To the Foot from its Child

Background:
‘To the Foot from its Child’ is the translated English version of the original poem ‘Al Pie Desde
Su Nino’ written by Pablo Neruda and translated into English by Alastair Reid. [The poem
appears in the collection of poems titled ‘Estravagaris’ published in 1958. ‘Extravagaris’ (Book
of Vagaries) is the English title given by Reid].
To the Foot from its Child Summary in English
‘To the Foot from its Child’ by Pablo Neruda is a narrative-descriptive poem which narrates the
journey of a child’s foot until it becomes an adult foot and beyond until it dies. Besides narrating
the experiences of the adult foot until its death, the poem also describes the changes that the
child’s foot undergoes until it becomes an adult foot.
The journey of the child’s foot is similar to the ‘journey of life’. The poet uses the ‘foot’ as a
metaphor and conveys his view of life. This metaphor helps the poet to convey the idea of how
the child’s spirit gets crushed through the challenges and restrictions that life places upon him.
Thus, by personifying the foot, the poet expects the reader to compare the experience of the foot
to the whole person’s hopes and dreams as well as to the realities of everyday life. By and large
one can infer that the poem is basically a criticism of how people force children to grow in
society and forget all their dreams and aspirations. The child wants to be a butterfly or an apple,
but society is harsh and forces the kid to become a responsible adult doing responsible adult
things.
The transition of the child’s foot into an adult foot and then until its death can be studied under
four stages conveniently. The four stages are
1. Childhood (Lines 1 – 2):
The first stanza describes the characteristic features of the child’s foot. It is an infant’s foot and it
does not know that it is a ‘foot’ at all. It lacks awareness and hence it dreams of unlimited
possibilities. It would like to be a ‘butterfly’ or an ‘apple’. The foot has an optimistic view of
life.
2. Experiencing Reality (Lines 3 – 16):
Here the poet highlights the impact of time on the child. As the infant’s foot starts growing in the
outside world, it begins to experience the harshness and pain of life while walking. When it steps
over, “stones and bits of glass, / streets, ladders / and the paths in the rough earth, it learns that its
role is that of a foot the same way people become aware of their role in life. It realizes that it can
neither fly like a butterfly nor become a bulged apple on the branch of a tree. The child’s foot has
now discovered that it is only a ‘foot’, its spirit loses its battle against the world, is taken
prisoner, and is condemned to live in a shoe. It also means 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.
Now, having been imprisoned in a shoe, it gradually 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. The ‘foot’ is not in the open and whatever ideas it forms about life, are formed in
the confined space of the shoe. Here, it means, it is not in touch with reality directly. The society
decides what it should understand about ‘life’ or the world outside. Gradually, the foot adapts
itself to its world and learns to cope with the harsh realities of life.
3. Maturity (Lines 17 – 46):
In this part of the poem the poet gives a graphic description of the changes seen in the child’s
foot during its transition from a child’s foot to ‘adult foot’. The ‘soft nails of quartz’ in the
child’s foot gradually grow hard and change themselves into an ‘opaque’ substance ‘hard as
horn’. The ‘tiny petaled toes’ of the child’s foot ‘grow bunched and out of trim’. The toes in the
adult foot appear like ‘eyeless reptiles’. Later they grow harder and become callused.
In this stanza, the poet attempts to let the reader know that as the child grows into an adult it
becomes less open to reality. It also means that people grow harder both physically and
emotionally. The phrase ‘faint volcanoes of death’ suggests that the foot comes to appreciate
‘mortality’. Thus, we find that the child’s foot has now been transformed from a beautiful form
into a warped and ugly one.
The poet then describes the journey of an adult foot until its death. It is now like an eyeless
reptile. Hence he calls it a ‘blind thing’. The adult foot is now in the harsh world outside,
suggesting that the adult gets trapped in the routines of everyday life or the humdrum
commonality of existence. It is now less capable of enjoyment and finds life difficult in every
walk of life. It slogs and slogs either as a man’s foot or as a woman’s foot working in the field or
market or mines or ministries. It toils in the shoe, day and night, scarcely finding time to enjoy
the pleasures of life or sleep. It works without respite and finally meets with death.
4. Death and Rebirth (Lines 47 – 53):
Soon after the death, the adult foot gets buried. It goes down into the underground. It finds
everything dark there. It also does not know that it is dead and has ceased to be a foot. When the
foot dies and is buried, its consciousness is childlike again. Therefore, the foot revisits the
possibilities of flying like a butterfly or becoming an apple. Here it means that people consider
the possibility of an after-life.
To sum up, the freedom of childhood is lost when a person becomes an adult and is exposed to a
life of constant work and struggle. Outside, uncontrollable forces have the power to direct one’s
life and thus ‘life’ in society takes away people’s free spirits until they are freed again by death.
The human promise is not fulfilled by those whom society enslaves and mistreats.The poet
imagines that the naked foot of a boy, innocent still of the habituations of social society does not
know that it is a foot, or a butterfly or an apple
Only through a long process of denial of our embodied natures, beginning with the simple act of
wearing shoes and thus denying contact with the earth does the boy become a man. However,
upon being buried, he still does not know if he will fly or become an apple.
Poetic devices
Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break;
rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example;
“Those smooth toe nails
Of quartz in a bunch,
Got harder, they changed into
An opaque substance, into hard horn
And the child’s little petals.”
Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. The poem
shows the use of imagery such as “But this blind thing kept going”, “this foot worked with its
shoes” and “because there everything was dark.”
Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects
that are different. The poem shows the beautiful metaphor of the foot of a child and its lifecycle.
Some other metaphors are such as butterfly as the foot is compared to it.
Personification: The poet has also personified the foot, showing it has life and emotions of its
own.
Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic
meanings that are different from literal meanings. The poem shows the use of the symbols such
as rocks, pieces of glass, the streets, and the stairways to show obstacles that a man encounters in
life.
Simile: The poem shows the use of personification such as: exploring life like a blind man.
Question 1.

