Vultures Summary & Analysis
by Chinua Achebe

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In Chinua Achebe's "Vultures," a pair of grim birds nuzzling each other after devouring a rotting corpse become a metaphor for the uneasy fact that human beings are equally capable of love and evil. Just as vultures can feast on death and still cuddle, the speaker observes, the man who runs a Nazi death camp might pick up chocolates for his beloved children on the way home; cruelty and tenderness can coexist in the same person. Whether that's cause for hope or despair, the speaker can't quite decide—but despair seems more likely. The poem first appeared in Achebe's 1971 collection Beware Soul Brother, and Other Poems.

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