Birth
By A . J. Cronin
Short Answer Type questions
Question 1. Why was Joe Morgan waiting for Andrew?
Answer: Joe Morgan and his wife had been married nearly twenty years and were expecting
their first child. At nearly midnight, Joe was worried and walked up and down, waiting for
Andrew to reach Bryngower.
Question 2. “Andrew now felt dull and listless.” Give two reasons.
Answer: On Joe Morgan’s call, Andrew, along with Joe, set out for Joe’s house. The night air
was cool and deep with quiet mystery but Andrew felt dull and listless because it was past
midnight and he was reflecting about his own relationship with Christine, the girl he loved.
Question 3. What did Andrew notice as he entered Joe’s house?
Answer: As Andrew entered the door of Number 12, he saw a narrow stair which led up to a
small bedroom, clean but poorly furnished, and lit only by an oil lamp. Here, Mrs Morgan’s
mother, a tall, grey-haired woman of nearly seventy, and a stout, elderly midwife waited
beside the patient.
Question 4. What was the old woman’s fear? How did Andrew reassure her?
Answer: When the old woman returned with a cup of tea, Andrew smiled faintly. He noticed
the old woman, her wisdom in experience, and realized that there had been a period of
waiting. She was afraid he would leave the case, saying he would return later. But he
assured her that he would not run away.
Question 5. What were the only sounds that Andrew heard in the thick of the night?
Answer: As Andrew sat by the kitchen fire, he noticed that it was a still night. The only sound
that he could hear was the crackle of embers in the fireplace, the slow tick-tock of the wall
clock and Morgan’s footsteps as he moved to and fro in the street outside.
Question 6. What was weighing on Andrew’s mind as he waited with the patient?
Answer: Andrew’s thoughts were heavy and muddled. The episode he had witnessed at
Cardiff station still gripped him and made him gloomy. He thought of Bramwell, foolishly
loyal to a woman who deceived him. He thought of Edward Page, tied to the shrewish
Blodwen and of Denny, living unhappily, apart from his wife.
Question 7. Why does the writer say that the old woman’s ‘meditation had pursued a
different course’?
Answer: While Andrew was thinking about the futility of marriage and relationships, the old
woman was thinking about her daughter. She was concerned about both the mother and
the child. She said that her daughter,Susan, did not want chloroform if it would harm the
baby. She really looked forward to having the child.
Question 8. What dilemma was Andrew caught in? How did he resolve it?
Answer: After an hour-long struggle, the child was bom lifeless and the mother was in a
critical state. Andrew was tom between his desire to attempt to save the child, and his
obligation towards the mother. He overcame the dilemma, instinctively; he gave the child to
the nurse and turned his attention to Susan Morgan.
Question 9. How did he revive the mother?
Answer: To revive Susan Morgan, who lay collapsed and almost pulse-less, Andrew smashed
a glass ampule, instantly, and injected the medicine. Then he flung down the hypodermic
syringe and worked, ceaselessly, to revive the almost lifeless woman. After a few minutes of
intense effort, her heart strengthened and she was safe.
Question 10. What did Andrew think was wrong with the child? What did he do?
Answer: Andrew saw the child was a perfectly formed boy. The head lolled on a thin neck
and the limbs seemed boneless. He knew that the whiteness meant asphyxia pallida. He
thought of the treatment, he remembered being used at the Samaritan. He applied the
same to the stillborn child.
Question 11. What was the treatment given to the child?
Answer: Andrew hurried the child from one basin, filled with cold water to the one with
warm water. He continued his efforts for half an hour, to no avail. Lastly, he rubbed the
child with a rough towel, crushing and releasing the little chest with both his hands, till the
child finally gave a cry.