English Class 12 Important Question Chapter 8 Going

Places

Q1. Where was it most likely that the two girls would find work after school?

Ans. Both the girls, Sophie and Jansie, were earmarked for the biscuit factory. Sophie had a
vivid imagination and had wild dreams about an exciting career. Jansie was a realist and was
more down to earth.

Q2. What were the options that Sophie was dreaming of ? Why does Jansie
discourage her from having such dreams?

Ans. Sophie, a day-dreamer, enjoyed fantasizing. She wanted to have a boutique someday.
She thought her shop would be the most amazing one the city had ever seen. When Jansie
discouraged her by saying that they don’t pay well for shop work, she thought she could
become an actress instead or even a fashion designer. The reality was that both the girls
had to join a biscuit factory after leaving school.

Q3. Why did Sophie wriggle when Geoff told her father that she had met Danny
Casey?

Ans. Sophie knew her father well and also knew that he would not believe it if Geoff told him
that she had met Danny Casey. She knew he would get angry. But more importantly, she
also knew that she was fantasizing about her meeting. There was no truth in it.

Q4. Does Geoff believe what Sophie says about her meeting with Danny Casey?

Ans. Geoff expressed disbelief when Sophie told him that she had met Danny Casey. He
just looked around abruptly and asked her casually, where she had met him. When she said
she had met him in the arcade, he said it was not true and repeated ‘I don’t believe it’. He
went on to ask her what he looked like and didn’t seem to be convinced by her answer.

Q5. Does her father believe her story?

Ans. Sophie’s father does not believe her story. Even when Geoff declares that Sophie had
met Danny, he made an expression of disdain and turned the topic of conversation on
someone who had known Tom Finney, another great football player.

Q6. How does Sophie include her brother Geoff in the fantasy of her future?

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Ans. Geoff had always been the first one with whom she shared the fantasy of her future.
She told him about her meeting with Danny. She also shared her plan of meeting him the
next week. She longed to know more about Geoff and wished that someday he might take
her with him. She imagined herself riding behind Geoff one day.

Q7. Why didn’t Sophie want Jansie to know about her story with Danny?

Ans. Though Jansie and Sophie were the closest of friends, Sophie did not want to share
her story about Danny because she did not want her secret to being spread in the whole
neighbourhood. She did not trust ‘gawky Jansie’ with someone like that. For her, it was ‘a
Geoff thing, not a Jansie thing’.

Q8. Did Sophie really meet Danny Casey?

Ans. No, Sophie did not actually meet Danny Casey. Although, she did go and sit on a
wooden bench near the canal, yet in her heart, she knew that she was only imagining things.
She imagined him coming, and then imagined her own consequent excitement at his arrival.

Q9. Which was the only occasion when she got to see Danny Casey in person?

Ans. The only occasion when Sophie got to see Danny Casey in person was when she had
gone with her Dad and her brother to watch the soccer match in which Danny was playing.
Apart from that, she had never met him in reality.

Q10. Who are the two girls? What do they talk while coming home from the school?

Ans. The two girls are Sophie and Jansie. They are very good friends. While coming home
from school, they were talking about their future plants. Sophie was keen to work as a
manager, Jansie was more realistic and sensible of the two and reminded Sophie that they
both had already been appointed to work in a biscuit factory.

Q11. Why does Jansie discourage Sophie about her dream?

Ans. Jansie was more down to earth and realistic than Sophie, the dreamer. She
discouraged Sophie about her dream about becoming a boutique owner, by reminding her
that the fantasies that Sophie had taken a lot of money and Sophie did not have that kind of
money to invest. Even her father would not allow her to work in a shop as a manager.

Q12. What should be the priority of Sophie when she earns money?

Ans. Sophie’s first priority when she would earn money was to buy a boutique, but friend
Jansie said Sophie’s that her father seemed to have different plans for her. He expected that
Sophie would buy them a decent house to live in.

Q13. Who is Geoff? What does he do?

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Ans. Geoff is Sophie’s elder brother. He is working as an apprentice mechanic, travelling to
his work each day to the far side of the city. He is quiet and reserved by nature and does not
talk much.

Q14. What is the difference between Geoff and Sophie?

Ans. Both Geoff and Sophie had entirely different natures and temperaments. Geoff was
quiet, reserved and almost an introvert. It was always difficult to make him talk. He didn’t
make friends as easily as Sophie did. She was more outgoing, friendly, even impatient. She
was much of a dreamer and fantasized a lot about being at unusual places and meeting
people.

