question_answer 2)

In which section of the play does Mr Lamb display signs of loneliness and disappointment? What are the ways in which Mr Lamb tries to overcome these feelings?  

Answer:

Mr Lamb's leg was blown off years back and kids called him 'Lamey-Lamb'. He lived alone in his house. There are various indicators that reveal Mr Lamb's loneliness. He spends his time watching, listening, and thinking. When Mr Lamb tells Derry that he has lots of friends, Derry tells him that he was lying and that he was miserable and no one would know if he were alive or dead and nobody would care. Mr Lamb became defensive and on Derry's asking could not tell the names of his friends and went off to go to the bees. .When Derry talks of going back home, he then says, 'Once you got home, you'd never let yourself come back.' He makes an effort to befriend people. He was not fond of curtains or of shutting things out or shutting things in and he liked the light and the darkness, and the windows open, to hear the wind. When Derry leaves Mr Lamb admits to himself that nobody ever came back.  Mr Lamb tries to overcome his loneliness or disappointment by welcoming people into the garden, with his gate always open. When it got a bit cooler, (he pulled down the crab apples and made jelly. He sat in the garden and listened to his bees singing and sat in the sun and read books. However, Derry did not believe that anybody ever came but he was determined to go back.