Compare the ways people are presented in Vultures with the ways people are presented in one other poem [Two Scavengers...].

Ferlinghetti makes us of similes to show the ugliness of his garbage men, the old of who is described as “like some gargoyle Quasimodo”, ironic considering gargoyles are designed to ward of scavengers. His “grey iron hair” and “hunched back” also create an unpleasant image. However, just as the vultures had a redeeming feature, Ferlinghetti cleverly shows the similarity between the youngest garbage men and the Mercedes driver, they are “about the same age” expressing just how tangled the American Dream has become. Ferlinghetti subtly shows how he feels the scavengers have happier, more colourful lives as they are wearing “red...blazers” and in a “yellow garbage truck”. Despite being lower in the social rankings they “look down” on the “cool couple”, which could show how Ferlinghetti believes life is better away from the strain of the commercial rat race. However, his description of the “couple” is very pleasant – the man is wearing a “hip three-piece suit” showing  his expensive but fashionable tastes; and the woman is “casually coiffed” demonstrating how she makes a careful hairstyle look effortless. The use of alliteration increases the sense of suaveness, similar to that in “cool couple”.

In Vultures the second set of characters are also vital to the poem’s interpretation. Achebe describes the commandant at Belsen Concentration Camp with “fumes of human clinging rebelliously to his hairy nostrils”, showing how the atrocious smell taints him inextricably despite how he may behave elsewhere. He is personally responsible for the horrific death of Jews in the holocaust; no amount of “chocolate” will redeem him, However by stopping at the “way side sweet shop” for his “tender offspring” Achebe illustrates a familiar “kindred” love similar to that of the vultures. Another similarity lies in the fact both pairs survive through the suffering of others. Achebe’s choice of words such as “home”, “Daddy” and “tender” increase the impression of a comfortable, safe life; making the reader increasingly uneasy due to their proximity to his everyday job. Both poets use juxtaposition to increase the impact of their poems on the reader and highlight the contrast they are expressing: whether between rich and poor or good and evil.

The last section of each poem reflects this wider theme expressed in the respective poets’ treatment of people. In “Two Scavengers” the scavengers watch the couple “as if they were watching some odorless TV add...always possible”. “Odorless shows just how unachievable “everything” being “possible” is by suggesting the ad and by extension American life is all about face value. It suggests the couple are untouched by real life, just passing through; in contrast with the smelly garbage men. Despite the stop light holding them “as if anything all were possible” it will turn to green in an instant and they will be rushing their separate ways. The phrase “as if”, repeated to increase its impact, implies that things are not possible. Ferlinghetti shows his opinion by describing the democracy as “high seas” carrying connotations of uncertainty, danger and separation from land. It also gives the impression that the people he describes are just specks tossed around in a much bigger sea – they can never cross the oxymoronic “small gulf”.

By contrast in “vultures” the nature of the characters is the wider message rather than just demonstrating it. On one hand Achebe tells us to “praise bounteous providence” that even “ogres” like the commandant have a “tiny glow worm tenderness”; but he also concludes that is this “gem of kindred love” which allows for the “perpetuity of evil”. In other words he suggests that evil exists as we can persuade ourselves people aren’t as bad as they seem. Personally while I would agree whole-heartedly with Ferlinghetti’s anti-commercialist stance, I find Achebe’s perspective a little defeatist: I think human nature is inherently better than he depicts. Although “Vultures” is incredibly evocative I relate more easily to “Two Scavengers”.

Both poems present the pitfalls and redeeming features of human nature through pairs of contrasting characters. However while Ferlinghetti is protesting against the nature of so-called “democracy” and the “small gulf” between social classes; Achebe depicts the split in the character of each human, in the battle between good and evil.