The Rainbow Bird – Explanation with Questions and Answers – CHSE Odisha +2 Alternative English

Simple Explanation

Section I

Maggie was a young girl student. Her class room had many more youngsters like her. As expected, they were a bit noisy and not focused on their studies. As childish pranks, they flung paper aero planes at each other. The teacher spoke in a dull monotonous voice which rebounded from the window panes. Maggie, however, was glued to slate writing some thing all the time. She felt the time inside the classroom was painfully uninteresting. The clock’s hands seemed to move too slowly for Maggie. All this happened because Maggie’s heart was elsewhere. She knew the green surroundings of her school that sat atop a hill were awash with mind-boggling varieties of worms, birds and other such small creatures. As a nature-lover, her mind was wandering in the green periphery of the school. She was mad to explore the terrain to discover new varieties of birds with bewitching beauty.

The school hours got over. Maggie looked at Don, her nature-loving companion to start their homeward journey through the bushy and rocky track that went downhill from the school. Maggie knowingly chose this track instead of the normal road, so that she could indulge in her exploration journey. Don had a minor injury in his foot. He was slow in his walk. Maggie prodded her to catch up with her, so that they could jointly feast their eyes with the creatures and tress in the surroundings.

Maggie was keen to avoid the other girl students playing in the school’s games field. They didn’t have an iota of the love and admiration for nature and its creatures.

Maggie and Don went up and down the rock, walked around the area that had a paddock, and a tiny sand dune created by truck accident. It was an exciting stroll that filled her mind with energy and inquisitiveness. Their eyes were eager to see new varieties of mushrooms that grow in such areas. To their great surprise, they heard the whirring sounds of some tiny birds. A she-oak tree stood thirty yards away. The birds had escaped from their nests on the ground to perch themselves on the tree’s branch. The birds looked breathtakingly beautiful, Their body looked like a combination of bronze and luminous green.

With tremendous thrill, Maggie shouted “A Rainbow Bird’. It became clear that their nest was in the tunnel-type pit in the sandy soil. Grass had grown all over it. Don was about to insert his hand into the pit out of childlike curiosity, but he was stopped from doing it by Maggie. She rightly concluded that tampering with the nest would force the bird to leave it forever. She stood and stared at the Rainbow bird with her eyes transfixed on the tree’s branch. The she-oak tree looked bright and radiant. The setting left Maggie and Don stunned and bemused. The bird’s wings were so eye-catchingly beautiful. She returned home with the Rainbow Bird’s picture etched into her mind.

Section II

Maggie and her brother Don walked at great pace along the road. They went past a tiny cottage standing on its slim legs, and a red-roofed cottage. Maggie guessed that the Rainbow birds would emerge out of their nests around that time. Earlier she had glued her ears to the ground to listen to the very feeble sound emanated by the young immature birds. She was sure, they would grow overnight to be able to fly off freely into the sky. Maggie cherished to see such birds.

At this time, they saw a man standing nearby. Initially, they thought it was the fisherman, Peter Riley. But, soon they identified the man to be Cafferty, the honey collector.

Cafferty had a gun hanging from his shoulders. Maggie saw that he stood still right near the ground where the nests of the Rainbow birds were. His eyes were fixed on the tree’s branches where the birds normally sit. Maggie found that Cafferty had a gun hanging from his shoulders. She wondered why a honey collector needed a gun. She went close to him and found that his pocket had something in it. Blood stains were visible. It was coming out of the beak of a dead Rainbow bird that had fallen prey to Cafferty. Maggie was hugely shocked to see her pet bird killed so ruthlessly by the honey collector. She yelled in protest, calling him Beast’.

Surprisingly, Don, her brother remained unaffected by any sadness. He felt a little puzzled to see what was going on. Cafferty was watching the contrast in the reaction of the sister and her younger brother. He couldn’t realize while Maggie was so saddened.

