However, the villagers in Night of the Scorpion are more superstitious and link the scorpion to 'the Evil One’. They claim that the poison will help in many ways. For example, by burning away the sins of the woman's former life - 'her previous birth' and ease her life after this one 'her next birth'. Perhaps this is their way of making sense of the event: if good comes out of it, it is easier to bear. Ezekiel uses a simile, comparing the villagers to 'swarms of flies'. It is striking that he uses an insect image to describe the people's reaction to an invertebrate's sting. He develops the simile in the following line: 'they buzzed the name of God'. Showing them to be mindless because they have no knowledge of anything but still interfere.
The events of Night of the Scorpion are described in rich detail - we know about the mud hut and the candles and lanterns, yet we know little about the individual neighbours. Ezekiel lumps the neighbours together as 'they'. The neighbours' candles and lanterns throw 'giant scorpion shadows' on the walls. We know that the scorpion has already fled, but the poet thinks the villagers are as much of a problem as the scorpion. There is a contrast between the neighbours' 'peace of understanding' and the mother who 'twisted... groaning on a mat'. It is ironic that they are at peace because of her discomfort. In addition, the narrator gives the impression that everyone was concerned about his mother getting bitten. “More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours… They sat around the floor with my mother in the centre”. From this passage, it seems that everyone trying to support her but aren’t getting rid of the pain but making it worse. The repetition of ‘more’ emphasises this.
The descriptions of the four people in Two Scavengers are very visual, making it easy for the reader to imagine the scene. Appearances tell us a lot. And the lack of verbs shows the scene to be motionless and like a freeze frame. The garbage men are on 'a bright yellow garbage truck' and wear 'red plastic blazers'; later on we find one of them has 'grey iron hair'. These are strong colours, but not very attractive ones Ferlinghetti uses this to show the garbage men don’t care about their appearances. They work anti social hours and the specific detail ‘four am’ makes us feel badly for them.
The rich couple are very fashionable: he has an expensive 'hip three-piece linen suit', and her blond hair is 'casually coifed'. The use of ‘hip’ indicates a strong care of looking good. However, the couple in the Mercedes, though, are almost colourless: he wears a 'linen suit' - natural linen is a cream colour - and they both have blond hair. He may use this to show that even if you live in a higher society, money isn’t everything; he portrays the two as boring. The elegant couple are not described in as much detail as the garbage men, as if the poet is less interested in them. And most probably that the beautiful people see themselves a being ‘cool’ and ‘elegant’
On the other hand, the garbage men are 'grungy'. The younger one has 'sunglasses & long hair' just like the 'Mercedes driver', which forces us to compare the two. The older garbage man has a hunched back and looks 'like some gargoyle Quasimodo'. This simile is unusual as Quasimodo is the Hunchback of Notre Dame in Victor Hugo's novel. He is a tragic figure because he was kind and loving despite his ugliness. We are encouraged to sympathise with these garbage men who have become dirty and smelly as a result. The expressive word ‘grungy’ make us pity them.
Ezekiel's father is usually a sceptic and a rationalist; he does not believe in superstitions and is not religious. Yet when his wife is suffering, he tries 'every curse and blessing' to help her. Alliteration is used in “I watched the flame feeding on my mother” and also short sentences giving a tense atmosphere and an image of what the mother was going through. This is the only sentence in the poem which describes the poet’s feelings; being a young boy he must have been quite disturbed by this image and shows it with ‘feeding on my mother’.
The garbage men stare at the young couple 'as from a great distance'. Again, Ferlinghetti uses a hint at American society and the huge difference between both couples but in a less obvious way because the truck is higher up than the Mercedes. For the dustbin men, looking at the couple is the same as 'watching some odourless TV ad' in which the ways of life seem to be impossibly perfect. To them, the couple are almost unreal and their lifestyle is out of reach. The closing lines of the poem involve a metaphor about the sea. If America is the high seas, the distance between the two vehicles is a 'small gulf' or narrow mouth that should be easy to cross. Yet we also think of the other meaning of gulf - a deep chasm or abyss. It may look possible to cross, but really it is impossible. The lives of the two pairs may have crossed 'for an instant', but they will never be genuinely close together.
The final of Night of the Scorpion, is simple 'After twenty hours it lost its sting' is a put down: nothing worked, after all. And the last three lines are touching. We hear Ezekiel's mother's exact words; her simple speech is in contrast to the gabbling neighbours. She doesn't show any bitterness about her ordeal: she is just grateful that she was the one who was hurt rather than her children. Children are more vulnerable to scorpion bites than adults. She thanks God.
There is a lot of repetition, so that we hear the villagers' prayers and incantations. Ezekiel uses direct speech, 'May...’ to dramatise the scene and the echoed 'they said' is like a chorus.
There is alliteration throughout the poem that helps to link or emphasise ideas: the scorpion is seen 'Parting with his poison’, Ezekiel's father tries 'herb and hybrid’, Ezekiel sees 'flame feeding' on his mother. The poem is written in free verse with varying line lengths and no rhyme. The first part is long and full of activity - the scorpion's bite and the reaction of the villagers. The second part - the mother's reaction - is just three lines long and like an after thought.
Two Scavengers structure is fairly free as well. The poet doesn't use punctuation; instead, he begins a new line when he wants us to pause in our reading. This slows the poem down and gives us time to appreciate each idea. The poem appears very fragmented on the page; this may be to suggest the broken society in America. The arrangement indicates how far away the two societies are and will be. The poem is written in the present tense. This gives a sense of immediacy - we feel that the poem is happening now. From a wider perspective, it also suggests that the huge gap between the rich and the poor is a problem now, too. Also that it will continue until people stop stereotyping different classes of people. Ferlinghetti uses repetition in Two Scavengers. Individual words are repeated, for instance, 'elegant' and 'scavengers', as well as phrases such as 'as if'. This emphasises the first point about stereotyping classes of people because of their jobs. Although we don’t know the jobs of the ‘cool couple’ they are classed as ‘elegant’ so will most probably have better paid jobs in a higher society than the garbage men.
I prefer Night of the Scorpion rather than Two Scavengers because the tension in the poem draws you in and you feel as if you are in the hut with Ezekiel and his neighbours. The use of description and similes give greater effect because they are his personal opinions. Two Scavengers has a political message and I feel it makes the poem boring. The use of similes and metaphors are good but have more complex meanings to them, it is lacking emotion and is unarranged untidily. Night of the Scorpion is told in a chronological order and the reporting effect of the poem is good at making the reader want to read on. The humorous description of the villagers helps you understand the poet’s view of them easier and quicker than in Two Scavengers.