Question

Referring closely to the short story, The Lumber Room, discuss how young Nicholas outwits his aunt and thus evades her attempts to confine him in a dry, boring, and unimaginative existence.

Answer 1

The Lumber-Room’ is a classic short story about a child who is too clever for the adults. Specifically, it is about how one clever but mischievous boy, Nicholas, seeks to outwit his aunt so he can gain access to the lumber-room with its hidden treasures and curiosities. But the story might also be viewed as an analysis of the nature of obedience, and the limited adult view of the world, when contrasted with the child’s more expansive and imaginative outlook.

The older, wiser, and better people have been proved to be profoundly in error in matters about which they had expressed the utmost assurance. It is this profound truth which Said wants to bring to light from a child's point of view. Nicholos was in disgrace, on one morning as he had refused to drink milk. He said that there was a frog in it, and indeed there it was, as he had himself put it. The other children were taken on a trip to the sands at Jagborough, but Nicholos was not permitted to go with them, as a form of punishment. His aunt, a self appointed guardian of the children strictly forbade hint to go to the Gooseberry garden, knowing very well that he would go there ! He pretended to do so, as be knew his aunt would be watching, but actually took the keys to the lumber room. This was u forbidden place for children. The moment the boy opened the door, he was in an unknown land, compared with which the Gooseberry garden was a stale delight, a mere material pleasure.
It was a storehouse of unimagined treasures. He just couldn't understand why people think that things spoil by use and consign them to dust and damp by way of preserving them. The house as such was rather bare and cheerless, but here there were wonderful things. There was a piece of framed tapestry. To Nicholas it was a living, breathing story glowing in wonderful colours. A man, dressed in the hunting costume of some remote period, had just transfixed a stag with an arrow.
There was vegetation and spotted dogs, but did the huntsman see what Nicholas saw that four galloping wolves were coming in his direction through the wood? That was the imagination of a young boy.
There were other objects of delight and interest. There were quaint twisted candlesticks in the shape of snakes, and a teapot fashioned like a china duck with its beak acting as the spout. There was a carved sandalwood box packed tight with aromatic cottonwool, and between the layers of cotton wool were little brass figures. hump-necked bulls, peacocks and goblins. There was a large square book with plain black covers; it was full of,coloured pictures of birds. And such birds! There were herons; bustards, kites, toucans, tiger-bitterns, brush turkeys, ibises, golden pheasants, a whole featherd creature that he had never seen.
"Nicholas, Nicholasl", the aunt screamed which turned into a shriek for help. Nicholas slowly shut the book, restored it carefully, crept from the room, locked the door, and replaced the key exactly where he had found it. His aunt was still calling his name to fetch the ladder as she had slipped into the rain water tank."I was told I wasn't allowed to go into the Gooseberry garden", said Nicholas, to torment her. It was a sweet revenge as he replied that she didn't sound like his aunt; she might be an evil spirit who had come to tempt him. He wouldn't succumb to weakness. Nicholas innocently asked, "Will there be strawberry jam for tea?, "Certainly there will be", said the aunt. "Now I know that you are the Evil One and not aunt," shouted Nicholas gleefully; When he had asked aunt for strawberry jam the previous day she said there wasn't any. There was the boy exulted in talking to the aunt as though he was talking to the Evil One. It was sweet, rebelling against domination. He walked noisily away, and it was a kitchenmaid, who eventually rescued the aunt from the rain-water tank.
There was silence during tea, as the children were disappointed with the trip as the tide was high and they couldn't play in the sand. Aunt sat in "frozen muteness". Nicholas was silent imagining at the huntsman on the tapestry escaping with his dog while the wolves devoured the deer.
Saki effortlessly takes us into the mind of a young boy who is rebellious against authority. Boys at that age relish a sense of mystery, curiosity and imagination. This is what Nicholas experiences in the lumber room.