“To the Foot from its Child: Question and Answers” introduction is designed to help students understand the key concepts of Pablo Neruda’s poem and its implications for themes such as innocence, experience, and the journey of life. Read More Plus Two English Question and Answers.
To the Foot from its Child Question and Answers
Question 1.
Bring out the contrast between illusion and reality in ‘To the Foot from its Child’.
Answer:
Pablo Neruda presents his view of ‘life’ using the ‘foot’ as a metaphor for life. He explores life’s experiences as a traveller beginning as a child’s foot until it grows into an adult foot and finally dies. During the course of this journey from life to death as a cycle, the poet tries to delineate man’s ‘dreams’ and how they get crushed in the world by outside forces.
Initially, the infant’s foot is unaware that it is a ‘foot’ and is under the illusion that it can fly like a butterfly or be an apple on a tree. The very same infant’s foot then realizes that it can only serve as a ‘foot’ and it cannot fly like a butterfly or be a fruit. This is the reality. The infant’s foot thus, once it enters the society, is made aware of the reality and it loses its illusions.
Question 2.
Why does the poet refer to the foot’ as being a blind man?
Answer:
The infant’s foot tries to combat reality and faces stones, streets, bits of glass, ladder, paths in the rough earth, which teach the infant’s foot that it is only a ‘foot’ and they take him ‘prisoner’. The foot gets condemned to live inside a shoe. The shoe here stands for the society, the outside forces which discipline the individual in conformity with the norms and customs of the society. The poet refers to the ‘foot as being a blind man’ because once he is put inside the shoe he loses touch with its fellow and is not free to face reality as he »
Question 3.
Explain how the poet uses a foot as a metaphor for life.
OR
Describe how the foot represents an individual’s life, according to the poem.
Answer:
In the poem, Neruda uses ‘foot’ as a metaphor for ‘life’. We see different stages in life beginning with infancy or childhood, maturity, adulthood, old age, and finally death. These stages have been delineated in the poem using ‘foot’ as a metaphor. The poem begins with the infant’s foot. Here, like all children, the infant’s foot does not even know that it is only a foot. It has dream-like imagination and aspirations. That is why it dreams of flying like a butterfly with absolute freedom and enjoy the pleasures of life which are expressed as a wish to become an apple.
However, once the child’s foot comes to face the external world, it becomes aware that it is only a ‘foot’ and cannot become a butterfly. Then it matures into an adult and from adulthood grows old and dies.
The poet describes how the child’s foot which has soft, petal-like toes gets transformed into an adult foot which has toes which resemble eyeless reptiles, and are covered with nails which are calloused and bear faint volcanoes of death.
Finally, having become an adult, it slogs throughout life, relentlessly working in fields, markets, mines and ministries without respite and not enjoying the pleasures of life until it dies and is buried. Thus, the ‘foot’ as a metaphor serves the poet to express his view of life.
Question 4.
Why does the foot feel trapped and stifled inside the shoe?
OR
What happens to the foot when it is condemned to live in a shoe?
OR
Bring out the life of the foot in a shoe as presented in ‘To the Foot from its Child’.
Answer:
The child’s foot is born with a great deal of zest for life and hence it wishes to become an apple on a tree or fly like a bird. But, gradually, as it starts growing, it realizes that it is a ‘foot’ only and cannot become anything else. Then, its spirit loses its battle against the world. It is taken prisoner and is condemned to live in a shoe. Now, having been imprisoned in a shoe, it tries to understand the world, in its own way. It is alone and cannot communicate with its counterpart and gropes blindly in the dark like a blind man. Since it is not in the open, it is not in touch with reality directly.
The society decides what it should understand about ‘life’ or the world outside. Whatever ideas it forms about life have to be formed in the confined space of the shoe. It is here that the child’s spirit becomes aware of its limitations as a human being and understands its role as a social being in human society. That is why it feels trapped and stifled inside the shoe.
Question 5.
Explain the instances that make the child’s foot aware of the obstacles and hardships.
Answer:
The poem narrates the journey of a child’s foot until it becomes an adult foot and beyond until it dies. The journey of the child’s foot is similar to the ‘journey of life’. The poet personifies ‘foot’ and focuses? his attention on the ‘life’ of man, using the foot as the protagonist. ‘Life’ begins in infancy and so even in this poem, ‘life’ begins as an infant’s foot. It is natural that children, who are naive and innocent, do not know that their foot is meant for walking and it has a function to discharge. But, in its innocence, the child dreams of becoming a butterfly or an apple. Therefore, when the child starts walking on a street laden with stones, and bits of glass and paths in the rough earth, the child’s foot is naturally hurt.
Similarly, when it climbs the ladder pressing his soft foot on the pointed edges of the rungs of the ladder, it is hurt and it realizes that it is a foot. Thus, using the metaphor of ‘foot’, the poet conveys the imaginary battle fought between the individual and the realities of life one has to face in society. At this stage, the foot is imprisoned in a ’shoe’. The ‘shoe’ represents the societal norms and traditions. The ‘blind’ adult foot now walks and works without respite until it dies. The different roles or professions have taken up by an individual in society either as a man or woman are expressed metaphorically in the line:
“up above, down below, through fields, mines, markets, and ministries”.
The individual toils hard, scarcely finding time to enjoy ‘love and sleep’. Here also the metaphor of the ‘foot’ enables the poet to express his ideas as seen in the line:
“Scarcely taking time to bare itself in love or sleep”.
The impact of life’s hardships can be seen in the deformed toes of the child’s foe.. The soft nails of quartz become opaque, are bunched together, and look like eyeless reptiles with triangular heads, grow callused, and are covered with faint volcanoes of death.