What would the foot like to be?

Answer:

The foot would like to be a butterfly or an apple.

Question 2.

What does time teach the child?

Answer:

Time teaches the foot that it cannot fly and also cannot be a fruit on the
branch of a tree.

Question 3

Why does the child’s foot feel defeated?

Answer:

The child’s foot feels defeated because it has to live like a prisoner,
condemned to live in a shoe, and it can never be free to escape from the
difficulties of life.

Question 4

Mention the words that convey the real experiences of the foot.

Answer:

The words ‘stones and bits of glass, streets, ladders, and the paths in the
rough earth’ convey the real experiences of the child’s foot.

Question 5

Identify the lines in the poem that suggest the transformation of the foot.
Answer:

Lines 17 – 28 suggest the transformation of the foot.

“These soft nails

Of quartz ………..A coarsening hard to accept.”

Question 6

What does the line ‘until the whole man chooses to stop’ mean?

Answer:

The line, ‘until the whole man chooses to stop’ means until the person dies.

To the Foot from its Child Comprehension II

Question 1.

We think of a foot as a part of the human body, but Neruda says ‘To the Foot
From its Child’. Why?

Answer:

We think of a foot physically as belonging to a person but Neruda sees in a

philosophical way and says “To The Foot From Its Child”. Though it belongs to
a person physically, philosophically like the child who is the symbol of
innocence, the foot also does know about its future. But in adulthood, it faces
many challenges of life and gets an overall experience and leads a
meaningful life until the end. Finally, it is attacked by diseases and
surrendered to death.

Question 2.

Pick out the expressions that suggest the child’s imagination is fertile.

Answer:

The expressions, ‘to be a butterfly’, or ‘an apple’, ‘can not fly’, ‘cannot be a
fruit bulging on the branch’ suggest that the child’s imagination is fertile.

Question 3.

What contrasting descriptions of the foot does the poem offer? Why?

Answer:

The poet Pablo Neruda presents a contrasting description of a child’s foot

and an adult’s foot so as to delineate the changes that are seen in a person’s
life as he or she changes from an infant into an adult, until his death. Initially,
the child or the infant’s foot has soft nails of quartz and its toes are tiny, soft,
and rounded at the tips like the petals of some flowers.

