Commentary on the poem Refugee Mother and Child
The author of the poem is a Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, who used strong vocabulary and shocking facts in order to make this poem powerful and illustrate people’s lives in refugee camps, their difficulties, feelings and pain. The title helps us to guess what this poem is about, being quite short and direct.
The poem is organized into two stanzas, each with different lengths. The first stanza, being an allusion, compares Madonna and Child to mother and her dying child in a refugee camp. The idea of this comparison is that the love and tenderness that the mother expresses towards her weak child here surpasses the ideal image of Mother Mary and Jesus, “No Madonna and Child could touch that picture of a mother’s tenderness”, the word “touch” is used in a meaning “to measure up” here.
The fact that there is nothing the mother can do about her child’s forthcoming death can also be seen, “for a son she would have to forget”, she also cannot maintain memory about his death in order to survive, crying for her child would be a luxury, she has to carry on.
The author then moves to the lives of other people who are living in the refugee camp, where they die in great numbers. Chinua Achebe creates the tragic atmosphere by his word choice that catches attention, putting more emphasis to what is actually said than to the way it is said.
It is clearly shown that children suffer from malnutrition and starvation, the author also uses the repetition of the word “washed” to describe the state of children in this camp, “unwashed children” in the sense of a bad hygiene, and “washed-out ribs” to describe their physical state due to malnutrition. They do not even have basic things for survival, “blown empty bellies” shows their physical appearance, lack of food in their stomachs.
A feeling of hopelessness is seen all around the camp, “Most mothers there had long ceased to care but not this one”, there is hope witnessed in one of the mothers who doesn't let go her child, conditions do not destroy her spiritual strength, and that makes her being greater than Madonna in all her perfection.
Her inside power is shown very impressive, “she held a ghost smile between her teeth”, not her lips, this smile was not really shown on her face but the others could feel it, her strength from inside. It could also be seen in her eyes, “in her eyes ghost of a mother’s pride”.
The author then shows the poor state of the child, “as she combed the rust-colored hair left on his skull”, due to a malnutrition and starvation he loses hair and “rust-colored” does not really indicate the color but the state of corrosion due to bad hygiene. The use of the word “skull”, but not “head”, is also a common symbol for death.
The metaphor is also used in this stanza to portray mother’s emotions and her tenderness to her child, “singing in her eyes” illustrates her love seen in the eyes, her affection, she was not really singing. There is a very shocking image in this poem when she starts to arrange his hair, with all her love and tenderness, “singing in her eyes – began carefully to part it…”, in this gentle action she expresses her love and affection to her son. It is being one of the few things she can do for him and one of the few ways she can express her love to him. Chinua Achebe compared this act of love to putting flowers on a tiny grave of a dead child, in other words, it is her way to say good bye to him, it shows her acceptance of the fact that he is going to die soon, but she does not give up on him fully, she still cares about her child even though she has nothing to give to him, but the her love, “now she did it like putting flowers on a tiny grave”.
Then the author gives a comparison between two completely different words, “In another life this would have been a little daily act of no consequence before his breakfast and school; now she did it like putting flowers on a tiny grave.”, a normal over looked action in another life and a tender and cautious action in their world, the world of the refugee camp, without breakfast and school, with all the suffering they have to get over them and carry on.
This poem makes us feel very guilty and spoiled, we take too many things for granted. It also definitely makes us feel very sympathetic, because child dies just for nothing and there is a score of them. He won’t be appreciated or remembered, there won’t be flowers, not even a grave for him possibly. The author manages to make us feel what the mother feels and it makes us admire her and things she does to her dying child. This poem is very tragic and makes us thank our present lives. (934 words)