A Passage To Africa

Question 1

• “There is one I will never forget”
  
  • “The search for the shocking is like the craving for a drug… frequent doses”
  • “the ghoulish manner of journalists on the hunt for the most striking pictures”

Answer 1

Insight to life
Accustomed to upsetting imagery

- “There is one I will never forget”
	○ Foreshadowing - setting up the main point of the story 
		- “and then there was the face I will never forget”
-  “The search for the shocking is like the craving for a drug… frequent doses”
	○ Simile - comparing news reporter to a drug addict
- “the ghoulish manner of journalists on the hunt for the most striking pictures” Alagiah’s attitude shocks reader. “Morbidly interested in death”

Question 2

• “simple, frictionless, motionless”
  
  • “Smell of decaying flesh”
  • “it was rotting; she was rotting”

Answer 2

Sense of pathos
Convey hardship and situation

- “simple, frictionless, motionless”
	○ Tricolon of adjectives emphasise quietness of death
	○ But how ingrained it is in their society 
- “Smell of decaying flesh”
	○ Sensory imagery - convey his sense of disgust 
	○ But also the horrid conditions the Somalian people have found themselves in 
- “it was rotting; she was rotting”
	○ Direct parallelism between woman and her wound Draws our attention to her state

Question 3

• “Deliverance”
  
  • “That face”, “a smile”
  • “Smile”

Answer 3

Impact of experience
As a journalist
Visesceral internal reactions

- “Deliverance”
	○ Connotations of relief and salvation 
	○ Underlines the horror of life in the region
- “That face”, “a smile”
	○ Repetition -> Synecdoche 
	○ Focuses out attention on the simple thing that strikes Alagiah
-  “Smile”
	○ Repeated 5 times Centres our attention on the significance this poses for Alagiah

Question 4

• The journalist observes, the subject is observed. The journalist is active, the subject is passive”
  
  • “How should I feel to be standing there so strong and confident”
  • ”I resolved… I would”

Answer 4

Explores relationship: reporter and subject
Theme of morality
Within actions

he journalist observes, the subject is observed. The journalist is active, the subject is passive”
○ Repetition of sentence structure and syntax
○ Emphasises the relationship between journalist and “subject”
- “How should I feel to be standing there so strong and confident”
○ Genuine question
○ Does he have the right to stand there and impose himself on a suffering person
- ”I resolved… I would”
○ Repetition of I
○ Personal vow to bring light to Gugaduud, almost as if he owes his subjects
Commenting on the morality of the journalist