1. Do you think that Amanda doesn’t like to be controlled and instructed not to do one thing or the other? Give a reasoned answer.
Amanda loves her freedom. She doesn’t want it to be curtailed. She wants to lead her own kind of life. If she is asked what to do and what not, she feels that her freedom is curtailed. She doesn’t bother to answer her mother when she goes on instructing her what to do and what not.
2. List the things which Amanda’s mother doesn’t want her to do.
Her mother doesn’t want her to hunch her shoulders and bend her body down. She stops her from eating chocolates as it would not be good for her pimpled face. She wants her to stop sulking as others would think that she is being nagged by her mother.
3. Why does Amanda want to be a mermaid?
Amanda is an escapist. She imagines herself to be a mermaid. She wants to live on an island where she is the only inhabitant. She loves freedom. She loves drifting blissfully like a mermaid on that lonely island.
4. Why does Amanda want to be Rapunzel?
Amanda is an escapist. She imagines herself as a fairy like Rapunzel. She wants to live happily in her lonely tower far from the maddening crowd of the world. Like Rapunzel, she wants to take care of her beautiful golden hair.
5. What could Amanda do if she were a mermaid?
Amanda is a little girl. She, in fact, is a symbol of every child who is instructed by the parents to do or not to do this or that. If she were a mermaid she would blissfully drift in the sea.
6. What does Amanda yearn for?
Amanda is a little girl. She is asked to do or not to do this and that. She is nagged at by her parents. So Amanda yearns for freedom. She wants to lead a life without any restrictions.
7. Don’t eat that chocolate, Amanda! Remember your acne, Amanda! Why is Amanda asked not to eat chocolate?
Amanda already suffers from acne, a skin disease. If she eats chocolate it will aggravate her problem further. That is why she is asked not to eat chocolate.
8. ‘The silence is golden, the freedom is sweet’ Why does Amanda say so?
Amanda says that ‘the silence is golden, the freedom is sweet’ because she wants to lead a life without any restrictions. She likes silence because she wants to roam freely and undisturbed in a calm green sea like a mermaid. Again, she likes freedom in life like an orphan to escape the nagging of her parents and have the liberty to roam freely on the streets.
9. ‘The silence is golden, the freedom is sweet’ Why does Amanda say so?
Amanda says that ‘the silence is golden, the freedom is sweet’ because she wants to lead a life without any restrictions. She likes silence because she wants to roam freely and undisturbed in a calm green sea like a mermaid. Again, she likes freedom in life like an orphan to escape the nagging of her parents and have the liberty to roam freely on the streets.