FredI'll help you watch one man's experiment with total honesty — and the irony that the truth he gives so bravely is repaid in a stack of test papers. Track the cost of every truthful word.
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🌱 Before You Read
📚 Background
R. K. Narayan was one of India's greatest English-language storytellers, famous for gentle humor and irony set in everyday life. In "Like the Sun," a schoolteacher named Sekhar decides to spend one whole day telling nothing but the absolute truth — to his wife, his colleagues, and his headmaster — and discovers exactly what honesty costs.
As you read, track two things: what each truthful answer costs Sekhar, and how the headmaster's final demand "repays" his honesty.
❓ Essential Question
Is it always right to tell the truth — and is a kind lie ever better than an honest answer that wounds?
🔮 QUICK PREDICTION
Fred asks: A man vows to tell only the absolute truth for one full day. What do you predict will go wrong first — and with whom?
Sentence starter: I predict trouble will start with __________ because __________.
✅ Before Reading Activities
🧠 Think Critically
As you read, don’t just follow what happens — ask why. What is the author doing, what’s your evidence in the text, and how would you defend your answer to someone who disagrees?
1. Have you ever told a small "white lie" to protect someone's feelings?
2. Can being completely honest sometimes hurt people?
3. Would you tell your boss an honest opinion if it might cost you?
📒 Key Vocabulary Preview
Word
What it means before you start
wince
to flinch slightly from pain or distress
shirked
avoided a duty out of laziness or dread
tentatively
hesitantly; not yet certain
sullen
silently bad-tempered or resentful
apprehensively
with worry or dread about what may happen
📖 First Read — Get the Story
Read straight through first. This is the full original story, arranged in paragraph chunks for close reading.
[1]
Truth, Sekhar reflected, is like the sun. I suppose no human being can ever look it straight in the face without blinking or being dazed. This day he set apart as a unique day — at least one day in a year we must give and take absolute truth whatever may happen. Otherwise life is not worth living. The day ahead seemed to him full of possibilities. He told no one of his experiment.
[2]
The very first test came while his wife served him his morning meal. He showed hesitation over a tid-bit, which she had thought was her culinary masterpiece. She asked, "Why, isn't it good?" At other times, he would have said, considering her feelings in the matter, "I feel full-up, that's all." But today he said, "It isn't good. I'm unable to swallow it." He saw her wince and said to himself, "Can't be helped. Truth is like the sun."
🔑 Checkpoint 1
What experiment does Sekhar quietly begin this day?
[3]
His next trial was in the common room when one of his colleagues came up and said, "Did you hear about the death of so and so? Don't you think it's a pity?" "No," Sekhar answered. "He was such a fine man..." the other began. But Sekhar cut him short with: "Far from it. He always struck me as a mean and selfish brute."
[4]
During the last period when he was teaching geography class, Sekhar received a note from the headmaster: "Please see me before you go home." Sekhar said to himself: it must be about these horrible test papers. A hundred papers in the boys' scrawls; he had shirked this work for weeks, feeling all the time as if a sword were hanging over his head.
🧠 INTERRUPTION QUESTION
Fred asks: In his first two tests, Sekhar's honesty makes his wife "wince" and insults a dead man's memory. What does this show about the difference between truth and kindness?
Sentence starter: Sekhar's honest answers show that truth and kindness __________, because __________.
Fred's model answer: Narayan shows that truth and kindness can pull in opposite directions. Sekhar drops his usual softening line and tells his wife, “It isn’t good. I’m unable to swallow it,” and watches her “wince” (paragraph [2]). Moments later he calls a dead man “a mean and selfish brute” (paragraph [3]) instead of joining the polite mourning. Each answer is accurate, yet each one wounds — so the truth he is so proud of keeps arriving as a kind of cruelty.
🔑 Checkpoint 2
What message does Sekhar get during the geography lesson, and what does he assume it means?
[5]
The bell rang and the boys burst out of the class. He stepped into the headmaster's room with a very polite "Good evening, sir." The headmaster looked up at him in a very friendly manner and asked, "Are you free this evening?" "Anything special, sir?" "Yes," replied the headmaster, smiling to himself. "You didn't know my weakness for music?" "Oh, yes, sir..." "I've been learning and practicing secretly, and now I want you to hear me this evening. I want your opinion. I know it will be valuable."