He wanted to explain why he was hunting down the birds. He justified his action by stressing the fact the Rainbow birds were preying on the bees in their beehives. Such destruction of bees was reducing the availability of honey. He maintained that the Rainbow was a vile predator and deserved to be eliminated.

Cafferty approached the opening of the tunnel’s opening hole where the nest was there. He stamped his feet hard on the hole to push the soil hard. He effectively killed the young birds. Such a brutal assault on the tunnel pounded Maggie’s heart very hard. She couldn’t tolerate the grief.

Cafferty offered small amounts to whoever killed the Rainbow birds and produced their dead bodies to him. Maggie lay on the ground, unable to tolerate the honey collector’s campaign to kill her most favourite birds. Her heart was gripped with sorrow.

Throwing off the dead birds, Cafferty moved away from the spot and headed to the beach. Don was unable to understand why his sister was so shocked. He asked her to get up and walk back to their home. Don was holding a dead bird in his hand. He had planned to take it home and skin it. Hearing this, Maggie reacted with revulsion. She asked him to leave the dead bird behind. Don complied to her orders.

However, Cafferty’s offer of small monetary rewards remained embedded in his mind. He decided to start his bird killing campaign to enrich his pocket.

Thus, the brother and sister remained gulfs apart in their approach to the Rainbow bird of breath-taking beauty.

Summary

Maggie and her younger brother, Don, were students of the school that stood on rocky ground surrounded by a lot of greens. Bushes, sandy soil, trees and mounds of earth were all there in the place. The school had a nice entrance road, but a short-cut track that passed through the green space was a little shorter.

Maggie was a nature-lover, whose mind and heart lay in exploring the green space to discover new forms of insects, birds etc. It was a very exciting pastime for her. In the class room, she just waited impatiently for the closing bell to ring, so that she could set out on her exploration trip.

The bell rang and she rushed out prodding her brother Don to walk along close to her. She disliked the idea of her other friends from following her, because she knew they lacked the curiosity to discover new life forms in the surroundings. They were noisy and disruptive. So, she made every effort to get them off her tracks.

While walking along the bushy space, she found a rarely used track. A truck had once got bogged down in it and the accident had left a sand dune there. A lot of grass grew on it. To her pleasant surprise, she found a groove in the ground inside which some birds seemed to have nested. Not far enough, a she-oak tree stood and a bird of breath-taking beauty sat on its branches. The colour of her wings and plume were sparklingly beautiful. Maggie’s excitement knew no bounds. Gluing her ear to the ground, she could hear the mild whirring sound of the tiny birds. She knew they would fly off the next day. She was over-joyed. Don, however, remained calm and uninterested.

Maggie and Don ran into a honey collector named Cafferty. He had a gun hanging from his shoulders. He was out to kill the Rainbow birds. In fact, he had already killed one and was holding the dead bird in his pocket. The dead bird’s blood had stained his pant. He brazenly declared that Rainbow birds preyed on bees, and so impeded the growth of honeybee population. It impacted his livelihood as a honey collector adversely.

Cafferty’s aggressive tone left Maggie shell-shocked. Don, on the other hand, stood unruffled. Cafferty went near the tunnel and pounded his feet on it to smother the little birds inside it. Maggie couldn’t take such cruelty anymore. She collapsed on the ground with her face pointing to the soil. Don couldn’t make out why his sister had been so upset.

To make the matters worse for Maggie, Cafferty told Don to kill more Rainbow birds and produce their dead bodies to him. In return, he offered to pay a small financial reward. Maggie was aghast, whereas Don seemed to take up the offer.

The duo returned home — Maggie gripped with anguish and indignation over the prospect of seeing more fatal attacks on the Rainbow Birds, Don with excitement of making a little money by killing more Rainbow Birds. The two were so very different!

Section I : Questions for discussion

1. Why was Maggie unmindful in the classroom the whole of the afternoon?
Answer – Maggie was a girl very passionate about the charms of the outdoors. She, particularly, was fond of a blue-green bird, shot with gold with an arrow-shaped tail. She was lost in the thought of seeing it again to feast her eyes.