Q15. Who is Danny Casey? What does Sophie feel about him?

Ans. Danny Casey is an Irish football player. He was an upcoming player and even Sophie’s
father admitted that if he kept his head on his shoulders and if they looked after him properly
he would go a long way. Sophie was infatuated with him and kept imagining having met him
a few times.

Q16. What does Sophie’s father think about Danny Casey?

Ans. Sophie’s father is fond of the game of football. He has heard and knows about Danny
Casey, an upcoming Irish footballer. He feels that Danny has a lot of potentials. If he is
looked after well and if he keeps his head on his shoulders, he would go a long way.
Moreover, he was playing for the best team in the country.

Q17. What happened on one Saturday?

Ans. On one Saturday, Sophie’s family made their weekly pilgrimage to watch United.
Sophie’s father always felt that Danny was a good player with great potential. Danny’s
impressive play made Sophie glow with pride. Later, she was confronted by her friend Jansie
who wanted to know about her meeting with Danny. Sophie was reluctant to tell her because
she knew Jansie would spread the news everywhere.

Q18. Why did Sophie like her brother Geoff more than any other person? From her
perspective what did he symbolize?

Ans. Sophie liked her brother Geoff the most as she related to him comfortably. He was tall,
handsome and dark. He lived in a world of his own. He was the only one Sophie could share
her secrets with. To her, Geoff symbolized a world she often dreamt of and wanted to escape
to.

Q19. What socio-economic background did Sophie belong to? What are the indicators
of her family’s financial stress?

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Ans. Sophie came from a middle-class humble family. Her father had to work really hard to
bring up the family and could not afford a decent house for them. Her brother Geoff also
worked as a mechanic immediately after leaving school. Even Sophie was earmarked to
work in a biscuit factory after she would leave school.

Q20. Describe Sophie’s father.

Ans. Sophie’s father had a plumpy face looking grimy and sweaty. He is a realist who did not
believe his daughter’s stories. He loves watching football and goes after the match to be a
pub to celebrate the victory. He does not understand Sophie and her dreams.

Q21. Did Geoff keep his promise to Sophie?

Ans. Geoff did not keep his promise to Sophie. Geoff told Frank about Sophie’s meeting with
Danny Casey at the Royce’s. However, Geoff did not reveal the supposed date of Sophie
with Danny Casey.

Q22. Why is Sophie jealous of Geoff’s silence?

Ans. Geoff is almost grown up now. He spoke little. Words had to be extracted out of him
like stones out of the ground. She was jealous of him as she believed that when he wasn’t
speaking, it was because he was away in a world and places that she had never been. The
places attained a special fascination for Sophie because they were unknown to her and out
of her reach.

Q23. Why did Sophie choose to walk by the canal? What did she do there?

Ans. Sophie walked by the canal along a sheltered path lighted by lamps from the whorl. It
was far away from the noise and crowd of the city. It was a place where she had often played
when she was a child. There was a wooden bench beneath a solitary elm where lovers
sometimes come. It was a perfect place for her to meet Danny Casey.

Q24. What was Sophie’s ambition in life? How did she hope to achieve that? [Delhi
2017]

Ans. Sophie’s ambition in life was to become rich and important. She wanted to take up
some sophisticated professions, like that of an actress or a fashion designer.

Q25. Why did Jansie discourage Sophie from having dreams? [All India 2017]

Ans. Sophie was a girl of unrealistic dreams. On her way home, she told her classmate
Jansie that she would open a boutique. She would be like Mary Quant and will be having the
most amazing shop this city had ever seen. She had another option of becoming an actress
along with her boutique. She also thought of becoming a fashion designer. But Jansie asked

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Sophie to be sensible Jansie discouraged her because she knew that both were earmarked
for the biscuit factory as both belonged to lower-middle-class families of low financial
standing.

26. Which was the only occasion when Sophie got to see Danny Casey in person?

Ans. When Danny Casey was playing with the United team in the stadium, Sophie saw him
for the first time. She was one of the spectators.

27. Why did Sophie not want Jansie to know anything about her meeting with Danny
Casey?

Ans. Sophie did not want Jansie to know anything about her meeting with Danny Casey.
She did not trust her for keeping secrets as Jansie was fond of gossiping. Sophie feared that
she might gossip about her meeting with Danny Casey. This might enrage her father.

