Summary:
Neighbours is a story about a young couple who shift to a place outside the city. In the new society they encountered with European immigrants. They found the strange and disgusting customs of their neighbours. They didn’t feel like home in their new society. They were fed up with loud noises from the neighbours. They had prejudice for their new neighbours and vice versa.
After sometime they were habituated with the new customs and cultures of the society. Slowly and gradually, they started to like the new cultures. They adopted their societies cultures. They became friends with the new neighbours.
The author has presented the characters as role models without proper names. The couple used to live in expansive suburb area before shifting to the new place. The couple didn’t like to talk with their new neighbours at the beginning.
The young man was busy in writing thesis on the development of the 20th century novel. The woman did her job in a hospital. Their neighbours wanted to do friendship with them. So, the neighbours started talking with them. They also offered their help to the young couple. The couple realized that their neighbours were very generous. In spring, without any plan the woman became pregnant. The neighbours came to know about it. They were excited after knowing about the pregnancy. The society was ready to help the couple. The couple’s society became happy when the young woman gave birth to a child.
Exercise:
Answer the following questions.
a. Describe how the young couple’s house looked like.
The young couple’s house was small, but it had a charming, elegant cottage feel. The high ceiling and paned windows added to its appeal. From the young man’s study window, you could see the rooftops and the Moreton Bay fig trees in the nearby park where they walked their dog.
b. How did the young couple identify their neighbours in the beginning of their arrival?
In the beginning, the young couple identified their neighbors by the distinctive sounds of daily life in the neighborhood, like the sound of spitting, washing, and the morning routine of watering plants.
c. How did the neighbours help the young couple in the kitchen garden?
The neighbors helped the young couple with their kitchen garden by giving them advice on spacing, hilling, mulching, and even providing a bag of garlic cloves for planting.
d. Why were the people in the neighborhood surprised at the role of the young man and his wife in their family?
The people in the neighborhood were surprised because the young wife worked in a hospital, while the young man took care of their home, worked on his thesis, and even cooked for his wife when she came back from work.
e. How did the neighbours respond to the woman’s pregnancy?
The neighbors responded to the woman’s pregnancy with constant smiles and gestures of goodwill. They offered small presents like chocolates and even suggested names. Some even predicted the baby’s gender with confidence.
f. Why did the young man begin to weep at the end of the story?
The young man began to weep because he was deeply moved by the unexpected kindness and support they received from their neighbors. It touched his heart to see the genuine compassion and unity in the neighborhood.
g. Why do you think the author did not characterize the persons in the story with proper names?
The author likely avoided giving proper names to the characters to create a sense of universality. This allows readers to relate to the story and its characters more broadly, emphasizing the idea that the themes of humanity and community transcend cultural and linguistic differences.