Elementary School Classroom in A Slum
Elementary School Classroom in A Slum
Elementary School Classroom in A Slum
Read the stanzas given below and answer the questions that follow each:
1.Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.
Like rootless weeds, the hair torn around their pallor:
The tall girl with her weighed-down head. The paper-
seeming boy, with rat’s eyes.
Questions
(a)Where, do you think, are these children sitting?
(b)How do the faces and hair of these children look?
(c)Why is the head of the tall girl ‘weighed down’?
(d)What do you understand by ‘The paper-seeming boy, with rat eyes’ ?
Answers:
(a)These children are sitting in the school classroom in a slum which is far far away
from the winds or waves blowing strongly.
(b)The faces of these children look pale. Their uncombed and unkempt hair look like
rootless wild plants.
(c)The head of the tall girl is ‘weighed down’ by the burdens of the world. She feels
depressed, ill and exhausted.
(d)It means that the boy is exceptionally thin, weak and hungry.
Q2. What do you think is the colour of ‘sour cream’ ? Why do you think the poet has used
this expression to describe the classroom walls?
Ans: The colour of ‘sour cream’ is off white. The poet has used this expression to
suggest the decaying aspect. The deterioration in the colour of the classroom walls
symbolises the pathetic condition of the lives of the scholars—the children of this
slum school.
Q3. The walls of the classroom are decorated with the pictures of ‘Shakespeare’ ‘buildings
with domes’, ‘world maps’ and beautiful valleys. How do these contrast with the world of
these children?
Ans: The pictures that decorate the walls hold a stark contrast with the world of these
underfed, poverty-stricken, slum children living in cramped dark holes. Obstacles
hamper their physical and mental growth. The pictures on the wall suggest beauty,
well-being, progress and prosperity—a world of sunshine and warmth of love. But the
world of the slum children is ugly and lack prosperity.
Q4. What does the poet want for the children of the slums? How can their lives be made to
change?
Ans: The poet wants the people in authority to realise their responsibility towards the
children of the slums. All sort of social injustice and class inequalities be ended by
eliminating the obstacles that confine the slum children to their ugly and filthy
surroundings. Let them study and learn to express themselves freely. Then they will
share the fruit of progress and prosperity and their fives will change for the better.
Q2. Why does Stephen Spender use the images of despair and disease in the first stanza of
the poem and with what effect?
Ans: He uses the images of despair and disease to describe the miserable and pathetic
fives of the children living in slums. The faces of these children are pale and lifeless.
They and their hair are like ‘rootless weeds’. The burden of fife makes them sit with
their head ‘weighed down’. The stunted growth is depicted by ‘the paper-seeming bo/
and ‘the stunted unlucky heir of twisted bones’. Their weak bodies recite their fathers’
‘gnarled disease’.
Q3. In spite of despair and disease pervading the lives of the slum children, they are not
devoid of hope. Give an example of their hope or dream.
Ans: The burden of poverty and disease crushes the bodies of these slum children but
not their souls. They still have dreams. Even their foggy future has not crashed all
their hopes. They dream of open seas, green fields and about the games that a squirrel
plays in the tree room.
Q4. How does Stephen Spender picturise the condition of the slum children?
Ans: Stephen Spender uses contrasting images in the poem to picturise the condition
of the slum children. For example:
“A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky Far far from rivers, capes and stars of
words.”
The first line presents the dark, narrow, cramped holes and lanes closed in by the
bluish grey sky. The second fine presents a world of beauty, prosperity, progress,
well-being and openness.
Q5. What is the theme of the poem ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’ ? How
has it been presented?
Ans: In this poem Stephen Spender deals with the theme of social injustice and class
inequalities. He presents the theme by talking of two different and incompatible
worlds. The world of the rich and the ‘civilized’ has nothing to do with the world of
narrow lanes and cramped holes. The gap between these two worlds highlights social
disparities and class inequalities.
