Question

The bearer knows where the shoe pinches.Elaborate

Answer 1

It is absolutely true that only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches. It is very easy to make fun of people in trouble; but when the same trouble afflicts us our attitude to life and miseries of others undergoes a drastic change.

In the chapter, The Letter, we see this transformation in two persons; first Ali, the second was the postmaster. Ali gave up hunting innocent animals after Miriam suddenly left him. The pain of separation made him sensitive to the pain of the animals.

The postmaster was also transformed after a painful experience. The arrogant postmaster, who earlier had behaved so callously and rudely with Ali for inquiring about whether there was any letter for him from Miriam, was completely transformed after he himself underwent the pain of not hearing any news about his own sick daughter who lived in a distant town. Now he empathized with Ali. He wondered he could not bear the suspense concerning his daughter's health only for one night, and how Ali must have gone through the painful suspense concerning his daughter, Miriam, for five years! He felt remorseful for his misbehavior. Coincidentally, when he saw Miriam's letter addressed to Ali, he picked it up excitedly thinking he would hand over the letter himself.  He realized the truth. He no longer thought of letters in terms of envelopes and postcards. Now he saw the essential human worth of a letter. He watched them as eagerly as though each contained a warm, beating heart.

Answer 2

The bearer knows where the shoe pinches as in the case of old Ali. He was left all alone when his only daughter Miriam married a soldier and went with him to his regiment in Punjab. He was grief-stricken and parted his old ways of hunting birds as he could no longer enjoy the sportsman's pleasure of hunting young patridges bereft of their parents. He regularly visited the post office in hope for a letter from Miriam but it was in vain. He was teased and taunted by the postmen , clerks and the postmaster , without even bothering to know about his condition. Ali's pain was understood by the postmaster himself when his daughter fell ill in another town and in this way he understood how Ali must have had such pain for 5 years.

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