CBSE Class 8 English Literature Prose My Friend Luke Fernando Sorrentino

Prose: My Friend Luke By Fernando Sorrentino

About the author

Fernando Sorrentino (born November 8, 1942 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine writer. His works have been translated into English, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, Bulgarian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tamil, Kannada, and Kabyle. In 2006 Fernando Sorrentino published a collection of short stories entitled: "Per colpa del dottor Moreau ed altri racconti fantastici". The collection includes all his short stories translated in Italian and is published by Progetto Babele literary magazine.

Summary

My friend Luke is about  a man named Luke.  The author describes Luke as someone who is the sweetest, shyest person in the world and he wears glasses, they are small, round and frame-less. He does not want to cause inconvenience to anyone and always walks sideways. If the gap is so narrow that will not allow him to pass, he will wait patiently until the obstruction moves by itself.

Luke has a wife and he has been married for years.  He has a son named Juan Manuel who is described as tall, blond, intelligent, distrustful, sarcastic and has a fringe.  Luke works at a company that imports clothes and he is the oldest and least important employee.  Luke's employer is named Don Aquerontido and  is a greedy and violent person.  Luke always works for extra hours because the task that has been given to him is so huge and he has no chance to complete the tasks in normal hours  yet Luke's salary is very less.

There is however, one remarkable aspect of Luke’s behaviour as soon as he steps on bus , he is a different man.  He requests for a ticket and begins to look for his money slowly.  He  makes sure that the driver keeps waiting for him and the driver's impatience gives him a certain amount of pleasure.  Luke always travel with the window wide open in the winter and he keeps it  closed during summer.

Luke is a person who doesn't have any interest in sport but  on Saturday he switches on his radio and turns the volume up to listen to the boxing match and  tortures the rest of the passengers with the noisy broadcast.  If Luke manages to take the front seat, he never gives it up to anyone .He is behaves in the most annoying manner while travelling on a bus. Once he reaches home, he is back to being his meek self.

I. Answer with reference to context

a) “I have a friend who must be the sweetest, shyest person in the world.”

(i) Identify the lesson .

(ii) Who does ‘I’ and ‘he’ refer to?

(iii) Was this description accurate?

b)There is, one remarkable aspect to Luke: his behaviour as soon as he steps on a bus.

(i) Identify the lesson and author.

(ii) How did Luke’s behaviour change as soon as he boarded a bus?

(iii) Make a sentence with ‘remarkable’

c)My friend Luke gets off the bus in a very good mood.

(i) What is the reason for Luke’s good mood when he gets off the bus?

(ii) What are the two sides to his personality?

(iii) When Luke reaches home, what usually happens?

II.  Answer the following questions briefly:

a) Why do you think Luke’s personality with people who are close to him (Luke’s wife, Juan Manuel and don Aquerontido) differs from the passengers on the bus?

b) Based on your experience, describe anyone in your life who shares similar characteristics with Luke.

c) Do you think Luke was satisfied with his life?

d) What the reason behind Luke’s aggressive behaviour towards his fellow passengers?III.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

a) Luke’s wife and son

(i) respected him

(ii) made fun of him

(iii) Ignored his rarely expressed opinions

b) Luke stays back in the office for three to four hours extra every day

(i) he gets extra payment

(ii) he is unable to accomplish tasks assigned to him within normal hours

(iii) he is scared of his boss