HEIR CONDITIONING

M Shanmughalingam

HEIR CONDITIONING
M Shanmughalingam

Title
The title implies the transfer of a generation and highlights the gap that existed and apparent in societies today. This gap existed due to the results of the conditioning effect that took place in the name of development and modern times.

Theme
Modernisation comes with a price. Differences in time between two generations Spirituality vs. Materialism Traditional vs. Modernisation Wisdom vs. Ignorance

Alliteration
Alliteration is used to reflect the sound of the wind from her grandmothers paper fans The repetition of similar consonants at the beginning of words put close to each other. Example: Consonant: /f/ Grandma werent you flustered As you fluttered with paper fans?

Rhyme Scheme
Contemporary. Followed no rhyme scheme. This poem is a good introduction for contemporary poem.

Pun
Pun is used as an irony as the usage of air-conditioner is causing harm to the nature as we enjoy the cool air. Example: Heir conditioning and air-conditioning

Heir An heir is a person who will legally receive money, property or a title from another person, especially an older member of the same family, when that other person dies; someone who now has the responsibility for dealing with a problem or situation that existed or was created earlier.
Condition/ Conditioning (INFLUENCE) It is to train or influence a person or animal mentally so that they do or expect a particular thing without thinking about it.

Repetition
Words or ideas that are emphasized to show the importance of a certain concept Example: Line 1- 9 : You Line 10- 18 : We Line 18- 20 : You & We.

Here the poet emphasize the word you, focusing all attention to the grandparents. Also signify blaming; you as pinpointing

Style
The style use is simple but rich in contrast. Example: The lines in the poem are presented in a non standard tradition of style. The poem is presented in 9 lines in the first stanza. The second stanza contains 10 lines.

Tone
This poem has a rather serious and sarcastic tone. This is because the use of all these technological appliances that are supposed to make our lives more comfortable is actually destroying the world we live in.

Irony
An expression of meaning often humorous or sarcastic, by the use of language of a different or opposite tendency Example: In this poem, the poet highlights the comforts of modernization (telephones, airconditioner and modern transportation), and the consequences (stress, traffic jams and pollution) they have brought on to us.

Exercise time

Picture A

Picture B

Write lines from the poem that have the meanings given in the table below.
Meanings 1. Were you not disturbed by the heat when you used paper fans to cool yourself? Lines from the poem

2. Were you able to talk to others who lived far away?

3. Was it difficult to live without handphones, fans, computers, washing machines, cars and other inventions? 4. Did you really live and breathe in air before air-conditioners were invented?

Answers for the following questions.

1. Who is asking the questions in stanza one?

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2.
3. 4.

Who is answering in stanza two?

What are the minds of the younger generation conditioned to think? Who are the heirs to the Earth and everything on it?

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

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5.

Is the title of the poem suitable? Why?

__________________________________________________________________

Answers
1. A child/ a teenager/ a young person/ the younger generation 2. The grandfather/ grandmother/grandparents/the older generation 3. They have become conditioned to think that they cannot live without modern inventions and that money is more important than nature and God. 4. Young people and future generations. 5. Yes. It is suitable as the poem is about young people or heirs of Earth whose minds have been conditioned by modernization and materialism.