[6]
Sekhar's taste in music was well known. He was one of the most dreaded music critics in the town. But he never anticipated his musical inclinations would lead him to this trial. "Rather a surprise for you, isn't it?" asked the headmaster. "I've spent a fortune on it behind doors..." They started for the headmaster's house. "God hasn't given me a child, but at least let him not deny me of the consolation of music," the headmaster said, pathetically, as they walked. He incessantly chattered about how his teacher gave him hope, and so on.
🔑 Checkpoint 3
Why does the headmaster really want to see Sekhar?
[7]
At home the headmaster set Sekhar on a red silk carpet, set before him several dishes of delicacies, and fussed over him as if he were a son-in-law of the house. He even said, "Well, you must listen with a free mind. Don't worry about these test papers." He added humorously, "I will give you a week's time." "Make it ten days, sir," Sekhar pleaded. "All right, granted," the headmaster said generously.
[8]
The headmaster now began to sing a full song composed by Thyagaraja, followed by two more. All the time the headmaster was singing, Sekhar went on commenting within himself, "He croaks like a dozen frogs. He is bellowing like a buffalo. Now he sounds like loose window shutters in a storm."
🧠 INTERRUPTION QUESTION
Fred asks: Notice the headmaster's kindness — the silk carpet, the delicacies, the extra days for the papers — comes just before he asks for an honest opinion. Why does Narayan stack all this generosity right before the test?
Sentence starter: Narayan piles up the headmaster's kindness first because __________, which makes Sekhar's honest answer __________.
Fred's model answer: Narayan stacks the kindness to raise the cost of honesty. The headmaster sets Sekhar “on a red silk carpet,” lays out “several dishes of delicacies,” and even stretches the test-paper deadline — “All right, granted” (paragraph [7]). Right after all that warmth he sings, and Sekhar privately judges, “He croaks like a dozen frogs” (paragraph [8]). Because the man has been so generous, telling him the blunt truth now feels like a betrayal — which sharpens the story’s irony and makes Sekhar’s vow much harder to keep.
🔑 Checkpoint 4
When the headmaster demands his frank opinion, how does Sekhar respond?
[9]
In the end, the headmaster asked, "Now come out with your opinion." "Can't I give it tomorrow, sir?" Sekhar asked tentatively. "No, I want it immediately — your frank opinion. Was it good?" "No, sir..." Sekhar replied. "Oh!... Is there any use continuing my lessons?" "Absolutely none, sir..." Sekhar said with his voice trembling. He felt very unhappy that he could not speak more soothingly. Truth, he reflected, required as much strength to give as to receive.
🔑 Checkpoint 5
What does Sekhar realize about telling the truth after the singing?
[10]
All the way home he felt worried. He felt that his official life was not going to be smooth sailing hereafter. Everything depends on the headmaster's will. Did not Harischandra lose his throne, wife, and child because he would speak nothing less than the absolute Truth whatever happened? At home his wife served him a sullen face. He knew she was still angry with him for his remark of the morning. Two casualties for today, Sekhar said to himself. If I practice it for a week, I don't think I shall have a single friend left.
[11]
He received a call from the headmaster in his classroom next day. He went up apprehensively. "Your suggestion was useful. Thank you. By the way, what about those test papers?" "You gave me ten days, for correcting them." "Oh, I've reconsidered it. I must positively have them here tomorrow..." A hundred papers in a day! That meant all night's sitting up! "Give me a couple of days, sir..." "No, I must have them tomorrow morning. And remember, every paper must be thoroughly scrutinized." "Yes, sir," Sekhar said, feeling that sitting up all night with a hundred test papers was a small price to pay for the luxury of practicing truth.
📝 First Read — Quick Check
For Part A and Part B questions, answer Part A first, then choose the evidence that best supports your answer.
RL.7.1
PART A
1. Part A: What experiment does Sekhar decide to try?
RL.7.1
PART B
2. Part B: Which line best supports the answer to Part A?
RL.7.3
PART A
3. Part A: Why does the headmaster invite Sekhar to his home?
RL.7.1
PART B
4. Part B: Which line best supports the answer to Part A?
🔍 Second Read — Look Closer
L.7.4
VOCABULARY
5. Sekhar "saw her wince." Wince most nearly means —
RL.7.4
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
6. Sekhar thinks the headmaster "croaks like a dozen frogs" and is "bellowing like a buffalo." These comparisons are —
RL.7.4
ALLUSION
7. Sekhar recalls that "Harischandra lose his throne, wife, and child because he would speak nothing less than the absolute Truth." Why does Narayan include this allusion?
