Killing Field by Krushangini - Short Q&A

KILLING FIELD - SHORT Q&A
1. What is the idea presented in the title of the poem?
Ans. The title of the poem ‘Killing Field’ brings up the image of a battle field. The brutality of killing is suggested to undermine the hitherto positive image of paper industry.
2. What is the theme of the second stanza?
Ans. The theme of the second stanza is the process of making paper by cutting of trees, stacking, planing, making pulp and then changing into sheets of paper.
3. Why did the poet call butterflies dullards?
Ans. The poet calls butterflies dullards because they were still perching on the trees cut down and going to be pulped.
4. What is the purpose behind cutting down trees?
Ans. The trees were cut down to be pulped in order to make sheets of paper.
5. What ideas are presented in the last stanza?
Ans. These spotless and white paper is usually a symbol of purity and goodness. Here it is used ironically. This is because the spotless white paper is produced by killing of trees which causes unnecessary and unrecorded murders of organisms like the butterfly and other insects.
6. Comment on the contradiction in the poem.
Ans. The contradiction is that the invention and making of paper is a milestone in human civilization but it is also an instance of large scale and criminal destruction of other forms of life.
7. What is the specialty of Krushangini’s poem?
Ans. Krushangini’s poem appropriates the visual images of painting.
8. What are the images in this poem?
Ans. ‘Butterflies on the tree trunks like scales on a snake’ is one striking image. ‘The white spotless paper’ is another appealing and ironic image. The butterflies sitting like dullards and getting pasted to the trunk while pulping is also a sharp image.
9. How are the butterflies described in relation to their perch?
Ans. Butterflies on the tree trunk are described as scales on a snake.
10. Explain ‘spotless and white’.
Ans. White is a symbol of purity and goodness. It is also a symbol of death in some cultures. Here it is used ironically. There is the unseen blood of organisms like the butterfly and other insects on the paper.
11. Does the adjective ‘dullard’ suits the human beings also? Why?
Ans. The butterflies sticking on to the cut tree trunks are called ‘dullards’ by the poet. They are called so because they are in danger of death. They are going to be killed by the machine. In the context of the poem the adjective ‘dullard’ appears to suit human beings also for their stupidity of self-destruction through destruction of environment.

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