His First Flight by Liam O'Flaherty: Complete Q&A and Essay Analysis

Answer the following questions - His First Flight | Prose by Liam O'Flaherty

A. Answer the following questions in a sentence or two.

1. How was the young seagull’s first attempt to fly? (or) Why did the seagull fail to fly?

The young seagull’s first attempt to fly was a failure, because he was afraid to fly. He failed to muster up courage to fly. Instead of flapping his wings and flying away, he ran back to the little hole.

2. How did the parents support and encourage the young seagull’s brothers and sister?

The parents supported and encouraged the young seagull’s brothers and sister, by perfecting them in the art of flight, teaching them how to skim and surf the waves and how to dive for fish.

3. Give an instance that shows the pathetic condition of the young bird.

The young seagull failed to muster up courage to fly. So he had to stay in his nest. He had no food. He could not find anything but the dried pieces of eggshell to eat.

4. How did the bird try to reach its parents without having to fly?

The bird walked back and forth from one end of the ledge to the other. Without trying to fly and stepping daintily, he tried to find some means of reaching his parents. There was a deep wide crack between him and his parents.

5. Do you think that the young seagull’s parents were harsh to him? Why?

No. I don’t think that the parents were harsh to him. Here the young seagull’s parents trained him to fly. The mother seagull showed a piece of fish to the hungry young seagull. Maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish and began to fly.

6. What prompted the young seagull to fly finally?

The mother seagull showed a piece of fish to the hungry young seagull. But he couldn’t reach the food as it was out of reach. Maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish. Thus the parental care, its natural bird instinct to fly and its urge for survival prompted the young seagull to fly, finally.

7. What happened to the young seagull when it landed on the green sea?

The young seagull landed on the green sea and sank into it. His belly touched the water and he sank no farther. He was floating on it.

B. Answer each of the following questions in a paragraph of about 100-150 words.

1. Describe the struggles underwent by the young seagull to overcome its fear of flying.

Lesson: HIS FIRST FLIGHT
Author: Liam O’Flaherty
Theme: Parenting
Characters: The young seagull and its family
Outlook: The young seagull’s fear – hungry – mother seagull’s training – his first flight

The young seagull was alone on his ledge. Unlike his brothers and sister, he was afraid to fly. He failed to muster up courage to fly. His parents had come around calling to him shrilly, scolding him, threatening to let him starve on his ledge. He had no food. He could not find anything but the dried pieces of eggshell to eat. His parents wanted to teach him fly. So the mother seagull showed a piece of fish to the hungry young seagull. But he couldn’t reach the food as it was out of reach. Maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish. In order to grab it, he had no other choice other than to flap his wings and fly towards his meal. He landed on the green sea and sank into it. He was floating on the water. The young birds’ family was very happy and they offered him scraps of dog-fish for his first flight. Thus the parental care, his natural bird instinct to fly and his urge for survival prompted him to fly, finally.

2. Your parents sometimes behave like the young bird’s parents. They may seem cruel and unrelenting. Does it mean that they do not care for you? Explain your views about it with reference from the story.

• Parents are our first teachers. Guiding their ward/children at every stage is their primary responsibility. If they fail to do this, the children cannot attain perfection.
• It is said that children start learning and responding even when they are in the womb of the mother. A child which grows, without the guidance of the parents, lack in the art of speech, walking, holding things, eating and even doing their everyday basic activity. They even need toilet training.
• Some children can learn easily. But few hesitate or struggle while learning new things. To them, the parents have to be harsh for the betterment of their life as we see the young seagull in this lesson. As the old proverb says “bend the twig bend the tree”. They may seem cruel and unrelenting but it is for the good of their children. It is the duty of every parent to educate and teach their young ones the art of life.

ESSAY

Introduction

Liam O’Flaherty was a famous Irish novelist and short story writer. One of his great work is ‘His First Flight’. A story that proves the saying ‘To master any art, one should overcome fear.’

The young seagull

The young seagull was one among the four offsprings of the father and the mother seagulls. He was very timid. He was alone on the ledge. Unlike his two brothers and sister, he was afraid to fly. He failed to muster up courage to fly. Instead of flapping his wings and flying away, he ran back to the little hole.

The reaction of the parents

His parents had come around calling him shrilly, scolding him, threatening to let him starve on the ledge. He had no food. He could find nothing but the dried pieces of eggshell to eat. His parents wanted to teach him to fly.

The young one’s first flight

So the mother seagull showed a piece of fish to the hungry young seagull. But he couldn’t reach the food as it was out of reach. Maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish. In order to grab it, he had no choice other than to flap his wings and fly towards his meal.

Landing on the water

He landed on the green sea and sank into it. His belly touched the water and he sank no farther. He was floating on the water.

The reaction of the family

The young birds’ family was very happy. His mother swooped past him, his father flew over him, and his brothers and sister were flying around him, high and low out of joy. They offered him scraps of dog-fish for the success of his first flight. Thus, his natural bird instinct and his urge for survival prompted him to fly finally.

Conclusion

These are the struggles underwent by the young seagull to overcome its fear of flying.

Moral: Necessity is the mother of action.

His First Flight by Liam O'Flaherty: A Detailed Analysis and Prose

His First Flight

by Liam O’Flaherty

The young seagull was alone on his ledge. His two brothers and his sister had already flown away the day before. He had been afraid to fly with them. Somehow, when he had taken a little run forward to the brink of the ledge and attempted to flap his wings, he became afraid. The great expanse of sea stretched down beneath, and it was such a long way down – miles down. He felt certain that his wings would never support him; so he bent his head and ran away back to the little hole under the ledge where he slept at night.

