Explain how 'What Were They Like' and 'Vultures' make the reader - Think carefully about the nature of evil
Gemma Phillips 10-1/T 5th November 2002 Explain how 'What Were They Like' and 'Vultures' make the reader Think carefully about the nature of evil The two poems, 'What Were They Like' and 'Vultures' make the reader think carefully about the nature of evil due to the use of poetic devices by the authors Chinua Achebe and Denise Levertov, the way in which each poem is structured and presented and also the way in which evil is shown in each poem. The poem 'Vultures' portrays a contrast between good and evil, it shows how the two elements can be linked even through complete dissimilarity. The vultures show love to one another but they are also evil as the poet describes how they devour the human corpse. The Commandant at Belsen shows love for his son but again, he also shows devout evil by exterminating millions of other people's children at the camp. In 'What Were They Like' evil is shown in a different light, evil is shown in the sense that all of the goodness has been taken away and now there is nothing left. It is a series of questions followed by answers which are not fully complete. Both poems use negative adjectives to show the nature of evil. Examples of this from 'Vultures' are greyness, dead, broken, cold, strange and gross. Silent, smashed, charred and bitter are only a few examples of the many in 'What Were They Like'. The use of these negative adjectives shows
Dead Mans Path and The Train from Rhodesia essay.
Dead Mans Path and The Train from Rhodesia essay Chinua Achebe sets us up to be surprised from the start of the story as at the beginning he builds it up to be a story of success, line 14 'We shall make a good job of it, shan't we?' This phrase suggests that Michael Obi is a very energetic man and this gives us as the reader the expectations that he will be determined to succeed and this is what the author has made us to believe at the beginning. Line 30 'They will give all their time and energy to the school,' this phrase shows us further evidence that Michael Obi is determined to succeed even if he hurts others e.g. the teaching staff of the school. The Train from Rhodesia by Nadine Gordimer sets us up to be surprised from the start of the story as at the beginning she builds the story up by a big description of the setting of this story to give us a clear picture of the scenery, line 1 'The train came out of the red horizon and bore down towards them over the single track.' Also in this phrase the author has used a specific adjective to describe the train, 'red' and this shows us that Nadine Gordimer is trying to paint us a clear picture of what is going on. They way the author describes the train gives us the expression that the train is coming in for its last journey as a tragedy is about to happen, line 26 'Creaking, jerking, jostling, gasping, the train filled the
Comparison Between "Vultures" and "What Were They Like?"
Comparison Between "Vultures" and "What Were They Like?" "Vultures" begins by describing a very unpleasant setting. The setting is quite a dull setting: "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" "In the greyness", "drizzle" and "dead tree" all describe the dullness of the poem. It then goes on to describe a pair of evil vultures who are nicely nestling together while eating a corpse. Eating the corpse already shows how disgusting the vultures really are. The descriptions of the vultures give the reader a bad impression among the vultures. For example: "bashed-in head, a pebble on a stem rooted in" "a pebble on a stem rooted in" represents the vulture's head stuck onto its neck. The pebble is the head and the stem is the neck. "Yesterday they picked the eyes of a swollen corpse in a water-logged trench and ate the things in its bowel." "picked the eyes of a swollen corpse" is a repelling action that is a bit disgusting. It shows how unpleasant vultures are. "ate the things in its bowel" also shows a sign of brutality and unpleasantness. The poem also has an element of love for the vultures: "nestled close to his mate his smooth" "feathers, inclined affectionately" These quotes show that the vultures do have a bit of love and affection in them. The overall
Haggard's King Solomon's Mines and Chinualumogu Achebe's Things Fall Apart written within a century. These novels give a unique opportunity to analyze the attitudes of the colonial as well as post colonial writers towards the land of Africa and its people
