A Passage to Africa

Question 1

“A “thousand” faces but “one” he won’t forget”

Answer 1

• contrast
• short opening paragraph
• creates intrigue about the identity of this person

Question 2

“like a ghost village” and “the ghoulish manner of journalists on the hunt”

Answer 2

• simile suggests desolation, emptiness and lack of humanity
• aren’t many people in the village and many remain close to death
• lexical set of horror
• metaphor implies that the reporters are portrayed as predators, lacking in humanity

Question 3

“the search for the shocking is like the craving for a drug”

Answer 3

• simile implies that reporters are motivated by thrills rather than truths

Question 4

“the smell that drew me to her doorway: the smell of decaying flesh”

Answer 4

• paradox
• imagery suggests Alagaiah’s morbid fascination
• yearning for the sensational and shocking

Question 5

“and then there was the face i will never forget”

Answer 5

• single sentence paragraph bring the reader almost to a point of climax in the narrative
• isolated line makes us wonder whether there is worse to follow after the horrific descriptions before hand

Question 6

“Yes, revulsion”

Answer 6

• short sentence repeats and confirms Alagiah’s feelings

- places focus on the main feeling that the writer felt

Question 7

“It was not a smile of greeting, it was not a smile of joy - how could it be? - but it was a smile nonetheless”

Answer 7

• repetition conveys Alagiah’s struggle to comprehend the meaning of the mans smile
• it’s power and mystery perplex Alagiah

Question 8

“the journalist observes, the subject is observed. The journalist is active, the subject is passive”

Answer 8

• parallel structure implies that the relationship between journalists and the people was clearly divided
• contrast emphasizes its disturbing impact on Alagiah’s understanding for his profession

Question 9

“without uttering a single word, the man had posed a question that cut to the heart of the relationship between me and him, between us and them, between the rich world and the poor world”

Answer 9

• emphasizes the powerful effect of the mans smile on Alagiah
• The smile forced Alagiah to alter his thinking about relationships he had previously thought were fixed and i changeable

Question 10

“so, my nameless friend, if you are still alive, i owe you one”

Answer 10

• highlights the contradictory and unexpected feelings aroused in the writer through his encounter
• Alagiah’s appreciation is tempered by the fact that the man is tempered by the fact that the man is possibly dead
• the debt lasting forever