28. Why was Sophie jealous of Geoff’s silence?

Ans. For Sophie, Geoff’s silence symbolised freedom. Geoff used to work as a mechanic.
He used to ride his motorcycle and visited places where she had never been to. Sophie
believed that he moved into a different exotic world which was far away from home and their
reality. She was jealous of his silence which does not reveal that world to her.

29. Did Sophie really meet Danny Casey? Why was she always talking about him?

Ans. No, Sophie did not meet Danny Casey in reality. She was a dreamer. She had
developed a liking for Danny Casey and in her world of fantasy, she had imagined herself
meeting him. It was just an effect of teenage fantasy and hero-worship that she started
hallucinating about football star Danny Casey.

30. Did Geoff keep up his promise? How do you know?

Ans. Sophie had shared her secret of meeting Danny Carey with her brother Geoff. But her
brother Geoff didn’t keep his promise not to share it with anyone. He told this to Frank who
was his friend and Jane’s brother. When Jansie came to ask Sophie about Danny Casey, it
became evident that Geoff has told that secret to her brother.

31. Why did Sophie long for her brother’s affection?

Ans. Sophie liked her brother Geoff more than any other person. She used to confide in him
all her secrets. She was very curious to know about his world. She longed for her brother’s
affection so that he would take her into his exotic world which was far away from their own
real world.

32. Why did Jansie discourage Sophie from living in a world of fantasy?

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Ans. Jansie was a realistic and practical girl. She knew very well about her socio-economic
background and accepted it. Being a good friend of Sophie, she often reminded her of the
reality of their lives. She knew that Sophie lived in the world of her fantasy. But she always
used to discourage her from living in that world because she knew that it would be
heartbreaking for Sophie.

33. What is unrealistic about Sophie’s dreams of her future life?

Ans. Sophie belonged to a poor family. Her parents were managing the basic necessities of
life with great difficulty. But Sophie had high dreams. She had plans to set up her own
boutique. She would like to be a manager or an actress. But she was not ready to accept the
reality that she could not get any work except that in a biscuit factory.

34. Why, according to Sophie, couldn’t she take the autograph of Danny Casey when
she met him?

Ans. According to Sophie, she couldn’t take the autograph of Danny Casey when she met
him because neither she nor Danny Casey had a pen.

35. Why did Sophie choose Royce’s Arcade to meet Danny Casey for a date?

Ans. Sophie selected Royces’ Arcade to meet Danny Casey for a date because it was a
lonely place. It was a beautiful garden with low lights and a perfect place for a romantic date.
Sophie knew the place very well as she used to go there as a child.

36. How did the evening “blackened the window of Sophie’s mood too”?

Ans. Sophie was a daydreamer who had carried her fantasy too far. She had imagined her
meeting with football star Danny Casey for a date. All this imagination gave her a lot of
pleasure. But she met with the reality when Danny Casey didn’t come to meet her at the
arcade, she felt pain. This made her sad and despondent and blackened her mood like the
black sky.

37. How is the title ‘Going Places’ most appropriate?

Ans. In literary terms, going places refers to achieve success. The title ‘Going Places’ is
most appropriate as it very clearly describes the protagonist Sophie. She is deeply
enthusiastic about her successful life and fantasises all good and successful things for her.
In her imagination, she fantasises her to be an actor or a manager and then finally a
boutique owner. She also fantasises to have met the football star Danny Casey as her close
friend and going for a date with him. The title of the story clearly depicts the exotic journey of
Sophie into the dream world.

Long Questions

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Q1. The story ‘Going Places’ draws a beautiful contrast between fact and fiction.
Comment.

Ans. Barton’s story ‘Going Places’ takes us into the world of fantasy which offers an escape
from reality. Sophie’s character is a vivid portrayal and beautifully brings out the contrast
between fact and fiction. In reality, this young girl belongs to a lower middle-class family that
is struggling for survival. In her dreams and fantasy, she becomes a part of a ‘glamorous
world’.

Sophie is basically a dreamer who finds an escape route in her fantasies. She dreams of
buying a boutique one day and shares the thought with her friend Jansie. Jansie is practical
and realistic. She tries to make her see reality but Sophie refuses to accept it and thinks that
it would be easy for her to earn a lot of money. She dreams of becoming a manager or an
actress or a fashion designer. In her dreams and fantasy world, Sophie dates Danny Casey,
an upcoming Irish football player. She tells her family about her imaginary meeting with
Danny making it seem so realistic and true. So much so, she even makes them believe that
she would be meeting him again.

