276°
Posted 20 hours ago

A Passage To Africa

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

If he was embarrassed to be found weakened by hunger and ground down by conflict, how should I feel to be standing there so strong and confident?”

In this story “From Passage to Africa”, George Alagiah creates sense of pity by using emotive language. In the extract you can see that he uses extract when he says “hungry”, “scared”. This shows that he is using emotive language to engage with his readers. George Alagiah creates also creates pity when he uses words such as “hut”, “dirt floor”. This shows the difference between our normal world and the one affected by the famine. The fact that he writes about the terrible things in Somalia and there are people who don’t care what is happening increases the pity. Note the contrast between the two quotes mentioned above. Whilst the first set of adjectives are harsh, the second contains much gentler and softer description. It is almost as though Alagiah is contrasting the harshness of the incidents with the human empathy that he feels. The beginning of the passage is a one sentence introductory paragraph starting with a series of adjectives in rapid succession: ‘thousand, hungry, lean, scared and betrayed faces.’ Showing the turmoil of emotions the author felt, unable to pin down the description of the faces in one word, it also evokes at once the curiosity of the reader a well as lays the ground work for the setting: a general picture of death and disease form in one’s mind. The use of the noun ‘faces’, not names, not people, but ‘faces’ shows the impersonal detachment of the author. They aren’t human beings to him; they are just faces, just surfaces and expressions. This is emphasized in the ending of the sentence: ‘…but there is one I will never forget.’ Along with informing us about a meeting which was so exceptional that the author cannot forget it, it also implies that the rest of the death and suffering he sees around him are very much forgettable and don’t really affect him.This simultaneous degradation of the village people and elevation of the journalists is ironical as it proves that in the author’s mind it is the village people who are above them as he views himself as nothing more than a relentless animalistic hunter who is following a trail. This feeling of revulsion which the hunter feels towards himself is further shown in the ellipses in ‘my cameraman… and I’ as if he hesitates a little, out of shame and self-disgust, before admitting that he too was involved. This hatred that he harbors for his own feelings is explained when he admits that all those things that might have appalled him before don’t even leave an impression on him now, showing how his job is changing him, making him harder, more cynical and detached. The text revolves around post-war violence and its effect on people and how the world media, greedy for the news of suffering hunt the people down for the stories and pictures that can be gained from them. It talks about how violence and war do not end with overthrowing the king, and how it has many lingering effects on the nations and their people. Through vivid images created through intricate descriptive language. LITERARY DEVICES AND NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES The simple one sentence sixth stanza ‘And then there was the face I will never forget’ implies the great significance of the meeting it alludes to , how important it must have been for the author. How does the writer, Alagiah, use language to inform the reader about the harsh realities of being a journalist? It is the list of 3 adjectives that create the pity and empathy that we feel for the situation. Another example is:

This is a balanced and ultimately optimistic trip through Africa's recent history by a man who grew up there as a child and has reported on it's triumphs and disasters as an adult - and the moral issues that reporting can throw out.

Alagiah lists incidents that have remained strong in his mind. He finishes the piece with the haunting image of a man. Despite the fact the image is haunting, the man was ‘smiling’.. It is as though it is a contradiction to the emotion Alagiah was feeling. examquestions

One way the writer creates horror is by describing the “ghost village” as if people are dead; however they are alive (barely). Also he creates horror by using words such as “festering wound the size of my hand”. The very beginning of the excerpt speaks of the condition of the people of Somalia, calling them “a thousand hungry, lean, scared and betrayed faces” emphasising how they were betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect them or pretend that they will protect them. The author even throws shade at his own venture inside the land in search of more terrible sights, calling it a ghoulish hunt, portraying the inhumane greed of the media world that prides itself on being the first to uncover stories and venture in search of suffering and monetises them. Finally, he uses a short fragment paragraph ‘ And then there was the face I will never forget ’. This builds tension, because out of all Alagiah has seen which he says eventually becomes numbing, he uses the absolute ‘ never forget ’ to indicate how much this affected him. In this section, he builds suspense using rhetorical questions ‘ What was it about that smile?’ as he seeks to uncover the mystery of why this one man affected him so much. This man is the only one who speaks directly to us – albeit through a translator ‘ he’s embarrassed to be found in this condition ’. Alagiah becomes connected to the subject, personally, where normally, he says he’s ‘ inured‘.The narrator's tone changes in the next paragraph, returning to the face which he only saw for 'a few seconds', showing his fascination about the juxtaposition of a 'smile' in this landscape. The narrator cannot understand it, saying only what it was 'not' a smile about, but unable to understand why it is there. 'It touched me in a way I could not explain', showing his confusion both about why he is touched and for why the smile happened in the first place. There is contrast between things he shows very vividly in the first half and things which he cannot explain (as they are emotional) in the second half. comfort’- contrast of the horrible conditions in Africa but points out this barbaric act is at the cost that we want this George Alagiah writes about his experiences as a television reporter during the war in Somalia, Africa in the 1990s. He won a special award for his report on the incidents described in this passage. George Alagiah is describing a visit to Africa. He is discussing the horrors that he saw on his visit and how they have haunted him since. context

Tributes will rightly be paid to a fantastic journalist and brilliant broadcaster – but George was the most decent, principled, kindest, most honourable man I have ever worked with’ Jon Sopel From a Passage to Africa How does the writer, Alight, use language to inform the reader about the harsh realities of being a journalist? In this story “From Passage to Africa”, George Alight creates sense of pity by using emotive language. In the extract you can see that he uses extract when he says “hungry’, “scared”. This shows that he is using emotive language to engage with his readers. George Alight creates also creates pity when he uses words such as “hut”, “dirt floor. This is particularly moving for the reader as it describes in harsh terms a particularly terrible situation which readers can see in their own lives. Compare and Contrast the Ways in Which Two Poets Create Sympathy for Their Characters – ‘on a Portrait of a Deaf Man’ and ‘the River God’. He lists incidents that he has seen over the years that will forever be in his head. It is as though he is traumatised by all he has seen, from a mother with her children to an old woman. structureI saw that face for only a few seconds, a fleeting meeting of eyes before the face turned away, as its owner retreated into the darkness of another hut. In those brief moments there had been a smile, not from me, but from the face. It was not a smile of greeting, it was not a smile of joy — how could it be? — but it was a smile nonetheless. It touched me in a way I could not explain. It moved me in a way that went beyond pity or revulsion. The first example of Amina Abdirahman and her family is particularly moving for the reader, describing how she left her daughters to search for food, yet one them dies of hunger in her absence. A simile is when you compare one object with another. A simile uses the words ‘as’ and ‘like’ to compare.

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment