READ AND ANSWER   (Chapter- My unknown friend)

1.    1.   The narrator confessed that he found it hard to remember names and recall faces. He frequently failed to recall faces. He frequently failed to recall a person’s appearance or dressing style. Then he claimed that apart from these details , he never  forget anybody. The humor is that in reality it is impossible for him remember anybody if  he cannot  recall their name ,face or and appearance.          

2.     2.  The narrator flatly refused when asked about an old place because he had no idea which place was being referred to.

3.    3.   The narrator talked Billy and Pete as these  were very common names and any gang of friends had to have a Billy and a Pete.

4.      4. The narrator thought that the stranger meant a loss of the narrator’s fortune when he sympathized with him. He presumed that the stranger must have heard he had been completely ruined financially.

5.      5. The stranger mentioned how tough it would have been for the narrator to get over a sad death and showed surprise when the narrator mentioned the dead person had continued to smoke till his last days. The stranger made a clear mention of his grandmother for the narrator to finally realize that the loss was the death of his grandmother.

THINK AND ANSWER

1.       The truth about the fifty –dollar suitcase was that it had been stolen by the imposter to pretend he was a well-to-do person. He needed this to be able to dupe the narrator about his identity , make him believe what  he said and cheat him of some money.

2.       The narrator has absolutely no clue about the well-dressed man who has boarded the train compartment. Instead of showing surprise or confusion, he pretends to recognize him as an old friend .Which follows a hilarious scene where the narrator tries to recall his past that the narrator seems to know about. He tries to put two and two together by taking clues from the stranger’s mention of an old place, the old friends, and a loss he has suffered.

3.       The stranger outwitted the narrator in the story. The narrator thought he was being very smart in pretending to recognise him as an old man and deducing many facts by taking hints from stranger’s  talk. In his presumption, he failed to realize that stranger was an impostor who had donned this person to dupe him and get away with some money. The narrator was under the false impression of possessing coolness and intellect and the stranger had great presence of mind to see through the narrator’s pretend. He was able to outwit him and coolly walk off after having cheated him.

4.       The first of the two instances where the narrator’s  friend put him into spin of thoughts were first when he greeted him warmly. The narrator had a hard time placing him and just could not recognize him. The second was when he mentioned a loss that narrator had suffered. He wondered what grievous loss he had suffered that might have ruined him completely!

5.       Yes, the stranger feigned agitated expression and fumbled with the keys to finally rob the narrator of his money. After he was convinced that the narrator believed him to be an old friend who was well –off pretended to have missed his stop. Then, he behaved as if the lock of  the suitcase was giving him problems to make the narrator part off his money.

6.       The narrator  felt  he had scored the first point by curtly refusing ever revisiting the ‘old place’ . Now , he had something he could be the conversation upon: an old familiar place. Using his intellect might help him recognize the stranger after all.

REFERENCE TO CONTEXT

1.       ‘I’ is the narrator.

2.       The stranger is being referred to as an ‘Idiot’.

3.       He had missed his stop.

4.       Another well-dressed man entered the compartment with a porter. He recognized the fifty-dollar suitcase as his wife’s and said he had been looking for it all over the train car.