This blog is in response to a task assigned by Yesha ma’am based on Chinua Achebe’s African poem ‘Vultures’. This blog deals with an assigned class activity to write any one theme in class based on our understanding and the same is published in a blog under the title of class activity. Also this blog carries the detailed information, summary and analysis of the poem.
VULTURES- CHINUA ACHEBE
About Chinua Achebe–
Chinua Achebe was an Nigerian novelist, poet and critic who is regarded as a dominant figure of African Literature. His three novels ‘Things Fall Apart’, ‘No Longer at Ease’ and ‘Arrow of God’ are his so-called African Trilogy. He is often referred to as the ‘father of African Literature’. He was fiercely critical of how European literature depicted Africa. He wrote in and defended the use of English. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2007.
His writing style depends on Igbo oral tradition and combines straightforward narration with representations of folk stories, proverbs and oratory.
About Poem–
The poem Vultures by Chinua Abheche was published in 1971 in the collection ‘Beware, Soul Brother’. The poem begins with the filthy and dark environment, it depicts the truthful picture of Belsen concentration camp. Vultures are represented in a disparaging and grim fashion that is constructed as a metaphor for the people responsible for the atrocities of Belsen. The commandant, in the poem, is none other than a representative of a class, who selflessly thinks of his own family even if thousands of families are rotting just around him. The fetid smell of rotting humanity inside him gets featured through the imagery of the vultures.
Imagery of Vultures = rotting humanity (inside commandant in particular)
The whole poem is divided into four stanzas on 21,8,11 and 11 lines respectively. The poem is written in free verse with no specific rhyming pattern. It is written in third-person free form, and the personification of emotions is employed to form a stronger sense of understanding and relatability.
Background of the Poem–
The poem brings to the light the historical image of Nazis human atrocities, Belson Concentration camp. Bergen-Belsen Camp or Belson camp is a Nazi concentration camp. It was established as a prisoner of war camp in 1943. Parts of it became a concentration camp. Achebe refers to a commandant working at the Belson Camp and his ignorance of the fetid smell of “human roast'' around him. This dreary scene presents a true picture of the concentration camp.
Title–
The title of the poem contains a metaphor. Through the title, Achebe implicitly compares the commandants at Belson Camp to vultures, for their cruelty and cold-blooded nature.
A living creature that preys greedily and ruthlessly on others, especially the helpless.
In this poem, Achebe makes use of a figurative application of the word vultures to describe a Nazi commandant at one of the concentration camps during WWII.
Poem analysis–
“In the greyness … telescopic eyes…”
The poem opens with the dark, gray and filthy dawn which is not stirred by harbingers. The very first stanza describes physical outlook and the actions of the vulture. Vulture is sitting on a dead tree close to his mate, which shows the love among the vultures. There is a sharp difference between the cold mechanicalistic nature of the vulture’s appearance and their fond actions towards one another- yet, they coexist. The stanza describes the atmosphere, physical look and action of vultures in detail. The use of ‘telescopic eyes’ eyes the mechanical feel towards the bird.
This is a small hint to the larger topic of the poem: the presence of light in darkness and love in evil.
Strange indeed… to the wall!
Second stanza is the perfect depiction of the presence of love in the most awful and unexpected situations. The previous stanza gave us glimpses of love in the evilest bird. In this stanza the poet is personifying love by using ‘her’ , a charnel-house is a building where corpses and skeletons are kept- it symbolizes lifelessness and destruction. Saying that love is coiled up there represents love to be present in the evilest heart and deadliest place, portraying ‘love’ as ‘light’ and ‘death’ as ‘darkness’, a clever comparison is made through imagery.
…Thus the Commandant …….Daddy’s return…
The third stanza introduces the new protagonist in the poem. This stanza brings out the two incompatible scenes; one of Belson camp and other a commandant buying chocolate for his child. Achebe possibly uses the Commandant as a human form of the vulture. Commandant is returning home after roasting human bodies and description of Belson camp throws light on the cruelty and deadly action of commandant. While buying chocolate, affection and love for his child. This also evokes the thought of goodness in everyone. It brings out the coexistence of two elements in human beings. Child’s wait shows the child's unawareness of everything her father does at work- she just wants to see him. This display of childish innocence and naivety is representative of love and light.
Praise bounteous … perpetuity of evil.
By the description of Ogre (mythological monster) feeding on human beings, once again the poet brings the theme of death and darkness represented by the vulture, the charnel house and the Commandant.
the poet wonders whether this is a thing to be praised or despaired. Is it a positive thing that no matter how much darkness there is, we will still find at least a flicker of light? Or is it a misfortune that we can never find light unless it is surrounded by total darkness? These two perspectives are similar to the yin-and-yang, which depicts dualism– the interconnected yet contradictory forces of the natural world: we cannot find one without the other.
What is the message of ‘Vultures’?
The message of this piece is hinted at in the last stanza. Through this poem, Achebe tells readers that even in the cold caverns of someone’s cruel heart, love can exist. This love is compared to a “germ” that not only affects the loved ones but also others around a person, from humanity's perspective.
Explanation of theme Vulture as metaphor.
The poem vultures by Chinua Achebe is bringing forward a dark atmosphere of the Belson concentration camp and how the atrocities were carried out by the supervisors of the camp. The poet has used vulture as a metaphor of the rotting humanity in the commandant in particular and the human in general.
Vultures are considered as a bird of prey, in the animal world, are a dangerous Bird.
“Picked the eyes of a swollen corpse”
This line of the poem tries to bring the gross and Evil image of the vulture
“nestled(settled) close to his mate his smooth”
“...in easy range of cold telescopic eyes.”
reflects the selfish image of the vulture
Chinua Achebe’s other protagonist in the poem is a commandant of the Belson concentration camp who is going home after his day’ “with fumes of human roast” which are “clinging rebelliously to his hairy nostrils” before reaching house went to a shop and “pick up a chocolate for his” child who has been waiting for him. The poem brings the historical image of Nazi Belson concentration camp in Germany where the Jews and large amount of people died due to atrocities and starvation.
Comparing these human atrocities with the dangerous Bird vultures we see that humans are more dangerous. Commandant’s nostrils were filled with ‘fumes of roasted humans’ who were killed without any fault. while Vultures ate a swallowed dead body.
Humans in general, and commandants in particular do have their own thinking capacity, societal and psychological way of thinking and vultures eat bodies out of their nature. Humans are pushing other humans to death and vultures are eating already dead bodies which also helps ecology.
Comparing the two protagonists of the poem we realize the vultures are better than humans. Vulture's action does not only quench its hunger but also is eco-friendly. While human deeds are out of animosity with their own creed and against nature, it seems that humans want to be master of nature.
Looking over their love account we say that Vulture is sitting and eating with its mate. vulture is true to his mate and shows himself as it is. While, when the commandant is returning to his house, he is buying the chocolate for his child to show love, which can be interpreted as his own attempt to hide his deed from his child.
We can see that there is goodness in the actions of vultures in spite of being Evil Bird. On the other side there is no hope of goodness in the evil heart of the commandant because he is good only to his child and worse to others while vultures treat everyone equally to everyone.
Thus Vulture is used as a metaphor of humans to exhibit evilness but humans are thousand times more human than vulture.
Here are some of the reading materials from where I referred to the poem.
I hope this blog is useful. Thanks for visiting.
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Thanks for this info. WMD
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