Question

Write a summary on "You are old, Father William" by Lewis Carroll.

Answer 1

Hint: A summary is also known as synopsis, abstract, precis etc. A summary is basically a brief statement or main points of something. So, here in this question, we have to write important points to remember in the poem written by Lewis Carroll.

Complete answer:
A summary is used to ignore or neglect the irrelevant content in the poem, focusing on the major and the main idea of the poem. The summary does not contain one’s own opinion, idea or interpretation while writing a summary of the poem.

The poem is a parody in which the writer jokingly describes the generation gap between an experienced person and his proud or arrogant or pompous and haughty son. In this poem, the son is very much age concerned, especially his age and his father’s age because he keeps reminding his father how old he is.
The son constantly tells the father that he is an old man. But according to the father, age does not matter at all.

Despite the main reason which is the age as mentioned by the son, the father seems pretty happy with the fact he is getting older and it seems displeased with his son. Yet the son is trying to precipitate the father in an undignified manner. The son keeps repeating the expression “you are old” to make his father feel belittled and apathetic.

The father proves that even at his age, he is stronger and livelier than his son. This is because he had to work hard and fight for his rights, which is also why he and his son are living a comfortable and happy life. The father tells his son the value of money. By saying ‘One shilling a box', he shows that although they couldn’t afford much but somehow, they managed to fulfil their needs to the best extent with what they had, and learned to save money.

Later on, he described how he fought for his rights. He struggled for good reasons and this strengthened his personality, with the strength to bear hardships of life. The son's rudeness slowly turns into approval for his father's various virtues and his tone changes from disrespectful to respectful.

The father realizes his limits here. He wanted to prepare his son with the basic knowledge about his needs and knows that the son now needs to face the competitive world on his own and learn more through his own experiences in life.

Note: Steps of writing good summary:
1) For writing a good summary read the content very carefully.
2) Break the text into sections: easier to understand.
3) Mark and identify the keywords in each section.
4) Write the summary and the summary should be one-fourth of the original text.