ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -As the story opens, Leon and his brother-in-law, Ken, find an old man, Teofilo, dead under a cottonwood tree. They ritually paint his face and take his body, wrapped in a red blanket, to their home for a traditional Pueblo funeral ceremony.

Detailed explanation-2: -Before the men can take care of Teofilo, they gather up the sheep and return them to their pens. To ensure that Teofilo reaches the afterlife, as per Pueblo rituals, Leon and Ken tie a grey feather in his hair.

Detailed explanation-3: -Teofilo is at the sheep camp in the arroyo when he rests in the shade under a cotton tree and dies. After Teofilo missing for a few days, Leon and Ken come looking for him and find that he “had been dead for a day or more, and the sheep had wandered and scattered up and down the arroyo."

Detailed explanation-4: -(b) When Father Paul asks Leon and Ken about Teofilo, they decide to keep him in the dark about the old man’s death. They do not want him to orchestrate the funeral arrangements according to Christian beliefs.

Detailed explanation-5: -The conflict is resolved by Leon, a grandson of Teofilo, when he requests Fr Paul to sprinkle holy water on the deceased’s body at the grave.