Memories of Childhood Summary & Best Questions of Class 12

Memories of childhood summary – Memories of childhood author names are Zitkala-Sa and Bama. He was born in 1876 in France & Died in 1897. Here you deal with the Memories of childhood summary, theme, word meaning, PPT, character sketch, important short, long, value-based, and miscellaneous questions. 

Short Summary of Memories of Childhood Class 12 – chapter 8 of class 12 vistas books. It also contains the NCERT English book questions and previous year questions asked in the CBSE board exams.

Memories of Childhood Summary

This unit is divided into two sections. It describes the autobiography of the lives of two women from marginalized communities. They are of childhood. Hence the chapter is named Memories of Childhood.

The first part, written by Gertrude Simmons Bonin, is a chapter from her occupation ‘Indian American Stories’ and describes her persecution at Carlisle Indian School.

The first part, justify the title memories of childhood. The second part, an excerpt from ‘Karuku’, is Bama’s autobiography related to his first skills with intangibility.

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Memories of Childhood Summary

The author remembers that it was his first day in the land of apples, where there was a lot of cold and snowy greenery all around.

Furthermore, her first experience at school, where she admitted with other Native American girls and boys, was equally unpleasant.

The noise made by Sn’s bell had penetrated his ears. The constant struggle of badness and harsh noise of shoes was harrowing. Zitkala was longing for independence, but it was useless for her to think.

A white woman saw the girls standing in a row marching into the dining room. The narrator saw that they were Indian girls who wore dresses and hard shoes, and braided hair.

She felt very uncomfortable in the school dress. Besides, she felt more embarrassed when she removed the blanket from her shoulders.

He saw the boys coming in from the opposite door. Tapped a small bell, and each student pulled out a chair from under the table. The narrator also took out a chair and sat down. But she was surprised to learn that he was the only person.

As she began to rise, a second bell rang. All were seated and had to crawl back to their chair again. She heard the voice of a man at one end of the hall, and she was praying.

Other students hung their heads on their plates. As the narrator looked around, he glared at her as a pale woman. She wondered why the woman was looking at him.

After the man stopped his humming, a third bell rang, taped all, and everyone started eating with a knife and fork. Then Zitkala started crying. He had never used knives and forks. All the new changes were very uncomfortable for him.

The eating problem was not the end of the troubles; her friend Judwin knew English and talked to the white woman about cutting her long hair.

The idea of ​​his haircut was deniable to the narrator. His mother taught him that only skilled warriors who became captive of battle cut the enemy’s hair. In their society, they cut short hair due to mourning, and hair fell by cowards.

Judwin thought that the schoolman was powerful, and all of them would have to be allowed to cut their hair. Zitkala was ready for the fight, told her friend that she would clash first and would not submit voluntarily to the oppressors.

When she had a chance to escape, she fainted. She entered a large room. It was dark because the veil was down.

Zitkala crawled under the bed farthest from the door. After some time, people started finding him. She heard that Judwin called her name but did not respond.

Ultimately, while the women and girls were searching for Zitkala, she came to the room in which she was hiding.

She held his breath when he searched the room. When removed the curtain, the entire room became light; then, it was scribbling away.

Memories of Childhood Summary, Theme & Questions of Class 12

She was widely protesting, kicking, and scratching the nail. She was taken down and tied to a chair. She felt an excellent blade against a thick scissor on her neck.

Cut one of thick braid, and people started staring at him. It was the end of his resistance. He lost his soul.

She was reminded of all the humiliations she went through with her mother. She was very sad, and no one comforted her and remembered his mother and felt like an animal driven by animals.

II We Too Are Human Beings (Bama)

This is the second part of this chapter. The narrator takes us back to her childhood. When she studied in the third grade, it took hardly 10 minutes to walk from school to home.

But it took him half an hour to cover this distance. On the way, she used to watch the entertainment, shops, and markets carefully.

The entertainer monkey, the snake-hunter, the bicyclist who kept pedaling for several days, were some such enthralling vision. Other entertaining things like political speeches, puppet shows, and stunt performances were going on in the market.

The market was full of seasonal fruits, cold coffee, ice pellets, and delicious dishes. The narrator felt enchanted in all ways.

One day while the narrator returned home, she saw a threshing floor set up on the road. A landowner is sitting on sacks laid on a stone, watching the prompt action.

People of her caste were driving cattle; she stayed there for some time and enjoyed it. Then he made his alley from the market and saw an older adult coming in. He also had a small packet in his hand, holding it with a string.

There was some wadai in it, and the packet got wet. The narrator thought to himself that the container might come undone, but even then, the elder was not touching it.

The way he walked, he became a Bama scream with laughter. The elder said, handing the packet to the zamindar. The landlord opened the container and started eating.

Memories of Childhood Summary, Theme & Questions of Class 12

The narrator returned home and told his elder brother Annan about the incident. She was laughing fearlessly, but Annan did not enjoy hearing this. Annan tells him that considered to be of a large and low caste.

The zamindar was of high caste. The thinking of upper caste people is that if people of lower caste touch them or anything of theirs, they become impure.

