Refugee mother and her child by Chinua Achebe Essay

Explain what the rime is about(predicate) and how the poet conveys the emotions he feels. The poem is about Achebes encounter with a acquire and child in a refugee camp. This arrest was different from the other mothers as she still cherished and love her boy. The other mothers had already stopped caring for their children as survival was non the most important thing and there wasnt any forecast of survival for their children anyway. In caudex 9 Most mothers there had large ceased to care The poets tone was varied, in the first stanza he utilise long, soft vowels much(prenominal)(prenominal) as the vowel o and words such as t quiterness.In melody 4, Achebe chose to used the word perfume instead of the word smell or stench because it sounded softer and more rounded. The womanishness continued until the beginning of promissory note 5 where Achebe used hard-sounding words such as diarrhoea and blown. The fact that the child will run short is hinted repeatedly. From line 7 to line 14 of the second stanza, he seemed to be admiring the mothers love for her child in even those circumstances. At the fire, his tone was sad and regretful. In the last tercet lines like position flowers on a tiny grave. There was alliteration in line 5 of the second stanza behind blown empty bellies The poet used the exert spectre as a metaphor in lines 8 and 9 of the second stanza. In ghost smile, he meant the softening of the mothers expression as she looked at her son. There was repetition of ghost and in ghost of a mothers pride, it stand for what the mother used to feel and here there was only the tiniest go away of it. The last 2 lines were a smilie, hes saying that her straighten out her sons h broadcast is like a final good-bye because she would belike never get to do it again.In the first line, bloody shame and Child, this is the scene when Christ was taken from the cross and placed on Marys knees. Achebe is saying that even this scene could not perk up been more touching than of the refugee mother and her child. In line 3 for a son she soon would have to forget. Here he means that subsequently the boy dies, the mother will have to concentrate on survival for herself, forcing her to forget her son. This will not be able to mourn her child. In line 4 The air was heavy with odours The air was thick with the stench.The air was so dense that it seemed it had a weight and was more than just gas. In lines 7 and 8 Struggling in laboured steps veritable(a) walking is difficult for them. Walking is hard work. Achebe doesnt know the mothers name, so he refers to her as she and her. Rust-coloured is the colour of a dark- haired persons hair when he or she has an inadequate diet. The hair signals that the child is incredibly unhealthy and on the verge of dying. In line 11 hair left on his skull The child is in such poor health that his hair has fallen out.Achebe used the work skull because it showed how poorly(predicate) the boy was and because it represented death. In line 12 - Singing in her eyes The hyphens surrounding this phrase outlined its significance. This was probably because the mother remembers interpret to him, when they were happy. From line 15 act of no consequence Combing her sons hair would usually be something a mother wouldnt think twice about. They were probably quite well off in the first place they were in this situation. The punctuation Achebe used were little. At the end of the first rime he put a period.This is because he was finalizing a statement. At the end of line 5 of the second stanza, theres another period. This is because hed finished describing about the surroundings and was moving onto the mother. In line 7, there was a semi-colon, which indicates a pause. There is another one in line 16. In line 13 there are three periods together. This is usually used to signify that something will eventually continue. At the end of the poem he put another period. This is because he is ending the poem and also because he is once again finalizing something.Since the child is dying, death is final, so the period was suitable. In lines 13 to 16, Achebe introduced the possibility that the mother and child were probably quite well off before they were in this situation. However, their lives had changed and it was no eight-day that comfortable lifestyle. I thought the poem was sad. It showed how disasters could change the feelings and lives of normal mess like you and me. It was an eye-opening poem, and it made me realise that if I werent living this lifestyle that boy may well have been anyone I know or me.