Young And Dyslexic Flashcards
“shut up, stupid boy.”
Imperative, has a dismissive tone illustrating the authoritarian education system Zephaniah was faced with growing up. The adjective “stupid” makes the reader feel bad for Zephaniah as it is clear he was not treated well by his teachers.
“thrown out” “arguing” “fighting”
Negative verbs, creates an image of violence and highlights the violent environment Zephaniah went to school in
“Do I need an operation?”
Humour, emphasises his naivety to dyslexia and also highlights how little was known about the condition at the time for him to have gone his whole life never having heard of it.
“I always get an actor to read it out for me.”
Speech Techniques, highlighting his vulnerabilities and helping the audience to humanise him as he helps them understand his coping strategies
Opening Paragraph
Initial negative imagery and emotive language “As a child I suffered” begins to build a rapport with the reader by making the piece personal to him from the start.
“we are the architects, we are the designers”
Anaphora and Parallel structure, is repeated at both the start and the end of the piece. The inclusive pronoun “we” emphasises the connection between Zephaniah and the audience as well as creating a sense of connectivity between dyslexics. It highlights dyslexics as being equally important as other even though their skills and talents are different. Dyslexia is a gift not a disadvantage.
“If you look at the statistics, I should be in prison: a black man brought up on the wrong side of town whose family fell apart, in trouble with the police when I was a kid, unable to read and write, with no qualifications and, on top of that, dyslexic.”
Long sentence, uses an asyndetic list to illustrate a negative picture of a tumultuous life by showing all the barriers he faced to get where he is.
Unconventional Sentence Structure
After highlighting all the barriers he faced, Zephaniah starts a sentence with “but” showing how, just like the sentence structure, his success was unconventional, this acts as a motivation to other and signifies a tone change in the piece
Other Key Quotes
“Bloody non-dyslexics… Who do they think they are?” (informal slang, connects with youth, unity, dyslexia is normal)
“I just had self belief” (short sentence, affirms message)
“If you’re dyslexic and you feel there’s something holding you back, just remember: it’s not you. In many ways being dyslexic is a natural way to be” (parallel with racism and ableism, others much change not those subjected to it)
“Nazis” “savages” (racist language)
“how dare you challenge me?” (hostile authoritarian environment)
