CHILDHOOD, ENGLISH LITERATURE, CBSE, Q ANS, POETIC DEVICE

 CHILDHOOD

 

STATE THE FIGURES OF SPEECH AS WE FIND IN CHILDHOOD?

Refrain – a group of phrase which is repeated in the poem

 

When did my childhood go?

Was that the day!

Rationalism – the poet rationalizes the lost childhood when he was eleven and when he found out that hell and heaven don’t exist and are not found in geography.

 

Was it the day I ceased to be eleven,

Was it the time I realised that Hell and Heaven,

Could not be found in Geography,

 

Individuality – In stanza 3, the poet realized that he can use his own mind and can produce his own thoughts. He discovered a sense of individuality in himself.

Antithesis – where two opposite words are used together in a sentence in a poem

 

Hell and Heaven

 

 

Antithesis – where two opposite words are used together in a sentence in a poem

 

Hell and Heaven

 

Inversion – when the subject-verb order is reversed

 

To use whichever way I choose

Alliteration – The occurrence of the same letter of sound at the beginning of closely connected words

 

The time

My mind

Whichever way

Thoughts that

 

Inversion – when the subject-verb order is reversed

 

To use whichever way I choose

 

What according to the poem is involved in the process of growing up?

When a person grows up, he develops rationality, hypocrisy and individuality. Growing up involves becoming an adult with all curses of life wherein the person loses naivety, becomes selfish, crooked and permanently loses ignorance.

 

What is the poet’s feeling towards childhood?

The poet is disappointed and puzzled by the loss of his childhood. He introspects the moment he became a grown-up and lost the innocence of an infant. He expresses his confusion by asking when and where he had lost his childhood.

 

What does the lines in the last stanza depict in the poem?

It went to some forgotten place,

That’s hidden in an infant’s face,

That’s all I know.

The poet aptly describes the heartrending loss of his childhood. He talks about how one can find innocence in an infant’s face. It is a process of life that an individual grows up and slowly starts understanding the concept of this crooked world. He starts knowing the true nature of the people around him. During childhood, a person believes anything readily. When the child grows up and is able to process his own thoughts, he realizes that many things don’t exist the way he thought them to be. Slowly, he loses innocence and becomes argumentative, accommodating and selfish.

‘Childhood is an essential state in the process of growing up, but it can’t go on forever.” Discuss.

Childhood is an important stage in the process of growing up in everybody’s life. As an infant, he is totally dependent on others, but during childhood he gains physical, emotional and mental strength. As the tiny baby grows bigger in size, his rational, individualistic and  other faculties also develop. He develops the faculty during adolescence. But, this is a phenomenon of stepping into adulthood. Once he is an adult, he has already become, selfish, crooked and rationalistic individual. He acquires the reasoning power. His rationalism helps him to decide truth or falsehood, fact and fiction. He acquires a fine capability of analysis and discrimination. Now he can see through persons’ true intentions. He begins to understand the hypocrisy of adults. He gains confidence and becomes an independent thinker.

What question does the poet ask again and again in this poem?

The poet asks the question again and again ‘when did my childhood go?’

The poet has discussed two stages of life – childhood and adulthood. How do we differentiate one from another?

Childhood has been considered by the poet as a blissful period in one’s life, when the child trusts everyone. He is naive, irrational.

Adulthood is marked by rational and creative thoughts, ability to perceive and differentiate and learn new things. In this stage of life one also learns to be double faced and crafty. He turns independent in thought and develops the art of hypocrisy.

What did the poet realise when he crossed the age of eleven years?

As the poet crossed the age of eleven years, he realised that he had lost his childhood and had developed a mind of his own. He readily believed in the existence of hell and heaven as a child. He developed the sudden realisation that in his geography book, there’s no place named heal and heaven.  He comes to know about the non-existence of Hell and Heaven.

How did the poet conclude that Hell and Heaven were imaginary places?

