Chse Odisha Class 12 Alternative English Unit 1 Indian Children Speak Question Answer

CHSE Odisha 12th Class Alternative English Solutions Poem 1 Indian Children Speak | Indian Children Speak Question Answer

Indian Children Speak Question Answer 

Pre-Reading Activity:
Very often we fall to understand each other. This happens especially when we are prejudiced against each other. To understand the other we need to develop a positive attitude. How would you react if you are described as just the opposite of what really you are? What can you do to clear the misunderstanding? Now read the poem below to see how the speaker tries to clear one such misunderstanding of some white people about the Red Indian children.

Questions For Discussion:
Question 1.
When you read the poem, you come across such names as Pansy, Delores, Ramon and Joe Henry. How can you describe them together.
Answer:
They are all Red Indian children.

Question 2.
Throughout the poem the phrase ‘people said’ has been repeated. Who are these people?
Answer:
These people are the white people.

Question 3.
What does moon-coloured dress refer to?
Answer:
It is bright, yellowish-white coloured dress.

Question 4.
Are the Indian children really dumb? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer:
The Indian children are really not dumb. It is because the narrator says, ‘clearly, I hear Delores answer/yes, the sunset is so good,I think God is throwing /Abright show I around the shoulders of the sky.’

Question 5.
Who do you think are rude – the white people or the Indians? Why do you think so?
Answer:
The white people were rude because they say Indian children are heard to reach, they are silent, they are dumb, they have no affection, they don’t seem very bright and they never take other in.

Question 6.
What is the speaker’s attitude towards the Indian children?
Answer:
The speaker is sympathetic and co-operative with the Indian children. His sense of sympathy stands as a sharp contrast with the uncompromising apathy of white men.

Question 7.
How many voices do you hear in this poem? Whose are they?
Answer:
There are three voices – the voice of the speaker the voice of white men and the voice of the Indian children in this poem.

Question 8.
The poem begins with ‘people said’. But towards the end of the poem the speaker says – ‘I have forgotten the idle words that people said’. Does this suggest a transition of mood and attitude in the speaker? Explain
Answer:
This certainly suggests a transition of mood and attitude in the speaker. It is because shedding the age old hackneyed bitter expression of the white man on the Indian children, the speaker switches over to another mood and mind.

Question 9.
What does the speaker convey in the last three lines of the poem?
Answer:
The last three lines are the concluding lines which convey that the speaker has personally parted with the indecent attitude towards the Indian children. He keeps in store in his heart to slip into the heart of Indian Lands and wants for that time to come.

Question 10.
Do you think the Indian children’s view of the world is different from that of the white people’s? How so?
Answer:
The Indian children’s view of the world is certainly different from that of the white people’s. The white people’s view is quite detrimental, command and selfish.

Question 11.
Is the speaker in the poem an American, Indian or a white American? How do you know?
Answer:
The speaker in the poem happens to be an American who makes it explicit in the line of the poem. ‘AndI steeped into the heart of Indian Land’. This statement proves that the poet is an on-Indian.