In her dream world, she forgets her humble background, her small house; Sophie ‘goes
places’ only in her dreams that are far removed from reality. She is a symbol for all
adolescents who undertake a journey to the world of dreams.

Q2. Compare and contrast Sophie and Jansie highlighting their temperament and
aspirations.

Ans. Sophie and Jansie are good friends. They also study together in school. Both the girls
belong to very humble and not very ‘well-off families. Both aspire to become something in
life. They are earmarked for work in a biscuit factory as soon as they finish school. But both
the girls are in sharp contrast as far as their thoughts and temperament are concerned.
While Sophie dreams of big and beautiful things, Jansie has her feet firmly planted on the
ground. She advises Sophie to be sensible and not try to think beyond reality, but Sophie
does not listen. She wants to be a boutique owner, a fashion designer, an actress and a
manager, all in the same breath. She is a romantic dreamer who fantasizes about the young
Irish footballer Danny Casey.

Sophie in her dreams hero-worships Danny and describes her imaginary meeting with him
very vividly and looks forward to another meeting with him shortly. She shares her secret
with her brother Geoff, whom she is close with. Jansie is a sharp contrast. She is practical
and a realist. She has no far-fetched dreams and remains close to reality. In the end, it is
Sophie who gets a jolt but that does not make her wiser. She becomes a victim of her own
dreams and disappointments.

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3. What were Sophie’s plans for the future? Why would you call her dreams
unrealistic?

Ans. Sophie was a school girl who would pass out in a few months. She came from a
humble background but was untouched by the harsh realities of life. She was lost in her
world of fantasies. She planned to open a boutique after she passed out of school. She
thought she would work as a manager or an actress in order to earn money for the boutique.
She didn’t realise that she belonged to a family that didn’t have the sources to finance her
dreams. Her dreams had no ground of reality. With the kind of socio-economic background
that Sophie belonged to, it was completely unrealistic to have such dreams fulfilled.

4.”There was the sound of applause as the world rose to greet them.” What is the
world that Sophie is dreaming about? Why?

Ans. Sophie always dreamt of a life of sophistication and elegance. Her brother Geoff was
very close to her and she used to confide in him. Geoff used to speak less and Sophie
believed that he had his own world in which he was moving and which was far away. She
wanted to be part of that world. She imagined being introduced to that glorious world by her
brother as she believed her to be most suited for that. She believed that one day she would
accompany Geoff to the world which was waiting for her. Geoff in his black leather and she
in her elegant yellow dress would be welcomed by the people in that world with a standing
ovation and applause.

Sophie, as per her habit, is dreaming of a world of elegance and sophistication for which she
believed herself to be most suitable.

5. What made Sophie imagine her meeting with Danny Casey? What does it tell us
about her life and her relationship with her family?

Ans. Sophie is a young girl who lives in her world of imagination. Like adolescents, she
dreams of unbelievable and far-fetched things. Though she belongs to a lower middle-class
family, she fantasises a world of sophistication. She has seen Danny Casey playing and has
started hero-worshipping him. She not only imagines talking to him but also goes all the way
to have an imaginary date with him. In fact, it was her longing and dreaming to be part of an
exotic world. Her family knows very well about her imaginary world and always tries to draw
her away. Her father never believed in her stories and says, ‘One day you are going to talk
yourself into a load of trouble’. Even her younger brother Derek says She thinks money
grows on trees when Sophie is fantasising about opening a boutique. Her elder brother Geoff
also does not believe in her story about Danny Casey initially. This clearly shows that except
for her elder brother Geoff, Sophie doesn’t connect well with her family.

6. ‘I can see the future and now I will have to live with this burden’, says Sophie. What
is the burden being referred to? What light does it throw on Sophie’s life?

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Ans. Sophie lives in her world of imagination. She tells her brother that she met football star
Danny Cassey in the arcade outside Royce and would be going for a date with him. Her
father does not believe that she has met Danny Casey. Geoff though believes in her
meeting, warns her that Danny Casey is a popular star and has many girlfriends.

Sophie has probably meet Danny Cassey and exchanged a few words and asked for an
autograph. It is just the imagination that Sophie fantasises to have a date with Danny
Cassey. When Danny Dag does not show up for the date, Sophie faced a dilemma of having
to uphold the fact that she has really met Danny Casey. She is aware that nobody would
believe her. She is deeply sad at the realisation that her life was not going to change. Her life
of poverty would not change into the glamorous world of her dreams. This is a heavy burden
for her. She finds it very difficult to cope with her reality.

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