Class 12 English Lesson 1: Story: Neighbors by Tim Winton Literature Section

 

Lesson – 1 Story: Neighbours by Tim Winton

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 About the Story Writer 

Tim Winton was an Austrian novelist and writer who was born on 4 August 1960. He writes novels for both child and adult which deals with both the experience of life and the landscape of his native country. He competed with 35 other novelists for The Australian Literary Award resented for the best-unpublished novel manuscript and won the prize in 1982 for his manuscript. Winton also wrote many stories in which ‘Neighbours’ is one of them. The ‘Neighbours’ story was taken from Migrants of Australia and edited by Harwood Lawler.

Characters of the Story

·         The Man: He is one of the story's main characters. ...

·         The Woman: She is also a major figure in this story. ...

·         The Polish widower: He is one of the neighbors. ...

·         The Macedonian family: The couple neighbors. ...

·         The Story takes place in a Moreton Bay Neighborhood.

Main Theme of the Story

It is a story about a newly married couple living in a multicultural and multilingual suburb (an outlying district of a city, especially a residential one) neighbourhood. It shows that cultural and linguistic barriers cannot stop people from giving love and compassion. Every member of society is like a part of the same family. There is no place for the things like ethics, and culture.

Summary of the Story

The story “Neighbours” was written by Tim Winton, an Austrian novelist. This story tells us that cultural and linguistic barriers cannot stop people from giving love and compassion. This story also tells us how much neighbours are important to us, no matter what their culture, tradition, and ethics are. They all become like a part of the same family when we live together in the same society.

This story starts when a new-married young couple first comes to their new home. They feel strange because of the new place and neighbourhood and their new culture dress and language. Their street is full of European migrants. On their left, a Macedonia family lives, and on the right, a widow lives there who is from Poland. The new couple’s house is small but it has a high ceiling and paned windows which give them the feel of a stylish cottage. From his study window, a young man sees a car yard, rooftop, and Moreton Bay (a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia) where he goes on a walk with their dog. Before coming to a new home, he used to live in a residential area where good neighbours were seldom seen and never heard from. So, they assumed their new neighbour is the same. Young couples have prejudices about their neighbours. Macedonia family shout so new married young couple feels odd due to the unwanted sound that comes from their room like washing, spitting, etc. This also makes a bad impression. It takes six months for a young couple to understand their neighbour only talking, not more than that.

He only hammers the nail on wood all time but does not make anything and also, dislikes a boy next to his door who urinates in the street. He once sees him spraying urine on the cat from the back step. The child’s head is always shaved. When he suddenly encounters the boy, he becomes afraid and nervous because of his (cobalt eyes) bluish-grey. So, he doesn’t feel uncomfortable with them for too many months. They feel strange and unpleasant and irritated there. In the autumn, the young couple clear rubbish from their backyard and turn and fertilize the soil, and start planting vegetables. The neighbour suggests advice to a young man, on the ways of planting vegetables, how to spacing, hilling, and mulching. He pays proper attention to their advice. A big woman with black eyes and butcher’s arms gives her a bagful of garlic cloves to plant. After some time, he builds a henhouse but it falls. A polish man who disturbs him at the beginning comes without invitation and rebuilds it. They do not understand the word he speaks after helping because of the difference in their language. Now, They share their things with their neighbours like cabbage, fire hood in autumn, etc. And they assist each other in the work.

The young man works on his thesis on developing the twenties century novel. He also cooks and does other housework and his wife works outside in the hospital. This surprises the neighbours. The couple learns many things from the Macedonian family-like slaughter (killing an animal for food), how to dress etc. Now, the couple feels comfortable with them. They enjoy telling stories etc. with each other. They find themselves shouting along with neighbours and feel intoxicated towards neighbours. Now, they are closer to their neighbours despite their cultural difference, language differences, etc. In the beginning, the young couple doesn’t like their neighbours. It was due to the prejudice of their neighbours. Because in the beginning, neighbours disturb the young couple by producing different types of unwanted noise. But now, they like their neighbours and have developed a positive attitude toward their neighbours. A young couple doesn’t plan for a child but sometimes a young woman gets pregnant. When neighbours know about their pregnancy, they smile tirelessly at them. One neighbour gives him a small gift that contains chocolates. Someone puts the name of the coming child, someone predicts the new gust (child) is a boy. And one neighbour gives the baby a suit, complete with booties and a beanie. All the neighbours love and care for them during their pregnancy time. The young woman feels happy and grateful.

Neighbours assist the young woman during a hard time of pregnancy. When a baby is born, whole neighbours celebrate it and welcome the new guest (child) into the world. After seeing his baby and the helping nature and positive attitude of his neighbours, the young man cries. And he realizes that the twentieth-century novel has not prepared him for this.

Understanding the text: Answer the following questions.

a.       Describe what the young couple’s house looked like.

The couple’s house was small but its ceiling was high and it looked like a smart cottage due to its paned window. They could easily view the rooftops and park through the window.

b.      How did the young couple identify their neighbours at the beginning of their arrival?

The young couple did not expect much help from their neighbours at the beginning of their arrival. They had negative thoughts toward them because of their language, culture, and activities. They found the Macedonian family noisy and the Old Polish widower a source of irritation because of his hammering nails.

c.       How did the neighbours help the young couple in the kitchen garden?

Their neighbours offered them good advice when they started to grow vegetables in the backyard. They suggested spacing, mulching, hilling, and protecting the yard properly.

d.      Why were the people in the neighbourhood surprised at the role of the young man and his wife in their family?

They were surprised to see the young man staying at home doing household chores whereas his wife did the job in the hospital. The neighbours did not expect males to do household words and females to do the job outside.

e.       How did the neighbours respond to the woman’s pregnancy?

Every person from their neighbourhood responded positively when they knew about their pregnancy so they started smiling at them and providing care to the woman. They supported them in every possible way such as giving gifts, advice, and attention to her pregnancy.

f.        Why did the young man begin to weep at the end of the story?

The young man started to weep at the end of the story because he found his neighbours providing support, advice, love, and care to them. He saw them in his fence cheering and wishing the best for their baby’s birth. Therefore, he could not control himself and started to weep.

g.      Why do you think the author did not characterize the persons in the story with proper names?

I guess the author did not characterize the persons in the story with proper names because he wanted to show the people of multicultural and multilingual communities. Moreover, he might want to reveal humanity, harmony, and dignity in a multicultural society. Additionally, he wanted to prioritize human relationships among the people of different countries who live together in a society.

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