THINKING OUT OF THE BOX
I hate it when my brother Charlie has to go away. My parents constantly try to
explain to me how sick he is. That I am lucky for having a brain where all the
chemicals flow properly to their destinations like undammed rivers. When I
complain about how bored I am without a little brother to play with, they try to
make me feel bad by pointing out that his boredom likely far surpasses mine,
considering his confine to a dark room in an institution. I always beg for them to
give him one last chance. Of course, they did at first. Charlie has been back
home several times, each shorter in duration than the last. Every time without
fail, it all starts again. The neighbourhood cats with gouged out eyes showing
up in his toy chest, my dad's razors found dropped on the baby slide in the park
across the street, mom's vitamins replaced by bits of dishwasher tablets. My
parents are hesitant now, using "last chances" sparingly. They say his disorder
makes him charming, makes it easy for him to fake normalcy, and to trick the
doctors who care for him into thinking he is ready for rehabilitation. That I will
just have to put up with my boredom if it means staying safe from him. I hate it
when Charlie has to go away. It makes me have to pretend to be good until he is
back.
On the basis of your reading of the passage given above, answer the
following questions-
1.1 What relation does the narrator share with Charlie?
A. Friend
B. Cousin
C. Sibling
D. Acquaintance
1.2 Why was "last chances" used sparingly by the parents of the narrator?
1.3 The narrator wanted Charlie to return home from the rehabilitation centre
because:
A. Charlie's condition had become normal
B. Both suffered from boredom
C. Narrator wanted continuation of the heinous acts
D. Charlie was psychologically deranged
1.4 Why did the narrator's parents ask him to be empathetic towards Charlie?
1.5 'That I will just have to put up with my boredom if it means staying safe
from him.' What is ironical about this sentence?
Answers
Answer:
1.1 As a sibling; as the narrator expresses Charlie as his/her brother.
1.2 The parents of the narrator used "last chances" in a sparing way because they said his disorder makes him charming, and makes it easy for him faking normalcy to trick the doctors who cared for him thinking he is ready for rehabilitation.
1.3 The narrator wanted Charlie to return home from the rehabilitation center because he wanted to get rid of boredom.
1.4 Narrator's parents' wanted the narrator to be empathetic towards Charlie because it might effect the health condition of him if the narrator will become pathetic towards him. So they just alerted the narrator to do so.
1.5 It's easy to overcome the boredom all up alone rather than expecting someone to comfort us so the narrator thought it is better to get to get rid of the boredom for "himself" rather than thinking of Charlie. Before thinking of dealing with boredom about others we should think for ourselves.
Boredom is a thing which makes us regret what we are about to do/what we have done till now. We end up expecting from others to comfort us.
Explanation:
I think the last one might be a lil bit difficult to understand but hope you will get it. Even I found it difficult but somehow I just understood the whole stuff by thinking about it for more than 4-5 mins. It's all about whatever you experience during boredom is just temporary. This time passes soon.