SSTL End See - Summaries

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Richa Bansal <richabansal88888@gmail.com> Sun, May 1, 2022 at 5:11 PM

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The Mountain & The Squirrel - Ralph Waldo Emerson (Teamwork Skills)
Summary :

One day, there was a quarrel between the mountain and the squirrel. The gigantic
mountain calls the tiny squirrel a little prig. The squirrel, whose name is Bun, says that
while it is not as big as the mountain, the mountain is not as energetic as the squirrel. In
order to make up a year and a sphere, all kinds of things and weather must be taken into
account. The talents of both the mountain and the squirrel are very different. If the squirrel
cannot carry the forest on its back, the mountain cannot crack a tiny nut.

Ulysses - Lord Alfred Tennyson (Motivation Skills)

https://poemanalysis.com/alfred-tennyson/ulysses/
https://smartenglishnotes.com/2021/02/28/ulysses-summary-analysis-poetic-style-and-questions-answers/

‘Ulysses’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson presents the indomitable courage and adventurous zeal of old
Ulysses.
This poem attempts to imagine life from the perspective of the title character, Ulysses. After ten
years away from home, the Greek is now faced with the prospect of one final voyage. But, after
a decade of adventures, the character dwells on whether he wants to remain with the
mundanity and boredom of life at home, as well as whether he is the same man who left all
those years ago.
Put simply, Ulysses is a man of adventure. The poem focuses on whether he could ever tolerate
a simple, traditional home life. Instead, he imagines life on the open seas, the perils of his
adventures, and the chances to demonstrate his bravery. But he is growing old. Looking back
over his life, as well as his present and potential future, Ulysses considers how he feels about
his mortality.

Ulysses was the king of the island of Ithaca. Soon after the Trojan War, he sailed for his own
Kingdom and met several adventures on his way back home. At last, he reached Ithaca, where
he ruled over his people for three years. Ulysses expresses the lofty ambition of man’s eternal
quest for knowledge. Tennyson himself said, “There is more about myself in Ulysses which was
written under the sense of loss and all that had gone by.”

After a long absence from his, kingdom Ulysses has returned home. He has been ruling over the
people of his kingdom, Ithaca for quite some time. But he soon becomes tired of his life and
embarked on a voyage. He already successfully has completed so many adventurous voyages
and now he feels allured to undertake more voyage. So, he desires to set sail again to have a
fresh experience of life. Ulysses has travelled far and wide and he has a lot of experience of
many adventurous voyages. But the more he has travelled and gathered experiences, the
greater has become his hunger for undertaking a voyage to discover new regions and to have
more knowledge and experience. He considers his present state of life as dull and useless and
wishes to set sail again to have fresh adventures and knowledge.

The area of knowledge is vast and varied. It is infinite, but human life is short. Ulysses has
grown old and he has only a few more years to live. That is why he would like to have more
experiences and knowledge. He is so determined to sail for a voyage, and for this, he wants to
hand over the responsibility of his kingdom to his son Telemachus who is wise and kind-
hearted. Telemachus is a spirited young man and Ulysses believes that Telemachus would be
able to discharge his royal duties with satisfaction to all, and would also be dutiful to his
mother. Keeping this in mind, Ulysses is now free to leave his kingdom.
For the purpose of undertaking the voyage, Ulysses requested his old mariners to accompany
him. In quest of new regions and experiences, Ulysses is firm in carrying out his voyage beyond
the Western Horizon. He with his company would travel to have more and more experience till
their last breath of life. Beyond the Western horizon, Ulysses hopes to reach the land of Happy
Isles where he hopes to meet Achilles, one of the great Greek heroes of the Trojan War. Ulysses
is determined “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield till the end of his life.” Thus, Ulysses
wants to travel to have adventures and experience.

Strong Temptations - Strategic Movements - The Innocents Beguiled -

Mark Twain (Negotiation Skills)
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/summary-and-analysis/chapter-2
https://www.gradesaver.com/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/study-guide/summary-chapters-1-7

Summary

As Tom begins the dreaded task of whitewashing, he sees Ben Rogers approaching. When Ben
teases Tom about not being able to go swimming and being forced to work, Tom points out that
it is not exactly work if he is enjoying himself, and he makes a great show of applying
whitewash and then stepping back to admire his own effects. When Ben wants to try his hand
at whitewashing, Tom pretends to be reluctant until Ben offers him first the core of the apple
and then the entire apple. Other boys show up--boys who "came to jeer, but remained to
whitewash," and by the middle of the afternoon, the fence is whitewashed (by the other boys),
and Tom finds himself a rich man, having collected marbles, a part of a Jew's harp, a kite, and
many other items as payment from the boys doing the work.

