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READ THIS
This is a simple but meaningful story of two people who meet up at a hospital.
One is an elderly man suffering from emphysema who needs looking after. The other is a young but
simple woman who has been rejected by her family.
They decide to help each other.
READ THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE:
"Yes, I know. I walk to the green places. I've seen the sun come up at Zoo Lake."
Her answer took him seriously and affirmed his desire. He began to play aloud with possibilities. "I've
enough money saved for a second-hand caravan. Terry, my son-in-law, could tow it out and we could
spend a day or a weekend looking for the right place. It would need to be near enough to a town so as
I could go in and draw my pension and do the shopping."
He fell silent, thinking of buses and walking on a dirt road with the passing cars churning up the dust and
his chest catching and heaving.
She remained still with an air of timelessly waiting for him while he mourned his dream alone.
Then, her voice recalled him, "I'm on a pension too," and continued as if she had read his thoughts, "I
could bring the pensions and groceries from the town." She went on looking him full in the face and he
searched for guile, sounding for a shifting of shadows in the depths of the clear-water eyes.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying I could come with you. I used to work as a nurse-aid. You're not well. I could look after you."
He felt weak, dazed by the unreality, the impact of her statements, and the pull of his revived vision of pure
air in the grove with the splash of running stream on stones mingled with his distrust.
"What do you want with an old man like me!" The words were torn out of him. Faces turned in his
direction and in the corners of his eyes white uniforms halted in their progress. She continued to look at
him directly, impassively, her small square jaw tilted up to his face, eyes fixed patiently on his, seeming
not to blink in their waiting.
More gently he asked, "What do you want with me?"
She sighed. "My parents and my brother don't want me to come round when there are visitors so I don't
go at all, but I miss them. I want to belong to you."
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
When the old man first saw the girl, he thought she was a young man.
- Why did he think that? (2)
[Need help?]
The young girl was dressed as a man, and had her hair cut short.
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- Why did she pretend to be a man? (4)
[Need help?]
She liked walking around at night or in the early hours of the morning, something that was dangerous for
a woman to do.
She found that people left her alone if they thought she was a man.
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"Her answer took him seriously and affirmed his desire."
- What does the narrator mean by this? (2)
[Need help?]
The woman took an interest in what the man was saying, which gave him the excitement to explore this
dream further.
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The man was desperate to get out of the city and into the country.
- Why was he desperate? (4)
[Need help?]
The man suffered from emphysema and could not breath properly.
In the city he could not escape pollution from smoke, car fumes, etc. He was therefore doomed to suffer
for the rest of his life, and possibly die earlier.
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- Why would it be a good idea for the girl to join him? (4)
[Need help?]
If the girl joined him, she could not only look after him but she could also collect his pension.
This in turn meant that he would not have to walk along the dusty country roads which also affected his
emphysema.
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- Mention three factors which make him hesitate to accept her offer. (3)
[Need help?]
He hesitated because:
- He was old and so he wondered why a young girl would want to live with him;
- He was sick and therefore would present the girl with problems;
- He also wondered whether it was her plan to cheat him out of his pension money.
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The title of the story, "Simplicity", can refer to two things: the girl and the circumstances.
- Explain how the title can refer to either the girl or to the circumstances. (4)
[Need help?]
The title refers to the girl in as much as she is mentally simple and had simple desires.
The title also refers to the circumstances in as much as both Donald and the girl's desires are very simple
while the solution is also a very simple one.
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What evidence is there in the extract that the girl is not like other people.
- Note: Your own words are required here. Do not merely quote. (4)
[Need help?]
The girl likes to walk around at night time, and also in the early hours of the morning before dawn.
The members of her family find her embarrassing and don't like her around when guests arrive.
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