Yes, to some extent. In this narrative-descriptive poem, Neruda has attempted to delineate the predicament of man as a prisoner enslaved by society. Using ‘foot’ as a metaphor for ‘life’, he narrates the journey of life from that of an ‘infant foot’ to an ‘ foot’ until its and after. In the first two lines itself, the poet declares the wish of childhood. The infant’ foot is not aware that it is a ‘foot’ and hence would like to be a butterfly or an apple. These two objects – ‘butterfly’ and ‘apple’ – together suggest that the infant’ foot thinks of complete freedom to become whatever it wants. Being born a human being it cannot aspire to become a butterfly or an apple.
From this, we can infer that there is some restriction imposed on us by birth itself. This is expressed in the line ‘it is not aware that it is afoot’. The infant food, once it starts growing, is exposed to the ways and means of the world. We live in human society and nature, the words ‘stones, bits of glass, streets, ladders and the paths in the rough earth’ refer to man’ ways of living. This exposure to man’ style of living brings awareness in the child that it is a foot. The poet suggests that the infant’ foot is engaged in a battle with the society and ‘adults’ crush the child’ playful spirit and imprison it in a shoe. This stage refers to the way the child gets acclimatised to living in human society.
Once it wears the ‘shoe’, which means, it accepts its identity as ‘man’, a member of the human society, he starts exploring the human world alone, groping in the dark like a man. There is a difference in the way an explores the world. As a child, it thinks of infinite possibilities; but, as an *****, it is aware of its limitations. This means the society has been successful in crushing childhood dreams and forcing the life spirit into rigid moulds of society.
Since the whole poem only describes various changes undergone by the human spirit, we cannot say that Neruda is criticizing society for its stranglehold on the human spirit. Secondly, Neruda also says that the child’ foot does not know that it is a foot. This means, even Neruda knows that the child is born a human being and is going to live in human society. Thirdly, nowhere in the poem does Neruda say anything against societal forces. However, Neruda sympathises with ‘Man’ at one point. He says, ‘this foot toils in its shoe scarcely taking time to bare itself in love or sleep’. These lines indicate that Neruda only sympathises with man’ predicament and does not criticize society.
