Explain how 'What Were They Like' and 'Vultures' make the reader - Think carefully about the nature of evil

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 the authors disapproving opinion of the events described in each poem. Chinua Achebe uses alliteration to9 show his feelings in phrases such as ‘drizzle of one despondent’ and ’Praise bounteous Providence’.

The structure of ‘Vultures’ is interesting; the first section describes the love and evil shown by the vultures which is linked by another collection of short lines to a description of the Commandant and the way in which he shows both love and evil. The use of short, sharp lines in the poem makes it seem more powerful.

The presentation of ‘What Were They Like’ is very effective. There are six questions one after another in the first stanza followed by the six answers in the second stanza. The poet answers the questions from what seems like a child’s point of view, not quite fully understanding what has happened.

Both poems are similar in the way that they are both linked by describing evil through war and conflict. ‘Vultures’ is relating to the 2nd World War extermination camp at Belsen where many innocent children were destroyed. In the same way, ‘What Were They Like’ relates to the Vietnamese War where also, many innocent children were wiped out. This is very powerful and is shown very well in each of the poems.