As the child learns to walk and starts walking on stones, bits of glass, streets,
ladders and the rough surface of the earth, the child’s foot becomes aware of
its role. It learns that it is a foot and cannot become a butterfly or a bulging
fruit on a tree. Once it realizes that it is a foot, it is defeated in realizing its
aspirations and gets imprisoned in a shoe. Inside the shoe, it tries to
understand the world in its own way, alone, like a blind man groping in the
dark. During this period its 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.

These changes happen because, once the child’s foot becomes an adult’s
foot, it walks as the foot of a man or woman and keeps walking in the fields
as a farmer, or as a grocer in the markets, or as a miner in the mines or as a
church minister or a government worker, until its death. Thus, the foot
experiences the hardships of life and loses its ‘soft’ and flowery petal-like
form.

Question 4.

The poem begins with the idea that a child’s foot is not yet aware that it is
afoot; at the end, the foot is unaware that it had ceased to be afoot. What is
the poet trying to convey through these statements?

OR

Explain the similarity between the foot’s early life and its end as depicted in
‘To the Foot From its Child’.

Answer:

In this poem, ‘foot’ is a metaphor for ‘life’. The poet Neruda using the foot as
a metaphor to explore ‘life’ through its various stages from infancy through
childhood until death.

When the poem begins, the ‘foot’ is the infant’s foot which suggests man’s
‘childhood’. The child’s foot does not know that it is a foot. This state refers
to the innocence of childhood where ‘Man’ has many dreams and aspirations.
The child’s wish to become a butterfly or an apple stands for man’s
aspirations and dreams. Once the child’s foot enters the real world, it starts
walking over stones, bits of glass, streets, ladders, and the rough surface of
the earth.

Thus, as the child grows over a period of time, the child’s foot realizes that it
is only a ‘foot’ and cannot become fruit or a butterfly. Then, since it has to
serve its role as afoot, it is imprisoned in a shoe. Inside the shoe, it tries to
understand the world alone, in isolation. The child’s foot, as it grows old,
serves as the foot of a man or a woman working in the fields, or market or
mines or ministries and toils hard day and night until it dies. When it dies,
the foot loses its human awareness and that is why when it is buried the foot
again gets its child-like innocence. It again dreams of becoming an apple or a
butterfly. It is this journey from childhood through adulthood and the final
death that the poem focuses on.

Pablo Neruda is saying that life and death are part of a continuous cycle.
Secondly, 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.
Thus, life takes away people’s free spirits until they are freed again by death.

Question 5.

How does Neruda describe the busy life of the individual as represented by
the foot?

Answer:

The ‘foot’ is used as a metaphor for life and the foot refers to the foot of an
individual. Once the child develops into an adult, the adult keeps on walking
without respite either as a man or as a woman. The individual spends his life
working either as a farmer in a field, or as a miner in mines, or as a
salesperson in the market or as a government servant or as a church
minister. This way the individual toils hard in society until his death.

Question 6.

What does the last stanza of the poem mean? Can you think of parallels in
nature?

Answer:

In this poem, ‘foot’ is used as a metaphor for ‘life’. Life refers to the life of a
human being as seen from his infancy until his death. Pablo Neruda gives his
view of ‘life’ and ‘death’ in this poem. The poem does not begin with the
beginning of life in the womb of its mother but from the time after it has
taken birth on the earth. The poem covers the period of its infancy to death
and beyond. The ‘foot’ as portrayed in the poem refers to the child’s foot.
Since a child is not aware of its limitations and lives in a dream world of
imagination, the child’s foot wishes to fly like a butterfly or become a bulging
apple on the branch of a tree. Over a period of time, it realizes that it is only
a foot and its role is only to serve as a foot.

The poet then refers to the ‘adult hood’ after death or an individual after
death. Once a human being dies, he or she is normally buried. It is this burial
of the dead body of the individual that is expressed in the line “it descended
underground unaware, for there, everything was dark”. Once the ‘foot’ or the
individual dies, it loses its human awareness and goes back to its child-like
innocence. This is expressed in the sentence ‘It never knew it had ceased to
be a foot’. That is why, like a child’s foot which is not aware that it is only a
‘foot’, it aspires to become a butterfly and fly or become an apple.

