Vultures by Chinua Achebe

Vultures by Chinua Achebe Outline Vultures is one of the most complex poems in Cluster One. This is because although the vultures of the title are discussed as creatures in their own right they also act as an extended metaphor for the behaviour of some human beings. The vulture was of course chosen as it is a bird that survives by feasting on other creatures’ suffering. The poem looks at the similarities between a pair of vultures and evil human beings. The vultures are shown as disgusting and repellent. However, they show love to each other and therefore retain some form of kindness and decency. Likewise, the evil Commandant of the Belsen Death Camp spends all day murdering people and then burning their corpses. Yet, on the way home he stops to buy his child some sweets and thus proves he also retains some humanity.

Themes This is an unusual choice in the anthology. It does not fit neatly with many of the others in the collection and could prove difficult to compare in some contexts. However, it does have a clear theme which is an examination of the nature of both good and evil. It also looks at human behaviour and the choices that people make. the obvious poem to draw thematic parallels with is “What Were They Like?” The poet Chinua Achebe is one of Africa’s most respected broadcasters, poets, novelists and commentators. He was born in 1930 and has had a long and distinguished career.

In the greyness and drizzle of one despondent dawn unstirred by harbingers of sunbreak a vulture perching high on broken bone of a dead tree nestled close to his mate his smooth bashed-in head, a pebble on a stem rooted in a dump of gross feathers, inclined affectionately The poem begins with a depressing and miserable tone. Use of alliteration. The vultures’ perch is described as being broken. This resonates with how they live off death. This shows how loving the pair of vultures are. The creature seems ugly and violent. However, the later use of the word “affectionately” creates a contrast to this ugliness.

to hers. Yesterday they picked the eyes of a swollen corpse in a water-logged trench and ate the things in its bowel. Full gorged they choose their roost keeping the hollowed remnant in easy range of cold telescopic eyes... The vultures are happy to eat even the most disgusting of food. The corpse of the victim seems only to be a discarded object. The first part of the poem is in the past tense.

Strange indeed how love in other ways so particular will pick a corner in that charnel-house tidy it and coil up there, perhaps even fall asleep – her face turned to the wall! …Thus the Commandant at Belsen Camp going home for the day with fumes of human roast clinging rebelliously to his hairy nostrils will stop at the wayside sweet-shop The word is isolated so it adds emphasis and indicates that both the poet and reader pause for thought. Personification of love. Love will live even amongst the dead. (A charnel-house is a place to store dead bodies) Although to some this can be a depressing idea. Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. (For further details see later pages) Refers to the crematoria at Belsen. (For further details see later pages) The smell of the dead will not leave his nose. A metaphor for guilt that cannot be cleaned off. Creates the impression of a mundane job. Emphasising the banality of evil. The switch to the present tense creates immediacy. The Commandant is repellent like the vultures.

and pick up a chocolate for his tender offspring waiting at home for Daddy’s return… Praise bounteous providence if you will The food here resonates with the roasted human flesh from earlier in the poem. This and the other three indentations throughout this poem denote the four sections. By not changing the stanza Achebe maintains the flow and pace of the poem. This shows the Commandant’s gentle persona when he is with his family. The poet leaves the reader the choice of whether to thank God for this aspect of human nature. The poet suggests that what follows is provided by God.

that grants even an ogre a tiny glow-worm tenderness encapsulated in icy caverns of a cruel heart or else despair for in the very germ of that kindred love is lodged the perpetuity of evil. Emphasises the monstrous and cruel nature of the Commandant. Whilst Achebe acknowledges the kindness he also seems to contrast the small goodness against the huge evil. Once again the reader is offered a choice. Suggesting that the poet is undecided and leaves the final decision to the reader. Perpetuity (everlasting) indicates that the poet accepts that evil is one aspect of humanity that will never end. The final line is very bleak and so the poem ends with a depressed tone.

Bodies lie unburied at Belsen Mass grave at Belsen Bergen Belsen was one of the many notorious Nazi Concentration Camps. Unlike the Death Camps such as Auschwitz it did not have gas chambers. Instead prisoners were worked to death on a starvation diet. Conditions were appalling and the cruelty was unspeakable. By the time the camp was liberated by Allied troops 50,000 European citizens had been killed within its fences. Many of the dead were piled into mass graves; others were incinerated in giant crematoria. One of its most famous victims was the diarist Anne Frank.

One of the many crematorium ovens used at Belsen to burn the bodies The child diarist Anne Frank killed at Bergen Belsen camp