History, societal stereotypes, influential people, as well as literature play a major role in shaping an individual's perceptions. In the recent past, the world has undergone a prodigious change in attitude towards culturally diverse groups of people as well as places. This change is apparent in the study of Sir Henry Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines and Chinualumogu Achebe's Things Fall Apart written within a century. These novels give a unique opportunity to analyze the attitudes of the colonial as well as post colonial writers towards the land of Africa and its people. Haggard, unlike other colonial writers, has shown an effort towards distancing himself from the stereotypical views of the 'mysterious land'. His attitudes towards the land and the people contradict previously published accounts by complacent and blindfolded colonial writers. This, however, does not overshadow the main theme of the novel King Solomon's Mines, written as an adventure for men, young and old alike. After reading the outrageously inaccurate representation of his people in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Chinua Achebe was deeply hurt and disappointed. He decided to write Things Fall Apart in order to educate the ignorant western society as well as eradicate many false perceptions of Europeans towards his motherland. Even though Achebe is successful to a greater extent in offering a highly
Compare 'Vultures' by Chinua Achebe and 'What were they like?' by Denise Levertov
In this essay I am going to compare two poems. The poems 'Vultures' by Chinua Achebe and 'What were they like?' by Denise Levertov, both poems are the same in a way both poems are about war and conflict. Both poems reflect the effects of war and how can dramatically change history. Chinua Achebe uses vultures to explore his thought and ideas of war. He starts by introducing us to their foul diet of dead humans and animal flesh, and then they appear to care and love for one another. Achebe feels that people should be hopeful that the goodness and love will one day overcome the evil inside others an that deep down there lies goodness and love in even the worlds most evil people. In this essay I am going to compare the poems 'Vultures' and 'What were they like'. I am going to show how people are presented in those two poems. The people in both poems are innocent and they were victims of war. The poem 'What were they like' is presented as an interview the questioner is curious. The questions are asked too quickly and impatiently. The questioner is naïve, knowing less than he should about the way the war has ruined Vietnam. In the first section, the questioner asks six questions about the culture, character and art of the Vietnamese people. Denise Levertov cleverly selects the finest aspects of traditional Vietnamese life as the subject of the questions. This is her way of
An Inspector Calls Coueswork
An Inspector Calls Coursework Samuel Stanbury English 'An Inspector Calls' was based in 1912 and written around the year of 1945. It was set in Edwardian England where society exhibited huge social divisions and distinctions. The two dates are both relevant because he wrote the play in a world emerging from the Second World War, in a time where people were getting nostalgic about pre-world war one. Priestly uses this time difference very effectively, showing people that the way forward is socialism. One quotation that Priestly spoke read 'In order to move forward and to rebuild the country, people have to work together as a society, instead of reverting back to capitalism.' The books genre is mainly focused on a detective thriller. Whilst progressing through the novel the genre starts to take a different form of a 'whodunit' genre. The fact that a meaningful message is represented would indicate that An Inspector Calls, as well as being a murder mystery, in the way that Priestley uncovers the story of the death of Eva Smith, is also a moralistic play. Priestly uses the Inspector to get across to the audience. He tries to tell us that we cannot go on being self obsessed and that we have to change our political views. Priestly also uses the Birling family as an example of the Capitalistic family that was common amongst the higher classes in 1912. They have no care for
Compare the ways in which poets present their ideas and attitudes in Vultures and Limbo.
