What is the complete explanation of An Elementary School Classroom in a slum?

Answer 1

I

The poem describes an elementary school in a slum. The children look very pathetic. They are far away from the jubilation that marks childhood days. These slum children are far away from the 'gusty waves' - the strongly blowing winds, away from the lap of nature and open fields. Their faces reflect the sadness and are pale, deprived of any enthusiasm. They look totally worn out and exhausted. These slum children are confined to the dark and dingy walls of the slums. They are 'like rootless weeds' - (simili) These weak looking children with under nourished faces and unkempt hair (scattered all over their face, not neat and tidy) are called rootless as they lack proper nutrition. Moreover, they are unwanted plants which grow on their own without being cared for, totally neglected). Pallor - Pale looking face because of illness.

The tall girl has a 'weighed - down head' as she is burdened with the load of poverty and the trials and tribulations of life. Infact she is so subdued and suppressed that her head had bowed down with the burden of her misfortunes. The 'paper thin' - extremely thin boy (shows under nourished) has 'rat's eyes' because the poor undernourished boy is deprived of all the basic amenities of life. He is timid like a rat and full of anxiety, he searches for food and security (This is a metaphor). This unfortunate boy suffers from malnutrition and his growth is also 'stunted' - not properly developed. He has also inherited from his father 'twisted bones' - bent and distorted bones. He has inherited the poverty, disease and despair from his parents. His body is also deformed because of the twisted bones which he has inherited. He appears to be as sick as his parents. Therefore, his 'twisted bones', recite 'a fathers gnarled disease' (gnarled means - twisted and rough, covered with hard lumps). He sits on his desk listening to the lessons.

There is a sweet tender looking student who sits at the back of the class - the class which is very dimly lit - not proper lightning; this boy is different from the others as 'his eyes live' in a dream - he is dreaming and probably thinking about a better future. He is lost in his own world, therefore, not sad like the others. This boy thinks of the 'squirrel's game' (metaphor). He wants to enjoy and play freely like the squirrel in the garden outside. The squirrel climbs trees and hides in their holes. The boy also dreams to be free but he cannot as he must sit in the dull and dreary classroom. In the boys imagination 'tree room' - the hollow in a tree, is full of fun, curiosity and mystery. This is in contrast to the gloomy classroom.

II

The classroom is not well maintained. The walls are pale cream which were painted long ago with the help of donations make the place look more miserable and sad. Probably there is a portrait of Shakespeare on the wall. This is ironical as it is put up in a place where there is no serious teaching - there is minimal education. These children in the slum elementary school will never be able to taste the joys of literature and it may raise hopes and aspirations which will never be fulfilled.

'Cloudless dawn' and 'civilized dome' suggest the monotonous life in the slum. These slums are surrounded by the civilized city and the children cannot experience the beauty of the sky at dawn and are unaware of it. All around them are concrete structures of the cities. The life in the slum contrasts with the cloudless sky at dawn and concrete structures which override the cities.

There is also a picture of a beautiful valley full of sweet fragrant flowers and these children of the slum will never be able to experience this beauty. They are deprived of this beauty as they are condemned to live in the slums amidst garbage. The 'open-handed map' in the classroom contrasts with their world. The world given to us by god is full of all the bounties whereas the world of these slum children is full of poverty and hunger. The world which they see is not the real world. Their world is confined to the narrow, dusty streets of the slum. The map in the classroom gives them hopes and aspirations and motivates them to explore the world but they will never be able to achieve that world. These children can get the glimpse of the outside world from the windows and it is far beyond their reach. They are far away from nature. These slum children have a bleak and foggy future in store for them. 'Their future is painted with a fog' - it is blurred by hopelessness. There is no hope for the slum children. Instead of the normal blue sky they live under the 'lead sky' - dark and dull, polluted - shows there is no hope for them. The atmosphere hints at their monotonous life and the slum children remain confined throughout their lives confined to the filth and dirt of the narrow slum streets. They are away from the glory of natural beauty of the rives, mountains, stars …

