Explorers or boys messing about by Steven Morris Flashcards
Context
- news article by the guardian
-About a pair of British explorers who’s last expedition ended in disaster when their helicopter crash landed in the antarctic
Message/Meaning
- Open a debate on wether readers tax money should go towards this wasteful incident
- emphasises that the adventurers are extremely careless, reckless and irresponsible for partaking in the trip
- adversely these adventurers could be percieved as victims in a traumatic crash
‘Experts questioned the wisdom of taking a small helicopter’
Morris sprinkles expert opinion throughout which is unanimous in the criticicm - indicates incompetence and carelessness
‘Their last expedition ended in farce’
Invites reader to laugh at their Behaviour and immaturity as it appears the be a series of embarrassments- disapproval and sarcastic from the start
‘Both men are experienced adventurers’
Reminder of what they are capable of, recognises their achievements and gives them credit.
They are supposedly qualified and knowledgeable which also subtly suggests the absurdity of this situation
Language features
Irony
Tone
Persuasion
semantic field
Irony
Line 4 - “A new adventure”
The word ‘adventure’ creates a sense of immaturity about their journey.It’s ironic because the adventure was no a childish adventure but a life-threatening situation
Line 16 - “trust helicopter”
The adjective ‘trusty’ is ironic because their helicopter wasn’t trustworthy since it put both mens lives at risk.
Persuasion
line 34- “it was nothing short of a miracle”
Shows that the mission to save them was really important and failure could have mean death.Truly conveying the difficult situation put not only themselves in but also their rescue team
Line 53 - “Military helicopters to lift them off the ice if they cross the border”
This uses belittling language ‘lift’ almost as u would a child to portray the explorerers as immature
Tone
Line 19 - “The drama”
The word ‘drama’ creates a sense of childishness and immaturity
line 68- “They’ll probably have their bottoms kicked and be sent home the long way”
The language shows them being punished as though they are children to further nail this idea of childish ness home Ms vest (the wive of one of the explorers) said it , reaffirming their irresponsibleness
Overall structure
-Cyclic begins and ends the story with the explorers being careless and ridiculed for it
- anecdotes to reinforce the carelessness of the men
line 1-26 structure
Morris presents the men as careless, inexperienced and overall childish.
Line 33-47
Morris presents the men as experienced and should have known this adventure was a bad idea
56- end
Morris uses others expert opinion and one of their wives at the end of the article to solidify to the public that the men are irresponsible and should have known better
Themes
-Danger
- Criticism
- praise
Theme- Danger
‘scrambled into their life craft’
‘call emergency people’
‘the men were plucked from the icy water’
‘Nothing short of a miracle’
Theme - criticism
‘Experts questioned the wisdom of taking a small helicopter’
‘involved royal navy’
‘nine hour rescue’ this quote emphasises the time and money put into saving these men from a completely avoidable situation if the right preparations were made.
Praise
‘Experienced adventurers’
‘either way the tax payer gets the bill’
shows disapproval of the adventure
semantic field
of a theatre is created words like ‘farce’ and ‘the drama began’ shows the writers belief that the men were being dramatic and wasteful
listing
shows the extent of the rescue mission and the amount oftax payer funded forces used for these two men’s ‘adventure’
‘The RAF, the British coastguard and the royal navy’
‘confusion about what the men were trying to achieve’
implication that there was a lack of purpose in the journey
