Vultures-Chinua Achebe

MATCHES:
Nothing’s Changed, Limbo, Island Man-Past and Present
Limbo, Two Scavengers in a Truck, Nothing’s Changed-Use of Contrast

CHINUA ACHEBE (Black male poet):

1. Chinua Achebe was born in the village of Ogidi, Nigeria in Western Africa in 1931.
2. His father was a missionary and so Achebe was brought up as a Christian, though he
had many of the traditions and values of the Ibo culture.
3. He worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Company before leaving in 1966 to
concentrate on writing.
4. During conflict between the Nigerians and Biafrans (1967-1970), Achebe worked as a
diplomat for the Biafran cause.
5. In the early stages of the war, he and his wife had a narrow escape from death when
their flat was bombed.
6. By 1970 the Biafran tribe had been starved into surrendering.
7. He taught in many American universities, but he is also known for being a novelist
who explores how European culture affected African society.
8. His novels describe the traditions and speech of the Ibo tribe and follows their
struggle to free themselves from the European culture and influences.
9. This poem is seen as an aspect of this struggle.
10. Vultures are compared to a Nazi Commandant who preys greedily and ruthlessly on
the helpless.
11. Chinua Achebe’s war experiences are reflected in the 1971 collection Beware, Soul
Brother, where the poem Vultures first appeared.

SETTING AND CONTEXT:

1. Two vultures roosting by a roadside prompt thoughts on the nature of evil.
2. The poem is set principally in the Biafran war, although this is not mentioned
explicitly (in an obvious way).
3. The second part of the poem refers explicitly to the Second World War.
4. By implication/suggestion the poem is relevant to all human conflict.
5. The poem begins with a graphic and unpleasant description of a pair of vultures who
nestle lovingly together after feasting on a corpse.
6. The poet comments on the strangeness of love existing in places where one would not
expect.
7. He then goes on to consider the love a concentration camp commandant shows to his
family, having spent the day burning human corpses, he buys his child sweets on the
way home.
8. The ending/conclusion of the poem is ambiguous/two sided. On one hand, Achebe
praises God and providence that even the most cruel of creatures can show love. On
the other hand, these creatures show love for their families only and so allow
themselves to commit cruel acts towards others.

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FORMS AND TECHNIQUES:
1. Free verse in three sections separated by an ellipsis (three dots…)
2. The ellipsis(three dots…) and the tab in from the margin show a change in thought or
perspective on the poet’s part.
3. The second section is itself in two parts again separated by an ellipsis.
4. There is a logical structure: (a) observation (b) reflection (c) further example (d)
general reflection.
5. The poem goes from descriptive to reflective back to descriptive and then reflective
again in terms of the style and structure.
6. The opening mood is grim/gloomy.
7. Line 1-greyness-suggests a dull start to the poem
8. Line 2-3-drizzle of one despondent/dawn-the grimness is emphasised by the use of
alliteration in the ‘d’.
9. Line 3-harbingers-people or things that announce the approach of someone or
something.
10. Lines 5-6-broken/bone-alliteration running on two lines for impact.
11. Line 9-bashed-in head-description of the vultures’ heads-suggests something that
has been damaged or harmed.
12. Lines 9-13-a pebble/on a stem rooted in/ a dump of gross/feathers, inclined
affectionately/to hers-this is a metaphor describing the vultures. It conveys (puts
across) an image of something disgusting. Their affectionate gestures/actions towards
each other is unexpected in this context, after such a gross description of them.
13. Lines 11, 14, 19 and 20-gross…swollen…hollowed…cold-these are negative
adjectives associated with the activities of the vultures.
14. Lines 13-17-Yesterday they picked/the eyes of a swollen/corpse in a water logged/
trench and ate the/things in its bowel. Again another grotesque image is associated
with the vultures, this time it is not their appearance rather what they do.
15. Line 22-Strange-reflection on something us suggested by the use of the word
‘strange’ as if the poet is stopping to think.
16. Line 26-charnel house- a building where corpses and bones are placed.
17. Line 27-coil up-this conjures up the image of a snake-again another vulgar image.
18. Lines 22-29-Strange/indeed how love in other/ways so particular/will pick a
corner/in that charnel house/tidy it and coil up there, perhaps/even fall asleep-
her face/turned to the wall. Love is personified in this section-love is seen to pick a
corner and tidy up and fall asleep. Love is given human characteristics. It is a sharp
contrast to the rotting corpse and death mentioned in the first section of the poem.
19. Line 30-…Thus the Commandant at Belsen-the language here is almost Biblical. A
Commandant was a German officer in charge of a camp or unit.
20. Belsen is the name of a WWII Nazi concentration camp where Jews and other
prisoners were held and killed-their bodies were often incinerated/burned. Anne
Frank was killed here as well as 50,000 others. The camp was liberated in 1945.
21. Line 33-human roast-refers to the victims in the concentration camp as if they were
being cooked (Belsen). This is a shocking phrase, very visual and descriptive.
22. Lines 34-35-hairy/nostrils-the commandant’s hairy nostrils are like the vultures’
feathers. Both creatures are ugly but both are capable of love.

