The Use of Imagery in Refugee Mother and Child by Chinua Achebe

Refugee Mother and Child is a poem that seems to be written to arouse

response from the reader. The pitiful image of a mother holding the

corpse of her son is not only sourcing empathy from the reader but

also helps the reader reflect on their own fortunate lives. In fact,

Chinua Achebe is a leading writer for African causes, especially for

the injustices in the world.

The first stanza seems to be written as an introduction to the

following stanza. The poet begins by allowing the reader to visualize

the –

“Picture of a mother’s tenderness

for a son she soon would have to forget.”

This immediately conveys the theme of ‘death of a child’ and also

helps set the ‘sorrowful’ mood of the poem. The short introduction

allows the reader to settle them down and focus more on the tragic

scene, thus maximizing the response from the reader.

Following the ‘theme’ and ‘mood’ set by the first stanza, the second

stanza described the living environment of the “Refugee Mother and

Child” as –

“The air was heavy with odours

of diarrhoea of unwashed children

with washed-out ribs and dried-up

bottoms struggling in laboured

steps behind blown empty bellies”

The filthy image of the environment that the mother and child lived in

is projected through negative connotation. For example, the words

‘odours’ and ‘diarrhoea’ suggests the presence of diseases and

sicknesses. This allows the reader to imagine a smelly and filthy

place crammed with ill people. The reference to illness, which seems

to be a link with the theme of ‘death’, foreshadows the tragic story

of the mother and her dead son although it has not been clearly stated

that her son is dead.

Furthermore, the grotesque image of the setting is strongly reinforced

by the mentioning of “unwashed children with washed out ribs…” Chinua

uses the children as a clear symbol of innocence and the unfortunate,

as the children has been given birth in places where vital resources

such as water and food are lacking. This will naturally allow the

reader to reflect on their own fortunate lives and raise awareness of

these unfortunate children living in famines. The words ‘laboured

steps’ also suggests child labour, linking to real cases in lesser

economically countries such as Africa, China and Algeria.

As the second stanza continues, the constant reference to death is

evident when the poet describes the –

“ghost smile between” the mother’s “teeth and in her eyes the ghost of

a mother’s pride.”

The careful choice of the technique, personification, enables the

reader to visualize the emptiness of the mother’s smile and spirit, by

comparing the nouns ‘smile’ and ‘eyes’ with ‘ghost’, which

communicates the idea of death.