11TH CLASS ENGLISH ALL CHAPTERS SOLUTIONS
Father to Son Summary
The poet shares his feelings regarding the relationship with his son. The poet explains they he and his son have spent many years in the same house. However, despite spending so many years together, the father still doesn’t understand his son. Furthermore, the father doesn’t know anything about his son. He doesn’t know what his son likes or what he dislikes. The father made an effort to build up a relationship with his son since he was small. However, over the years, change has come in his son. As a grown-up man, his son certainly has changed.
The father acknowledges his role in the communication gap between him and his son. He explains that despite his efforts, things are not turning to his side. He says that his son was in a place that he could not access. Furthermore, the father tells us that their communication is like that of strangers. It seems there is not much attachment between the two. Moreover, there has been no understanding between the father and son. His child had a resemblance in appearance to his father. However, despite this resemblance in appearance, the father didn’t know what his son loved.
There is a silence between the father and the son. As a child, his son was a prodigal. His father had a desire for his son to return home, the one he knew. The father does not want his son to move around in the world and make his world. The father was willing to express his forgiveness to his son. Furthermore, the father was willing to let go of the sorrows that he had inside of him due to the existing distance between them. The father certainly had a desire to love him again.
Now, the son speaks for the first time and expresses his feelings. Furthermore, the son has a feeling of sadness about the distance between them. Furthermore, the son says that he is at a point in his life where he does not understand himself. Moreover, the son explains that his anger is due to sadness. Hence, it becomes pretty clear that both the father and son feel the same frustration due to this gap in the relationship. Also, both the father and son are willing to forgive each other. However, they are failing to find a solution to their problem. Both of them put out an empty hand for each other but in futility.
Conclusion of Father to Son
The Father to Son summary throws light on a damaged relationship between a father and son.
Father to Son Think it out
Question 1.
Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it fairly universal?
Answer:
The complaint and anger of a father against his headstrong son is common in every home and land. The poem doesn’t talk of an individual father’s personal experience. In every home, the head tries to rule while the youngsters usually revolt. The conflict goes on and on. You may call it a generation gap, a want of understanding between the old and the young.
How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem?
Answer:
The poem brings out the helplessness of a father. His relationship with his son has turned sour. They live in the same house. He has built and brought up the child according to his plan. But the son has got a mind to think freely and act differently. The father can’t throw him out, can’t break off with him completely. He longs for a compromise but gets no response.
Question 3.
Identify the phrases and lines that indicate the distance between father and son.
Answer:
I do not understand this child
I know nothing of him.
We speak like strangers What he loves I cannot share.
Silence surrounds us.
Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme?
Answer:
Yes. The rhyme scheme is consistently a bba b a.
Father to Son Extra Questions and Answers
Question 1.
What is the father’s complaint?
Answer:
The father complains that his son doesn’t heed his advice, and lives life on his terms. They have become strangers, though they live under the same roof. Father feels helpless.
Question 2.
Does the father want to mend the fences and make peace with his son? What does he long for?
Answer:
The father is more tense than the son. He cannot determine where he failed in his son’s upbringing. He wants the son to carry forward the family traditions rather than revolt and live life on his terms. He is willing to forgive and forget for peace in the family.
Question 3.
Can you suggest a solution to the clash between father and son?
Answer:
Yes, the only solution to this problem is better understanding and the spirit of give and take. Youngsters are born rebels. They break rules and laws in a fighting mood. The father wants to impose his will and authority on the children which leads to conflict. Both should mend their ways.
Do you notice a change in the father’s tone in the last stanza?
Answer:
Yes, the father’s tone in the last stanza is one of reconciliation or compromise. He admits that their relationship is too close and delicate to be broken. He regrets his anger. He is ready to put out his hand of friendship and to forgive.
Question 5.
Bring out the underlying message of the poem Father to Son. Write a short note on the central idea of Elizabeth Jenning’s poem.
Answer:
The poem Father to Son discusses not a personal experience or problem It is universal. All the elders scold the youngsters for being disobedient and obstinate. They don’t try to understand the needs of the children. Their hardened attitude creates disaffection in the young minds. Though living for years together in the same house, father and son become strangers. Conflict will make both of them unhappy. They had better come to terms in a spirit of give and take.
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