Summary of ‘A Letter to God’#
The story is about Lencho, a farmer who lives in the only house in a valley. His field of ripe corn promises a good harvest, but it needs rain. Lencho, who knows his fields well, looks to the north-east sky, hoping for a downpour or at least a shower.
When the rain finally begins, Lencho is very happy, comparing the large drops to new coins. However, the rain quickly turns into a severe hailstorm which completely destroys his crops and leaves the field covered in hailstones.
Despite this total loss, Lencho has immense faith in God. He decides to write a letter to God, explaining his situation and asking for a hundred pesos to replant his field and survive until the next harvest. He addresses the envelope ‘To God’ and mails it at the post office.
At the post office, a postman finds the letter and shows it to the postmaster. The postmaster, a friendly and pleasant man, is initially amused but then becomes serious, deeply impressed by Lencho’s unwavering faith. To keep this faith alive, the postmaster decides to answer the letter.
He collects money from his employees, contributes a part of his own salary, and asks friends for money as “an act of charity”. He manages to gather a little more than half of the hundred pesos Lencho requested. He puts the money in an envelope addressed to Lencho and signs the accompanying letter simply as ‘God’.
The following Sunday, Lencho comes to collect his letter. He receives the envelope with the money inside. Due to his confidence, he shows no surprise upon seeing the money. However, when he counts the money, he becomes angry because it is less than he asked for. He believes God could not have made a mistake.
Immediately, Lencho writes a second letter to God, asking for the remaining money. In this letter, he specifically asks God not to send the money through the mail, because he believes the post office employees are “a bunch of crooks” who have stolen the missing amount.
Answers to the Questions#
Here are answers to some of the questions provided in the excerpts:
From Oral Comprehension Check:
- What did Lencho hope for? Lencho hoped for a downpour or at least a shower for his field of ripe corn.
- Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like ‘new coins’? He said the raindrops were like ‘new coins’ because he believed they would bring a good harvest, which would translate into money for him. The big drops were like ten cent pieces and the little ones like fives.
- How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho’s fields? The rain suddenly changed into a heavy hailstorm. Lencho’s fields were ruined by the hailstones.
- What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped? When the hail stopped, Lencho felt it was like a total loss.
From Oral Comprehension Check:
- Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do? Lencho had faith in God. He wrote a letter to God asking for help in the form of a hundred pesos.
- Who read the letter? The postmaster read the letter.
- What did the postmaster do then? The postmaster decided to answer the letter to keep Lencho’s faith in God intact. He collected money from his employees, contributed from his salary, and sought donations from friends, managing to send Lencho a little more than half the requested amount, signing the letter as ‘God’.
From Oral Comprehension Check:
- Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it? No, Lencho was not surprised. The sources state he showed “not the slightest surprise on seeing the money; such was his confidence”.
- What made him angry? He became angry when he counted the money and found that it was less than the hundred pesos he had asked for from God.
From Thinking about the Text:
- Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the story tell you this?
Lencho has complete faith in God. Sentences that show this include:
- “But in the hearts of all who lived in that solitary house in the middle of the valley, there was a single hope: help from God.”
- “All through the night, Lencho thought only of his one hope: the help of God…”
- “It was nothing less than a letter to God.”
- “God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested.”
- Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’? The postmaster sends money to Lencho in order not to shake the writer’s faith in God. He signs the letter ‘God’ for the same reason, to make Lencho believe that the money came directly from God.
- Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not? No, Lencho did not try to find out who had sent the money. This is because his faith in God was absolute. He was completely confident that only God would help him.
- Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the irony in the situation? Lencho thinks that the post office employees have taken the rest of the money. The irony in the situation is that the very people he accuses of being “a bunch of crooks” are the ones who, out of kindness and respect for his faith, actually collected the money and sent it to him.
From Thinking about the Text:
- Are there people like Lencho in the real world? What kind of a person would you say he is? The sources present this as a question for discussion and provide words like ‘greedy’, ’naive’, ‘stupid’, ‘ungrateful’, ‘selfish’, ‘comical’, ‘unquestioning’ for describing him. The text itself doesn’t explicitly state if such people exist or definitively label Lencho’s character. However, based on the story, he demonstrates unquestioning faith in God and could be seen as naive for believing God sends letters and money directly through the mail, and arguably ungrateful towards the post office staff who actually helped him.
- There are two kinds of conflict in the story: between humans and nature, and between humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated? The conflict between humans and nature is illustrated by the hailstorm. Nature, in the form of the storm, completely destroys Lencho’s crops, which he needed to survive. The conflict between humans themselves is illustrated at the end of the story by Lencho’s distrust and accusation of the post office employees. He believes they are thieves (“a bunch of crooks”) who stole money that rightfully came from God, despite the fact that they were the ones who performed the charitable act of gathering and sending him the money.
Hope this helps clarify the story and its key points! ✨