2
23. Lines 39-40-Daddy’s/return-an ordinary domestic/homely image is used to suggest
the father’s love.
24. Line 41-42- Praise bounteous/providence-more Biblical language talking about all
the good things God gives to mankind.
25. Line 43-ogre-a type of monster-here it represents evil and the glow worm represents
love.
26. Lines 43-47-that grants even an ogre/a tiny glow worm/tenderness
encapsulated/in icy caverns of a cruel/heart-the contrast in the final section
between the glow worm and ogre suggest that evil is bigger than love. This is a
powerful image that shows us the glow worm (love) becoming enclosed/encapsulated
in the icy caverns of the ogre’s (evil) heart.
27. Line 46-icy caverns of a cruel-alliteration used for impact-sharp sounds.
28. Line 49-kindred-related by blood, close family, the same.
29. Line 50-perpetuity-the state of continuing forever.
30. Lines 47-51-or else despair/for in the very germ/of that kindred love is/lodged the
perpetuity/of evil.-this final section of the poem is one of despair as Achebe believes
that the evil will continue forever even if there is the potential for love in the same
being.
31. Achebe’s conclusion of the poem offers a choice of responses (a) hope because love
can exist in even the most evil of creatures. (b) despair, because despite love that
cannot stop committing evil.

THEME AND INTERPRETATION:

1. Achebe is fascinated by the fact that creatures that love can also carry out acts of
great evil OR creatures that carry out acts of great evil can also love.
2. He suggests at the end of the poem that these two factors may be more closely linked
to each other than most people think.
3. There is a fine line between love and hate.

LANGUAGE AND STRUCTURE:

1. The poem is written in free verse with lines of different lengths. The lines are short so
we read the poem slowly and appreciate its full of horrors.
2. It is divided into four sections. Each is marked by an indented line rather than a new
stanza, perhaps to stress the logical flow of ideas. There is minimal punctuation to
continue the flow of the poem.
3. The title is again deceptive/misleading like The Night of the Scorpion. This poem
does begin with a cold and repulsive image of the vultures. We soon realise that they
are symbols of evil and their main purpose is to introduce the theme of evil in the
poem.
4. The description of the vultures is in the past tense, whereas the Belsen Commandant
is described in the present continuous tense, perhaps to show us that evil is all
around us now.
5. The concentration camp commandant cannot escape the evil deeds he has just
committed that day. …the fumes of human roast [cling] rebelliously to his hairy
nostrils (Line 32). The word roast makes us think of food and it is even more
repulsive/disgusting that he buys chocolate for his child on the way home.

3
IMAGERY AND SOUND:
1. The opening of the poem is dark. The greyness (Line1) is heightened by the heavy
alliteration in drizzle of one despondent dawn (Line2) and even by the approaching
sunbreak (Line4) does not life the atmosphere.
2. There are metaphors of horror and death. The dead tree (Line6) branch which the
vultures roost on is described as a broken bone (Line5).
3. The male vulture’s bashed in head is a pebble on a stem (Line9) and its body is a
dump of gross feathers. (Line11)
4. In the second section the vultures love leads the poet on to think about the nature of
love.
5. Love is personified as a woman finding a place to sleep. She is in other ways so
particular (Line23) and hard to please, yet strangely she chooses to sleep with the
vultures, that charnel house (Line26). Yet why does she sleep with her face to the
wall(Line 28)? Is it to avoid seeing what is really there?
6. The Belsen Commandant-the mass murderer is called Daddy. Achebe uses this word
as it brings the man back to someone we would associate with children, thus making
his actions at work even more horrifying.
7. In the fourth section the poet uses more metaphors. The evil Commandant is seen as
an ogre with a tiny spark of love inside him, which is the glow worm. These images
are clichéd but Achebe is wants to say that he is saying nothing new-that there will
always be love and evil in the world.
8. The germ of love does not seem to grow as a normal seed would because of the
perpetuity of evil (Line 50) is bound up with it and prevents it from developing.
Germ here refers to something like a seed rather than a germ of disease.
9. Alliteration is used throughout the poem for impact.