2. “The hands crawled down the cracked face of the clock with aggravating slowness;….” What does this expression suggest?
Answer – Since she was not at all attentive to her studies, and frantically wanted to go out, the time seemed to drag on agonizingly. The hour hand of the clock appeared to move very slowly for her.

3. Why did Maggie avoid other girls of the class?
Answer – Maggie was a girl with a very different taste. She loved to see the birds, flies, insects etc. living in their habitat undisturbed, and unafraid of predators. Presence of other girls was a distraction for her, and a source of fear for the birds and insects she loved so much. They would possibly flee on seeing so many noisy humans around. This is why Maggie didn’t like her friends around.

4. What did Maggie do when the school was over?
Answer – As soon as the bell rang, she rushed out to the spot where she could see her favourite bird.

5. How did Maggie feel at the sight of the rainbow-bird? What vision came to her each night before she closed her eyes in sleep?
Answer – Maggie’s excitement knew no bounds on spotting the rainbow-bird. She was overjoyed. Don wanted to find out if there were some young ones in the bird’s nest perched inside the wild grass growing on the furrow. But, Maggie instantly stopped him saying that any such intrusion might scare the rainbow bird making it fly away to a safer place.

7. “It’s a bird now”. In which context does Maggie’s mother say so? Why ‘now’? Does it imply that Maggie had other obsessions earlier? Which ones?
Answer – Maggie was obsessed with the many life forms she saw around her. They were as fascinating as they were intriguing. She treasured their shapes, sizes and colours. In her drawer, she had kept her collections of cowries, and beetles’ wings. Her mother was bemuse and slightly vexed with Maggie’s fascination. When she  started muttering something with her face pressed against her pillow, her mother expressed her disgust saying that another creature — the bird — had joined her daughter’s long list of lovely things.

Section II : Questions for discussion

1. Whom did Maggie and Don meet near the sl e-oak? What was he doing there?
Answer – Maggie and Don met Cafferty, the Honey Man. Cafferty was intently looking at the nest.

2. How was Maggie shocked at the sight of the Honey Man? Comment briefly on how her feeling of excitement and joy changed suddenly to one of fear, anger and hatred for the man.
Answer – Maggie found that Cafferty had a gun with him. It was quite unusual for someone to have a gun in that place which had no record of crime. So, she was taken aback. Fear gripped her. The initial joy of fun and excitement of the outdoors vanished. Instead, an unknown fear gripped them. It was a very distressing feeling to see a man moving around with a gun in that peaceful area. This fear has been likened to ‘an icy hand’.

3. “Beast ! That’s what you are..  A b-beast.” How do these words characterize the feelings of the small girl when she finds that her world of joy and wonder had been destroyed. 
Answer – Maggie was an innocent little girl not accustomed to the cruelty and exploitation of the world. She loved the birds, the flowers, and the life in many of its forms that enriched her surroundings. On seeing the mutilated body of a beautiful dead rainbow bird so mercilessly hung by Cafferty by his hand, she froze in horror and disgust. The shock came like a bolt from the blue. In indignation and shock, she slumped on to the ground, calling Caffrety a beast.

4. Why did Cafferty swear to wipe the rainbow-birds off the face of the earth?
Answer – Cafferty was amused to see the anguish in Maggie’s face over  the shooting of the Rainbow bird. He justified his action saying that Rainbow birds feed on bees as they emerge out of their hives. The birds also, at times, fly into a cluster of flying bees, and catch the Queen bee. Killing the Queen bee endangers the whole community of bees. If bees are destroyed like this, there would be no honey that humans consume. So, said, Cafferty, Rainbow birds deserve to be hunted down.

5. “There was dull passion in is absorbed eyes, a sense of warning against evil.” How does this sentence portray the attitude of the Honey Man? What contrast do you mark between the world of Maggie and the world of Cafferty?
Answer – Cafferty, obviously, felt no remorse for having shot the Rainbow bird. Maggie’s admonition had no effect on him. Instead, he felt good about killing the bird that posed a threat to his trade.

