The Novel
17 Grade 10 Literature in English questions on The Novel, with worked marking schemes. 17 questions are available on this topic in full.
Question 1
4 marksRead the extract below from an original novel and answer the question that follows. Chief Lemayian arrived at the borehole meeting an hour late, stepping out of a new Land Cruiser that everyone knew had been bought the same month the relief maize went missing. He did not greet the old women who had waited since morning. Instead, he raised his fly-whisk and announced, 'Those who want water must first pay the committee fee. Nothing in this world is free.' When young Nashipai asked where the county's water money had gone, he laughed loudly and told the elders to teach their daughters manners. Identify two character traits of Chief Lemayian and illustrate each from the extract.
(4 marks)
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4 marksRead the extract below from an original novel and answer the questions that follow. Moraa had already closed her vegetable stall at Daraja Mbili market when the boda boda rider came back, out of breath. 'Mama, you left this on my seat,' he said, holding out her purse. Inside was the whole week's takings. She tried to give him two hundred shillings, but he shook his head. 'My mother sells sukuma too,' he said. 'Keep it for school fees.' Then he rode off before she could ask his name.
(a) Identify two values shown by the boda boda rider, illustrating each from the extract. (2 marks)
(b) Explain two ways in which a novelist can use a minor character like the rider to promote values in society. (2 marks)
(4 marks)
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5 marksRead the extract below from an original novel and answer the questions that follow. On the day of the ruracio, Wambui's uncles sat under the mũgumo tree behind the homestead while the young men from Othaya waited at the gate with their gifts. No one from Wambui's family went to greet them. 'A goat does not walk into a new home without being called,' her eldest uncle said, and the women laughed behind the kitchen door. Wambui was not allowed to come out. She listened from inside, her heart racing, as the uncles began to argue about how many goats the young man's family should bring, as if she were a field being measured.
(a) Identify two aspects of culture brought out in the extract. (2 marks)
(b) Explain what the last sentence of the extract reveals about Wambui's feelings towards the practice. (1 mark)
(c) Explain two ways in which this cultural practice has changed or remained the same in Kenyan communities today. (2 marks)
(5 marks)
Marking scheme
(a) Any two of the following, 1 mark each (2 marks): - Bride-price (dowry) negotiation, the ruracio, with livestock (goats) as payment. - Elders (uncles) leading the negotiations on behalf of the family. - Protocol or etiquette: the visiting party waits at the gate until it is invited in. - Proverbs used in speech ('A goat does not walk into a new home without being called'). - Separate gender roles: men negotiate while the women stay in the kitchen. - The bride kept indoors and left out of the negotiations. - The mũgumo (sacred fig) tree used as a respected meeting place. - The groom's family bringing gifts. (b) 1 mark: The simile 'as if she were a field being measured' shows that she feels treated as property or an object being priced. It suggests discomfort or resentment at being left out and valued in goats (accept: anxiety, a sense of powerlessness). (c) Any two of the following, 1 mark each (2 marks): - Dowry is still widely paid, but often in cash, or in cash as well as livestock. - The couple, and the bride's consent, now play a bigger part in the negotiations. - Many families now see dowry as a token of appreciation and of uniting families rather than a price. - Customary ceremonies are often combined with church or civil weddings. - Customary marriages are recognised in Kenyan law alongside other forms of marriage. - Urban families may hold shorter or simpler ceremonies. - Elders, proverbs and gate protocol remain central in many communities.
Question 4
5 marksRead the extract below from an original novel and answer the questions that follow. For three generations the Mau forest had fed the streams that watered Chepkemoi's farm. Now lorries came at night, their lights cutting through the trees, and by morning another hillside lay bare. When the elders went to the forest station to complain, the officer told them the logging licences had come 'from above'. That evening Chepkemoi's son, Kibet, came home with new shoes, bought with money from loading logs onto the lorries. He would not look at his mother.
