ISC Prism”The Medicine Bag” : Short Answer Questions
Â
Question 1: What does the narrator says about his description of the Grandpa and the place he lived in ?
Answer: Martin’s Sioux Grandpa was actually quite different from the image he painted about him in front of his friends. He relied on popular stereotypes of Native Americans from movie and TV, describing their Grandpa and his life with exaggerated details.
In his stories, Grandpa was a majestic, tall and stately figure like a TV Indian. However the real Grandpa wasn’t tall and stately but old with grey string like hair which hung on his neck. His clothes were rumpled, he was draped in brown leather suit. He wore a big black hat which had a dropping feather in its crown. He carried an old tin suitcase tied shut with rope.
Question 2: Describe the things Martin got from Grandpa during one of his visits.
Answer: Martin always got some authentic Sioux articles to show his friends and made an impression. One year, Grandpa presented Cheryl new moccasins made by him. On another visit Grandpa gave Martin a small, round, flat rawhide drum which was decorated with a painting of a warrior riding a horse. He also taught Martin a real Sioux chant to sing while Martin enjoyed beating the drum with leather covered stick that had a feather on the end.
Question 3: Give some details about Grandpa’s appearance the narrator provides.
Answer: The narrator Martin described his Grandpa to his friends by creating a very glamorous image of him. Every time when they returned home to Iowa after their yearly summer visit to Grandpa, they always had some exciting tales to tell their friends. These tales created a fantastic image of his Grandpa that meets with the conventional image of the Indians from TV and movies, suggesting he was tall and stately like TV Indians with his hair in braids.
While the real Grandpa was not tall and stately, his hair hung in stringy grey strands, he was old and lived in a part log, part tar paper shack, which did not match the unrealistic portrayal of TV Indians.
Question 4: Under what circumstances the narrator went to his Grandpa in the street and guided him to his house ?Â
Answer:  One hot July morning, Martin spotted a  “strange procession” coming closer slowly. The centre of this procession was  “a man wearing a tall black hat”, soon he recognised the man as his Grandpa.
Martin ” stood on the curb, unable to move” as he was embarrassed by Grandpa’s appearance, his baggy suit, strange hat and the mob of barking dogs and kids following him down the street.
Martin got mad when he saw the yippy dogs growling and nipping at the old man’s legs and Grandpa wearily poked them away with his cane.
Despite his shame, Martin rushed to help his frail Grandpa. He kicked and hollered at the dogs to get them away. The dogs scattered and the kids ran to the curb and watched them from there.
Grandpa greeted him formally in the Sioux language, which only adds to Martin’s embarrassment.
Then he picked up Grandpa’s suitcase took his arm, and guided him up the drive away to their house.
Question 5 : What happened when the narrator’s friends met Grandpa ?
Answer: When Martin’s friends finally met Grandpa their reaction was completely respectful and impressed. They were polite, listened in awed silence to his stories and afterwards told Martin, “he’s really great! “ and “I Don’t blame you for keeping him to yourself”.
His friends seemed to be deeply fascinated and impressed by Grandpa, especially when Grandpa appeared in his traditional attire. This makes Martin feel immense pride.
Question 6 : Give an account of Grandpa’s journey from Dakota to Iowa.
Answer : Grandpa’s journey from Dakota to Iowa was a long and tiring journey which was too much for such an old man. He had ridden on buses for two and a half days. As he arrived in the city, tired and stiff from sitting so long, he set out walking to find Martin’s family.
Then he stopped to rest on the steps of some building down town, a policeman found him. He was a good man. He took Grandpa to the bus stop and waited until the bus came and told the driver to let Grandpa out at Bell View Drive.
After Grandpa got off the bus, he started walking again to look for their house. As he couldn’t see the house number on the other side when he walked on the sidewalk, he walked in the middle of the street. That’s when all the little kids and dogs followed him.
Question 7: How and what did the narrator find in Grandpa’s boots ?
Answer : When Martin helped his Grandpa prepare for bed, he found that the “scuffed, old cowboy boots” of Grandpa were tight. Grandpa “moaned” as Martin had to pull hard on his legs to “jerk them off”. Martin put the boots on the floor and saw why they fit so tight. He was shocked to discover rolls of bills stuffed inside the old man’s boots. Martin wanted to ask about them but Grandpa’s eyes were closed again.
Question 8 : What does Grandpa say about the money he has saved?
Answer: When Martin’s mother scolded Grandpa for carrying so much money in his boots, Grandpa laughed and said that he would have known if someone tried to take his boots off his feet. He explained that he had saved one hundred dollars for a long time for his funeral.
He told her to take the money to buy groceries so that he wouldn’t be a burden to her while he was there. Martine father assured him that he would never be a burden and they were honoured to have him.
Question 9 : How did Martin feel when Grandpa told that he was to handover the medicine bag to him ?
Answer: When Grandpa told them it was time to pass on the medicine bag, Martin was confused he felt a mixture of fear, anxiety and a sense of duty. He had the same “hot and cold feeling” as when he first saw his Grandpa in the street. The medicine bag was “the dirty leather pouch”, Martin had found hanging around Grandpa’s neck. He almost said aloud that he could never wear such a thing. He was worried about what his friends would say if they saw him with it, imagining their mocking remarks. He felt scared and overwhelmed by the responsibility.
Despite his initial reluctance and fear of being different, he knew that he would have to take it, showing an underlying sense of honour and respect for his family’s tradition.
Question 10 : What did Grandpa carry in the leather pouch around his neck ?
Answer: Grandpa carried two things in his leather bag were the broken shell of iron kettle, a pebble from the butte, and a piece of sacred sage. Grandpa explained that once the bag belonged to Martin, he must put a new piece of prairie sage inside and never open it again until he passed it on to his own son.