Class 9th Eng. Ch-8A House Is Not a Home -Zan Gaudioso, Summary CHARACTER Questions and answers (Supplimentary) Q/A Theme, Message NCERT/CBSE Based

Ch-8

A House Is Not a Home -Zan Gaudioso

Introduction of the Author

Zan Gaudioso is an editor of several volumes of a series entitled Chicken Soup for the Soul. The series remained in the best-selling list for a long time. Her most notable contribution is in Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, Part III, a remarkable book for teenagers. She is also the co-author of the award winning book, The Buddha Next Door. Zan was the approved writer for the Touchstone/Hollywood Pictures

A Brief Note of the Chapter

The Narrator in the New School

This story reflects the challenges of being a teenager, and the problems of growing up. The narrator was a teenager who had joined a new high school. He did not like this change because he was a fresher there whereas in his earlier school, he was a head of the class at senior upper grade level. He also missed his friends and old teachers.

Fire at the Narrator's House

On one cold Sunday, the narrator was sitting at his home doing homework. His red tabby cat was sitting close to him on his papers. His mother was stoking the fire to keep the house warm when suddenly he noticed a strange smell. He saw smoke coming in through the joints of the ceiling. Soon the room was filled with smoke. The narrator and his mother managed to find their way to the door with much difficulty. They ran out into the front yard. The narrator ran to the neighbourhood house to call the fire department. In the meantime, his mother ran back into the house and came out with a small metal box that contained important documents. She dropped it in the lawn and again ran back inside. She had gone inside to bring the pictures and letters of his father who had died when the narrator was young. The narrator shouted and tried to run inside the house too when a fireman appeared and stopped him from going inside. Soon multiple fire engines arrived there. Some firefighters ran inside the burning house. A fireman wrapped a blanket around the narrator and made him sit in their car. Soon a fireman emerged with the narrator's mother. He put an oxygen mask on her and again went inside to stop the fire. The narrator and his mother saw their house burn down completely. When the fire was finally put out after five hours, the narrator realised that his cat was missing. He started crying helplessly. His mother took him to his grandparents' house.

The Narrator at School.

The next day the narrator's mother forced him to go to school. Since the narrator's clothes, bag and shoes got burnt in the fire, he had to go in the outfit he wore to the church and tennis shoes that he had borrowed from his aunt. He walked around the school like a zombie and feared being treated like an outcast and a geek. All the security he had known of house, cat, school, friends all were now gone

The Narrator at His Burnt House Again

After school, he went to see his old house. He was shocked to see that it had completely been burnt. Everything was destroyed either by fire or by water. They had to borrow money from his grandparents because all credit cards, bank documents and identity proofs were burnt. They rented an apartment nearby. The next week, the narrator went over to watch the removal of the rubble in the hope of finding his cat anywhere. Soon everyone in his school came to know of the tragedy. The narrator felt embarrassed by the attention he was getting.

The Narrator's Life Back on Track

One day at school when he was getting ready for his gym class, he saw people gathering around him. They took him to the gym. He found that his schoolmates had brought for him school supplies, notebooks, all kinds of different clothes-jeans, tops, sweatsuits, etc. The love and kindness of his schoolmates touched him deeply. He made many friends that day.

A month later, he was sitting at his house with two of his friends seeing it getting re- constructed. He realised that his life too was getting rebuilt along with his house as he had stopped being insecure and started to open up to other people. Then a woman came behind him with his lost cat. The narrator was surprised to see the cat. He grabbed the cat and hugged her tightly. His friends also felt very happy and excited. The cat had run away over a mile on being scared by the huge fire. The woman told the narrator that she had found his number on the collar of the cat and had tried to call on it but she found it unreachable as the fire had destroyed the phone. She worked hard to find the owner of the cat.

As the narrator sat down with his cat and his new friends, his sense of loss diminished. He felt thankful to have got his life back on tracks-thanks to the kindness of his friends and the lady who returned his cat. The story gives us the message that life has both happiness and sadness. It is up to us how we deal with loss and Change.

Ch-7

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Ch-6 Summary

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https://englishscholarhubclgautam.blogspot.com/2024/03/class-9th-eng-ch-6weathering-storm-in.html

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