Solution of Chapter 1. I Sell my Dreams (Kaleidoscope Book)

Did the author believe in the prophetic ability of Frau Frieda?

Why did he think that Frau Frieda’s dreams were a stratagem for surviving?

Why does the author compare Neruda to a Renaissance pope?

In spite of all the rationality that human beings are capable of, most of us are suggestible and yield to archaic superstitions.

Dreams and clairvoyance are as much an element of the poetic vision as religious superstition.

The story hinges on a gold ring shaped like a serpent with emerald eyes. Comment on the responses that this image evokes in the reader.

The craft of a master story-teller lies in the ability to interweave imagination and reality. Do you think that this story illustrates this?

Bring out the contradiction in the last exchange between the author and the Portuguese ambassador ‘In concrete terms,’ I asked at last, ‘what did she do?’ ‘Nothing,’ he said, with a certain disenchantment. ‘She dreamed.’

Comment on the ironical element in the story.

A. Vocabulary

Look up the meanings of the following phrases under ‘dream’ and ‘sell’ in the dictionary

Study the following sentences and underline the part which receives emphasis

• I never saw her again or even wondered about her until I heard about the snake ring on the woman who died in the Havana Riviera disaster.

• That did not surprise me, however, because I had always thought her dreams were no more than a stratagem for surviving.

• Although she did not say so, her conversation made it clear that dream by dream, she had taken over the entire fortune of her ineffable patrons in Vienna.

• Three tables away sat an intrepid woman in an old-fashioned felt hat and a purple scarf, eating without haste and staring at him.

• I stayed in Vienna for more than a month, sharing the straitened circumstances of the other students while I waited for money that never arrived

How did the author recognise the lady who was extricated from the car encrusted in the wall of Havana Riviera Hotel after the storm?

Why did the author leave Vienna never to return again?

How did Pablo Neruda know that somebody behind him was looking at him?

How did Pablo Neruda counter Frau Frieda’s claims to clairvoyance?