Question 6.
How are the contrasting image of a child’s foot and foot confined to a shoe brought out in the poem?
OR
Society crushes childhood dreams and confines them to society and its norms. Explain with reference to the poem ’To the Foot from its Child’.
OR
Explain how the foot toils in its shoe until the whole man chooses to stop in ‘To the Foot from its Child’.
Answer:
The child’s foot is naive, and innocent and not yet aware that it is only a foot. That is why it wishes to be a butterfly or an apple. But, as the foot grows, it starts walking and it trods on stones, bits of glass, streets, ladders, and the paths in the rough earth. It soon realizes that it is only a ‘foot’ and it cannot fly or cannot become a bulging apple on a tree. It loses its state of innocence. Its spirit gets crushed and is defeated in realizing its aspirations.
With this awareness and maturity, the child’s foot gets imprisoned in a shoe and gradually attains adulthood. Unlike a child, an adult cannot live as he/she likes. He/She has to live as a member of the society which imposes its own rigid framework on the individual. The shoe symbolizes societal norms and traditions. Inside the shoe, it tries to understand the world alone in isolation. It serves as the foot of a man or woman working in the fields, or market or mines or ministries and toils hard day and night until it dies. The poet wishes to say that the freedom of childhood is lost when a person becomes an adult and faces a life of constant work and struggle.
The impact of this life of struggle and hardships is seen in the differences one notices in a child’s foot and the foot of an adult. The soft nails of quartz seen in an infant’s foot become opaque, are bunched together, and look like eyeless reptiles with triangular heads, grow callused, and are covered with faint volcanoes of death.
Question 7.
How does the poet describe the monotonous life of the individual confined in a shoe?
OR
How does the poem ‘To the Foot from its Child’ bring out the plight of a person dictated by
society?
It is natural that children, who are naive and innocent, do not know that their foot is meant for walking and the ‘foot’ has a function to discharge. Through the use of the ‘foot’ as a metaphor, the poet cleverly brings out the battle between harsh realities of life symbolically expressed as stones, streets, ladder, bits of glass, etc. The child dreams of becoming a butterfly or an apple. So naturally, the metaphor of foot helps the poet to convey his meaning through an imaginary battle fought between the child’s foot and the surfaces on which the child is likely to walk.
The child’s foot is sure to be hurt when it walks on a street laden with stones and bits of glass and paths in the rough earth and when it climbs the ladder pressing his soft foot on the pointed edges of the rungs of the ladder. Then it realizes that it is a ‘foot’. Here, the poet wants the reader to know that the adult world fights against the spirit of the child and makes him become aware of his role as an individual in human society.
At this stage, the foot is imprisoned in a shoe, which means, the child’s consciousness reaches maturity and adulthood. Adulthood is now represented as ‘adult foot’ enclosed in a shoe. The adult foot gropes in the dark and learns about the harsh realities of life like a blind man. Here, it means, unlike the child’s foot which had more freedom than the adult’s, the adult foot has to work in a rigid mold given by the society. The ‘shoe’ represents this framework given by society. Here again, the ‘foot’ as a metaphor comes to his help. Therefore, the poet chooses ‘shoe’ as representing societal norms and traditions.
The blind adult foot now walks and works without respite until he dies. The different professions of men are mentioned. The adult foot may be a man’s foot or a woman’s foot and keeps walking through fields, markets, mines, and ministries, and finally toils hard scarcely finding time to enjoy ‘love’ and ‘sleep’. Here also the metaphor of the ‘foot’ facilitates the expression in the line ‘scarcely taking time to bare itself in love or sleep’. Finally, it ceases to be a ‘foot’ when a man chooses to stop working. Thus, the ‘foot’ as a metaphor has been skillfully used by the poet to evoke the right imagery to suit his meaning.
Question 8.
Trace the stages of the foot’s transformation as portrayed in ‘To the Foot from its Child’.
OR
Bring out the changes that the foot undergoes after being condemned to live in a shoo-in ‘To the Foot from its Child’.
Answer:
‘To the Foot from its Child’ narrates the journey of a child’s foot until it becomes an adult foot and beyond until it dies.
In the first stanza, there are only two lines which express the innocence of the child and its wishes. The child wants to be a butterfly or an apple, but society is harsh and forces the child to become a responsible adult doing responsible adult things.
In the next stanza, the child’s foot walks in the real world and experiences the harsh realities of life. The words, ‘stones, bits of glass, streets, ladders, paths in the rough surface of the earth’ symbolize the forces in society.
When the child’s foot encounters them in a battle, it learns that its role is that of a foot only and it cannot become a butterfly or an apple. The foot is now imprisoned in a shoe, where it grows into an adult. It gets exposed to reality as filtered through the shoe. It suffers loneliness and gradually learns the realities of life groping in the dark like a blind man.
During this life inside the shoe, it loses all the beauty of a child’s foot. Its soft, nice, petal-like toes lose their beauty, become hard, callused, and look like eyeless reptiles.
The ‘foot’, now has grown into an adult foot, keeps on walking, works without respite in fields, markets, mines, and ministries. It toils hard giving up all its worldly pleasures and finally dies. It is then buried. But, as it descends into the ground, it loses its human awareness and does not know that it is not even a foot. So, in its spirit, it is like the child’s foot and dreams of becoming a butterfly or an apple.
Thus, the poet depicts his view of life in the metaphor of a foot, with a clear progression from infancy, to maturity, to adulthood, old age, and finally death.
In conclusion, To the Foot from its Child is a timeless poem that can help us to think about the meaning of life and the importance of living it to the fullest.