An Elementary School Classroom in A Slum Extract Based Questions

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An Elementary School Classroom in A Slum Extract Based Questions

 By-  Stephen Spender

Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow:

1. Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces

 like rootless weeds, the hair was torn around their pallor:

The tall girl with her weighed-down head. The paper-

Seeming boy, with rat’s eyes.

(a)Which children are referred to here?

Ans. The slum children who are sitting in an elementary school are referred to here.

 (b) Explain ‘like rootless weeds’. Identify the literary device.

Ans. Rootless weeds suggest growth devoid of any nurturing. The slum children’s scattered hair look like the haphazard growth of weeds. The literary device is a simile.

 (c) What is the comparison drawn with rat’s eyes?

 Ans. Rat’s eyes suggest eyes searching for food. The poet compares the boy’s eyes with that of a rat because the undernourished boy looks around as if searching for food, security or acceptance.

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  1. ….. The stunted, unlucky heir

of  twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease,

 His lessons from his desk. At the back of the dim class

One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,

Of Squirrel’s game, in the tree room, other than this.

(a)Who is the unlucky heir? Why is he called unluckily?

Ans. The thin slum boy is the unlucky heir. He is so called because he has inherited poverty, despair and disease from his parents.

 (b) Who sits back unnoted? Why?

Ans. A young boy sits at the back. He is different from the others. His eyes like the others in his class are not full of despair but are lost in a world of dreams.

(c) Pick two images each of despair and disease from these lines.

 Ans. The images of despair are, ‘unlucky heir’, ‘dim class’, and that of disease are, ‘twisted bones, gnarled disease’.

  1. On sour cream walls, donations. Shakespeare’s head,

 Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities.

 Belled, flowery, Tyrolese Valley. Open-handed map

 Awarding the world its world.

 (a) What is the colour of the walls? What is it symbolic of?

Ans. The colour of the walls is pale yellow or sour cream. Sour suggests a colour that is dull, decaying and depressing.

(b) Which two words does the poet hint at?

 Ans.The poet hints at two worlds. The world of poverty and disease contrasted with the progressive world represented in the pictures on the walls.

(c) What does ‘donations’, ‘Shakespeare’s head’ and ‘Tyrolese Valley’ suggest?

Ans. The pictures are all donations which represent a world that the slum children are deprived of. Shakespeare’s head or good literature may raise desire which can never be fulfilled. Tyrolese Valley suggests natural beauty which is out of reach of these children.

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  1. …And yet, for these

 children, these windows, not this map, their world,

Where all their future’s painted with a fog,

 A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky

Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.

(a)What is ‘their world’ for these children?

 Ans. Their world is the slums which are characterized by poverty and disease.

 (b) What future is in store for these children?

 Ans. The future for these children is uncertain, bleak and foggy.

 (c) What does ‘lead sky’ symbolize?

 Ans. Lead sky symbolizes pollution and the burden of the industrial world. It also represents a grey and dull existence which comprises the life of the slum children.

  1. Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example

with ships and sun and love tempting them to steal-

For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes

From fog to endless night?

 (a)Why is Shakespeare wicked?

 Ans. Shakespeare represents good literature which uplifts a person’s soul. According to the narrator, he is wicked because he describes a world of kings and noblemen which the children of the slums aspire for but can never reach.

(b) What tempts these children?

Ans. The beautiful world of kings, noblemen, ships, the sun and love tempts these children as they are deprived of these things.

(c) Explain ‘From fog to endless night’.

 Ans. The children in the slums struggle from morning to night merely to exist. It also means that they struggle from the beginning of their life to their death i.e. their life is one of endless struggle and darkness

  1. Break O break open till they break the town

 and show the children to green fields, and

 Run azure on gold sands make their world

History theirs whose language is the sun.

(a) What should they break?

Ans. They should break all barriers and obstructions that hinder the school children’s growth.

(b) What kind of a world does the poet imagine for these children?

Ans. The poet imagines a world where these children run around in the fields on sea beaches in a carefree manner. They should also enjoy the freedom of knowledge and expression.

(c) What does the word ‘sun’ symbolize?

 Ans.’Sun’ symbolizes light and brightness which comes with education. Proper education alone can improve the lives of these slum children.

  1. Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces, [Delhi 2017]

 Like rootless weeds, the hair was torn around their pallor;

The tall girl with her weighed-down head.

(a)Who are these children?

 Ans. These are the children studying in an elementary school classroom in a slum.

(b) Which figure of speech has been used in the first two lines?

Ans. The figure of speech is used in the phrase ‘Like rootless weeds’. It is a simile.

(c) Why is the tall girl’s head weighed down?

 Ans. The tall girl’s head is possibly weighed down by the burdens of her life which have robbed her of her confidence.

(d) What does the word ‘pallor’ mean?

Ans.`Pallor’ refers to the pale and sickly complexion of the children.

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  1. At the back of the dim class [All India 2017]

One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,

 Of squirrel’s game, in the tree room, other than this.

  • Why is the class dim?

 Ans. The class lacks light and electricity. It is a symbol of dullness and the drudgery of the slum.

  • How is the young child different from others?

Ans. The child is sweet and lost in his dreams. He has hope in his eyes of escaping from the grim reality of the slum. He is positive.

  • What is he doing?

 Ans. He is dreaming of a beautiful world and the game of squirrels.

  • What is a tree room?

 Ans. The tree room can be a squirrel hole or a dwelling place in a tree which excites his imagination.

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