Long Answer Questions Part 1
Question 1 : Explain the reasons of Martin’s feeling upset on finding his Grandpa there near their house.
Answer : When Martin’s grandfather unexpectedly visited them in Iowa, he instantly felt fear. His fear upon his Grandpa’s unexpected visit to his house stemmed from his embarrassment and the potential loss of his reputation among his friends.
Martin, a mixed race teenager boy, had created a fantastic and glamorous image of his Native American great grand father that didn’t match reality.
He never showed them a real picture because he knew the reality of his Grandpa – an old, frail man who was not tall and stately, whose hair was in stringy grey strands instead of braids and who lived in simple shack – did not match the glamorous image he had built.
Grandpa’s rumpled black suit that hung “like a sack over his stooped frame” was looking out of place in Iowa. Martin was so ashamed and embarrassed that he felt he could have died.
His primary fear was that his friends would see the real Grandpa, discover his stories were lies, and laugh at him, thus threatening his modern identity and popularity.
At the same time Martin felt guilty, because he realised that his Grandpa had undertaken a grueling, dangerous journey alone from the reservation in South Dakota to Iowa just to see them, while the family had neglected to bring him along during their summer visits.
Question 2: How does the narrator describe the commotion in the street at the time of Grandpa’s arrival there ?
Answer: There was a lot of small, fancy, little dogs in their neighbourhood, they usually barked by themselves from inside their own yards. But when it sounded as if a “whole pack of mutts were barking together in one place, it drew Martin’s attention.
Martin got up and walked to the curb to see what the commotion was. About a block away he saw a group of little kids yelling with dogs yapping and growling around a person who was walking down the middle of the street.
As the group slowly came closer Martin saw in the “center of the strange procession” was a man wearing a tall black hat and occasionally stopped to look at something in his hand, then at the houses along the street.
Martin felt a rush of emotion, “both cold and hot at the same time” as he recognised the man as his “Grandpa”.
Martin stood frozen on the curb unable to move, wanting to “run and hide”. Then he became angry as he watched the yipping dogs growl and nip at the old man’s pants and saw how tiredly the man poked them away with his cane.
Martin cursed the dogs and ran to help his Grandpa. When the narrator kicked and yelled at the dogs they “scattered” with their “tails between their legs”. While the kids in the group ran to the curb to watch Martin and the old man.
Martin could not say anything more than ” Grandpa !” as his voice cracked due to outburst of emotions. He reached for the “beat up old tin suitcase “ which was “tied with a rope”.
Question 3 : What happens before Grandpa is taken to the bed ?
Answer: Before taken him to bed, Martin would have to undress Grandpa as he (Grandpa) wouldn’t want Martin’s mother to undress him.
Grandpa was so “skinny” and “frail” that his coat came off very easily. As Martin loosened his tie and opened his shirt collar, he felt a small leather pouch hanging from a strap around Grandpa’s neck. He decided to leave it alone and then tried to take off his boots.
The “scuffed”, old cowboy boots were so “tight” and Grandpa “moaned” as Martin had to pull hard on his legs to “jerk them off”. As he removed the boots and saw why they were so tight, he found each boot was “stuffed with money”. Martin saw the bills lining the boots and was about to ask about them but Grandpa’s eyes were closed again.
Question 4 : Give an account of Grandpa’s journey from Dakota to the narrator’s house.
Answer : Soon after their visit to Grandpa, he decided that he wanted to see where his only living descendants lived and what their home was like. He also admitted that he was lonely after they left.
Martin and everyone in his family felt guilty as they never thought that Grandpa would feel lonely after their visit, even they had not noticed how “old and frail” he had become.
But Grandpa knew it and he came to them. He had traveled on the buses for two and a half days. When he arrived in the city, he was “tired and stiff” from sitting for so long, so he started walking to find them.
When Grandpa stopped to get some rest on the steps of a building, a “good” policeman found him. The policeman took him to the bus stop and waited with him. The policeman told the bus driver to let Grandpa out at Bell View Drive.
When Grandpa got off the bus, he began walking again. Since he couldn’t see the house numbers from the side walk, he walked in the middle of the street, which is when the children and dogs started following him.
Martin felt bad about what happened but he was also proud of his eighty – six years old Grandpa for having the courage to travel so far alone. This journey, made alone with great difficulty demonstrate Grandpa’s determination and courage. He actually traveled to ensure the spiritual and historical link of his ancestors was not broken.
Question 5 : Why does Grandpa want to give the medicine bag to Martin ? What is Martin’s reaction on learning this ?
Answer: Grandpa made his two and a half day long, tiring and difficult journey all alone not just to meet his only living descendants, but to pass the medicine bag to Martin.
Grandpa thought he was going to die and he had to follow the tradition of his family to pass the medicine bag, along with its history, to the eldest male child, which is Martin.
Grandpa knew he was nearing the end of his life and that it was the right time to pass the medicine bag to the next male in the family, as was the custom. He travelled to ensure the spiritual and historical link of his ancestors was not broken. It was his commitment to his heritage and his profound love for his great grandson, to whom he was entrusting the family’s most sacred legacy.
Martin didn’t know how to respond. He felt the same mix of “hot and cold feelings” he had experienced when he first saw his Grandpa in the street of Iowa.
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”. Martin imagined his friends seeing it during gym class or at the swimming pool and could easily picture the clever, mocking comments they would make.
For Martin this dirty leather pouch was a source of potential embarrassment. It symbolises everything Martin wants to hide about his background.
However as Grandpa reveals the bag’s history, its meaning transforms. By the end, the same medicine bag represents responsibility and pride.