A Response to Night of the Scorpion and Sacrifice

A Response to Night of the Scorpion and Sacrifice

Both Nissim Ezekien and Taufiq Rafat are writing the poem from the

point of view of a older person living in the western world looking

back at the culture that hey were brought up in and the differences in

ways of life and beliefs.

"Sacrifice" tells the story of how a goat was slaughtered to bless a

house about to be built and the struggle that a young onlooker is

having comprehending why it is happening. "Night Of The Scorpion" also

accounts a young boy watching his mother suffering from a scorpion

sting and all the attempts to save her.

Both poems are written by people that seem outside of the culture that

they are placed in and with hindsight are opposed to these dated

systems and Rafat feels empathy towards the goat that is being

slaughtered. Both the poems also show that both of the young observers

are naive and do not fully understand what is happening and why. The

poets show that through their naivety children can ask searching

questions that adults, who have become apathetic to the inhumanity

through the years, choose to ignore.

Both poets effectively use imagery to get the reader involved in the

poem. In" sacrifice" the blood is descried as being like a "geyser"

which conjures up images of gushing blood being spurted out to a great

distance. The poet also tells us how "keenly" the knife cuts, which

make the reader, think of a sharp knife easily cutting through the

flesh leaving a clean almost surgical cut. In the "Night Of The

Scorpion" there is "mud bricked walls" which conjure up images of an

African village secluded in a dry landscape living a traditional

life...

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...hey were often used

in religion and in earlier time would also be sacrificed and is

highlighting the fact that a culture saw one murder as barbaric but

another as completely normal. The poet then describes the foundations

as another "Dachau" which was a German death camp and makes the reader

think about the fact that both were killings to supposedly help build

a strong home but the difference being scale. It also shows the poet

is using hindsight because he can now see the similarities but as a

child could not.

Both poems seem to highlight the difference between a Childs view of

the world and an adult and understand how children can have insight

into things taken for granted by adults. "Night Of The Scorpion" also

shows how far a mother is willing to go to save her children, even

being glad that she died instead.