Essays – The Lumber Room

How to write an essay type answer on Literature?

(Lesson 1):
This is a question asked by so many students as well as teachers as nobody has given any clear guideline
about this "universal" issue. I'm going to illustrate the essay type answering technique with reference
to short story, poetry, drama and prose.
Ideally essay type answer should have at least 5 paragraphs including the introduction and the
conclusion.
The introduction should contain a brief overview of the story and a thesis statement which defines the
question and your approach towards it. Each body paragraph should support the thesis statement with
examples from the text. Ideally, the first sentence of a body paragraph should contain the main point
while the rest of the paragraph elaborates on it. The conclusion should be strong and it should
summarize your points and substantiate the thesis statement.
Now, l'm going to illustrate this five-paragraph essay format with an example essay. The question is
from the short story "Lumber Room".
Question:
"Lumber Room" is a short story about a child who challenges the accepted norms and opinions of the
elders". Discuss.
First of all, you should do some brainstorming and jot down the main points needed for the body
paragraphs. For example, one of the adult norms challenged by Nicholas is that adults think they are
always correct. Another adult conception of (or misconception) is that children can be disciplined
through punishment. Another may be that things which do serve any practical purpose for which they
are made should be discarded. (Instead of using them into some alternative purpose). Now you are
ready to develop the body paragraphs on those lines.
First of all, let's begin with the introduction.

Lumber Room by Saki is a short story about a child with an unusual intelligence and imagination. This
child, Nicholas, manages to outwit his strict aunt through several tricks. First, he refuses to eat his
wholesome bread and milk claiming there was a frog in it as he put it there himself. Secondly, he gains
entry into the lumber room by pretending that he wanted to enter the gooseberry garden. Thirdly, he
savors the so called discarded items put into dust and decay by adults in the lumber room. He also
outwits his aunt who had fallen into a rainwater tank with witty answers. In all these occasions,
Nicholas challenges the accepted norms and opinions of the adults of his day.

Below is the first body paragraph of the essay type answer to the question: "The short story "The
Lumber Room" by Saki is about a child who battles against adults and their accepted norms and
concepts" (O/L English Literature Practice Paper, Central Province, 2017).
One instance where Nicholas battles against the accepted norms and concepts is when he proved that
there was actually a frog in his wholesome bread and milk. In this incident, he domolished the accepted
adult norm that the adults are always correct. It is very clear that he put the frog into his milk with the
sole purpose of outwitting his aunt who flatly rejected his preposterous claims about the alleged frog.
Although taking a frog from the garden and putting it into his milk was regarded as a great "sin" by the
adults, it was a triumph for Nicholas as he successfully proved that "the older and wiser and better
people" can be in the wrong about matters they are most certain of.
Remarks:
(1). Note that I have used the wordings of the question in my model paragraph. (eg. "accepted norms
and concepts").
(2). I have started the first body paragraph with the main point followed by an elaboration of it.
(3). I have concluded the paragraph by highlighting the main point again.
This is the way to develop the body paragraphs. Tomorrow, I'll tell you how to develop the second
body paragraph.

Model Answer on the Short Story Lumber Room by Saki.

What impression of Nicholos, the Hero of the story, do you create in your mind in Saki's
short story "The Lumber Room" with close reference to the text.
Saki's short story "The Lumber Room" is an intriguing account of a small boy's adventure into "an
unknown land." Nicholas ventures into a forbidden room in a lonely house where he is deprived
of any of the joy and excitement a small boy might expect. Nicholas gives the impression that he
is impertinent and mischievous but this manner of behaving is due to the isolation of the home in
which he lives. His disobedience occurs throughout the story during which time "he was in
disgrace. Only that morning he had refused to eat his wholesome bread-and-milk on the seemingly
frivolous ground that there was a frog in it."
That he can predict his aunt's response to his behaviour is an early indication. His judgement of
the Jagbourgh expedition being a disaster because of Bobby's boots being too tight is the second
example of his sharp wits. His employment of the belief by his aunt that he is desperate to go into
the gooseberry garden gives him clear access to where he really wants to go - the lumber-room.
He knew: "She could keep a watchful eye on the two doors that led to the forbidden paradise." He
even pretended to be planning to get into the gooseberry garden. He knew when it was time to
execute "a plan that had long germinated in his brain." Nicholas is meticulous in all that he plans.
His attention to detail is evident in his bread and milk incident and even more so in his "intrusion"
of the lumber-room: " He did not believe in trusting too much to luck and accident.
It is clear that not only can Nicholas outwit his aunt but can turn the most unexpected situation to
his advantage. When he discovers that his aunt is caught in the rain water tank he reminds her that
she has lied about the strawberry jam and calls her "The Evil One and not my aunt," before walking
noisily away. By doing this Nicholas can get the better of his aunt without getting himself into
even more trouble.
"The Lumber Room" by Saki is a short story which really gives an insight into the fascinating
character of a very unusual boy who has the capacity to entertain himself despite the deprivation
imposed by the adults in his life. I found Nicholas to be an intriguing character and felt satisfied
that he had outwitted his unpleasant aunt but also that he had been able to create some joy for
himself during his day. I enjoyed, as he did, his being able to refer to his aunt as the Evil One.

