Welcome to “Why I Like The Hospital Workbook Solution: ISC Rhapsody & Prism,” where we delve into the captivating narrative presented in ISC English Literature’s Rhapsody & Prism. Within these pages, we unravel the essence of “Why I Like The Hospital” through meticulous workbook solutions. This post offers comprehensive answers to multiple-choice and contextual questions, enriching your understanding of this thought-provoking tale. Meet the characters of “Why I Like The Hospital” and explore the intricacies of their development and thematic exploration. Each question serves as a doorway to dissecting the text, encouraging readers to analyze subtle nuances and extract deeper meanings. Contextual inquiries broaden our exploration, fostering critical engagement with socio-cultural backdrops and universal themes. Through this examination, readers refine analytical skills and cultivate a profound appreciation for literary craftsmanship. Whether you’re a student navigating ISC English Literature or an enthusiast unraveling cherished narratives, “ISC Rhapsody & Prism: Why I Like The Hospital Workbook Solutions” promises invaluable guidance. Join us on this literary journey as we illuminate the path to understanding, one workbook solution at a time.
Table of Contents
Poem Summary :
Poem in Detail
Stanza 1
The poem begins with the confession of the speaker that it is all right to be in bad mood in a hospital. When he parks his car in an underground garage, in a hospital, he feels that he has been singled out unfairly, plucked from his healthy life and thrown into a place which appears to him like a prison. But when he silently enters an elevator and sees ‘other customers’ i.e., other patients like him, he realises that he is not the only one there. By calling the patients customers, the speaker satirises the present-day medical system in which the patients are just seen as ‘customers’ to make money.
Stanza 2
The speaker says that he likes the hospital for the manner it arouses pathos, i.e., a feeling of pity and sadness on seeing the patients especially in a cancer ward. It is quite disturbing to see a mother, suffering from cancer contemplating how to tell her children about her condition. Then there is a girl, who must have undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer, has lost her hair and has become bald. She is looking at her missing breast after mastectomy and the shunt that has been installed there. Further, he sees an old woman wearing pajamas and walking with an intravenous pole from which fluids are being administered to her. Perhaps she is being taken to a laboratory for a test.
Stanza 3
The speaker then goes on to describe what he does not like in a hospital. He particularly dislikes the smell of antiseptic that is used generously for preventing infections and the air-conditioner that is set on high throughout the night. He also dislikes the way fresh flowers, perhaps brought for the patients by their friends and relatives, are thrown away carelessly into the dustbins.
Stanza 4
The speaker moves ahead and likes the way people are sitting on plastic chairs waiting for their turn to see a doctor or get a test done. While waiting for their turn, some of the patients utilise the time they have to contemplate the choices they made and in doing so how many times they faltered and made a fool of themselves and how many times they acted wisely.
Stanza 5
The speaker has compared the long corridors and the hallways outside the examination rooms with the meadows, where each person is forced to have a close interaction with oneself, i.e., to know oneself. Here each sick person stands in the middle and wonders what happened to others.
Stanza 6
Then the speaker goes on to describe a man who was sitting in a chair with his head bent low. He was neither shouting at the doctors nor pretending that he was a strong man. He was not making phone calls to his wife.
Stanza 7
But he was crying without any shame for doing so. It seems that through his tears he was pumping out all his grief, his helplessness and his anger, as he had no hope left to pull through his illness.
Stanza 8
In the final lines, the speaker says if you had carefully looked at that man you would have noticed he was holding his own hand in sympathy, listening to every word that he was being told by the doctors and then he was telling himself everything. This suggests that the man knew that his illness was serious and he did no expect to be saved. He had to suffer and die alone.