The poet concluded that Hell and Heaven were imaginary places because Geography books contain names of places, but there is no mention of places like Hell or Heaven in these books.

 

How did adults seem to the poet when he was a child?

As a child, the poet considered all the adults as an epitome of love and sincerity. He believed that their love was true and they were ready to do anything for their loved ones. He soon develops the power of observation. He finds out that they speak of love but, they do not act in so loveable manner. Hypocrisy is a part of life, he comes to know.

Bring out the hypocrisy that the adults exhibit with regard to love.

As the poet grew up, he could make out the double standards followed by adults. He realised that though adults preached of love and talked of love, their behaviour was totally different and full of manipulation. They were all hypocrites who behaved differently from the way they talked.

What did the poet notice about independent thinking? How important was this discovery?

As the poet grows up, he starts differing in opinions. He finds that he carries a different opinion from the ones presented to him. This faculty is called individuality which he grows as part of adulthood.

What is the poet trying to convey when he says that childhood is hidden in an infant’s face?

The poet says an infant is really innocent as he trusts everyone and does not try to fool others. The poet brings out this fact by contrasting it with the behaviour of adults, who become manipulative and are hypocrites. As a person develops rational thoughts, his childlike innocence fades away.

According to Markus Natten, when does the child become an adult?

Becoming an adult is a complex process which is associated with physical, mental and social development. A child becomes an adult when he is able to live his own life and take care of his responsibilities individually. He also develops his own thought process, based on which he can form his own beliefs and opinions. Three most important faculties are rationality, hypocrisy and individuality that turns him into a selfish, uncompromising adult.

What is the poet’s feeling towards his childhood?

The poet regards childhood as a period of innocence and bliss. A child sincerely feels that he is free from all evils and that there is really a Hell and a Heaven. A child knows no hypocrisy. There is no difference between his thoughts and actions. In short, childhood is a state of innocence and purity of heart.

How does the poem expose man and present him in true colours?

According to the poet, childhood signifies innocence, purity, softness and love. As a child grows up, these qualities slowly recede. Man adheres to lying, shrewdness, cunningness and hypocrisy.

Adults preach truth and honesty but themselves practise hatred and lying. The simplicity and honesty of childhood evaporates the moment man crosses the threshold of innocent childhood.

 

Write an article in about 150 words on childhood and the process of growing up.

Childhood

by Hiya Chanda

When I was a child the world seemed to be a place of joy and happiness to me. I enjoyed playing in mom’s pal and roaming on my Dad’s shoulder.There was nothing worth worrying about. Whenever I needed anything and cried, somebody consoled me. When I did not like to sit alone, I was always in somebody’s arms. My mother always looked after me. These are my most cherished memories and their simple memories turn me so nostalgic. I would hear lullabies and bed time stories. Those fables, heil and heaven I readily believed.

Childhood is free from cares. There are no duties or responsibilities on the shoulders of a child. A child only eats, drinks, sleeps and plays. Thus, a child lives in the bliss of ignorance and innocence. As we grow in age, worries about studies, choice of profession, shouldering responsibilities etc keep haunting us. Tensions, stress and worries become a part of adult life and the individual forgets to live a carefree life.

Is independent thinking a step towards adulthood? If yes, then how? Explain with reference to the poem ‘Childhood’.

Of course, independent thinking is a step towards adulthood. A child remains ignorant, gullible. He accepts readily anything at this stage. As he gathers experience, he learns the nuances of life. He becomes analytical. He starts asking questions. He slowly discovers that his belief were simply tell-tales having no value in reality.

A child’s thinking is influenced by others. He has no individuality. He is prone to manipulations. Independent thinking makes us what we are. It shapes our personality and we are known among people by the way how we think and what decisions we make.

If we want to stay away from evil people who try to influence our thoughts for their selfish purposes, then only independent thinking can help us. The poet loses his childhood naivety. But, at the same time, he looks confident of his transformation as inevitable as one grows up.

Disclaimer: Images have been taken from the sites of Google.