The Address
The Address
MARGA MINCO
Marga Minco is a Dutch journalist and author. She was born on March 31,
1920 in the village of Ginneken, in the southwest of the Netherlands.
we learn the intricate emotions of humans like trust, hope and betrayal as
well as the ill-effects of war.
2. The story is divided into pre-War and post-War times. What hardships
do you think the girl underwent during these times?
Ans The story, “The Address” is divided into pre-war and post-war
times. There are clear indications of the hardships which the narrator,
a young girl, had to undergo during these times. The girl came from a
rich family. The family had a lot of valuable belongings. Then the war
broke out. Mrs. Dorling renewed her contact and started visiting their
house. She took away all their possessions on the ground that she
wanted to save all their nice things in case they had to leave the
place. After the war was over. Things became almost normal. Now
the girl was living all alone in a rented house. She wanted to meet
Mrs. Dorling and ask for the valuables. When she went to meet Mrs.
Dorling she found that Mrs. Dorling was using her mother’s things
recklessly. Suddenly, she lost interest in the things that had belonged
to a connection that no longer existed. She decided to leave it all
behind and resolved to move on.
3. Why did the narrator of the story want to forget the address?
Ans The narrator went to the house of the lady who had kept many
valuable items of her mother during the war days. The address of the
lady helped her in searching out the house of the lady. But now she
wanted to forget the address as after visiting the house of the lady
she found how the belongings of her mother were kept in a strange
manner. These had lost all their emotional value for the narrator. The
narrator now lived in a small rented room. She had no place to keep
all these things. The lady treated her very insolently. She even
refused to recognise her. She did not let her come into the house.
That was why she wanted to forget that address.
EXTRA QUESTIONS
1. Why did the narrator go to Number 46, Marconi Street?
Ans. This was the address of the woman who had carried their valuables
to her home for safety during war time. So the narrator went there to
claim the belongings of her mother.
Q2. Why was Mrs. Dorling cautious while opening the door?
Ans. Mrs. Dorling had committed the crime of misappropriating the
narrator’s household things a few years ago. She hoped that the war
would uproot the entire family and they would never return. But she also
feared one day someone from the family could turn up and claim the
things that she kept at her home. Hence she was cautious in opening the
door.
Q3. How was the narrator convinced that she had made no mistake and
had reached the right address?
Ans. When the woman who opened the door gave no sign of recognition,
the narrator thought she was perhaps mistaken and had rung the wrong
bell. When she saw the woman wearing her mother’s green knitted
cardigan, she was convinced that she had made no mistake and reached
the right address.
Q4. Why did the author first hesitate to claim her belongings from Mrs.
Dorling?
Ans. When the war was over and the narrator began to feel a little secure,
she felt like missing her family belongings. On a second thought, she
began to suspect that the presence of her family articles would remind
her of her dear ones who were no more with her so she hesitated to claim
those articles from Mrs. Dorling’s house. Besides, she lived in a poor room
that looked the oddest place to accommodate her expensive possessions.