The Strange Looking Man

                                             The Strange Looking Man

This text is concerned to the war and its effect in the village. There was a tiny village in a mountainous country. All the men had to go fight in the war except children, women, and very old people. Those who had returned from the war were disfigured and limbless. All women had stopped giving birth to sons so that they would not have to return from the war being injured. But one young woman bore a son. He was familiar with all the war returned soldiers and the incomplete body of the soldier was normal to him. One day the boy went to the pool to throw stones. There he saw a complete man diving into the pool. The man had both hands, legs, eyes, ear and he could speak and listen. The boy who could not see such complete man before became horrible. The man wanted to give some money to the boy so he called him. But the boy was afraid of the man and ran away to his mother and she embraced him. The young man asked her why the boy was frightened of him. Then the woman replied that it was the first time the small child had seen a whole man. The complete man became a strange man to the boy. It is the effect of war in human psychology.

Possible Questions from this chapter

a)Describe the dreadful picture of the war and its effects in the story?

Ans:- The village seemed quite strange. No single complete man was found there. Only the old men, children, and women were left. One young man had only part of a face, and had to wear a painted tin mask. Another had two legs but no arms and another had two arms but no legs. One had neither arms nor legs and was mad of his misery besides, and lay all day in a cradle like a baby. No woman would like to bear a son. A newly born child could not see what is natural but only the injured and incomplete men.

 b)Why did the writer endeavor to picture out the man as a whole man ?

Ans:- The writer tried to picture out the man as a whole man because the concept of the natural man was forgotten. What was considered as natural was the result of war. Each man was incomplete in the society and it would be unnatural not to suffocate or not to tremble, or not to scream at a sound. In such a situation, the concept of a whole man was necessary for the people to understand.

 c)Describe the strange looking man as Johnson would do it?

Ans:- The strange looking man had two arms, two legs, a whole face with eyes, nose, mouth, chin, and ears, all complete. He could see, hear, speak, and feel. His skin was smooth all over. He could speak as he sang loudly. He could hear as he had turned quickly at the whir of pigeon-wings behind him.

d)How did the village look before and after the war?

Ans:- Before the war, the village looked complete, healthy, peaceful,sound domestic life and normal in all aspects But after the war, it looked strange, destruction, ugly, sadness, handicapped,crippled owing to which people are physically, psychologically. and mentally affected. Moreover, after the war, it has altered the psychology of innocent and immature child that there won't be any complete man in the world.