Chapter 1 I Sell My Dreams Class 12 Kaleidoscope English NCERT Summary
Chapter 1 I Sell My Dreams Class 12 Kaleidoscope English NCERT Summary allows them to focus on the concepts and important information, making it easier to remember and retain the key points. Class 12 English Summary provide a quick reference guide for revision purposes saving students time and effort in reviewing the entire chapter.
I Sell My Dreams Class 12 Kaleidoscope English helps students to grasp the main ideas and have a deeper understanding of the chapter.
Chapter 1 I Sell My Dreams Class 12 Kaleidoscope NCERT Notes
About the Story
In this short story, the author told how a woman named Frau Freda became a prophet and made contracts with wealthy families. She made a lot of money, travelled from Colombia to Vienna, and then died in a car accident caused by a storm or tornado in Havan.
About the Author
Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born in 1927 in Aracataca, Colombia. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. He was raised by his grandparents in Northern Columbia because his parents were poor and had trouble making ends meet. One Hundred Years in Solitude (1967, translated in 1970) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985, translated in 1988) are his two best works. His main ideas are violence, being alone, and how much people need love.
I Sell My Dreams NCERT Summary Class 12 Kaleidoscope English
The story starts at the Havana Riviera Hotel. The narrator and his friends were having breakfast when a huge wave came up and swept up some cars right in front of them. The rubble went everywhere, including one car that crashed into the wall of a hotel. The accident shook everyone and made those who saw it very scared. Even the tourists staying in the hotel were thrown across the hallway with the furniture. Soon, the fire department got there and began cleaning up the wreckage and waste.
After a six-hour course, he sees a crane lift a woman’s body and the car where she was tied with a seatbelt. Her body was badly broken, but the author was drawn to the gold ring she wore on her middle finger because it was shaped like a snake. Her identity was revealed as the housekeeper to the Portuguese Ambassador. The author instantly thought back to a time thirty-four years ago when that scene happened. In that year, he met that woman in Vienna, Austria.
The author remembers her visits to a tavern where she used to give American students drinks and lunch or dinner for free. The author herself was an American student at the time. The storyteller was taken in by her charm, her perfect dress, and that beautiful piece of jewellery. She was from Colombia, but when the war broke out, she moved to Austria. She knew a little bit of Spanish and liked music. The narrator was amazed by her. Since she never told them her real name, the students called her Frau Frieda.
During her frequent visits to tavern, the author could know that she was from Columbia and used to sell her dreams. Her father ran a store, and she was one of eleven children. Her family had a tradition of telling dreams before breakfast, which she believed in with all her heart. She thought she was an expert of dreams and could see into the future. At age seven, she told her 5-year-old brother that he would die. She thought that he should give up sweets because of this dream. Her mother believed her and tried to stop him from eating candy, but he ate some caramel and died anyway.
Frau Frieda was a psychic, and she used that skill to make a living. She was hired by a woman in Vienna, who gave her money, a place to live, and enough food to eat every day. Every morning at breakfast, her foster family asked her about her plans. So, as a reward for her prophecy, she got a piece of a family’s property registered in her name.
One day, Frieda went to the tavern and met with the narrator. She told him in a whisper that she had dreamed about him the night before. She told him to leave Vienna as soon as possible. The narrator was so impressed with her skills that she left for Rome that night. Since then, he had not been back to Vienna.
In Barcelona, the narrator saw Freida again. She had walked there with the artist Pablo Neruda. The poet bought a book for a price at more than author’s two months’ salary as consulor in Rangoon. The poet ate a lot of crabs, clams, mussels, prawns, and cucumbers. The woman was old and fat at the time. She told the author that she had sold her homes in Austria and moved to Oporto, Portugal (Spain) to live out her days. She built a building that looked like a fort and started living there with ease and comfort.
She told the narrator that he could go back to Vienna now if he desired. Neruda and the narrator both left her to sleep and rest. Neruda had been dreaming for less than 10 minutes when he woke up and told everyone that he had seen Frieda, the woman who dreams, in his dream. He also said that she was thinking about him in her sleep. His wife got worried and asked the narrator to tell Freida what had happened. Now that it was time to go, the storyteller went to see Frieda to say goodbye. She had something special for him. She also said that she had slept before coming and dreamed about Neruda. The narrator was shocked by her statement and did not believe her when she said that she had seen Neruda dreaming about her.
They went in distinct paths and didn’t see each other again until the day of the accident. The ring on the dead woman’s finger brought back thoughts of Frieda to the narrator. He had to ask about her with the Portuguese Ambassador, her last employer. So, he met him at a diplomatic event and told him about her. The representative was amazed by her abilities and skills. “What did she do for you?” asked the storyteller as a final question. He knew what the answer would be because Freida had told him herself: “She dreamed.”