Do you agree with the poet of vultures that good and evil can exist side by side in nature?

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Sarah Jeffers 10E

Do you agree with the poet that good and evil can exist side by side in nature?

I believe that good and evil can co-exist in nature. Good and evil are two contrasting words, both of these words can be defined differently depending on the persons views and lifestyle although the overall definition of these words will be along the same lines of killing is evil  and  helping others is good . I also believe that good and evil work together in nature, to survive in the wild animals must prey upon one another in order to survive.

Animals survive on their natural instincts that they have developed since birth to survive in the wild, in order to live one must kill something weaker to feed on. Nature is bound by the law survival of the fittest, the strongest and fastest animals eat the smaller and weaker creatures, to say it is evil for a wolf to kill a sheep is saying nature itself is evil. If a predator does not kill anything he cannot support himself or his family and will eventually perish, this is like the Nazi in the concentration camp at Belsen, mentioned in the poem(lines 30-50). The commandant is mercilessly killing Jews in order to support his family. In his own mind the Nazi is doing the right thing by supporting his family, but it is at the cost of annihilating thousands of innocent people which tips the scales towards the Nazi doing more evil than good. On lines 32-35 it says fumes of human roast clinging rebelliously to his hairy nostrils will stop” These lines symbolise the Nazi s conscience, he is trying to forget about all the death he has caused and momentarily thinks of himself as evil, but he then tries to repent to all the killing on lines 35-40  at the wayside street-shop and pick up a chocolate for his tender offspring waiting at home for Daddy s return   by buying his child sweets and reminding himself that he has a family to support, and they(like the animals in the wild) without the support will die. The pair of vultures create a lot of irony in this poem, it shows the good and evil  sides of these birds.

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On lines 7-8 the poem says nestled close to his mate an on lines 11-13 a dump of gross feathers, inclined affectionately to hers. Both these quotes show the strong companionship of the two birds and how in love, dependant and committed they are to each other. Those lines make me think that two creatures so devoted to each other could never do something evil. The poem then turns to the other face of the birds on lines 13-17 Chinua has written Yesterday they picked the eyes of a swollen corpse in a water-logged trench and ate the things ...

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