RL.7.3
INFERENCE
8. When the headmaster suddenly demands the hundred test papers a full week early, the reader should infer that —
RL.7.4
TONE / IRONY
9. The last line says sitting up all night was "a small price to pay for the luxury of practicing truth." The word "luxury" here is —
Track Sekhar with STEAL. His speech is blunt ("It isn't good"); his private thoughts are hilarious and merciless ("croaks like a dozen frogs"); his actions hold to the experiment even when his voice trembles. The effect on others — a wincing wife, an offended colleague, a wounded headmaster — is how Narayan measures the true cost of absolute truth.
🧠 CLOSE INFERENCE
Fred asks: Sekhar says "truth required as much strength to give as to receive." What does he mean — and is he stronger at the end of the story, or just more tired?
Sentence starter: Sekhar means that truth takes strength because __________, and by the end I think he is __________.
📌 Close Reading — Part A / Part B
RL.7.2
PART A
10. Part A: Which statement best expresses a central theme of the story?
RL.7.1
PART B
11. Part B: Which line best supports the answer to Part A?
RL.7.6
PART A
12. Part A: What is the main effect of telling the story through Sekhar's private thoughts?
RL.7.1
PART B
13. Part B: Which line best supports the answer to Part A?
✍️ Grammar — Sentence Construction
Use sentence structure to sharpen your ideas, not just to label grammar terms.
Discover
Simple sentence: one independent clause. Example: Sekhar told the truth.
Compound sentence: two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). Example: The headmaster sang, but Sekhar cringed inside.
Complex sentence: one independent clause and one dependent clause (because, although, when, while, since, if, after, before). Example: Because Sekhar spoke the truth, the headmaster demanded the papers early.
L.7.1
PRACTICE
14. Which sentence is a complex sentence?
L.7.1
PRACTICE
15. Which revision best turns these ideas into a strong compound sentence? "The headmaster was kind. He still punished Sekhar."
Use It — Simple
Write one simple sentence about Sekhar using the word tentatively.
Use It — Compound
Write one compound sentence about the headmaster using but or yet.
Use It — Complex
Write one complex sentence explaining the story's irony.
These words sharpen the comedy and the pressure of the test papers.
Glossary
tid-bit, Thyagaraja, Harischandra, headmaster
Story- and culture-specific terms students need to picture the scene.
🎮 Vocabulary Quiz — 4 Rounds
Each question tests a target vocabulary word directly.
L.7.4
ROUND 1 · MEANING
16. To do something tentatively is to do it —
L.7.4
ROUND 2 · CONTEXT
17. Sekhar's wife serves him a "sullen" face. Sullen most nearly means —
L.7.4
ROUND 3 · NUANCE
18. Sekhar had "shirked" the test papers for weeks. Shirked means he —
L.7.4
ROUND 4 · APPLICATION
19. Which sentence uses apprehensively most effectively?
📚 Paired Text — The Philosophy of the Hard Truth
Genre: FlyingMinds analytical essay · Reading focus: reading a story as a thought experiment
[1] Is it ever right to lie? Two great traditions of ethics give opposite answers, and Sekhar's single day of honesty stages the quarrel between them. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant argued that truth-telling is a categorical imperative — an absolute duty that binds us no matter the cost. In a notorious essay, Kant insisted you must not lie even to a murderer who asks where your friend is hiding, because the moment we permit "useful" lies, the very meaning of a promise dissolves. Vowing to speak "absolute truth whatever may happen," Sekhar is for one day a perfect Kantian — and the ancient king Harischandra, who lost his throne, wife, and child rather than lie, is his legendary model.
[2] Against Kant stand the consequentialists, who judge an act not by a rule but by its results. The thinker John Stuart Mill held that the right action produces the most good and the least harm. A consequentialist would ask of Sekhar's verdict: did the truth help anyone? The headmaster is wounded, a friendship strains, his wife sulks, and Sekhar earns a sleepless night of grading. By Mill's measure, a gentler truth might have produced a far better outcome for everyone involved.
[3] Aristotle offers a third path. For him, truthfulness is a virtue — but so is tact, and virtue lives in the "golden mean" between extremes. The honest person, Aristotle said, tells the truth without either boasting or cruelty. Bluntness that crushes is not the summit of honesty; it is honesty stripped of the companion virtue that should temper it. Modern linguists describe the missing skill precisely: in politeness theory, Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson explain that each of us guards a public self-image they call "face." A blunt verdict is a face-threatening act; a skilled speaker uses mitigation — "your timing is off, but your effort shows" — to deliver the same truth while protecting the listener's face.
