An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum (Style)

Style

Allegory

Allegory is a literary technique that employs characters as representations of ideas that are used to convey a message or to teach a lesson. Spender uses the classroom and the children in his poem as an allegory about the struggle between proletarians and bourgeoisie. The children in "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum" are clearly under-privileged, lower-class proletarians. The classroom donors are wealthy, upper-class bourgeoisie. Without directly using either term — proletarian or bourgeoisie — Spender weaves a descriptive, allegoric vignette about capitalism and its dependence on an oppressed working class. He vividly depicts the hardships and struggles of proletarians through his descriptions of the tired girl with her "weighed-down" head, the paper-thin boy, and the "unlucky heir" of "gnarled disease." The exhausted students are equivalent to the oppressed working class. The children of this class are doomed to inherit their parents' diseased position in society.

Although the future holds little promise of fortune for the children or the proletariat they represent, Spender sees a glimmer of hope in education. The students represent the working class, but they also hold the answer to a changed society. If the students can achieve an education, then they may be empowered to topple the bourgeoisie hold over society. Spender writes, "Break O break open till they break the town," offering hope that education will break open the minds of the children. Once their minds are free, empowered with learning, Spender believes that they will have the power to change the social hierarchy. He effectively uses such imagery to explore poverty, education, and the Communist-capitalist struggle.

The Unidentified Narrator

When reading "An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum," it is difficult to pinpoint the identity of the narrator. It may be deduced that there is no narrator and that the entire construct is built wholly around Spender and his desire to examine and pontificate on politics and its effect on education. Other readings of the poem have led educators to believe that the narrator is a teacher. Spender delivers the crux of his message on poverty and education through the use of this unidentified narrator, a narrator who, in the vagueness of his identity, appeals to a wide variety of people in society. He focuses on imagery that describes the children and the classroom, that is upsetting to the reader, and that fuels a desire for change.