Short Stories The Face on The Wall اولى ثانوى ترم ثانى

* The Characters :
1- The narrator. 2- Dabney.
3- The stranger. ( The storyteller ) 4- Mr. Ormond Wall.

* The Summary of The Story :
The narrator and a group of people were talking about unusual events that seemed to have no natural explanation. There was a stranger among those speakers. He was a little man with a pale face. He was watching them carefully, but didn't say a word.

Dabney included the stranger in the talk
Dabney asked the stranger if he had any experience to describe a story which couldn’t be explained to include him in the talk.

The stranger began to talk
He said that he had a true story which happened to him personally and completed itself only that afternoon. The stranger said that truth may be so much stranger than imagination.

The storyteller said that he rented a room in Ormond Street a year or two years ago. There were a lot of patches on the wall because of the dampness. There was a patch which looked like the face of a real man. All the patches began to change, but the face never changed its shape.

The face began to control him
The storyteller used to watch the face and began to think of it as real as his fellow lodger. The face got firmer hold of him and grew more and more remarkable. The nose had a curious turn and the shape of the head was unusual. It was the face of a very unusual man, a man in a thousand.

The storyteller began to search for the real man
He began to look for someone who looked like the face on the wall. He looked for him in busy and crowded places like political meetings, football matches, and railway stations, but in vain.

He believed that he was connected with the face by fate. People thought he was mad because he was watching the people and looking at their faces. The police suspected him also.


Seeing the real man
Suddenly, he saw the man in a taxi and took another taxi and followed him. At Caring Cross railway station, he saw the man standing with a little girl and other two ladies. He tried to talk to the man, but he couldn't because they took the train to Folkestone to go to France. So, he booked a ticket to Folkestone to catch the man before he sailed to France. Also, he failed to talk to the man and he had to ride the boat with him.

The storyteller got shocked
After half an hour of the voyage, the storyteller met the man when he got out of his room. He asked him to give him his card because he had a very important reason to communicate with him. The man thought that he was a mad man and gave him the card at once.

When he read the card and knew that the man's name was "Ormond Wall" from Pittsburg-U.S.A. , he fainted and was taken to the hospital at Boulogne for some weeks.

After a month, the storyteller went back home and collected as much information as possible about Mr. Ormond Wall. He knew that he was a millionaire with English parents who had lived in London. He knew this information from some Americans and some American newspaper men.

The face on the wall became faint
A day before, he discovered that the face on the wall was faint. When he bought the paper and read about an accident that took place to Mr. Ormond Wall and a party. The car was overturned and Mr. Ormond Wall was badly injured.
The face on the wall disappeared
When he returned to his room, he was greatly shocked because he found that the face had completely disappeared. Later, he knew that Mr. Ormond Wall had died at that moment.
The three extraordinary things
The storyteller said that there were three extraordinary things about this story. First, the face on the wall in the room looked like the face of a true American gentleman and the man's name had a relation to the place Ormond Street. Second, the face on the wall was faint when Mr. Ormond had an accident and disappeared when he died.

He finished talking and when he was at the door, the people in the room reminded him of the third thing. The stranger said that the third thing was that he made the story up about half an hour ago.


* Answer the following questions:
1- What were the speakers talking about?
-----» They were talking about unusual events that seemed to have no natural explanation.
2- What did Dabney do to include the stranger (the storyteller) in the talk?
-----» He asked him if he had experience to describe with no natural explanation.
3- How did the storyteller attract Dabney and his friends to listen to his story?
-----» He told them that it was a true story which happened to him personally and completed itself that afternoon.
4- Why were there patches on the walls of the bedroom?
-----» Because the house was old and the place was damp.
5- What was strange about the patches on the wall?
-----» There was only patch which never grew larger or changed its shape. It remained exactly the same.
6- Why did the storyteller spend so much time watching the face on his wall?
-----» Because he began to think of it as his fellow lodger.
7- How far was the storyteller influenced by the picture of the face on the wall?
-----» The picture controlled his thoughts and he thought of the man as his fellow lodger.
8- Why does the storyteller feel sure that the face on the wall was a face of a real person?
-----» Because it had such a firm hold of him, and he believed that he and this person were in some way connected by fate.
9- What drove the storyteller to find out everything about the real man?
-----» Because the face became the chief thing in his thoughts.
10- What decision did the storyteller take?
-----» To look for the man everywhere.
11- Where did the storyteller search for the man?
-----» At busy corners and in places where men collected together in large numbers such as political meetings, football matches, and the railway stations.