Q6. What message does Stephen Spender convey through the poem An Elementary School
Classroom in a. Slum’ ? What solution does he offer?
Ans: Stephen Spender conveys the message of social justice and class equalities by
presenting two contrasting and incompatible worlds. He provides a way out. For
achieving any significant progress and development the gap between the two worlds
must be abridged. This can be done only by breaking the barriers that bind the slum
children in dark, narrow, cramped holes and lanes. Let them be made mentally and
physically free to lead happy lives. Only then art, culture and literature will have
relevance for them.
Q7. Who Ttrd, the ivor/d its world and ho,What does this world contain,?
Ans: The conquerors and dictators change the map of the world according to their
whims and will. They change the boundaries of various nations and shape the ‘map’.
Their fair map is of a beautiful world full of domes, bells and flowers, rivers, capes
and stars.
Q8. Th e poet says. Aria yet. for these Children, these windows, not this map, their world’.
Which world do these children belong to? Which world is irue ecssihlc to them?
Ans: The world of stinking slums is the world that belongs to these poverty-stricken,
ill-fed, under-nourished children. The narrow lanes and dark, cramped, holes or
hovels make their world. The world of ‘domes’, ‘bells’ and ‘flowers’ meant for the
rich is inaccessible to them. They can only dream of rivers, capes and stars.
Q9. Which images of the slums in the third stanza pr sent the picture of social disparity,
injustice and class inequalities.
Ans: The slum dwellers slyly turn in their ‘cramped holes’ from birth to death i.e.
‘from fog to endless nights’. Their surroundings are ‘slag heap’. Their children “wear
skins peeped through by bones.’ Their spectacles are “like bottle bits on stones.” The
image that sums up their harsh existence reads : “All of their time and space are foggy
slum.”
Q10. So blot their maps with slums as big as do,in;” says Stephen Sp,.meter. What does the
poet want to convex?
Ans: The poet notices the creation of two different worlds—the dirty slums with their
narrow lanes and cramped houses which are virtual hells. Then there are islands of
prosperity and beauty where the rich and powerful dwell. The poet protests against the
disparity between the lives of the people in these two worlds. He wants that the poor
should enjoy social equality and justice. The fair ‘map’ of the world should have blots
of slums as big as doom. The gap must be reduced between the two worlds.
Q11. Stephen Spender while writing about an elementary classroom hi a slum, questions
the value of education in such a milieu, suggesting that maps of the world and good
literature may raise hopes and aspirations, which win never be fulfilled. Yet the gown
offers a solution/hope. What is it?
Ans: The slum children are being imparted education in a room whose walls are off-
white in colour but are decorated with the pictures of ‘Shakespeare’, ‘buildings with
domes’, “world maps’ and ‘beautiful valleys’. The maps of the world and good
literature may raise hopes and aspirations. They may try to steal slyly from their
milieu but it is quite unlikely that their hopes and aspirations may be fulfilled. The
only solution/hope for them is to break the artificial barriers that bind and cramp
them. Once free from their milieu, they can enjoy beauty.
Q12. How can powerful persons viz. governor,inspector,visitor may contribute to improve
the lot of slum children?
Ans: Powerful persons like governors, inspectors and visitors may take an initiative
and start abridging the gap between the worlds of the rich and poor. They can play an
important and effective role in removing social injustice and class inequalities. They
should break and dismantle all the barriers that bind these children and confine them
to the ugly surroundings. They will have their physical and mental development only
when they leave the filthy and ugly slums. All good things of life should be within
their reach. They must enjoy the freedom of expression.
Q13. How far do you agree with the statement: “History is theirs whose language is the
sun.”
Ans: This metaphor contains a vital truth. This world does not listen to the ‘dumb and
driven’ people. Only those who speak with confidence, power, authority and vision
are heard and obeyed. Those who create history are people whose ideas and language
can motivate, move, inspire and influence millions of people. In order to be effective,
their language must have the warmth and power of the Sun.