The Black Aeroplane Presented by Mrs. Lily Kumar Introduction to the Author • Frederick McCarthy Forsyth, CBE (born 25 August 1938) is an English author, journalist, former spy, and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan, The Cobra and The Kill List. • Forsyth's works frequently appear on best-sellers lists and more than a dozen of his titles have been adapted to film. By 2006, he had sold more than 70 million books in more than 30 languages. Introduction to the Chapter The lesson “Black Aeroplane” by Frederick Forsyth reflects on how one’s judgement gets distorted due to fantasizing and how it creates problems. In this chapter, the narrator is a pilot who is so eager to meet his family and have a good breakfast that he takes the wrong decision of facing the storm instead of doing the right thing. Miraculously, he somehow manages to escape with the help of a mysterious aeroplane. Theme of the Story The story oscillates or shifts between Miracle and Mystery. Summary The story “Black Aeroplane” is about a pilot who feels happy and contended to fly over a city that is sleeping (at the night time). He is flying from Paris to London. While taking his flight, he dreams about the long holiday with his family. He also fantasizes about the scrumptious breakfast he would have upon landing. As soon as he crosses Paris, he gets a look of the dark clouds that were a sign of the upcoming storm. The right decision would have been to turn back to Paris for the sake of safety. But he being overshadowed by his dreams and not wanting to delay them, risks the life of his passengers and heads straight into the storm. Everything gets dark, he is unable to see, all his direction instruments stopped functioning and he lost control of the plane. When all hope was lost, he saw another plane whose pilot was more than willing to rescue them. The author was panicking as there was very less amount of fuel left. The anonymous pilot guided them out of the storm and disappeared as soon as they saw light. Upon landing, when he asks the lady in the control room about the other pilot, he is left in shock when she says that his was the only plane in the sky. Thank you His First Flight -Liam O’ FLaherty Presented by Mrs. Lily Kumar Introduction to the Author Liam O’Flaherty, (born August 28, 1896, Inishmore, Aran Islands, County Galway, Ireland—died September 7, 1984, Dublin), Irish novelist and short-story writer whose works combine brutal naturalism, psychological analysis, poetry, and biting satire with an abiding respect for the courage and persistence of the Irish people. He was considered to be a leading figure of the Irish Renaissance. O’Flaherty abandoned his training for the priesthood and embarked on a varied career as a soldier in World War I and an international wanderer in South America, Canada, the United States, and the Middle East. He laboured in such occupations as lumberjack, hotel porter, miner, factory worker, dishwasher, bank clerk, and deckhand. After taking part in revolutionary activities in Ireland, O’Flaherty settled in England in 1922; he returned to Dublin in the mid-1920s. His books include Thy Neighbour’s Wife (1923), his successful first novel; The Black Soul (1924), the story of a tormented former soldier who seeks tranquillity on a remote western isle; The Informer (1925; adapted as an Oscar-winning film by John Ford, 1935), about a confused revolutionary who betrays his friend during the Irish “troubles”; Skerrett (1932), a critically acclaimed story of conflict between a parish priest and a teacher; Famine (1937), a re-creation of the effect of the Irish famine of the 1840s on the individuals of a small community; Short Stories (1937; rev. ed. 1956); Insurrection (1950), a novel dealing with the Easter Rising of 1916; The Pedlar’s Revenge and Other Stories (1976); as well as several other novels and collections of short stories. His autobiography, Shame the Devil, was published in 1934. This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen, Corrections Introduction to the Story The story by “Liam O’ Flaherty” is an account of a young bird that is afraid to fly for the first time. He believes that his wings would not support him. Despite his younger siblings flying fearlessly with much shorter wings, he could not gather the courage to do the same. He was punished to stay hungry if he did not try. Thus, it was his mother that compelled him to fly by using food as a trap. The lesson reflects how one hesitates to take the first step and that fear is all in the mind. One should trust one’s abilities because “the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself ”. Themes “His First Flight” highlights the importance of independence, self-belief and confidence, and the need for motivation to attain goals. Necessity is always the mother of invention, but it sometimes needs an initial spark from outside. The story is also a metaphorical assertion that everyone needs to be independent even while staying involved in family life. But the joy of independence is not meant for cowards. From an educator’s point of view “His First Flight” shows how to tactfully impart motivation. The parents of the seagull had tried to cajole and threaten him in different ways, but to no avail. The mother knew well that the trick was to arouse his need and she eventually lures him out with food – to his momentary horror and then great joy. Summary His First Flight’ by Liam O’ Flaherty is a true parable about overcoming fears in life. Every journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step. But that single step is the most difficult one to make. Conquer the fear and venture forth; and we realize that we were born with wings. The young seagull looked down desperately at the vast expanse of sea that stretched down beneath his ledge. He was hungry. His parents had flown away along with his brothers and his little sister, leaving him alone on the rock without food. They could all fly; and he could not. He had tried several times to run forward to the brink of the ledge and flap his wings but he became afraid. He was certain that his wings would not support him. His parents had tried countless times to make him fly. But for the life of him he would not make an attempt. He felt that he was going to starve to death on his ledge. Even his mother was not looking at him. She was tearing a piece of fish with her beak. The sight of food maddened him. He cried at her but she just screamed back mockingly. Suddenly, he felt the joy, seeing his mother approaching him with food. But she halted, keeping the fish just out of his reach. Maddened by hunger, he dived at the fish. But his mother flew upward and he started falling. A monstrous terror seized him, but the next moment he realized that he was flying. He was born to fly and he had made his first flight. Liam O’ Flaherty was a keen observer of sea life and he believed that man has a lot to learn from nature. He has given a humane touch to the seagull’s plight so that the reader is reminded of the nervousness he too might experience before doing something new. Moral of the Story The mother seemed to be well aware of the Chinese proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” And why, she might have even heard of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s maxim “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Thank You.