III

The children of the slum are fighting the battle of life unarmed. They are troubled by disease and despair. For them Shakespeare is 'wicked' and 'map' a bad example'. The literary excellence of Shakespeare and the scenic beauty portrayed in the map cannot relieve them from their despair. For these slum children, literary excellence is a far-fetched thing and hence seems wicked. The map on the wall gives them false aspirations as it makes them aware of the beautiful world given by god. The world of these children is confined to the narrow streets of the slums. Therefore, map is 'a bad example'. They feel cheated in being deprived of the thrilling sensations of the sun, the ships, and the emotions of love. The 'ship', 'sun' and 'love' symbolize joy and happiness which these children are deprived of. Their only experience is that of hunger and poverty. To reach out to the world beyond, these children are sometimes tempted to adopt wrong means even stealing to fulfill their dreams.

These slum children live in cramped holes, striving and struggling for survival in the small, dirty rooms from 'fog to endless night' - from foggy mornings till long endless nights, trying to male both ends meet. They live in unhealthy, filthy holes.

'Shyly turn' - secretly turn around in their cramped holes trying to spend endless nights. The slum children live on 'slag heaps' - piles of waste material after metal has been extracted from rock. Their world is full of dirt and garbage and they spend their life raking these 'slag heaps'.

The children 'wear skins peeped through by bones' - they are very weak and undernourished. They look like skeletons as their bones peep through their thin skin.

They wear 'spectacles of steel with mended glass' - discarded spectacles by the rich, mended (repaired) and worn.

Their life is like 'bottle bits on stones - shattered and broken like bits of bottle on a stone. They are deprived of even the basic amenities of life. Their world is comprised of the foggy slums where they live nightmares. Slums are the reality for these children, their home, where they spend their life. For them life is worse than death. These slums are stalking the world just like death stalks victims anytime anywhere.

The maps displayed in their classroom are no reality for them. They cannot locate their slum in that map. It is urgently required to give these slum inhabitants means and opportunities to lead a dignified and civilized life and bolt out these slums.

IV

The elementary school in the slum exists for name sake. The infrastructure is poor with hardly any serious teaching. The school springs in activity only when a governor, a school inspector or a visitor comes on a round of the school. The administrative machinery of the school also gears up at that time. Then the map becomes their window from where they can see the world beyond their slums. Since they are confined to the slums, these sights and glimpses are shut upon them as they are deprived of all opportunities and means. Their lives are shut up in the cemeteries of these slums where they slither and slog to make both ends meet. 'These windows shut upon their lives like catacombs'. (Catacombs are underground tunnels used for burying dead people) 'Break O break open till they break the town' - This suggests that the poet hopes that these children will break free from their morbid life, from the chains of the slums. He appeals to those in power to liberate these children from the miserable slums and enable them to breathe in the fresh, beautiful and healthy environment away from the foggy slums. They should be able to bask in the open green fields and let them run free on the golden sands. Their world should not be confined to the horrendous and gory slums. The poet visualizes freedom for these children. He wants a carefree life where they get economic and social justice, where they have the right to be happy. These slum children should be able to enjoy the fundamental right of education otherwise their lives will be miserable and unfulfilled without the world of books. They should be able to learn not from the books alone but also from the world, the nature around them.

The poet ends on a note of positivity and wants opportunities to be available to these children. The people who strive for knowledge are the ones who create history. The ones who are let free are the ones who will create history. People who outshine others, who glow like the sun, who break free from the constraints of their restricted life are the ones who create history.

Answer 2

Deals with social injustice and class inequalities The poet describes the plight of the slum children. They are destined to be poor, with no escape from it.He distinguishes the elite from the poor.The poem also discusses about the shear negligence of the Govt. the authorities etc towards the poor.The poem also highlights the importance of education and the poet says that the fruits of education and the freedom should reach this downtrodden society.