One can find several parallels in nature. All living beings born on the earth
pass through the cycle of birth and death. A seed germinates to give a
seedling. The seedling grows into an adult plant, may become a tree or a
shrub, and die. Its seeds bring a similar plant to life again. Similarly, the eggs
of animals hatch and bring forth their young ones which grow, mature, lay
eggs and later die. Their eggs bring back similar animals to life again.

To the Foot from its Child Comprehension III

Question 1.

Examine how Neruda’s poem works out the contrast between colourful
dreams and the humdrum reality of life.

OR

The poem ‘To the Foot From its Child’ represents the conflict between illusion
and reality. Elaborate.

Answer:

The poem, ‘To the Foot from its Child’, presents a contrast between colourful
dreams and the humdrum reality of life. The poet conveys his view of life
through his description of a foot. The foot is a metaphor for expressing the
crushing of a child’s spirit through the challenges and restrictions that life
places upon him. One can undoubtedly infer that the poem is basically a
criticism of how people force children to grow in society and forget all their
dreams and imaginations.
With a view to delineating the forces that capture the child’s freedom and
aspirations, the poet begins the poem making a statement directly that the
child’s foot, which is not aware that it is a foot, would like to be a butterfly or
an apple. From this one can infer that man’s spirit dreams of enjoying
unlimited freedom in this world but it comes to know that it cannot enjoy
unlimited freedom and has to pass through several obstacles before it
matures into an adult.

But, in time, stones and bits of glass, streets, ladders, paths in the rough
earth go on teaching the foot that it cannot fly. As the infant is growing and
developing into a mature adult, he is exposed to the harsh realities of life
which are metaphorically expressed as stones, bits of glass, ladder, street,
etc. These are the problems and obstacles an individual has to face. Thus,
once the child becomes a boy, an adolescent, and an adult, the problems of
life teach the individual that he is a ‘mortal’ and his powers are limited and
can only serve the society as a member like other human beings. This sense
is expressed in the line ‘that it cannot fly, cannot become a fruit and is
defeated, falls in the battle, is a prisoner condemned to live in a shoe’. Here,
the ‘shoe’ can be taken to mean the human society that regulates his mind
and activities.

Wearing the shoe refers to the infant becoming a mature adult. Soon after
entering adulthood, the individual explores ‘life’ within the shoe. He loses
touch with the reality of the outside world but experiences the world through
the eyes of society. This again means that a lot of restrictions are imposed on
the individual. Now that he is an adult he keeps on walking without respite
through the fields, mines, markets, and ministries. The line ‘this foot toils in
its shoe, scarcely taking time to bare itself in love or sleep’ expresses the
fact that once he realizes that he is a man destined to live in a society, he
learns to face the humdrum realities of life. He has no time to let his human
spirit indulge in ‘love’ and ‘sleep’. He is a prisoner and keeps on working until
he dies. Once he dies his spirit loses its human awareness and is once again
as free as the children.

Question 2.

Neruda’s poem is a salute to the ordinary human being, who continues with
life braving all odds. Do you agree? Give reasons.

Answer:

Yes. In this poem, Neruda tries to delineate the journey of human ‘life’ from
its infancy to death and beyond. With a view to expressing the changes that
the ‘life spirit’ undergoes through its journey from an infant to an adult and
beyond death, Neruda uses ‘foot’ as a metaphor. That is why he calls ‘life’
during infancy as the infant foot and the life spirit of an adult as the adult
foot.

The whole poem can be summed up as the ‘surrender’ of life force to societal
pressures. During infancy, the child’s spirit dreams of infinite possibilities and
hence dreams of becoming a fruit or a butterfly. Once it starts growing in
society the harsh realities of life expressed as ‘stones, bits of glass, ladder,
and rough surface of the earth’, teach the infant spirit that it is a ‘foot’ which
means ‘you have a role’ to play in the society and ‘you are an individual
subservient to the whims and fancies of the society’. Once the infant spirit
gradually accepts its defeat and tries to live in conformity with the norms of
the society, it becomes an adult. This is expressed metaphorically as the
‘foot being imprisoned in a shoe’.

Once you become a member of the society you learn to live like others,
giving up your pleasures and gradually you get to know the realities of life.
You go on slogging throughout your life without indulging in ‘love and sleep’
which symbolically represent your rights on this earth. You forego your rights
and live like an adult and serve the society until you die and you get your
freedom after your death. As long as your life spirit is in your body you have
human awareness and you are aware of your limitations. Once you die you
lose human awareness and your spirit is free to enjoy its freedom.