Essay Type Model Answer on the Short Story Lumber Room:

In the short story Lumber Room, Saki conveys the message that sometimes children can be more
intelligent than adults. Discuss.

In Saki's The Lumber Room, Nicholas is the protagonist. He is presented as a mischievous, intelligent,
and shrewd boy who excels in annoying his aunt. One of the main arguments in The Lumber Room is
that adults often misunderstand a child's mentality and needs. In order to make elaborate this idea, Saki
presents a series of mischievous and childish deeds done by Nicholas. In the light of his actions,
children are presented as being more intelligent than adults under certain circumstances.
Nicholas is a good at understanding the nature and personality of adults, which is an indicator of his
intelligence as a child. When Nicholas's cousins are taken to Jagborough, Nicholas does not cry as he
is perfectly aware that him being upset is the very thing that his aunt wants. Although a child in such
as situation is expected to react by crying and weeping, Nicholas refrains from such behavior as he is
mature enough to understand the circumstances surrounding the punishment. He also comments on
Bobby's tight boots and how the aunt did not listen to him when he complained. These instances explain
how clever Nicholas is at analyzing somebody's personality. He stays calm as he understands that the
hastily planned trip will not be enjoyable to his cousins, especially to Bobby. He has a clever insight
into the aunt's character: he sees her as a person who is not good at listening, especially when children
want her to listen to them the most.

Nicholas's entry into the lumber room is a carefully planned mission, which shows that he is organized
and is capable of working according to a plan - qualities an adult would possess. The reader is told in
detail, how Nicholas had practiced turing a key in a keyhole of a door, prior to entering into the lumber
room. When he actually gains access into the room, he makes sure to sprinkle some dust on the old
books after going through them so as to indicate that they were not touched. These actions demonstrate
how children can be more advanced and analytical in thinking than adults.

2020 Paper

Discuss how imagination helps Nicholas to face the unfair treatment of the aunt. Support your
answer with reference to the text.

Lumber Room, a story set in the Victorian times is about a clever boy with a robust imagination.
Nicholas comes up with very creative ideas to escape from and rebel against the drab rules imposed on
him by the authoritarian aunt he lives with. Throughout the story, Saki celebrates Nicholas for being
an especially imaginative child and makes it clear that he disapproves of the aunt’s stultifying ways.
With this, Saki suggests that children’s imagination and curiosity are wonderful things, and he is
critical of adults who discourage them.

Throughout the story, Saki upholds the boy’s fantastic imagination as a source of humor and wonder
and contrasts it with the aunt’s glaring lack of imagination. She is described as “a woman of few ideas,
with immense powers of concentration,” dogged in her single-minded pursuit of obedience from the
children in her charge. At the beginning of the story, the narrator points out that the aunt is Nicholas’s
cousins’ aunt and not actually Nicholas’s aunt, but she “insisted, by an unwarranted stretch of
imagination, in styling herself his aunt also.” The narrator then goes on to explain the punishment she
“invented” for Nicholas. Thus, the entire force of the aunt’s imagination and innovativeness is limited
only to preserving her authority.

In contrast, Nicholas is teeming with creative ideas and imagination. His quick thinking gives him a
huge advantage over the aunt, while she ends up defenseless against his machinations. For instance,
Nicholas tricks the aunt into “self-imposed sentry duty” at the gooseberry garden so he can have some
time to explore the lumber room (a room the children are forbidden to enter). The aunt easily falls into
this trap—and then literally falls into a nearby water tank—painting her as slow-witted. Because of his
vivid imagination and curious mind, Nicholas comes across as her intellectual superior.

Also, in her attempts to stifle the children’s imagination and creativity, the aunt keeps her home and
the children’s lives bland and sterile. For instance, the children’s breakfast is boring bread-and-milk,
which Nicholas refuses to eat. The aunt has previously refused to give him strawberry jam, lying that
there was none. It seems that even from the food she offers the children, the aunt is in favor of the
unexciting. Similarly, while exploring the lumber room, Nicholas is struck by “a teapot fashioned like
a china duck, out of whose open beak the tea was supposed to come.” He thinks, “How dull and
shapeless the nursery teapot seems in comparison!” Once again, when choosing for the children, the
aunt has opted for the “dull” option. Additionally, the lumber room is described as a “region that was
so carefully sealed from youthful eyes and concerning which no questions were ever answered.” So,
the aunt not only keeps the imaginative treasures of the lumber room locked away but also denies the
children any information about it, and in this way stifles their imagination and curiosity.

Also when he comes across a tapestry that was used as a fire screen, he is transfixed by the picture it
depicts of a hunter who has just shot a stag while four wolves approach him without his knowledge.
This scene becomes “a living, breathing story” for Nicholas, and he spends “many golden minutes”
inspecting its various details and trying to figure out what will happen next in the story of the tapestry.
It lingers in his thoughts even hours later, at teatime that evening when the children come back
disappointed from their trip to Jagborough and the aunt is seething at being left in the water tank for
so long. Nicholas shares in their silence, but unlike the others who are unhappy and sulking, he is
pleasantly lost in the magic of his imagination, still thinking about the tapestry he encountered in the
lumber room.
Thus Nicholas’ imagination helps him to escape the dullness and discomfort that surrounds him. Thus,
for Saki, Nicholas’s imagination has great power and value, and he is critical of the aunt’s attempts to
curb it.