Hi Everyone!! This article will share Sayonara Questions & Answers.
In my previous posts, I have shared the questions & answers of Lake Isle Of Innisfree, The Sniper and The Village Blacksmith so, you can check these posts as well.
Sayonara Questions & Answers
Question 1: What information do you have on Charles and Anne Lindbergh?
Answer: Charles and Anne Lindbergh were on a trip to the Far East in 1931 in their private plane. Whilst passing through China, their plane got damaged and they had to travel to Japan by boat, travel across Japan by train and then by ship to the United States.
Question 2: The narrator speaks of many different words for goodbye. Which goodbye word does she like the most? How does she describe it?
Answer: The author speaks of many different words for goodbye – Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Au revoir, Adios, Goodbye and Sayonara. The author loves Sayonara for its meaning – ‘Since it must be so’ – an acceptance of the fact that life is like this; we have to part. Sayonara neither says too much nor too little. The word stands for a simple acceptance of fact, that it is an unspoken goodbye along with a pressure of the hand, with all emotions piled up behind the word Sayonara.
Question 3: They buy tea at one of the stations. Describe their experience.
Answer: At one of the stations, they leaned out to buy some tea. The vendor poured the tea out of his bag tin into a little brown clay teapot, small like a child’s toy, with a saucer for a lid and an inverted cup on top. They called out for two, so he ran after them with another teapot swinging from its wire handle and pushed it in through their window.
Question 4: Describe the Japanese family that boarded the train at one of the stations.
Answer: A Japanese family had boarded the train. They had a little baby dressed in woolens, which they held up to say ‘Sayonara’. The mother and the nurse were dressed in kimonos, the father was wearing a Western business suit and the two little girls were in green challis suits with Irish-lace collars. The girls had made themselves comfortable by kicking off their shoes, in the Japanese fashion and were squatting on their feet on the blue plush seats.
Question 5: “Our real goodbye was not until the boat pulled out of the dock at Yokohama…….” Complete the colourful scene for goodbye that takes place in your own words.
Answer: When the boat pulled out of the dock at Yokohama, the crowd of Japanese leaning over the rails of the decks shot out twirling strands of serpentine across to those they had left behind on the shore – a rain of bright fireworks. One end of these coloured paper ribbons was held in the hands of those on the deck, the other, by those on shore, until a brilliant multi-coloured paper web was spun between the ship and the shore. Interlacing back and forth across the gap, this paper made up a finely woven band – a tissue intricately patterned and rich in texture which held together for a few more seconds those remaining and those departing. As the gap widened, the ribbons snapped, the ends twirling off into the water.
Sayonara Questions & Answers
Question 6: Anne discusses different words for goodbye. What does she says about Farewell and goodbye?
Answer: Farewell is a father’s good-bye. It says, ‘Go out in the world and do well, my son’. It is an encouragement; at the same time, it cautions. It is hope and faith with no impact on parting as it says nothing about it.
Good-bye is a prayer, a cry that keeps echoing. It is a mother’s goodbye, saying I will watch you, I will be with you. God will be with you, God will protect you. It says too much.
Question 7: Describe the scene at the station through the eyes of the narrator.
Answer: There was the clatter of wooden clogs along the station platform. Kimonos fluttering as the women moved on, some with babies on their backs, whilst the men carried four or five small bundles tied up in different coloured furoshiki; the old women walking with their sticks, wearing enormous roof like hats of straw that hid their brown faces and a man shouting his wares to sell.
Question 8: Read the lines and answer the questions:
(a) Who are ‘we’? How had we come to Orient?
Answer: ‘We’ refers to Charles and Anne Lindbergh. The were on a trip from the North to the Orient.
(b) Why were they on board the boat? What was their next plan for travel after this?
Answer: They were on board the boat because their plane was damaged so they had to travel to Japan by boat. Their plan was to cross Japan by train and then sail by ship to the United States.
(c) Beyond all the noise around, which word caught the narrator’s attention?
Answer: Above all the noise and din, there was one voice, clean, sharp, one cry of ‘Sayonara’ that caught the narrator’s attention.
(d) How does the narrator describe this word? Why was she able to catch it so quickly?
Answer: The narrator describes this word as one voice, clean, sharp and distinct, one cry ‘Sayonara’. She was able to catch it because it was the one word of Japanese she understood.
Question 9: Read the lines and answer the questions:
(a) Explain ‘twirling strands of serpentine’.
Answer: The ‘twirling strands of serpentine’ are the twisting threads which because of their gentle movement appeared to be like snakes slithering smoothly in the space between the dock and the ship.
(b) For what purpose were these twirling strands by those on deck?
Answer: The twirling strands were the last connection of touch between those remaining behind and departing, before the gap widened with the boat pulling out, the strands became taut and snapped, breaking the last connection of touch with a final moving away.
(c) What happened as the gap between dock and ship widened?
Answer: The twirling bright coloured strands were thrown by those on the deck to those on the shore. The strands held by both sides, continued to be a connection between those remaining and those departing. As the boat sailed away, the distance between the dock and ship widened, the ribbons strained and broke, floating away with the unfinished ends of sentences. It was the last connection of touch and now only ‘Sayonara’ could bridge the gap.
(d) Name and describe the last connection between dock and deck after the ribbons snapped off.
Answer: After the ribbons had snapped off, the final bridge of connection that could fill the gap was ‘Sayonara’. The literal translation of Sayonara is, ‘Since it must be so’, and this was an inevitable parting happening.
Question 10: Read the lines and answer the questions:
(a) Why is Sayonara the most beautiful word according to the narrator?
Answer: According to the narrator, Sayonara is the most beautiful word for parting because it neither says too much nor too little. It is a simple acceptance of the fact that life has its limits, parting is a part of it. All emotions are held within the word but it says nothing; it is unspoken and only expressed by the pressure of the hand, ‘Sayonara’.
(b) What do Auf Wiedersehens and Au revoirs try to do?
Answer: Both Auf Wiedersehens and Au revoirs act as sedatives as they say, ‘Till we meet again’; with this as a brave front, they postpone the immediate pain of parting.
(c) The narrator further speaks of farewell. What explanations does she give?
Answer: Farewell is a father’s good-bye. It says, ‘Go out in the world and do well, my son’. It is an encouragement; at the same time, it cautions. It is hope and faith with no impact on parting as it says nothing about it.
So, these were Sayonara Questions & Answers.