Q3 of 18 Page 107

Answer the following question:

In stanza 4 to 6, which of the following adjectives in relation to the planners' actions: misguided, ignorant, futile. Which of these adjectives best describes the planners here? Give reasons.


The city planners’ actions can be described as being ‘futile’ i.e. incapable of producing any useful result. They can also be described as ignorant because all they wanted was to safeguard their wealth. The city planners’ only motive being earning profit, they continue to strive to build identical houses which look like clones of each other. They are not concerned about the future of these houses. The poet compares the city planners to political conspirators who only think about their own security and benefits. These real estate developers are calculative and manipulative in their approach and would go to great heights to make money by promoting unimaginative and highly artificial living spaces.


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3

Answer the following question:

The houses in pedantic rows, the planted/ sanitary trees" Atwood sees suburbia as dull and pedantic. She paints it not as the comfortable, safe existence that 'normal people' think it is, but like a boring, colorless situation. What other images that she uses to convey the soulless atmosphere of the suburb?


 3

Answer the following question:

What do the words 'sanities' and 'hysteria' have in common? And how are they different?


 3

Answer the following question:

The last two stanzas of the poem have the same message; that in the end, the creations of the city planners will eventually amount to nothing. How does the poet convey that?


 3

Answer the following question:

Select a line that you find particularly striking, and explain precisely how Atwood has made it so striking.