[4] So the story is not the simple lesson that "honesty is best." It is a thought experiment that hands you the frameworks and asks you to choose. To analyze any moral story, do exactly that: name the duty, weigh the consequences, and look for the virtue that sits between the extremes.
RI.7.2
PART A · CENTRAL IDEA
20. Part A: What is the central idea of the essay?
RI.7.1
PART B · EVIDENCE
21. Part B: Which sentence best supports the answer to Part A?
RI.7.4
SKILL · POLITENESS THEORY
22. Using Brown and Levinson's politeness theory, Sekhar's reply "Absolutely none, sir" is best described as —
RI.7.3
SYNTHESIS · MATCHING THE FRAMEWORK
23. Which ethical framework best matches the vow that drives Sekhar's whole experiment?
✍️ Writing
Use evidence, not just opinions. Strong writing should show both clear thinking and close reading.
Prompt A — The Cost of Truth
What does Narayan suggest about absolute honesty through what it costs Sekhar? Use at least two examples from the story.
Use this structure: Point · Context and actual evidence · Explanation. Include at least one exact quotation from the story.
Prompt B — Truth vs. Tact
Using both the story and the paired text, argue whether Sekhar was right to tell the headmaster the blunt truth, or whether tact would have served everyone better.
Sentence starter: I believe Sekhar __________, because the story shows __________ and the paired text explains __________.
Prompt C — Sentence Lab
Write three original sentences about the story:
one simple sentence using sullen
one compound sentence about the headmaster's kindness and his revenge
one complex sentence explaining the story's irony
🧠 Think Deeper
No teacher needed — Fred coaches every task here. Work through the analogies, then argue both sides, then carry the idea into the real world.
🔗 Analogies · reasoning
Part 1 — Analogies
Find the relationship in the first pair, then pick the choice that repeats it. These are auto-graded and explained.
Reasoning
TRUTH : THE SUN :: SINGING : ?
Match each idea to the image Narayan uses to picture it.
Reasoning
THE HEADMASTER : SEKHAR :: ?
Pick the pair with the same ironic reversal — warmth that turns into quiet punishment after an honest word.
Reasoning · L.7.4
TENTATIVELY : HESITANTLY :: APPREHENSIVELY : ?
⚖️ Argue both sides · dialectic
Part 2 — Argue Both Sides
Was Sekhar right to tell the absolute truth to his wife and the headmaster — or was his “honesty” just needless cruelty that a kind person would have softened?
Do this: write the strongest case for each side using a quotation, then end with your own verdict. Structure: On one hand… (evidence). On the other hand… (evidence). I conclude…
Fred's two-sided model: Right to be honest: Sekhar keeps a principled vow that truth matters “whatever may happen” (paragraph [1]), and he does it at real cost to himself — his voice is “trembling” and he reflects that truth “required as much strength to give as to receive” (paragraph [9]). This is integrity, not malice. Needless cruelty: Yet his honesty wounds people who meant him no harm. He makes his wife “wince” over breakfast (paragraph [2]) and crushes a generous host who has just laid out “several dishes of delicacies” for him (paragraph [7]), when a kinder phrasing could have told the truth without the sting. Verdict: The strongest reading is that Sekhar is honest but not yet wise: the story does not condemn truth itself, but shows that truth delivered without tact carries a price — the “luxury” he pays for in lost goodwill.
🌍 Real-world transfer
Part 3 — Carry It Into the Real World
Describe a real situation — from school, work, friendship, or the news — where blunt honesty hurt someone or backfired. Then connect it to what Narayan shows about truth and tact.
Sentence starter: A real example of blunt honesty backfiring is __________. This connects to Like the Sun because __________.
Fred's model: A real-world parallel is an employee who tells the boss, in front of the team, that a project they are proud of is worthless — and then finds their workload quietly piled higher afterward. That mirrors Sekhar, who gives the headmaster a brutally frank verdict and the very next day is told “I must positively have them here tomorrow…” — a hundred papers in a day (paragraph [11]). The lesson transfers cleanly: honesty is valuable, but truth that ignores how it lands can cost you goodwill you will need later — which is why Sekhar calls it a “luxury” he pays for (paragraph [11]).