In the poem, Neruda does not speak of the possibilities of the human spirit
‘rebelling’. Nor does he say that human spirit is being crushed by oppressive
forces; the human spirit does not commit suicide. On the contrary, he
describes the journey of the human spirit as an infant’s foot until it becomes
an adult foot and after its death how it becomes free again. From this, it can
be argued that Neruda’s poem is a salute to the human spirit for braving all
odds and completing one’s cycle of life and death peacefully, and not
rebelliously.

Question 3.

Is Neruda criticizing how society crushes childhood dreams and forces people
into rigid moulds?

OR

“Society crushes dreams of individuals and condemns them to live in

captivity.” Explain with reference to ‘To the Foot from its Child’.
Answer:

Yes, to some extent. In this narrative-descriptive poem, Neruda has

attempted to delineate the predicament of man as a prisoner enslaved by
society. Using ‘foot’ as a metaphor for ‘life’, he narrates the journey of life
from that of an ‘infant foot’ to an ‘adult foot’ until its death and after. In the
first two lines itself, the poet declares the wish of childhood. The infant’s foot
is not aware that it is a ‘foot’ and hence would like to be a butterfly or an
apple. These two objects – ‘butterfly’ and ‘apple’ – together suggest that the
infant’s foot thinks of complete freedom to become whatever it wants. Being
born a human being it cannot aspire to become a butterfly or an apple.

From this, we can infer that there is some restriction imposed on us by birth
itself. This is expressed in the line ‘it is not aware that it is afoot’. The infant
food, once it starts growing, is exposed to the ways and means of the world.
We live in human society and nature, the words ‘stones, bits of glass, streets,
ladders, and the paths in the rough earth’ refer to man’s ways of living. This
exposure to man’s style of living brings awareness in the child that it is a
foot. The poet suggests that the infant’s foot is engaged in a battle with the
society and ‘adults’ crush the child’s playful spirit and imprison it in a shoe.
This stage refers to the way the child gets acclimatized to living in human
society.

Once it wears the ‘shoe’, which means, it accepts its identity as ‘man’, a
member of the human society, he starts exploring the human world alone,
groping in the dark like a blind man. There is a difference in the way an adult
explores the world. As a child, it thinks of infinite possibilities; but, as an
adult, it is aware of its limitations. This means the society has been
successful in crushing childhood dreams and forcing the life spirit into the
rigid moulds of society.

Since the whole poem only describes various changes undergone by the
human spirit, we cannot say that Neruda is criticizing society for its
stranglehold on the human spirit. Secondly, Neruda also says that the child’s
foot does not know that it is a foot. This means, even Neruda knows that the
child is born a human being and is going to live in human society. Thirdly,
nowhere in the poem does Neruda say anything against societal forces.
However, Neruda sympathises with ‘Man’ at one point. He says, ‘this foot
toils in its shoe scarcely taking time to bare itself in love or sleep’. These
lines indicate that Neruda only sympathises with man’s predicament and
does not criticize society.
Question 4.

‘Foot’ is a keyword in the poem. Comment on Neruda’s skillful use of the

word and its associations in terms of imagery to convey his ideas.

OR

Highlight the imagery used to bring out life’s hardships that deform the
child’s foot.

Answer:

In this poem, as the title ‘To the Foot from its Child’ suggests, ‘foot’ is the
keyword in the poem. The poet uses ‘foot’ as a metaphor for his view of ‘life’.
The poet personifies the ‘foot’ and focuses his attention on the ‘life’ of man,
using the ‘foot’ as the protagonist. ‘Life’ begins in infancy and so even in the
poem, ‘life’ begins as an infant’s foot.

It is natural that children, who are naïve and innocent, do not know that their
foot is meant for walking and it 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 mould 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.

Additional Question 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.

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 naïve 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 wit1 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

Answer:

The child’s foot is naïve, 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 naïve 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 mould 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.

I. Answer the following questions in about 200 words each:

Question 1.

The poem ‘To the Foot from its Child’ depicts the progression from childhood
through adulthood to old age and finally, death. Discuss.

