Whitewashing the Fence

 

(e-content developed by Dr N. A. Jarandikar)

BA II/English Compulsory

Whitewashing the Fence

·         Whitewashing: पांढऱ्या रंगाने रंगवणे

·         fence: कुंपण

·         The passage is taken from the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer written by Mark Twain.

·         Tom is a small boy. Tom lives with his aunt. Her name is Polly.

·         Aunt Polly has punished Tom. The punishment is to whitewash the fence.

·         The fence is 30 yards in length and 09 feet high.

·         Tom comes to paint the wall with: 1) a bucket of whitewash, 2) a long handled brush.

·         For Tom, this a boring task. He wants to give this job to some other boys.

·         At first, Tom asks another boy, Jim to whitewash the fence.

·         Jim is going to fetch water from the hand pump.

·         Tom says to Jim that if he (Jim) paints the wall, he himself (Tom) will fetch the water.

·         Jim rejects this offer.

·         Then Tom sees Ben Rogers. Ben Rogers was eating an apple.

·         Ben Rogers was playing boat-boat. He considered himself as a big boat (‘Big Missouri’).

·         Tom doesn’t pay attention towards Ben.

·         Tom tells Ben that painting the wall is an important task, and so Aunt Polly has selected him.

·         Ben requests Tom to give him the brush for painting.  Ben says that he will give Tom the apple.

·         Gradually many boys come there. They give different gifts to Tom, in return Tom gives them the important task of painting the wall.

·         Billy Fisher (another boy) gives kite to Tom.

·         All the boys give three coats of whitewash.

·         In this way, Tom’s work of whitewashing the fence is done.