Compare How ‘Vultures’ and ‘Night of the Scorpion’ Explore People and Human Nature

Compare how ‘Vultures’ and ‘Night of the Scorpion’ explore people and human nature Both these poems explore various factors relating to the behaviour of people and human nature. Each poem makes numerous points such as the fact that there is good in all evil, the importance of belief and faith, as well as how people react in a crisis. Vultures uses a creature seen as a “dump of gross feathers” as a metaphor for humans, exploring how there is good hidden beneath all evil. The vulture is often seen as an evil creature, perching on a tree watching its helpless prey, waiting for the moment to swoop in and feast on its dead remains. However, the poem describes the vultures showing human qualities, such as how the bird is “nestled close to his mate”, the “dump of gross feathers, inclined affectionately to hers”. Affection is a quality which is usually only thought to be shown in humans, but the fact that poem the poem describes the somewhat unlikable creatures as affectionate suggests that there is a sense of good in all evil. The is no fine divide between ‘good’ and ‘bad’. The poem is suggesting that the two co-exist in unison with one another, that wherever there is good, there is always bad (and vice versa). Night of the Scorpion explores a similar hypothesis. One point the poem expresses is the instability of humans. The writer states how his father, a “sceptic, rationalist”, a man of science, can quickly become superstitious under demanding situations. Losing faith in science, the writers father starts “trying every curse and blessing”, in desperate search for a remedy to the scorpion sting inflicted upon the writers mother. These two hypothesis’ are similar. The poem Vultures argues how there is good in all evil. The point expressed in Night of the Scorpions could be interpreted in a similar way to this, in that a rationalist and a man of science can desperately turn to superstition, and ultimately religion under demanding conditions. This could suggest