1 Struggle (the life story of a middle class boy)

The main character in the story is Eddie Winter who is studying BA. Eddie is an ordinary member of a middle class family whose father (George Winter) works for the government in a revenue department and whose mother (Emma Winter) is an ordinary housewife. One of her younger sisters, whose name is Mili, is in 12th grade. As usual, there were fights between the two siblings.

Other employees of the department where George works, became very rich by taking bribes because it is common to take and give bribes there. But George was a straightforward and naive man and he did not know this clever trick nor was he interested in such money. Therefore, despite working in such a strong department, his financial situation was not special. So Eddie's mother often explains to him that, son, you have to stand up for yourself, because your father was not smart enough to stand(economically) you in your life.

Eddie has been very weak in his schooling till the fifth grade and his focus is on fights. Once her teacher, Madame Rezel, who lives in Eddie's neighborhood and knows all about Eddie's family, explains to him that if he wants to raise his parents' name in life, he has to do something. That's why Eddie should give up fighting in his life and work hard. So Eddie interrupts Madame Rezel and says it's all my luck's fault, I wish my dad was as smart as everyone else, then I wouldn't have to worry about my future, because in his class, there were many children whose fathers were strong businessmen. So Eddie puts all the blame on his own luck as well as on his father also.

Then Madame Rezel explains to him that Eddie, luck is just a name. She says that without hard work you can't even make bread from flour. And this is our life again. If we expect to achieve something without doing something then we are wrong. There are many people in this world whose fathers were not rich and who do not inherit wealth to their children, but because of their rites and dedication, they reached the heights of success. Education is a boon for a person that has the power to take an ordinary person from the floor to the throne. So he (Eddie) should stop blaming fate and do focus on his study that will make his family proud.

These words of Madame Rezel had a great effect on Eddie's mind and after which Eddie started working hard in his studies, as a result of which he passed up to class XII with very good marks. All this credit goes to his teacher, Madame Rezel. After going to college, he again falls in the circle of girls, due to which his attention is again distracted from his studies. But on the other hand, he is always worried that he has to do something on his own to settle down because his father can't stand him.

In time, Eddie's father, George, dies of a sudden heart attack. As a result, the entire responsibility of home falls on Eddie. Eddie was about 19 years old when his father, George, passed away. According to the policy of the department in which George used to work, if an employee dies while on duty, the nominee of his household gets the job on compassionate grounds. As a result, Eddie got a government job in his father's department. However, Eddie had not yet completed his BA (Graduation) degree, so Eddie got a job as a peon.

Eddie cries a lot when he joins the job thinking that he always thought that his father could not stand him so he has to stand on his own in life but his father made him stand something like this, that no one had ever thought of and thanks to him(George), he is doing a government job today. So he is not very happy to get the job because he thinks that he got the job in exchange for his father's life.