Therefore, the elderly was carrying the packet by the lanyard. She was depressed after hearing this story. No one wanted to laugh anymore. She felt unhappy. She wondered how these fellows understood themselves so much. She felt compelled to touch wretched vadas herself.

Annan told Bama that he was born into a low-caste community, so he was never respected or honored. She advised him to study hard and learn all that she could to make progress because only education could help them overcome all the outrage.

He studied hard. As Annan urged, she stood first in her class, and because of that, many people became her friends.

Memories of Childhood Class 12 Questions And Answers

The given question and answers of previous years asked in CBSE class 12th board exams & memories of childhood NCERT solutions:

(1) Which words of her brother made a deep impression on Bama?         

Ans. Annan advises Bama education to help him achieve respect, honor, and respect in society. These words profoundly impacted Bama, and he studied hard and diligently as Annan told him. Because of this, she came first in her class, and now everyone wanted to be her friend.

(2) What were the articles in the stalls and shops that fascinated Bama on her way back from school?

Ans. Bama saw a variety of exciting things that thrilled him. She saw dried fish stalls and stalls selling fried snacks. Then there were tools for the sale of wild lemons, needles, earthen garlands, and cleaning the ears on sale. She loved watching the waiter cool the coffee.

(3) Describe the experience Bama had on her way back home which made her feel sad.

Ans. On his way back home, Bama sees an older man in his street taking Vadis to the landlord. As he was carrying the packet from the string, Bama laughed by holding his wire. He related this amusing incident to his brother Annan. Annan was not surprised and told Bama that the older man was carrying the packet because his caste people were considered inferior. This frightening truth made Bama angry. And Annan advised him to study and make progress.

(4) What sort of shows or entertainment attracted Bama?

Ans. Used to go through the market and went to the house with a lot of activity. The snake charm, drama, puppet shows, cycle stunts, political speeches, snowballs, delicious dishes attracted Bama to her, and she loved everything.

(5) What does Zitkala-Sa remember about the first day in the land of apples?

Ans. Zitkala-Sa remembered her first day in apple land as bitter and cold, feeling quite uncomfortable in her school dress. She was feeling annoyed in the dining hall. And in the end, she tied her to a chair and cut her braid.

(6) How did Zitkala-Sa try to prevent the shingling her hair?

Ans. When Judwaine tells Zitkala that he will cut his hair, Zitkala decides to fight first. Then when no one was looking at her, nor was anyone becoming friends, she descended the stairs and darkened into a big room because the curtains were down. He hid under the bed away from the door in that room. And all looking for her reach the room and light up the curtain, she soon finds it and pulls out for the shine of hair. So she could not stop cutting her hair.

(7) Why was Zitkala-Sa in tears on the first day in the land of apples? 

Ans. Zitkala-Sa was already uncomfortable in her new dress. Upon entering the dining hall, when a small bell rang, and they thought they had to sit, Zitkala took out a chair and sat on it. But to his surprise, everyone stood. She was getting up when the second bell rang, and everyone sat down. At the end, when all the food used a fork and knife to eat and she could not, due to which she felt embarrassed and started crying.

(8) “I felt like sinking to the floor,” says Zitkala-Sa. When did she feel so and why?

Ans. The narrator was given to wear a new dress at school, removing her shawl. She felt ashamed in a dress clinging to her body. She was walking into the dining hall. She felt as if all the unfamiliar ways of dressing had fallen on the floor in shame.

(9) When did Bama first come to know of the social discrimination faced by the people of her community?

Ans. When Bama was in the third grade, he was diagnosed with social discrimination by his community’s people. When she returned home, she saw that the elders of her community took a packet with the help of a rope and beat a landlord without touching it. This incident was enjoyable for her until Annan told her the terrible truth, but Annan said that she could win it by studying hard when she came to know all the truth.

(10) Why did the landlord’s man ask Bama’s brother on which street he lived? What was the significance?

Ans. When Annan was returning home from the vicinal village library, the landlord’s man asked him his name, and he desires to know where Annan lives and what caste he is because all the lower caste people lived in one side area of ​​the city.

(11) What did Zitkala-Sa feel when her long hair cut?

Ans. Zitkala-Sa felt pain and great shame at having her long hair cut. He remembered his mother very much at that time. No one could ease like her mother. She felt bound like an animal.

(12) What was the advice that Annan gave to Bama? Did she follow it?

Ans. Annan tells Bama that she belongs to a community that is considered to be of low caste, not being given any respect, honor, and prestige. But if she studies and progresses with hard work, then they can overcome all such insulting. Bama also followed Annan’s advice. He learned hard in his class that everyone wanted to be friends with him.

FAQs – Memories of Childhood Summary

Q1. What is the theme of memories of childhood?

The memories of childhood chapter shed light on hatred, racial discrimination, and ill treatment of humanity and woman in general in particular.

Q2. Who was Bama in memories of childhood?

Memories of childhood are autobiographic stories that deal with two parts: The Cutting of My Long Hair by Zitkala-Sa, and the second is We Too Are Human Beings by Bama. So, Bama is the author of the second story (We Too Are Human Beings) author.

Q3. Who was Zitkala Class 12?

Zitkala is the author of the first story, “The Cutting of My Long Hair” author.

These topics are also the probability of coming in class 12th English exams:-

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