Mother In A Refugee Camp

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Similar to Browning’s Duke, Shelley presents the excessive pride of the Egyptian Pharaoh “Ozymandias”. However, in this instance, its purpose is to stares hubris by depicting its futility and nemesis. Moreover, much like in Browning’s “My Last Duchess”, Shelley explores the power of art and the artist to present the truth. >Mother in a refugee camp: Unlike Shelley’s “Ozymandias”, Achebe implies that real-life situations can be more powerful than the representations of idealising art. Thus, he implies that the arts, like his poetry have a duty to show the reality, rather than a beautified representation.Firstly, Through the title “A Mother in a Refugee Camp”, Achebe reveals the extent of human suffering, presenting the poem’s duty to show …show more content…

This is present throughout the poem in the form of a semantic field of death. The touching and semi-oxymoronic image of the “ghost-smile” depicts the remnants of the happiness, love and normality she felt before; however, her “smile” like a ghost lacks substance and vitality. The following phrase “between her teeth” is harsher in tone and is indicative of her desperation as she struggles to hold onto any semblance of her previous life that has all but disappeared. Towards the end of the poem she begins to “carefully” part the “rust-coloured hair left on his skull” an action that holds absolute tenderness and makes the reader reflect on day-to-day life where such an act is of no importance and holds no significance. The lexical choice of “skull” is indicative of the child’s imminent death. However, the manner in which she completes this action contains an air of finality and resignation that is not unlike “putting flowers on a tiny grave”. Achebe concludes the poem with this simile in order to comment on the transience of life and the speed at which it can be taken from us. The noun “flowers” is mimetic of her once beautiful but now fragile child and of his transient life which is so easily destroyed, thus ending the poem with a powerful image of

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