OR

The poem ‘To the Foot from its Child’ is a comment on the journey of human
life. Elucidate.

OR

Trace the stages of the foot’s transformation as portrayed in ‘To the Foot
from its Child’.

Answer:

In the poem ‘To the Foot from its Child’, Pablo Neruda expresses his view of
life using the metaphor of ‘foot’. The poem begins with a description of the
child’s naivety. The child’s foot does not know that it is a foot. It dreams of
unlimited possibilities. It wants to become a butterfly enjoying unbridled
freedom and enjoying the pleasures of life symbolized by the apple.

The poet expresses the experience of the child’s foot when it is exposed to
reality in the real world. It walks over stones, streets, ladders, bits of glass,
paths in the rough surface of the earth. All these symbolically stand for
obstacles, problems, difficulties, and hurdles that one encounters in real life.
When the child’s foot faces these realities, it attempts to fight them, and it
becomes aware that it was in an illusory world and it does not have infinite
possibilities in life but has to serve as a foot only.

It Is also convinced that it cannot become a butterfly or an apple. The

outside forces capture him and he is imprisoned in a shoe. Now, from that of
an infant’s foot, it has grown to be an adult and now the adult has been
forced to live like any human individual.

Then, we get a description of the changes that the child’s foot undergoes
inside the shoe. Its nice, soft, petal-like toes lose their ‘lustre’ and the nails
become harder, the toes grow bunched and look like eyeless reptiles, grow
callused and are covered with faint volcanoes of death. Inside the shoe, the
adult foot is like a blind man groping in the dark. This state depicts the
helplessness of man when he faces the harsh realities of life as a member of
society.

He slogs without respite and keeps on walking, until his death. He works in
fields, markets, mines, and ministries either as a man’s or a woman’s foot.
He does not find time to enjoy his rightful pleasures of life like ‘love’ and
‘sleep’. Finally, one day the foot ceases to walk when the man dies.

When he is buried the foot goes underground. But now he does not know
that he is no longer a ‘foot’. In his consciousness, he is equal to the child’s
consciousness and hence he again dreams of becoming a butterfly or an
apple. Thus, the poet depicts his view of life, tracing its characteristics
through different stages like infancy, reaching maturity, adulthood, old age,
and finally death. Thus, the poem also brings out a cyclical view of life –
birth, infancy, maturity, adulthood, old age, death, and rebirth.

Question 2

“The norms of the social control a man just as the foot is enclosed in
a shoe”. How is this depicted in ‘To the Foot from its Child’?

Answer:
The poet Neruda uses the ‘foot’ as a metaphor and conveys his view
of life. Thus, by personifying the foot, the poet expects the readers
to compare the experience of the foot to the whole person’s hopes
and dreams as well as to the realities of everyday life. By and large,
one can say that the poem is basically a criticism of how people
force children to grow in society forgetting all their dreams and
aspirations. 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.

As a child’s foot, it has relatively more freedom than the adult’s

foot. As the infant’s foot starts walking in the real world outside, it
steps over “stones and bits of glass, streets, ladders and the paths
in the rough earth’’. It realizes that its role is that of a foot and it
cannot become a butterfly or an apple. The moment it discovers
that it is only a foot, its spirit loses its battle against the world. It
surrenders itself to the dictates of the society. It is taken prisoner
and is condemned to live in a shoe.

It also means that the child’s spirit becomes aware of its limitations
as a human being and understands its roles, duties, and
responsibilities as a social being in human society. It is true that
“the foot is a symbol for the helplessness of an individual in the
vice-like grip of an insensitive system”. This meaning is captured in
the phrase ‘condemned to live in a shoe’. Once it gets imprisoned, it
has to slog there until it dies. The society decides what it should
understand about ‘life’ or the world outside. Gradually, the foot
adapts itself to its world and learns to cope with the harsh realities
of life.

The adult foot gets trapped in the routines of everyday life or the
humdrum commonality of existence. It is now less capable of
enjoyment and finds life difficult in every walk of life. It slogs and
slogs either as a man’s foot or as a woman’s foot working in the
field or market or mines or ministries day and night, scarcely finding
time to enjoy the pleasure of love or sleep. It works without respite
and finally meets with death.