Model Question and answer

English class IX

1. The pain you feel today is the strength you have tomorrow.” How far is this true of Mhlope? Attempt a write up on how our personal struggles shape our future in the light of your reading of “The Toilet”.

18. The statement, “The pain you feel today is the strength you have tomorrow” is very true of Gcina Hlope. Her mother wanted her to be a teacher or a nurse. But she had a different idea about her career.

Her mother was so angry that she said all the money spent on Mhlope’s education was a waste. After writing Matriculation, Mhlope went to “Orange Grove”, a suburb of Johannesburg, and she lived with her sister who was a domestic worker in a White family.

Her sister had a backroom which Mhlope shared without letting the owners of the house know about it. Mhlope had to leave her room very early in the morning and return with her sister at 6.30 when the White family members took their supper. Mhlope could not even use the light in the early mornings when it was dark.

When she got a job, she left the room before 5.30 in the morning but the bus to her workplace was only at 7.30. So she spent about 2 hours every day in a public toilet.

She sat on the toilet seat and read various things and she even wrote sitting there. She then became a world renowned writer. The pains she felt when she was young proved to be her strength for her future. I am sure if we are willing to undertake suffering, our struggles will shape our future too.