphor of the Lion’s Den is, however, at a slight variation from the metaphor of the rattrap because, in the latter, it is successful people who are the victims, in the former, he himself is the potential victim, and moreover, you don’t have lions prowling in search of easy prey. The lion’s den is a den with a hungry lion waiting to tear him up! The Lion's Den is a metaphor for all the apprehensions and fears that the peddler harboured within his mind as a result of stealing the thirty Kroner.

4. The letter: The letter that the peddler addresses to Edla is a metaphor and a symbol that represents the transformation that has taken place in the peddler. He is no longer a tramp with 'tramp manners', he has become a man with the dignity and the respect of a captain in the army and he now thinks as if he is 'Captain Von Stahle'.Through his letter, the peddler makes it clear that the reason for his transformation is none other than Edla Wilmansson. She had given him the respect accorded to a Captain in the Army and treated him with dignity. It was because he wanted to reciprocate her kindness by redeeming himself that he returned the thirty Kroner. He would have been trapped in a rattrap with no hope of escape if Edla had not intervened on his behalf! It is a gift from a rat who has escaped from a rattrap and he wants to say 'Thank you' to his rescuer!

It is clear from the above analysis that the metaphors employed by Selma Lagerlof vary from circumstance to circumstance. However, the metaphors are all a slight variation of the central metaphor in the lesson. The choice of metaphors made by the peddler represent his mindset before the process of transformation was complete. The images and the metaphors that one creates about the world are highly dependent on one’s experiences. The peddler could think of the world as a rattrap because he was closely associated with rattraps and could not think of anything else. Perhaps if he had been a seller of oranges, then he might have thought of the world as an orange!

References:

1. Liibby Brooks. Metaphor map charts the images that structure our thinking. 30 June,2015 http://www.theguardian.com/profile/libbybrooks,30 June 2015

2.Lagerlof, Selma et al. Flamingo text book for class XII (Core Course). New Delhi: NCERT, 2007

Technorati Tags: Metaphors in Selma lagerlof's The Rattrap