Workbook MCQs :
1. Because it is all right to be in a bad mood there’. To which place is the speaker referring to by ‘there’?
(a) Garage
(b) Hospital
(c) Elevator
(d) Prison
Answer :- (b) Hospital
2. Who are the ‘other customers’ referred to by the speaker?
(a) Other patients
(b) Those parking their cars
(c) The speaker’s clients
(d) The families of patients
Answer :- (a) Other patients
3. Why was the speaker ‘slouching along’ in the garage?
(a) He was feeling sleepy
(b) He was under the spell of sleeping pills
(c) He was sick
(d) None of the above
Answer :- (c) He was sick
4. Which figure of speech is used in the phrase like a prison wall?
(a) Metaphor
(b) Metonymy
(c) Allusion
(d) Simile
Answer :- (d) Simile
5. The speaker is referring to the closed beige doors’ of which of the following?
(a) Hospital
(b) Prison
(c) Garage
(d) None of the above
Answer :- (a) Hospital
6. The use of word ‘customers’ in the first stanza of the poem is suggestive of which of the following?
(a) A satire on people lacking courage to admit their disease
(b) A satire on the loneliness suffered by patients
(c) A satire on the present day healthcare institutions
(d) All of the above.
Answer :- (c) A satire on the present day healthcare institutions
7. What sort of feelings are aroused in the speaker on seeing the patients in the cancer ward?
(a) Pity and sadness
(b) Pity and annoyance
(c) Frustration and anger
(d) All of the above
Answer :- (a) Pity and sadness
8. Why was the girl with a ‘shunt’ described as bald?
(a) Due to an injury on her head
(b) Due to chemotherapy
(c) Due to an infection on her scalp
(d) None of the above
Answer :- (b) Due to chemotherapy
9. Who is referred to as a ‘crone’, walking with an IV pole?
(a) An old man
(b) A man suffering from a fatal disease
(c) An old woman
(d) None of the above
Answer :- (c) An old woman
10. Which of the following is NOT true about the speaker?
(a) He does not like the smell of antiseptic
(b) He does not like to visit a hospital
(c) He does not like the air-conditioner set on high throughout the night
(d) None of the above
Answer :- (b) He does not like to visit a hospital
11. Which of the following imagery is used in the line- I don’t like the smell of antiseptic’?
(a) Visual imagery
(b) Auditory imagery
(c) Tactile imagery
(d) Olfactory imagery
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
12. What is referred to as the ‘complex scoring system’ invented by the patients in a hospital?
(a) To count the number of times when they acted foolishly and when they acted wisely.
(b) To count the days in a year spent in a hospital
(c) To count the number of days they are going to live
(d) To count the number of days they visited a hospital
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
13. What does the visit to a hospital allow the patients to do?
(a) To live and act in a crowd
(b) To be with themselves
(c) To be surrounded by patients
(d) None of the above
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
14. Which figure of speech is used in the line-‘each sick person standing in the middle of a field,’ like a tree…?
(a) Metaphor
(b) Simile
(c) Personification
(d) Synecdoche
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
15. What does the phrase ‘the long prairie of waiting’ suggest?
(a) The time spent in waiting for their turn to see a doctor
(b) The queue outside the examination room in the hospital
(c) The continuous wait of the patients for their near and dear ones
(d) None of the above.
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
16. Which of the following is NOT correct about the terminally ill patient wearing a lime-green gown?
(a) He was pretending to be strong
(b) He was not shouting at the doctor
(c) He was crying inconsolably
(d) He was hunched over in a chair
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
17. What was the man trying to do by sobbing without any shame?
(a) To show his mental health
(b) To show his grief
(c) To pour his heart out to show his helplessness and anger
(d) All of the above.
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
18. Which figure of speech is used in the following line?
‘…. he was holding his own hand in sympathy.’
(a) Metaphor
(b) Alliteration
(c) Simile
(d) Metonymy
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
19. What does the speaker want to convey by saying that the patient was ‘holding his own hand in sympathy’?
(a) The patient was all alone, with nobody to take care of him.
