NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 1 A Letter to God

Short Note:

• The story is written by G.L. Fuentes and is set in a small, isolated valley village called San Diego de la Union in Mexico, surrounded by hills and fields.

• Lencho, a hardworking farmer, depends entirely on the rains for a good harvest, and his family's future rests on the success of his crop of corn.

• When a devastating hailstorm destroys his entire crop overnight, Lencho, a man of complete and simple faith in God, decides to write a letter to God asking for a hundred pesos to save his family from hunger.

Short Note:

• Lencho writes his letter and posts it, fully confident that God will answer his prayer directly, showing his deep and literal faith.

• The postmaster, touched by the farmer's faith, decides to collect money from himself and his colleagues to send to Lencho, though they can only gather seventy pesos.

• When Lencho receives the money and finds it short by thirty pesos, he assumes the post office staff must have stolen the rest, and writes an angry second letter to God demanding the remaining money, since he cannot conceive that God himself could have made a mistake.

Short Note:

• The story explores the theme of blind, unquestioning faith and contrasts it with the flawed, sometimes petty behaviour of ordinary human beings.

• It also carries gentle irony: the postmaster's genuine act of kindness and sacrifice is met with suspicion rather than gratitude, showing how deep faith can sometimes blind a person to human goodness.

• The story ultimately celebrates both faith and human compassion, while highlighting how they can clash due to human limitations.