Explorers or boys messing about? Flashcards
title
juxtaposition between ideas of respect and nuisance; highlights anger writer has towards them and their immaturity; rhetoric so evokes thought to question credibility of the two men
‘farce’, ‘tragedy’, ‘drama’
semantic field of theatre - creates impression that what explores are doing isn’t real/undermining credibility
‘new adventure’, ‘plunged’, ‘plucked’
childish imagery shows naive curiosity; also kinda plosive with the last two which echoes what it would’ve been like to actually be there
‘Royal Navy, the RAF and British coastguards’
triad emphasises the help and resources that they required and wasted; create frustration towards them and shows irresponsibility
‘Experts questioned the wisdom’
implies idiocy; there is a collective negativity towards the men
‘ “trust helicopters” ‘
-use of inverted commas creates sarcastic tone and is ironic given failure of the mission
‘also known as Q’
comedic - alludes to Bond films where Q supplies clever gadgets, but in this case the gadgets have failed; reinforces impression they don’t know what they’re doing.
‘ditched and scrambled’
emotive verbs highlight their careless nature in their vulnerability
‘nothing short of a miracle’
biblical imagery suggests expedition was very dangerous and that they were very lucky; indicates their reckless behaviour
‘experienced adventures’
irony as they should have known better than to do something this dangerous
‘wisdom…questioned’
repetition of expert opinion highlights unintelligence; evokes frustration
‘42, and 40’
men’s ages juxtapose childish behaviour/metaphors; evokes anger as more maturity is expected of them
‘survived a charge by a silver back gorilla’
hyperbole - writer lists number of adventures, which are exaggerated to make fun of them
‘they’ll probably have their bottoms kicked and be sent home the long way’
metaphor - compares men to school boys who have been punished; diminishes them and makes them seem comical
