Question

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

He put his hand to the door and peered into the back seat, which was a little cell, a little black jail with bars. It smelled of riveted steel. It smelled of harsh antiseptic; it smelled too clean and hard and metallic. There was nothing soft there.

1. What did the back seat of the car look like? Why was it so? (Understanding and Analysis)
2. The narrator says that the back seat smelt of harsh antiseptic. What does he want to convey? (Understanding and Analysis)
3. Explain: ‘There was nothing soft there’. (Analysis)
4. Who was driving the car? Where was Mead being taken to, and why? (Understanding and Analysis)
5. In what tone does the narrator speek about the police car, and why? (Analysis and Evaluation)

Answer 1

1. The back seat looked like a small cell or black jail with bars. This is because the car was designed to detain people, making it resemble a prison rather than an ordinary vehicle.
2. It conveys a feeling of coldness, sterility and discomfort. The smell makes the car seem more like a prison or institutional place than a normal police vehicle.
3. The statement emphasises the car’s hard, cold and mechanical nature. There is no comfort or warmth, reflecting the inhuman and emotionless system that controls society.
4. No human was driving the car; it was an automated police car. Mead was being taken to the Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies because his habit of walking alone at night was considered abnormal.
5. The narrator uses a critical and ominous tone. The harsh descriptions of the car highlight its mechanical, threatening and oppressive nature, symbolising the loss of human freedom.