Answer 3

Stephen Spender highlights the plight of slum children by using vivid images and apt words to picture a classroom in a slum. Through this he touches, in a subtle manner, the themes of social injustice and inequalities.

Lines 1, 2

The opening line of the poem uses an image to contrast the slum children's faces with those of others. The image used is 'gusty waves' indicating brightness, verve and animation. But these are missing from faces of these children. The next image of 'rootless weeds' produces double effect. 'Weeds' indicate being unwanted and 'rootless' indicates not belonging. The slum children are like 'rootless weeds' unwanted by society and not belonging to society. Their uncombed hair fall on their pale faces.

Lines 3 to 8

Next, a few of the slum children are described. There is a tall girl whose head is weighed-down with sadness, disinterestedness or shame or a mixture of all the three. She is probably over-aged for the class. Another boy is thin, emaciated like paper and his eyes pop out from his thin body looking furtive like rat's eyes. He seems to have inherited stunted and twisted growth of bones from his father. Spender has used the word 'reciting' to show that instead of studying/reciting, a normal activity in school, the boy had only his inherited crippling disease to show/recite in the class. This could suggest that the boy's condition seem to have arisen because of his poverty especially his inability to avail heath services at the right time. Right at the back of the badly lit room is an unnoticed young boy. He is probably too young for poverty to have stifled his childish imagination. He daydreams of the squirrel's game and about the tree house, absent mentally from the classroom.

Lines 9 to 12

Spender then describes the classroom. The word 'sour' used to describe the cream walls of the classroom indicates its derelict condition. Contradicting this state and the slum children are Shakespeare's head indicating erudition, the picture of a clear sky at dawn and a beautiful Tyrolese valley indicating beauty of nature and hope, dome of an ancient city building standing for civilization and progress and a world map awarding the children the world. The lines "Open-handed map / Awarding the world its world" could refer to the map of the world hanging on the wall of the classroom giving/showing (awarding) everyone (the world) the world out there to explore and know (its world).

Lines 13 to 16

But the world of the slum children is the limited world that can be seen though the windows of the classroom and not what the map promises. All these seem ironic when contrasted with the misery and hopeless condition of the slum children. Their future is foggy, bleak and dull. Their life/world is confined within the narrow streets of the slum enclosed by the dull sky far away from rivers, seas that indicate adventure and learning and from the stars that stand for words that can empower their future. 'Lead sky' means a dullsky or a dimly lit sky. This symbolises the bleak, dull life and future of the slum children.

Lines 17 to 24

The poet feels that the head of Shakespeare and the map are cruel temptations for these children living in cramped houses (holes), whose lives revolve around (slyly turns) dullness (fog) and hopelessness (endless night) as they imagine and long for (steal) adventure(ships), for a better future (sun) and for love. Their emaciated wasted bodies compared to slag (waste) heaped together seemed to be wearing the clothes of skin covering their peeping bones and wearing spectacles of steel with cracked glasses looking like bottle bits mended. The slum is their map as big as the doom of the city buildings and their life (time and space) foggy and dim. The poet repeatedly uses the word fog to talk about the unclear, vague and dull life of the slum children.

Lines 25 to 32

The only hope of a life beyond the slums that enclose their lives like catacombs is some initiative by the governor, inspector of schools or a visitor. The poem ends with the poet fervently hoping that slum children will have access to better education and a better way of life. He uses the words 'Break o break open' to say that they have to break out from the miserable hopeless life of the slum world so that they can wander beyond the slums and their town on to the green fields and golden sands (indicating the unlimited world). These can become their teacher and like dogs lapping up food hungrily, they can learn directly (run naked) from the open pages (leaves) of nature and the world which is sustained (whose language) by the sun standing for energy and life.

Answer 4

As the poem was written during the American Civil Rights Movement it vividly depicts the hardships and struggles of proletarians, without using the words proletarians and bourgeoisie

Answer 5

poetic devices used in this poems are simile, metaphor, contrast.