(b) The patient was full of grief
(c) The patient was trying to help himself
(d) None of the above
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
20. The poem Why I Like the Hospital is a satire on which of the following?
(a) The lack of respect for terminally ill patients
(b) The treatment given to the patients in a hospital
(c) The lack of empathy in people for the patients
(d) The lack of desire to live in the patients
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
21. The words ‘but if you looked, you could see’ are addressed by the speaker to whom?
(a) The terminally ill patients
(b) The doctors
(c) The relatives of the patients
(d) The readers
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
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Complete The Sentences :
1. The speaker feels that it is all right to be in a bad mood in the hospital because everybody has the same feelings of pathos and there is nobody to judge others.
2. The speaker was slouching along in the garage because he was sick and therefore, could not walk straight.
3. When the speaker enters the lift he feels there were other customers also because he was not the only one suffering from disease and there were many others like him.
4. The speaker in the poem, Why I Like the Hospital, calls the other patients in the lift as customers because like him they are the victims of the present day healthcare system in the hospital that regards patients as customers for making profits.
5. The speaker in the poem likes to visit the hospital because it makes him feel that he is not alone seeing other patients suffering from fatal diseases going through the same emotions.
6. The mother in the hospital was in a dilemma because [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
7. The girl looking downward at her shunt was bald because[ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
8. The speaker in the poem does not like the fresh flowers thrown away in the dustbins because [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
9. The speaker in the poem likes the way patients in the hospital are writing their score in a notebook because [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
10. The speaker in the poem says that the hospital induces ‘forced intimacy of the self with the self because [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
11. The terminally ill patient in the hospital sobs without shame because [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
12. The terminally ill patient was holding his own hand in sympathy because [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
Short Question Answers :
1. Why was the speaker in the poem, “Why I Like the Hospital,” in a bad mood when he entered the hospital? What happened when he entered the lift?
Answer :- The speaker in Tony Hoagland’s poem “Why I Like the Hospital” was in a bad mood upon entering the hospital, feeling overwhelmed by the trivial and mundane frustrations of everyday life. These emotions often include irritations and grievances that accumulate over time, creating a sense of inner turmoil and dissatisfaction. However, upon entering the hospital and stepping into the lift, the speaker experiences a sudden and profound shift in perspective. The hospital environment, with its immediate presence of human suffering and vulnerability, forces the speaker to confront the reality of serious illness and mortality. This confrontation with the gravity of life’s fragility compels the speaker to shed his previous bad mood and adopt a more reflective and empathetic mindset. The stark contrast between the speaker’s initial state of annoyance and the solemn atmosphere of the hospital highlights the transformative power of facing real-life struggles and the humbling effect it has on trivial concerns.
2. How does the speaker feel when he sees the ‘closed beige doors’ in the hospital? Why?
Answer :- When the speaker sees the “closed beige doors” in the hospital, he is struck by a profound sense of curiosity and empathy. The closed doors symbolize the hidden struggles and private battles of the patients inside, sparking in the speaker a desire to understand and connect with these unseen lives. The beige color, often associated with blandness or neutrality, emphasizes the stark, unremarkable exterior that conceals the intense human experiences within. The speaker feels a mix of sorrow and fascination, imagining the various forms of suffering and hope that lie behind each door. This imagery evokes a deep emotional response, as the speaker is reminded of the universal vulnerability of all human beings. The sight of the closed doors serves as a powerful metaphor for the isolation and separation experienced by patients, reinforcing the theme of compassion and the importance of acknowledging and empathizing with the suffering of others.
3. Which scenes of human suffering arouse pathos in the speaker?
Answer :- The speaker in “Why I Like the Hospital” by Tony Hoagland is deeply moved by several scenes of human suffering that evoke a strong sense of pathos. He is particularly affected by the sight of patients dealing with terminal illnesses and chronic pain, as well as the visible struggles of people coping with severe health conditions. The image of patients confined to hospital beds, enduring physical discomfort and emotional distress, elicits a profound empathy from the speaker. Additionally, the sight of family members and loved ones attending to the patients, often with a mix of hope, sorrow, and helplessness, amplifies the emotional impact. These scenes of vulnerability and fragility highlight the universal human experience of suffering, evoking a deep sense of compassion in the speaker. The juxtaposition of his own trivial concerns with the serious challenges faced by the patients underscores the poignancy of their struggles and the importance of empathy and human connection in the face of suffering.