(a) Identify two themes brought out in the extract. (2 marks)
(b) Discuss how one of the themes you have identified in (a) is developed in the extract. (3 marks)
(5 marks)
Marking scheme
(a) Any two of the following, 1 mark each (2 marks): - Environmental destruction (deforestation of the Mau forest). - Corruption or abuse of power (licences 'from above'). - Greed and exploitation of natural resources. - Poverty or youth unemployment pushing people into harmful work. - Moral conflict or betrayal within the family (Kibet's guilt towards his mother). - Helplessness of ordinary citizens and failed leadership. (b) Any three developed points on the chosen theme, 1 mark each (3 marks). For example: Environmental destruction: - The forest has fed the streams 'for three generations', which shows how much the community depends on it. - Lorries come at night and 'another hillside lay bare' by morning, which shows how fast and how secretly the destruction happens. - The farm's water supply is put under threat. - Kibet's work loading logs shows the community itself being drawn into the destruction. Corruption: - The licences come 'from above', which suggests powerful people allow the logging. - The forest officer fails to protect the forest and ignores the elders' complaint. - Logging at night suggests the activity is illegal or hidden. Poverty: - Kibet loads logs to earn money for shoes, which shows need driving people into harmful work. - He will not look at his mother, which shows the conflict between need and conscience.
Question 5
4 marksRead the extract below from an original novel and answer the questions that follow. The call to prayer from the mosque near Mkanda Street drifted over the rooftops just as Mwanaisha closed her grandfather's carpentry shop. Below the carved door, the narrow lane was already filling with donkeys carrying bags of cement for the new hotel near the seafront. It was the third week of Ramadhan, and the smell of mahamri frying in the next courtyard reminded her that the fast would soon be broken. Grandfather had said nothing for days. The hotel men had offered him money for the shop, and the whole of Lamu Old Town seemed to be waiting for his answer.
(a) Identify the setting of the extract in terms of place and time, giving evidence for each. (2 marks)
(b) Explain two ways in which the setting helps to develop the conflict in the extract. (2 marks)
(4 marks)
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1 markBefore reading a set novel, a Grade 10 class in Kisumu researches the life of its author. What is the main value of this activity for literary analysis?
A. It reveals how many copies of the novel have been sold in Kenya.
B. It proves that every event in the novel happened to the author.
C. It confirms that the narrator of a novel is always its author.
D. It shows experiences that may shape the novel's concerns.
(1 mark)
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1 markDuring a portfolio activity, Achieng is sorting the fiction texts her class has collected. Which feature most clearly marks a text as a novel rather than a short story?
A. It is narrated by a character who takes part in the events.
B. It has many characters and subplots over a long span.
C. It tells of imagined people and events rather than real ones.
D. It is written in continuous prose instead of lines of verse.
(1 mark)
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4 marksA novelist writing about a land dispute between two farmers in Kericho decides to tell the story through an omniscient (all-knowing) narrator instead of through one of the farmers. Explain two advantages of this choice.
(4 marks)
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5 marksRead the summary of an original novel, The Well at Kalacha, and answer the questions that follow. The novel opens with Abdi, a young nurse, lying awake in a hospital in Marsabit town, listening to rain on the iron roof. He remembers the long drought of his childhood, when his family's camels died one by one and his mother walked for two days to fetch water. The story then follows Abdi through his school years in Kalacha, where a teacher, Mr Wario, pays his fees after his father sells the last camel. At the end of the novel, Abdi returns to Kalacha to open a small clinic beside the new borehole.
(a) Name the plot technique used when the novel moves from the hospital to Abdi's childhood. (1 mark)
(b) Arrange the following events in the order in which they actually happened: Abdi opens a clinic; the family's camels die in the drought; Abdi lies awake in the Marsabit hospital; Mr Wario pays Abdi's school fees. (2 marks)
(c) Explain two effects of opening the novel with Abdi lying awake in the hospital. (2 marks)
(5 marks)
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3 marksA parent in Embu tells her son, who has just joined Grade 10, that reading novels is 'a waste of good study time'. Explain three reasons you would give her to show that novels are significant.
(3 marks)
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1 markRead the sentence below from an original novel and answer the question. 'The old matatu coughed, groaned and finally limped into the stage at Kariobangi.' Which stylistic device is mainly used in the sentence?
A. Oxymoron, joining two contradictory ideas together
B. Personification, giving the vehicle human behaviour
C. Onomatopoeia, using words that imitate engine sounds
D. Hyperbole, exaggerating how slowly the vehicle moved
(1 mark)
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4 marksKiprono tells his class that a newspaper report on a bus accident along the Nakuru–Eldoret highway is prose fiction, because it is written in paragraphs and tells a story.
(a) Explain why Kiprono is wrong. (1 mark)
(b) Outline three features of prose fiction that you would expect in a novel but not in such a report. (3 marks)
(4 marks)
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1 markRead the extract below from an original novel and answer the question. 'I had never seen Mama cry until the day the letter from the county office arrived. She folded it twice, slid it under the tin of tea leaves and told us to go and fetch water, as if nothing had happened.' From which point of view is the extract narrated?