Even when each of his brothers and his little sister, whose wings were far shorter than his own, ran to the brink, flapped their wings, and flew away, he failed to muster up courage to take that plunge which appeared to him so desperate. His father and mother had come around calling to him shrilly, scolding him, threatening to let him starve on his ledge, unless he flew away. But for the life of him, he could not move.

a. Why did the seagull fail to fly?

b. What did the parents do, when the young seagull failed to fly?

That was twenty-four hours ago. Since then, nobody had come near him. The day before, all day long, he had watched his parents flying about with his brothers and sister, perfecting them in the art of flight, teaching them how to skim the waves and how to dive for fish. He had, in fact, seen his older brother catch his first herring and devour it, standing on a rock, while his parents circled around raising a proud cackle. And all the morning, the whole family had walked about on the big plateau midway down the opposite cliff, laughing at his cowardice.

The sun was now ascending the sky, blazing warmly on his ledge that faced the south. He felt the heat because he had not eaten since the previous nightfall. Then, he had found a dried piece of mackerel’s tail at the far end of his ledge. Now, there was not a single scrap of food left. He had searched every inch, rooting among the rough, dirt-caked straw nest where he and his brothers and sister had been hatched. He even gnawed at the dried pieces of eggshell. It was like eating a part of himself.

c. What was the first catch of the young seagull’s older brother?

d. What did the young seagull manage to find in his search for food on the ledge?

He then trotted back and forth from one end of the ledge to the other, his long gray legs stepping daintily, trying to find some means of reaching his parents without having to fly. But on each side of him, the ledge ended in a sheer fall of precipice, with the sea beneath. And between him and his parents, there was a deep, wide crack.

Surely he could reach them without flying if he could only move northwards along the cliff face? But then, on what could he walk? There was no ledge, and he was not a fly. And above him, he could see nothing. The precipice was sheer, and the top of it was, perhaps, farther away than the sea beneath him.

He stepped slowly out to the brink of the ledge, and, standing on one leg with the other leg hidden under his wing, he closed one eye, then the other, and pretended to be falling asleep. Still, they took no notice of him. He saw his two brothers and his sister lying on the plateau dozing, with their heads sunk into their necks. His father was preening the feathers on his white back. Only his mother was looking at him.

She was standing on a little high hump on the plateau, her white breast thrust forward. Now and again, she tore at a piece of fish that lay at her feet, and then scraped each side of her beak on the rock. The sight of the food maddened him. How he loved to tear food that way, scraping his beak now and again to whet it! He uttered a low cackle. His mother cackled too, and looked at him.

e. What did the young bird do to seek the attention of his parents?

f. What made the young seagull go mad?

‘Ga, ga, ga,’ he cried, begging her to bring him over some food. ‘Gawl- ool-ah,’ she screamed back mockingly. But he kept calling plaintively, and after a minute or so, he uttered a joyful scream. His mother had picked up a piece of fish and was flying across to him with it. He leaned out eagerly, tapping the rock with his feet, trying to get nearer to her as she flew across. But when she was just opposite to him, abreast of the ledge, she halted, her legs hanging limp, her wings motionless, the piece of fish in her beak almost within reach of his beak.

He waited a moment in surprise, wondering why she did not come nearer, and then maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish. With a loud scream, he fell outwards and downwards into space. His mother had swooped upwards. As he passed beneath her, he heard the swish of her wings.

g. Why did the young bird utter a joyful scream?

h. Did the mother bird offer any food to the young bird?

Then a monstrous terror seized him and his heart stood still. He could hear nothing. But it only lasted a moment. The next moment, he felt his wings spread outwards. The wind rushed against his breast feathers, then under his stomach and against his wings. He could feel the tips of his wings cutting through the air.

He was not falling headlong now. He was soaring gradually, downwards and outwards. He was no longer afraid. He just felt a bit dizzy. Then, he flapped his wings once and he soared upwards.

He uttered a joyous scream and flapped them again. He soared higher. He raised his breast and banked against the wind. ‘Ga, ga, ga. Ga, ga, ga.’ ‘Gawlool-ah.’ His mother swooped past him, her wings making a loud noise. He answered her with another scream. Then, his father flew over him screaming. Then, he saw his two brothers and sister flying around him, soaring and diving.

Then, he completely forgot that he had not always been able to fly, and commenced to dive and soar, shrieking shrilly.

i. How did the bird feel when it started flying for the first time?

j. What did the young bird’s family do when he started flying?

He was near the sea now, flying straight over it, facing out over the ocean. He saw a vast green sea beneath him, with little ridges moving over it; he turned his beak sideways and crowed amusedly. His parents and his brothers and sister had landed on this green floor in front of him. They were beckoning to him, calling shrilly. He dropped his legs to stand on the green sea. His legs sank into it. He screamed with fright and attempted to rise again, flapping his wings. But he was tired and weak with hunger and he could not rise exhausted by the strange exercise. His feet sank into the green sea, and then his belly touched it and he sank no farther.

He was floating on it. And around him, his family was screaming, praising him, and their beaks were offering him scraps of dog-fish.

He had made his first flight.

About the author

Liam O'Flaherty (1896–1984) was an Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance. He was a founding member of the Communist Party of Ireland. A native Irish-speaker from the Gaeltacht, O'Flaherty wrote almost exclusively in English, except for a small number of short stories in the Irish language. He spent most of his time in travelling and lived comfortably and quietly outside the spotlight.

Tags : Prose by Liam O'Flaherty , 10th English: UNIT 1 : Prose: His First Flight Study Material, Lecturing Notes, Assignment, Reference, Wiki description explanation, brief detail10th English: UNIT 1 : Prose: His First Flight : His First Flight | Prose by Liam O'Flaherty