A Letter to God Class 10: Summary, Themes and Question Answers

This guide to A Letter to God Class 10 walks you through G. L. Fuentes's story from the first raindrops to the ironic last letter. You will find a clear summary, notes on Lencho and the postmaster, the main themes and devices, and eight question-answers you can use for revision.

Summary: The Rain, the Hail and the Ruined Crop

Lencho is a hardworking farmer. He lives in a solitary house on the crest of a low hill and looks down on his fields of ripe corn. The corn flowers promise a good harvest, but only if the earth gets a downpour or at least a shower. So he spends the morning watching the north-eastern sky.

The rain comes, and Lencho is happy. He compares the raindrops to new coins: the big drops are ten-cent pieces and the little ones are fives. To him, rain means a harvest he can sell.

Then a strong wind begins to blow, and large hailstones fall. They look like frozen pearls. The hailstorm lasts for an hour. When it ends, the valley is white, as if covered with salt. Not a leaf is left on the trees, and the corn is totally destroyed. Lencho says that even a plague of locusts would have left more than the hail did. The family now has one hope left: help from God.

Summary: Two Letters to God

Lencho works so hard in the fields that he is called an ox of a man, but he can also write. He believes that God's eyes see everything, even what is deep in a person's conscience. So he writes a letter addressed To God. He asks for a hundred pesos to sow his field again and to support his family until the next crop.

He goes to town, puts a stamp on the letter and drops it in the mailbox. A postman finds it, laughs at the address and shows it to the postmaster. The postmaster, a fat and amiable man, laughs too at first. Then he becomes serious. He is struck by Lencho's deep faith.

The postmaster does not want to shake that faith. He decides to answer the letter. Since an answer needs money, he collects contributions from his employees and gives part of his own salary. He manages to collect seventy pesos, more than half of what Lencho asked for, but not all of it. He signs the letter simply God.

The following Sunday, Lencho receives the envelope. He shows not the slightest surprise at seeing the money. But when he counts it, he becomes angry, because he believes God cannot make a mistake. He writes a second letter asking for the remaining thirty pesos. He also asks God not to send the money by mail, because the post office employees are a bunch of crooks who must have taken the missing amount.

Characters

Lencho is hardworking, hopeful and full of unshaken faith. His faith is so complete that he is not surprised by the money. The same faith makes him certain that the missing thirty pesos must have been stolen by people, not short-changed by God.

The postmaster is kind and generous. He gives his own money and asks others to give, simply so that a stranger does not lose hope. He signs as God and asks for nothing in return.

Themes and Message

• Faith: Lencho's trust in God never wavers, from the hailstorm to the second letter.
• Kindness: The postmaster and his employees help a man they do not know.
• Irony: Lencho calls the very people who helped him a bunch of crooks. Kindness goes unrecognised, and faith turns into unfair suspicion.
• Nature's power: The same weather that brings hope (rain) also brings ruin (hail).

Literary Devices to Remember

A metaphor carries a quality of one thing over to another.

The story also uses negatives for emphasis. Instead of saying he only looked at the sky, the text says he had done nothing else but see the sky. This shows that all his attention was on the hope of rain. The phrase not the slightest surprise stresses his total confidence in God.

The chapter's grammar section focuses on non-defining relative clauses. These add extra information about a person or thing already identified, and are set off by commas or dashes. Example: Riya, whose painting showed a forest, won the prize.

The chapter also includes two Robert Frost poems, Dust of Snow and Fire and Ice. Study them separately, since this guide focuses on the story.

Important Question Answers

1. Why did Lencho compare the raindrops to new coins? He saw the rain as the one thing his crop needed for a good harvest. A good harvest meant money when he sold it, so each drop felt like a coin.

2. What damage did the hailstorm do? It lasted an hour and destroyed everything. Not a leaf remained on the trees, the corn was destroyed, and the valley looked as if it were covered in salt.

3. What did Lencho ask for in his letter, and why? He asked for a hundred pesos to sow his field again and to support his family until the new crop grew, because the hail had ruined his harvest.

4. Why did the postmaster decide to reply to the letter? He was moved by Lencho's deep faith and did not want to shake it. So he answered the letter and collected money for him.

5. How did the postmaster raise the money? He asked his employees to contribute and gave part of his own salary. Together this came to seventy pesos, which he sent signed God.

6. Why was Lencho not surprised to see the money, yet angry after counting it? He was sure God would answer, so the money did not surprise him. He became angry because he believed God could not make a mistake, so the missing thirty pesos must have been taken by someone.

7. What is the irony at the end of the story? Lencho calls the post office employees a bunch of crooks, though they are the very people who kindly collected and sent him the money.

8. What do the metaphors ox of a man and frozen pearls tell us? Ox of a man shows Lencho's strength and hard work. Frozen pearls describes the hailstones as white, round and hard, which makes them sound beautiful even though they ruin the crop.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Do not write that Lencho got a hundred pesos. He received seventy and asked for the remaining thirty.
• Do not call the postmaster dishonest. Only Lencho believes the staff stole money; the reader knows they gave it.
• Do not just retell the plot in long answers. Make a claim, give evidence from the story in your own words, and explain how the evidence supports the claim.
• Remember that the raindrops and hailstones are compared to different things: coins for rain, pearls for hail.

Ready to practise more answers on Lencho and the postmaster? Study this chapter with Joy.