A. Third person, by an all-knowing outside narrator
B. Second person, addressing the reader as "you"
C. First person, by a character inside the story
D. Third person, limited to Mama's own thoughts
(1 mark)
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1 markIn an original novel set in a Kenyan village, the villagers often tell one another that Wanjiru never refuses to help a neighbour, even though the reader seldom sees her in action. Which method of characterisation is the novelist mainly using?
A. Her own actions as the story unfolds
B. Direct description by the narrator
C. Her inner thoughts revealed in monologue
D. What other characters say about her
(1 mark)
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4 marksRead the extract below from an original novel and answer the questions that follow. The sun over Garissa was a cruel landlord, collecting rent from every living thing. By noon even the goats had given up and lay under the acacia like fallen soldiers. 'Who will pity us,' Halima's father asked the empty sky, 'when the clouds themselves have forgotten our names?'
(a) Identify two stylistic devices used in the extract, quoting an example of each. (2 marks)
(b) Explain the effect of each device you have identified in (a). (2 marks)
(4 marks)
Marking scheme
(a) Any two of the following, 1 mark each for a device with a correct quotation (2 marks): - Metaphor (extended): 'The sun over Garissa was a cruel landlord, collecting rent from every living thing.' - Simile: 'lay under the acacia like fallen soldiers'. - Rhetorical question: 'Who will pity us ... when the clouds themselves have forgotten our names?' - Personification: 'the clouds themselves have forgotten our names' / 'even the goats had given up'. - Apostrophe: Halima's father addresses 'the empty sky'. - Hyperbole: 'collecting rent from every living thing'. (b) 1 mark for each effect that matches a device given in (a) (2 marks): - Metaphor: presents the sun as oppressive and merciless, which stresses the intense heat and suffering of the drought. - Simile: brings out how exhausted and near death the animals are, giving an image of defeat. - Rhetorical question: expresses despair and helplessness and draws the reader's sympathy. - Personification of the clouds: suggests the people have been abandoned and stresses how long the rain has been absent. - Apostrophe: shows the father's desperation; he speaks to the sky because no one else can help. - Hyperbole: stresses that no one escapes the drought.
Question 16
6 marksRead the extract below from an original novel and answer the questions that follow. After the Emergency was declared, the soldiers burnt the scattered homesteads on the ridge and herded everyone into the new village behind the barbed wire. Nyokabi's mother carried her pass in a small metal case on a string around her neck, and she touched it often, as though it were a charm. Every evening at six the bell rang for the curfew, and anyone found outside the fence could be shot. Nyokabi's father had gone to the forest two years earlier. Some nights, when the guards were drunk, she heard the women singing his name softly in their songs.
(a) Identify three aspects of the history of Kenya depicted in the extract. (3 marks)
(b) Explain two ways in which this historical setting shapes the lives of the characters. (2 marks)
(c) State one lesson that a reader today can learn from the extract. (1 mark)
(6 marks)
Marking scheme
(a) Any three of the following, 1 mark each (3 marks): - The State of Emergency declared by the colonial government (1952) during the Mau Mau struggle. - Villagisation: homesteads burnt and people forced into fenced, guarded villages. - The pass system, which restricted Africans' movement. - Dusk curfews enforced with deadly force. - Men joining the freedom fighters in the forest. - Women secretly supporting the fighters, for example through songs. - Brutality and harassment by colonial security forces or guards. (b) Any two of the following, 1 mark each (2 marks): - The family is split up; the father is away in the forest. - People lose their homes and land, which brings poverty and displacement. - Freedom and dignity are lost: the mother must carry a pass and live behind barbed wire. - Fear rules daily life (the curfew bell, the threat of being shot). - Loyalty to the fighters has to be hidden and can only be expressed secretly in songs. (c) Any one of the following, 1 mark: - Kenya's independence was won through great sacrifice and should be valued. - Oppression cannot crush people's spirit of resistance. - Unity and solidarity matter in a struggle for justice. - Human rights and freedom of movement must be respected. - Peace should be valued and conflict avoided.
Question 17
1 markA Grade 10 class in Nyeri is listing the themes of an original novel about two brothers who quarrel over their late father's farm. Which of the following is correctly stated as a theme rather than as a plot event?
A. Kamau secretly sells his brother's share of the farm.
B. The two brothers appear before the elders at the chief's camp.
C. Kamau's daughter leaves the village to study in Nairobi.
D. Greed for land can destroy the bonds between brothers.
(1 mark)
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