alagiah Flashcards
(24 cards)
“Hungry, lean, scared and betrayed”
Tricolon and listing
Creates an image of great suffering, the listing (asyndetic) makes it seem like a flowing, endless path of pain
“One I will never forget”
Intrigues the reader
“Back of beyond” - listing of vague directions
Hyperbole and listing
Creates a great sense of isolation of the Somali tribe - eerie and unsettling
“Ghost village”
Allusion
Allusions to death
“Ghoulish manner”
“hunt”
Language choices
Ghouls ‘feed off death’ and are notorious for their ghastly and grotesque behaviours.
“Hunt” presents a predatory verb, portrays the reporters in a dangerous and fearful/Somali people as vulnerable
“No longer impressed us much”
Apathetic tone
This presents how little and desensitised the reporters have become
“Like the craving for a drug”
Simile
The correlation of people’s suffering and deaths to taboo subjects such as drugs shows apathy
“Old stuff”
Dismissive tone
Dehumanises the subjects of the images showing apathy
“Comfort of their sitting rooms”
Juxtaposition of suffering
Suggests that people in HICs are privileged
“Terminal hunger”
Allusions
“Terminal” alludes to suffering and illness
“Habiba had died”
Simple sentence
Adopts a clinical tone. Simple sentence could show how simple and normalised death is in this setting
No rage, no whimpering”
Anaphora
Suggests a smooth deliverance into death - sense of lacking
“Simple, frictionless, motionless deliverance”
Tricolon
Shows how easy and normal death is, there was no fight back or resistence
“Smell of decaying flesh”
Olfactory imagery
Disgusting, revolting implications, cause shock and disgust from the reader at the thought of it.
“Shattered leg”, “festering wound”, “decaying flesh”, “yellow eyes”
Graphic, violent imagery
Utilised to unsettle and disgust the reader, forcefully pushing vivid imagery with little to no censoring of details - Alagiah forces reader into the Somalian people’s perspectives
“It was rotting; She was rotting”
Parallel structure
Dehumanises the woman. Shows how broken and dehumanised she is, she has no basic no human rights. Also shows how we dehumanise those across the world who are suffering, and like the writer, need reminding that they too are human.
“And there was the face I will never forget”
One sentence paragraph
Focus and importance is placed on this sentence, engages reader and introduces the previous “face [he] will never forget”
“revulsion”
Repetition
He is honest about his emotions and experience which gives him credibility
“Bodily functions”, “clammy palms”, “vomit”
Language choice
Again goes into detail about ‘bodily functions’ and ‘clammy palms’ and ‘vomit’ to make this more real for the reader as well. Suggests when he says that you ‘wipe the hands on the back of your trousers’ that naturally people want to wipe the experience away. DW deal w/ it.
Lines 46-51 show conflict and confusion, “-how could it be?-”, “I could not explain”
Language choice
Shows how the writer is accustomed to suffering, can describe vivid images, yet emotionally is pretty constipated
“And then it clicked”
Short sentence
It’s like an epiphany
“Cut to the heart”
Hyperbole
Sounds emotive, heart is associated with emotions and life
“My nameless friend”
Oxymoron
Accidentally ends up dehumanising his subject again in the end
“I owe you one”
Colloquial tone
Casual tone juxtaposes everything else - humanity shown