4. Why does the speaker like the people in the hospital who were taking down something in their notebooks? What does it show about the state of mind of the patients?
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
5. What does the speaker want to convey by ‘forced intimacy of the self with the self’?
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
6. In what state of mind was the terminally ill patient? How did he give vent to his feelings?
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
7. What does the terminally ill patient’s act of holding his own hand in sympathy reflect about the attitude of the people towards such patients? How does it affect the patients?
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
Long Question Answers :
1. How is the poem “Why I Like the Hospital” a satire on the present day healthcare system and the apathy of the people? Discuss
Answer :- “Why I Like the Hospital” by Tony Hoagland serves as a poignant satire on the contemporary healthcare system and societal apathy. The poem juxtaposes the speaker’s personal grievances with the harsh realities faced by patients in a hospital setting, highlighting the dissonance between the trivial complaints of everyday life and the profound suffering encountered within the healthcare system. Hoagland’s vivid descriptions of human suffering and the indifferent machinery of the hospital setting underscore a critique of the dehumanizing aspects of modern medical care, where the focus often shifts from compassionate treatment to clinical detachment and efficiency.
The poem’s depiction of the hospital as a place where individuals are reduced to mere cases and conditions reflects the impersonal nature of a system more concerned with managing symptoms than addressing the holistic needs of patients. The speaker’s initial bad mood, transformed by the encounter with the hospital’s harsh realities, serves as a metaphor for societal ignorance and the superficiality of everyday concerns compared to the depth of suffering within the healthcare environment.
Hoagland’s narrative suggests that the hospital, a symbol of care and healing, paradoxically becomes a place of forced isolation and introspection, where patients are left to grapple with their pain in solitude. This critique extends to societal attitudes, emphasizing the lack of empathy and meaningful support for those in distress. The poem challenges readers to confront their own complacency and to consider the human cost of a system that often prioritizes efficiency over genuine compassion and care.
2. Discuss the aptness of the title “Why I Like the Hospital” by Tony Hoagland?
Answer :- The title “Why I Like the Hospital” by Tony Hoagland is deeply ironic and thought-provoking, encapsulating the poem’s exploration of the paradoxical nature of the hospital environment. On the surface, the title suggests an unexpected fondness for a place commonly associated with pain, suffering, and illness. This contradiction immediately engages the reader, inviting them to delve deeper into the underlying reasons for the speaker’s purported affection for such a grim setting.
As the poem unfolds, it becomes clear that the speaker’s “liking” for the hospital is not rooted in joy or comfort, but rather in the stark clarity and forced self-reflection it provides. The hospital acts as a mirror, reflecting the vulnerabilities and shared humanity of its occupants. It strips away the superficial distractions of everyday life, compelling both patients and visitors to confront the raw reality of human suffering and mortality. This forced introspection leads to a profound, albeit uncomfortable, appreciation for the authenticity and immediacy of the human condition.
The title’s irony also serves to critique societal attitudes towards illness and healthcare, highlighting the contrast between the speaker’s superficial frustrations and the genuine suffering of those in the hospital. It underscores a theme of empathy and the necessity of confronting uncomfortable truths to gain a deeper understanding of life’s fragility. Thus, the title “Why I Like the Hospital” is apt as it encapsulates the poem’s exploration of the complex emotions and reflections elicited by the hospital setting, challenging readers to reassess their own perceptions of suffering and compassion.
3. Describe the scenes of human suffering as depicted in the poem, “Why I Like the Hospital”? What feelings does it arouse in the speaker?
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
4. Discuss the things which the speaker likes and dislikes about the hospital. Do you agree with his choices? Give reasons to support your answer.
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
5. “Why I Like the Hospital” is a poem of despair and hopelessness. Do you agree? Give reasons.
Answer :- [ For Full Answers Get The Workbook Answers PDF – View ]
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