6. What difference you mark between the attitudes of Maggie and Don? Does Don support Cafferty?
Answer – Don was a boy, the brother of Maggie. He was not as soft-hearted and emotional like his sister. He didn’t feel any revulsion towards Cafferty for his hunting. He was not moved by the killing of the bird, and took it in his stride as if nothing had happened.

i) What happens to the Honey Man after the bird is killed?
Answer – The Honey man walks away triumphantly with no sense of guilt. On the contrary, he declares a reward of six pence for each bird to be killed by Don.

ii) How does Maggie look at the happeneing?
Answer – Maggie is bitter, and shocked at the way Cafferty killed the innocent bird, and justified his action so unabashedly.

Section III : Questions for discussion

1.  What ideas sweep Maggie’s mind after she returned home and threw herself on the bed? Do you mark the difference between Maggie’s feelings in Section I and those in Section III?
Answer – Maggie is seething in anger against Cafferty, the Honey man. She wants the hunter to be punished for his brutality unleashed on the innocent rainbow-bird. The resentment that she felt earlier has turned to a burning desire for retribution from God. She wants a lightening to strike him and char him to death.

2. What did Maggie imagine when she heard voices between broken drifts of sleep?
Answer – Maggie heard some low sounds outside. It was a mix of telephone ring, car horn, some hustle and bustle etc. She felt perhaps a funeral was being arranged.

3.  How did she react when she was told that Cafferty had been injured? Why did she think “everything had come right”?
Answer – Maggie’s mind was filled with glee and relief. She imagined that God had punished him for his cruelty towards the rainbow-bird. She felt that Cafferty was either dead or was going to die soon. She felt Cafferty had got his due.

4. Do you find in her a vengeful attitude? Does she feel that justice has been done? What impression do you form about her from her reaction to the Honey Man’s suffering?
Answer – Maggie, no doubt, was burning in rage thinking of the way Cafferty had shot the bird, dangled its dead body, and later had justified his deed. No doubt, Maggie was vengeful, but her compassion overshadowed her vengefulness. She derived some pleasure thinking of the pain and suffering of the Honey man.

5. What change do you mark in her in the last paragraph? Has there been a restoration of her world of joy and wonder? How did she imagine about the rainbow-bird and the Honey Man?
Answer – Obviously, she feels that Cafferty had met his justice. She is both happy and relieved. Her rage has ceded place to calm and comfort. She feels a sense of joy, and wonders how swiftly God had administered justice to the sinner, Cafferty. She imagines that the rainbow-bird had soared into the sky again, where as the hunter lay miserably on the ground with life gone out of his body.

Questions for Composition

1.  How does the rainbow-bird create a world of wonder and magic for Maggie?
Answer – For the innocent, tender-hearted Maggie, the rainbow-bird with her multi-hued plumage was a thing of beauty, and a joy for ever. Its flight was majestic, and its home, the tunnel was intriguing. For her, it was perhaps the most beautiful and defense-less creatures on earth.

2. Describe how the story comes full circle with the restoration of Maggie’s world of joy and wonder?
Answer – Cafferty was a hunter. His profession had hardened his heart, and robbed him of sympathy and compassion. Maggie, on the other hand, was a young child with a very tender heart. She reviled Cafferty for his brutality and abominable insensitivity towards birds and other small creatures. Deep within her, she seethed in indignation and anger against Cafferty. When misfortune befell him leading to his injury, Maggie was delighted greatly. She felt it was poetic justice for Cafferty. Sh felt the birds and insects would have a safer place to live now.

3. Give an account of the contrasting attitude of Maggie and the others around her to the rainbow-bird.
Answer – Initially, Maggie and her friends had gone an expedition to see the Rainbow and other birds. They were agog with excitement. They looked forward to seeing the Rainbow bird. Later, on seeing the mutilated body of the bird, her mind was filled with indignation and anger towards Cafferty. She felt miserable and an urge to take revenge gripped her.