Analysis

In this chapter, Tom reveals his basic knowledge of human psychology; that is, that a person
most desires what cannot be easily attained. Tom is also a fine actor, and he cleverly uses this
ability in handling his friends. Thus, Tom is able to use this basic understanding of human
nature to get others to do his work for him and to pay for the privilege of doing it. Instead of
being able to join the others at the town center, he brings the center of the town to him, has
others do his work for him, and he ends up with all sorts of treasures. In this way, Twain reveals
Tom as a natural leader. Throughout the novel, we will see that Tom is the leader; it will always
be "Tom Sawyer's gang;" it is always Tom's ideas of what game to play; and Tom is always the
winner in games as well as in fights with his peers. He is also usually the winner in his conflicts
with the adult world.
The reader is constantly reminded that this is a child's world. Tom tries to make a game out of
everything; Aunt Polly's slave, Jim, is fascinated with Tom's sore toe; and Ben Rogers arrives
pretending that he is a steamboat on the Missouri River. The wealth or loot the boys offer to
Tom is ludicrous and silly and of no worth except to boys of their age.
-

Tom begins the job and imagines how all the "free boys" who come skipping by will make fun of
him for having to do work on a Saturday. In perhaps one of the most famous scenes of the
novel, Tom tricks the neighbourhood boys into completing his entire chore. Tom pretends to
love whitewashing, putting fake enthusiasm into his work. "Does a boy get a chance to
whitewash a fence every day?" Tom asks. Soon, all the neighbourhood boys beg Tom for the
chance to whitewash in exchange for small trinkets. In conclusion, Tom contends "that Work
consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not
obliged to do."

A Noiseless Patient Spider - Walt Whitman (Innovation Skills)

https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/walt-whitman/a-noiseless-patient-spider

“A Noiseless Patient Spider” presents a spider engaged in an act of creation, as it makes its
web. The speaker’s soul, too, is engaged in a creative act, as the soul crafts its own “web” of
connection. The poem thus suggests that any creative act (including the writing of poems) is an
act of exploration, in that it involves both finding and making connections between apparently
unlike things.
Both the spider and the soul are depicting as finding and actively creating connections. The
spider “explore[s]” its “surrounding,” and the speaker’s soul is described as “musing, venturing …
[and] seeking.” These verbs suggest intellectual exploration, as the spider and the soul search
for the “spheres” with which they can connect.
The spider and soul are also described with verbs that emphasise agency. The spider
“launch[es] forth” its filaments, “unreeling them” and “tirelessly speeding them.” The soul,
similarly, is “ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing” its own “gossamer thread.” The spider
and soul are thus shown as actively forging and crafting connections. On a metaphorical level,
this might reflect the intellectual exploration and crafting involved in the act of writing.
To that end, the parts of this poem itself can be read as “filaments” of a web. The long lines of
varied lengths visually suggest the threads of a web, each “launch’d forth” from the left margin,
as though into the “measureless … space” of the rest of the page. The commas at the line
endings suggest that each line is a complete filament, but that the act of creation is ongoing.
The full stops at the end of each stanza could be read as enclosing the two webs suggested by
the poem: that of the spider and of the soul. The poem as a whole brings these two webs
together into one.
The poem thus enacts the crafting of connections that it describes. Indeed, the poem’s
extended metaphor forges a connection between two apparently unlike things—the spider and
the speaker’s soul. And though the poem’s use of “you” refers to the speaker’s soul, it also turns
the poem outward; the second person brings the readers into the poem’s web, as though they
are in dialogue with the speaker. The poem itself thus is essentially a complete act of a
creation, a web that forges connections between the speaker, the spider, and the reader.

The Lookout Man - Nicolas Bentley (Problem-Solving Skills)

http://spanditdav.blogspot.com/2017/10/class-viii-chapter-8-case-of-sharp-eyed.html