August 31, 2013

Portrait of a Grandfather

Essay : [Portrait Of A Grandfather]

English Essay on "Portrait Of A Grandfather"

Portrait Of A Grandfather

The life and character of a grandfather should be portrayed so as to make grandfather a typical figure which can be seen in almost every family in this way certain generalizations can be deduced about the grandfather or, grandmother. You can also depict the figure of any particular grandfather-possibly your own grandfather. Respect for old age demands that the character should not either be satirized or ridiculed.
Note these hints
1) Grandfather an automatic title and position which one gets in old age
2) Personality health and Physical condition-in certain cases invalid
3) Generally leading a retired life
4) Habits and idiosyncrasies

When the age advances the children and grand children are born in the normal course of life and with the birth of grand children the person assumes the role of a grandfather. In most of the families figure of a grandfather can usually be seen, of course, great-grandfather is rare. Anyhow grandfather is a title which one wins automatically by virtue of one's advancing years. In our country it is a title which implies a lot of respect and regard for the old age. Grandfather in our families, is a symbol, not only of respect and dignity but also of divine bliss. He is an embodiment of piety and all other elderly affections. He is taken to be the most useful member of a family not only because of his vast experience and enormous knowledge of life but also because of his angelic appearance and sanctification.
The figure of a grandfather is such as it invokes love and sympathy-love for his childlike innocence and sympathy for his decaying health. Shakespeare has very well depicted the old man as the last scene of life
Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
In second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, san taste, sans everything

These lines truly portray a grandfather. He is an elderly man with 'wrinkled face, hoary head and beard his health is generally very weak and is fast deteriorating day by day and the body prone to various ailments and diseases. He always wears a pair of spectacles but his eyesight is so weak that even the spectacles do not serve him well.(4essay.blogspot.com) If he is to read he has to face much difficult and if he is to recognize someone he has to exert a lot. He lifts up his hand which is, in most cases termagant, and looks fixedly at the man. Even then the face of a new-comer remains dim to him.
His diet is simple and light. He is too weak to do any work which requires physical exertion. Therefore he can't digest the heavy food easily. Moreover, his teeth are either very weak or almost unserviceable. So he is incapable of masticating his food. One is filled with extreme sense of pity and terror when one notices a grandfather munching his food.
A grandfather generally leads an idle, retired and secluded life. When the day begins the other members of family are absorbed in their respective sphere of duties. The children go to their schools and colleges the matured people go outside to attend to their daily business the womenfolk are absorbed in the household affairs, but the grandfather has nothing to do. He may go to the bazaar to fetch something or the other or he may be seen busy doing some petty job in a corner of the house-repairing a cot, caning a chair, polishing the furniture, oiling the electric fan and so on. When he has nothing to do he smokes the 'hookah'. In the evening of course, he whiles away his time with the children. At bed time he tells them interesting folk-tales.
His habits are very deep-rooted. Whether you like his habits or not, he cannot change them.. He is peevish, idiosyncratic, freakish, whimsical, suspicious minded and prone to flare up even at the smallest event which is against his will. He always likes to have his own way and does not tolerate even the reasonable interruption but he himself would be highly pleased to poke his nose in the affairs of others. This, of course, is his privilege as an elderly man and so we should not grudge this attitude.

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