Maharashtra Board Class 12 English Chapter 1.3 The Cop and the Anthem Textbook PDF Download

Ice Breakers

Suppose you have gone to a place where the winter season is very severe, discuss with your partner the ways in which you would protect yourself in the cold climate.

Ways to protect from cold climate

Teacher's Note

In India, people in Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh face very cold winters. They use heavy blankets and warm clothes to stay safe from the cold.

Exam Trick

Remember the three main ways to stay warm: wear warm clothes, stay inside warm homes, and drink hot tea or soup. Write these three things in your exam answer.

Points to Remember

Wear warm clothes like sweaters and jackets.
Stay indoors and near fires or heaters.
Drink hot tea, coffee or soup.
Cover your head and hands with scarves and gloves.
Use thick blankets at night.

When you see a cop approaching, you feel either relieved or scared. Discuss with your partner the situations when you feel relieved or scared.

Relieved

(a) You are walking alone in a dark street.

(b)

(c)

Scared

(a) You are riding a bike without a valid driving licence.

(b)

(c)

Teacher's Note

Children feel relieved when a cop helps them find their lost parent. Children feel scared when they do something wrong like breaking a window.

Exam Trick

Think about when a cop is your friend and when a cop is strict. Write two situations for each feeling in your answer.

Points to Remember

Relieved means you feel safe and happy.
Scared means you feel afraid and worried.
A cop can be a friend who helps you.
A cop can be strict if you break the law.
Always follow rules so you don't feel scared.

Discuss some of the motivating things that can change a person's life. One is given:

(a) Listening to an inspiring speech

(b)

(c)

(d)

Teacher's Note

A good teacher or parent can change a child's life. In India, many children have changed their lives by reading books or listening to stories of great people.

Exam Trick

Write things that make you feel happy and strong inside. For example: reading a good book, meeting a kind person, or learning something new.

Points to Remember

Good friends and family can motivate you.
Reading inspiring stories helps you become better.
Meeting successful people can change your life.
Learning new skills makes you confident.
Being kind to others brings happiness.

The Cop And The Anthem

O'Henry (1862-1910) William Sydney Porter, an American writer is better known by his pen name O'Henry. He was a voracious reader since childhood. He started a humorous weekly, 'The Rolling Stone' and when the venture failed, he joined the 'Houston Post' as a reporter, columnist and occasional cartoonist.

The story, 'The Cop and the Anthem' is one of O'Henry's well known stories. To describe his style of writing, people have often used the term 'smile with tears' which implies his twisted way of thoughts and endings in almost every story.

In this story the main character, Soapy, is a vagabond and a person with criminal background. He makes different plans to re-enter the prison as he has no shelter to protect himself from the severe winter. The story ends in an unexpected way. O'Henry has depicted Soapy's futile attempts to get arrested in a very humourous vein.

'The Cop and the Anthem' is about freedom and confinement. Initially Soapy feels that there is freedom (from miseries and worries) in confinement (prison). The notes of anthem transform him from within and he resolves to work hard. Soapy faces the irony of fate as the moment he realizes the real freedom lies in a virtuous life, he is taken into confinement.

Teacher's Note

O'Henry was a great writer who wrote stories with surprise endings. In India, we have writers like Premchand who also wrote sad but beautiful stories about poor people.

Exam Trick

Remember: O'Henry's stories always have a twist at the end. The ending is not what you expect. This is called irony. In this story, Soapy finally gets arrested when he does not want to!

Points to Remember

O'Henry was an American writer born in 1862.
He wrote short stories with funny and sad moments together.
Soapy is a poor man who wants to go to prison for shelter.
A church anthem (song) changes Soapy's heart and mind.
The story shows that freedom comes from being good and doing right things.

The Cop And The Anthem

Soapy left his bench and strolled out of the square and across the level sea of asphalt, where Broadway and Fifth Avenue flow together. Up Broadway he turned, and stopped at a luxurious cafe.

Soapy had confidence in himself from the lowest button of his vest upward. He was shaven, and his coat was trim and his neat, black bow had been presented to him by a lady missionary on Thanksgiving Day. If only he could reach a table in the restaurant unsuspected, success would be his. The portion of him that would show above the table would raise no doubt in the waiter's mind. A roasted mallard duck, thought Soapy, would be about the thing with a bottle of wine and then some cheese, a cup of coffee and a cigar. One dollar for the cigar would be enough. The total would not be so high as to call forth any extreme of revenge from the cafe management; and yet the meat would leave him filled and happy for the journey to his winter island.

But as Soapy set foot inside the restaurant door, the head-waiter's eye fell upon his tattered trousers and decadent shoes. Strong and ready hands turned him about and conveyed him in silence and haste to the side-walk and averted the ignoble fate of the menaced mallard.

Teacher's Note

Soapy is a poor man trying to eat in a fancy restaurant. He hopes the waiter will not notice his torn pants. In India, poor people also face this problem in expensive hotels.

Exam Trick

Remember: Soapy looks good from the top (nice coat and bow) but his pants and shoes are very old. The waiter sees only the bad clothes and throws him out quickly.

Points to Remember

Soapy tries to enter a fancy cafe to get arrested for not paying.
He looks clean from the top but his pants are torn and old.
The waiter sees his bad clothes and throws him out without letting him sit.
Soapy's first plan to get arrested fails completely.
The waiter does not even let Soapy order any food.

Soapy turned off Broadway. It seemed that his route to the coveted island was not to be an easy one. Some other way of entering the limbo must be devised.

At a corner of Sixth Avenue electric lights and cunningly displayed wares behind plateglass made a shop window attractive. Soapy took a stone and dashed it through the glass. People came running round the corner, a policeman in the lead. Soapy stood still with his hands in his pockets, and smiled at the sight of brass buttons.

"Where's the man that done that?" inquired the officer agitatedly.

"Don't you think that I might have had something to do with it?" said Soapy, with a friendly voice, as one greets good fortune.

The policeman refused to accept Soapy even as a clue. Men who smash windows do not remain to chat with the police. They take to their heels. The policeman saw a man half-way down the block running to catch a car. With drawn club he joined in the pursuit. Soapy, with disgust in his heart, drifted along, twice unsuccessful.

On the opposite side of the street was a restaurant of no great pretensions. It catered to large appetites and modest purses. Its crockery and atmosphere were thick; its soup and napery thin. Into this place Soapy betook himself without challenge. At a table he sat and consumed beefsteak, flapjacks, doughnuts and pie. And then he told the waiter the fact that the minutest coin and himself were total strangers.

"Now, get busy and call a cop", said Soapy. "And don't keep a gentleman waiting."

"No cop for you," said the waiter, with a voice like butter cakes and an eye like the cherry in the Manhattan cocktail. "Hey, Con!"

Neatly upon his left ear on the callous pavement two waiters pitched Soapy. He arose, joint by joint, as him about and conveyed him in silence and haste to the side-walk and averted the ignoble fate of the menaced mallard.

Teacher's Note

Soapy tries three more plans to get arrested but all fail. First he breaks a window, then he shouts and dances, then he steals an umbrella. But no policeman arrests him!

Exam Trick

Remember: Soapy wants to go to jail but the police think he is someone else or just ignore him. This is the irony - when he wants to be arrested, nobody arrests him!

Points to Remember

Soapy breaks a shop window but the cop chases another man instead.
Soapy shouts and dances like a drunk man but the cop thinks he is a college student celebrating.
Soapy steals an umbrella but the owner lets him go because of a misunderstanding.
Soapy gets very sad because no one wants to arrest him.
He tries many times but all his plans fail.

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