Why Did Lencho Compare Raindrops to New Coins? Full Explanation | CryptoWire
Lencho is the central character of A Letter to God, a short story by Mexican writer G.L. Fuentes and the opening chapter of the NCERT Class 10 English textbook First Flight.
He is a poor but devoted farmer who works a field of ripe corn on a hilltop and depends on a single annual harvest to feed his family.
Throughout the morning, Lencho who knew his fields intimately watched the north-eastern sky, certain that rain was coming. For him a good shower was not just weather; it was the difference between a healthy crop and total ruin.
That is the emotional backdrop to his famous remark about the raindrops.
Why Did Lencho Say the Raindrops Were Like New Coins?
Lencho said the raindrops were like new coins because his profit depended directly on the rain. His corn was ripe and ready, but it still needed water to deliver a full, profitable harvest.
Since each drop helped his crop grow and a healthy crop meant money in his pocket he saw the falling rain as falling wealth.
In his words, These aren’t raindrops falling from the sky, they are new coins. The bigger drops, he said, were ten-cent pieces and the smaller ones were fives. The link in his mind was simple and direct: more rain meant a better harvest, and a better harvest meant prosperity for his family.
What Did Lencho Compare the Big and Small Raindrops To?
Lencho gave the comparison a precise, almost playful detail. He described the big drops as ten-cent coins and the little drops as five cent coins.
By assigning each drop a coin value, he turned the rainfall into a kind of currency raining down on his land. The table below summarises the comparisons used in the story.
Read more: Why Did Lencho Say the Raindrops Were Like New Coins?
