From A Passage To Africa Flashcards
“Betrayed faces”
Synecdoche of people creating a powerful image
“Criss-crossed Somalia”
Informal language which narrows the gap between the reader and the audience as the readers can relate more to the semi formal register.
“A thousand hungry”
This number is rounded to make it sound like there are a lot more people than there actually were.
“Hungry, lean, scared and betrayed”
This creates emphasis as there is a list of emotive adjectives.
“Somalia”
Sets the scene and shows that the piece of writing is a recount of an experience and is autobiographical.
“There is one that I will never forget”
This hooks you on to make you want to read the whole piece and it shows that there is only one person who truly affected the writer. Also, as the tense is the definite future instead of the conditional tense, this suggests the memory must be very strong, clear and powerful in the writers mind. This also creates cohesion in the text as there are references to this one person throughout the text.
“I saw a thousand hungry, lean, scared and betrayed”
Foregrounds the idea that he has seems masses of suffering, but the person who he remembers and who affects him the most doesn’t suffer the most out of all these people.
“1991 and December 1992”
Specifies the date ensure the readers know which genre the piece is.
“A village in the back of beyond”
Idiom
“A place the aid agencies had yet to reach”
Tells readers that this is a remote location as the aid agencies have not yet found the place and helped there.
“‘Take the Badale Road…minutes approx.”
These few lines are a series of imperatives in sequence order and they are quotes by the writer himself who is recounting how he got to the village. These quotes also make the piece seem more authentic as it proves to the readers that the man actually went there and it giving instructions also helps to build up the suspense.
“Like a ghost village”
This simile is textural and and is referenced again in the text.
“Ghoulish manner”
This is a deliberately sticking metaphor and it is extended from the simile about the “ghost village” so it creates references to other parts of the text.
“Journalists on the hunt”
Metaphor to make the actions seem more extreme.
“I tramped”
Descriptive
“No longer impressed us”
The idea that humans have become numb to the bad situations they see on TV or read about in the newspapers, so in order for people to feel something for the people this is happing to, the images and articles must get more serious and seem worse and worse every time.
“Like the craving for a drug”
Simile
“Require heavier and more frequent doses”
Idea of simile carried on to help to explain to the readers in a way they are more likely to understand so they know how much they have grown numb to everything happening around them.
“Same old stuff the next”
This is to create a dismissive sense and tone to show that people get desensitised by what they see and become “immune” to it.
“Callous”
It sounds careless and cynical that people are no longer properly feeling the emotion these images and articles should create.
“Collect and compile”
Suggests desensitisation again as people need images to become more shocking and striking in order for the public to care and take notice of them.
“Comfort of their sitting rooms back home”
People don’t care because it doesn’t directly affect them.