12- Why did the police suspect the storyteller?
-----» Because he stood at busy corners watching people an searching for the
man whose face on the wall.
13- Where did he find the man?
-----» In a taxi driving along Piccadilly.
14- Why did the storyteller go to Boulogne?
-----» Because he was trying to discover the identity of the man whose face had appeared on the wall.
15- What did the storyteller do to find out all he could about Mr. Wall?
-----» First, He followed him and bought a ticket to Folkston. Then, he got on board and crossed to France. Next, he took up his position in front of his door and waited. Finally, he asked him to give him his card.
16- Why didn't Mr. Wall ask the storyteller the reason for his asking for his card?
-----» Because he thought that the storyteller was a mad man.
17- What happened to the storyteller after reading Mr. Wall's card?
-----» He fainted and was taken to hospital in a serious condition.
18- What happened to the face on the wall when Mr. Wall had an accident?
-----» The face grew faint and when he died, the face disappeared completely.
19- Why did the face disappear completely?
-----» Because Mr. Ormond Wall had died.
20- How did Mr. Ormond meet his end?
-----» His car overturned and was taken to hospital in a serious condition, later he died.
21- What are the three extraordinary things about the story?
-----» (1) The face on the wall was like the face of the American millionaire.
-----» (2) The man's name was related to the place where it appeared.
-----» (3) The stranger made up the story half an hour before.
22- How did the storyteller surprise us at the end?
-----» He surprised us by saying that he made the story up half an hour before he told it.

23- What kind of a story is "The Face on The Wall"?
-----» It's unreal story of someone's imagination to tell other people of unusual event happened to them.

Quotation
1- " one of these was exactly like a human face lying in bed in the morning, I used to watch it"
1- Why were patches on the wall?
2- Describe the human face?
3- What was strange about the patches?
Answers
-----» As he lived in an old house which was very damp.
-----» It had a curious turn on the nose and shape of the head was very unusual.
-----» While all the other patches on the wall changed, this one remained the same.

2- " I stood at busy corners watching the crowd until the people though me mad"
1- Who was the speaker searching for?
2- Why did the people think him mad?
3- Where did he see the man he was searching for?
Answers
-----» He was searching for the man that his face appeared on the wall.
-----» As stood at busy corners watching the crowd looking only at men but not women.
-----» He saw him in a taxi driving towards Piccadilly.

3- " Excuse me, but do you mind giving me your card"
1- Who was the speaker?
2- What made the man giving him his card?
3- What happened to the speaker when he read the card?
Answers
-----» The storyteller was the speaker.
-----» He though the storyteller mad and considered it to do what he wanted.
-----» As soon as the speaker had read the card, he suddenly fainted.


Answer the following
1. “ Truth, I always believe, is not only stranger than stories, but also
much more interesting.”
a. By whom and to whom was his statement said?
b. What was the speaker asked about?
c. To what extent was his statement true?

2. “ I could tell you of an event which happened to me personally, and
which strangely enough completed itself only this afternoon.”
a. What was the event that happened to the speaker?
b. What two things couldn’t be explained about the event?
c. How did it completed itself that afternoon?

3. “ One of these patches as indeed often happens was exactly like a
human face. “
a. Where was that patch?
b. What was the strange thing about the patch?
c. When did that patch disappear?

4. “ It was then that this face began to get a firmer hold of me. It grew more and more real and remarkable. “
a. When did this face begin to get a firmer hold of the storyteller ?
b. Why did he think it is a real face?
c. Where did he search for that man?