Compare the ways in which poets present their ideas and attitudes in Vultures and Limbo. * Limbo In this poem, Edward Kamau Brathwaite uses the game Limbo and limbo dancing to represent his memories of the slave trade. The poet uses the limbo stick to describe the action of the slaves: the stick is lowered towards the ground - the slaves are being forced down into the holds of the ship, becoming more down trodden as their lives are taken away. Also Limbo can be seen as a 'child hell' for un-baptised Catholics, the slaves on the ship feel as though they're in hell. Dancing beneath the limbo stick is used in representation of the slaves actually aboard the ship. Many slaves would die and a combination of luck, chance and determination decided who would survive, just as it is touch-and-go whether or not the limbo dancer will make it under the stick without touching it. The poet also uses the stick as a source of comparison: the whip used to beat the slaves and the stick used to beat the drum, as the slaves rowed themselves further towards life imprisonment. Finally, when the slaves reach the shore and they climb up out of the darkness, in chains, are criminals (which is ironic as it is the slaves as it is the slavers who are evil and unjust), the stick is being raised and the game 'won'. There is a constant reference to the words 'dark' and 'darkness' (e.g. 'the long dark
Comparsion of Anthology Poetry (Two Scavengers and
A Comparison between "Vultures" and "Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes" At a first glimpse of these two poems you would think that they were very different and about completely opposite things. But when you read each poem and understand each of there messages and meanings you will find that they are, in fact, alike in many ways. Both 'Vultures' and 'Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes' are both comparative poems. Vultures is comparing nature with evil, and Scavengers is comparing rich to poor. The structure of Scavengers and Vultures is different yet alike in some ways. In Scavengers the poet talks about the Scavengers in a truck and then the beautiful people in a Mercedes, similarly the poet of Vultures describes a vulture first and then the Commandant at Belsen second. Both poets illustrate the rich and the poor, evil and nature separately, one after the other. In Scavengers there is an opening stanza, a descriptive stanza then a final closing stanza, throughout this poem in switches from the Scavengers to the beautiful people rapidly, comparing and contrasting them; whereas in Vultures there are four stanzas, the first describing a vulture, the second joining the vulture and commandant together, the forth describing the commandant and the final one joining the two together again and ending the poem. Both poems are
Both “On my first Sonne” and “refugee mother and child” deal with the death of a child. Compare and contrast the 2 poems, exploring their themes and ideas, the poet’s use of language and your own reaction to them.
Both "On my first Sonne" and "refugee mother and child" deal with the death of a child. Compare and contrast the 2 poems, exploring their themes and ideas, the poet's use of language and your own reaction to them. The Poems On My First Sonne Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy, Seven yeeres tho'wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. O, could I loose all father, now. For why Will man lament the state he should envie? To have so soone scap'd worlds, and fleshes rage, And, if no other miserie, yet age? Rest in soft peace, and, ask'd, say here both lye BEN JONSON his best piece of poetrie. For whose sake, hence - forth, all his vowes be such. As what he loves may never like too much. Ben Jonson Refugee Mother and Child No Madonna and Child could touch that picture of a mother's tenderness for a son she soon would have to forget. The air was heavy with odours of diarrhoea of unwashed children with washed-out ribs and dried-up bottoms struggling in laboured steps behind blown empty bellies. Most mothers there had long ceased to care but not this one; she held a ghost smile between her teeth and in her eyes the ghost of a mother's pride as she combed the rust-coloured hair left on his skull and then - singing in her eyes - began carefully to part
Refugee mother and her child by Chinua Achebe - Explain what the poem is about and how the poet conveys the emotions he feels.
Refugee mother and her child by Chinua Achebe Explain what the poem is about and how the poet conveys the emotions he feels. The poem is about Achebe's encounter with a mother and child in a refugee camp. This mother was different from the other mothers as she still cherished and loved her son. The other mothers had already stopped caring for their children as survival was not the most important thing and there wasn't any hope of survival for their children anyway. In line 9: "Most mothers there had long ceased to care" The poet's tone was varied, in the first stanza he used long, soft vowels such as the vowel 'o' and words such as 'tenderness'. In line 4, Achebe chose to used the word 'odour' instead of the word 'smell' or 'stench' because it sounded softer and more rounded. The softness continued until the beginning of line 5 where Achebe used hard-sounding words such as 'diarrhoea' and 'blown'. The fact that the child will die is hinted repeatedly. From line 7 to line 14 of the second stanza, he seemed to be admiring the mother's love for her child in even those circumstances. At the end, his tone was sad and regretful. In the last three lines: "...like putting flowers on a tiny grave." There was alliteration in line 5 of the second stanza: "behind blown empty bellies" The poet used the work "ghost" as a metaphor in lines 8 and 9 of the second stanza. In