Hi Everyone!! This article will share The Elephant And The Tragopan Questions & Answers.
In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of All The World’s Stage, Darjeeling and Coming Home to Delhi so, you can check these posts as well.
The Elephant And The Tragopan Questions & Answers
Question 1: I speak to you as one whose clan/Has served and therefore studied man says the elephant and it goes on to list a series of different qualities found in man. What strikes you about that list? Are the reasons consistent or contradictory? Give two examples. What according to the elephant is in the middle of all such contradictions? Do you agree with this opinion of human nature?
Answer: The list of qualities that the elephant gives brings out the contradictions in human nature. Man is sane and mad, loving and brutal, says the elephant. In the middle of all this, is man’s selfish nature. It is because of his selfish thinking that he behaves irrationally and in a destructive way.
Question 2: When the road comes, the forest goes. Explain what this means its context.
Answer: When more and more roads are built, it inevitably leads to deforestation. As our cities grow bigger and humans spread out deeper into the wilderness, more roads are built into forests.
Question 3: He sees the planet as his fief……what kind of thinking follows from it? What is the consequence for the rest of the planet?
Answer: Man thinks that the world belongs to him. Because of this, he destroys the environment indiscriminately, without regard to any of the creatures co-habiting the planet. The planet and therefore, everything living on it is in danger of destruction because of this attitude.
The Elephant And The Tragopan Questions & Answers
Question 4: You will all be homeless, like us all. Who is saying this to whom? What will make the listeners homeless?
Answer: The elephant is saying this to the leopard and all the forest denizens. Man’s destructive behaviour will cause all animals to be homeless.
Question 5: A reservoir is being built by destroying a lot of bamboo which is eaten by the elephant and the tragopan – the trout thinks happily that the reservoir will provide it with ‘endless space.’ How does the elephant correct the trout’s notion? Which line in the stanza means ‘we will all die together’?
Answer: The fire set/lit to burn down the forest will leave soot and ash that will kill the creatures in the stream before the reservoir can be built. The line from the poem which means ‘we will all die together’ is, ‘What tolls for us is your own bell’.
Question 6: In stanza 2, a distinction is made between ‘unanimity’ and ‘proximity’. Another example of this is ‘cloth without’ and ‘food within’. Can you see another such pair just before it? Can you see one or more pairs in stanza 7? Can you see any at the end of the poem?
Answer: Examples: He rips out flesh and tears our skin
Is destined for his mouth or hand
For we will live or die together
Question 7: Look again at stanza 3 (‘He is a creature…….’). Consider how much it says about human nature – sp many qualities, so well-worded and well-arranged in contrasting pairs, ending with the most central of them all. Try writing a paragraph appreciating the stanza, with examples of the points you make.
Answer: The stanza brings out the contradictions in human nature. It is filled with word pairs that are opposite in meaning, in order to bring out strongly what a ‘sticky mess’ man is. It is because of this contradictory nature that man is a difficult creature to understand—‘the good as puzzling as the bad.’ The words used in the stanza serve to highlight the confusing nature of human behaviour and also sharply contrast the irrationality of his actions.
So, these were The Elephant And The Tragopan Questions & Answers.