Elements of writing plays an important role in deciding whether the writing has a power. I analyzed a passage from “We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families,” by Philip Gourevitch from The Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose to determine the effectiveness of elements of writing, such as writing style, content, and organization, on the writer’s argument.
Analysis
The essay, “We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families” depicts the genocide sites he has investigated and the voices of victims, called Tutsis, in Kibungo, eastern Rwanda. Gourevitch maintains the tone as first person narrative throughout the whole essay, which gives the readers more personal approach in emotions. As Gourevitch portraits the scene of horrors he has encountered in Nyarubuye church, where mass of Tutsis were massacred, he makes the use of considerable amount of descriptive words which makes the readers feel and imagine the situation more vividly and dramatically. By doing so, the readers experience a lively tour of the scene in which Gourevitch describes, and are able to immerse in the situation. Furthermore, he uses ethos and tries to aim the readers by literally talking to the readers, in a way such as, “I presume that you are reading this because you desire a closer look…”
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The interviews of survived Tutsis, makes a proper use of pathos, by explaining the interviewers’ personal experiences and emotions of losing their family members and hiding from the Hutus. Gourevitch also includes an interview with a Kigali lawyer, on page 452, which analyses behaviour of the victims who contributed to the Hutu Power. By the lawyer’s description of the psychology of Rwandans, about how everyone obeys authority in Rwanda, Gourevitch uses logos to reason the Tutsis’ unwilled contributions to
The ethnic division within the Rwandan culture played an integral role during the genocide. In 1918, Belgium is given the authority to govern the territory of Rwanda-Urundi under the Treaty of Versailles. Under Belgian rule, the traditional Hutu-Tutsi relationship was morphed into a class system favouring the Tutsis over the Hutus. The Belgians eventually created a system of ethnic identity cards differentiating Hutus from Tutsis. This would become a central driver of the Rwandan genocide. In the movie there are many instances where Rwandan citizens are asked to show their identity cards. In most cases, those who were not Hutu would be punished. Another example of the geopolitical struggle between these two ethnicities was illustrated through the media. Media is used as a platform to convey a message that influences the thoughts and actions of individuals around the world. Since Hutus are the majority in Rwanda, they were able to exert their influence over the Tutsis through mechanisms such as the media. Throughout the country, local Hutu power radio stations were aired calling for the extermination of Tutsis. The station would often find ways to dehumanize the Tutsis. In most cases they would refer to Tutsis as ‘cockroaches’. In order to create an accurate portrayal of the genocide, the film used the exact recordings from the Hutu power radio.
While the book “Left to Tell” by Immaculée Ilibagiza and the movie “Hotel Rwanda” by Terry George shows its share of similarities, both portray the Rwandan Massacre of 1994 in diversified ways. First, while both characters share similarities portraying the perspective of the genocide, they also show some major differences in the point of view as the main character in the movie was a hotel manager while the other main character from the book was a young, Tutsi woman. Also, while they face similar conflicts and hardships, both have their own personal field of adversities to face.
In the story, “The Killing Game”, Joy Williams, uses several diffenent types of writing skills to presuade the reader to see her views.
“The Road Not Taken.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan et al. 8th ed.
Writing with Readings and Handbook. 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 52-57. Print.
Over the years, writing has been used as an art form, allowing people to write their thoughts. Though, the most torrential puzzle of writing is the reasoning behind the words on a page. The logic behind any piece of literature falls into categories of wants and needs. There are three essays to which these categories are explained in further detail with more depth. Firstly, “Not So Deadly Sin” which focuses on the act of lying and exaggeration.
David Foster Wallace, author of the essay “Authority and American Usage*,” praises and advocates for “good” writers who have a strong rhetorical ability, which he defines as “the persuasive use of language to influence the thoughts and actions of an audience” (Wallace 628). To have a strong rhetorical ability, an author needs to be aware of whom their audience is, in order to present their information in a way that will be influential on their audience. Wallace recognizes that an author who applies a strong rhetorical ability will be able to connect with the audience so that they respond “not just to [their] utterance but also to [them]” (Wallace 641). An author needs to take into consideration not just content, syntax and grammatical structure (their “utterance”) but also how their character will be perceived by their audience. A positive tone will make the author seem more pleasant and relatable, whereas a negative tone connotes arrogance and pretentiousness. That is why it is crucial for an author to recognize that an audience will respond to “them” and not just their “utterance,” as an author’s appearance to their readers can also shape how impactful their writing is.
McNeil, Hayden. The Anteater's Guide to Writing & Rhetoric. Irvine: Composition Program, Department of English, UC Irvine, 2014. Print.
Philip Gourevitch, a famous journalist for the New Yorker, in his novel We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda implies that the feelings and events surrounding the Rwandan genocide were not addressed by other countries and overall he gives light to the emotions felt by the survivors and victims. Gourevitch supports this by explaining the history of the genocide, illustrating the victim’s views and emotions through interviews and their life stories and background and finally, giving cold hard facts and being extremely articulate. His purpose is to make the readers aware of the cruel actions that happened during this genocide and how it truly affected the people of Rwanda in order to inform
Africa has been an interesting location of conflicts. From the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to the revolutionary conflict in Libya and Egypt, one of the greatest conflicts is the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide included two tribes in Rwanda: Tutsis and Hutus. Upon revenge, the Hutus massacred many Tutsis and other Hutus that supported the Tutsis. This gruesome war lasted for a 100 days. Up to this date, there have been many devastating effects on Rwanda and the global community. In addition, many people have not had many acknowledgements for the genocide but from this genocide many lessons have been learned around the world.
While preparing for one of his college lectures, Dennis Baron, a professor and linguistics at the University of Illinois, began playing with the idea of how writing has changed the world we lived in and materials and tools we use in everyday life. This lecture slowly transitioned into “Should Everybody Write?” An article that has made many wonder if technology has made writing too easy for anyone to use or strengthens a writer's ability to learn and communicate their ideas. Baron uses rhetorical strategies in his article to portray to his audience his positive tone, the contrast and comparison of context and his logical purpose.
This film follows Oskar Schindler’s establishment of an industrial factory that provides refuge to Jews during the Holocaust. However, the movie also includes a variety of characters ranging from Amon Goeth, the Nazi soldier, to a group of Jewish women surviving in Auschwitz, to deliver a more thorough perspective of Germany in the 1940s. The film captures all of these stories adeptly by involving the characters in entwined plots. By bringing forth different circumstances from many perspectives, the movie creates a rich context to the Holocaust. Schindler’s List frequently discloses the audience to the brutality and inhumanity of that time. It was commonly illustrated through the sufferers on their knees being mercilessly shot in the head by the Nazis, that brings an accurate detail to history that Hotel Rwanda lacks. Schindler’s List reveals an almost impossible accuracy to the methods of execution of the Jews, explaining the dehumanizing effects of the Nazi soldiers and the deliberate tormenting of the Jews. In addition to Schindler's List's accurate representation of history, its use of black and white filtering brings an artistic value to the film that creates a depressing effect. This absence of color, with the exception of a brief scene of a girl in a red dress, creates an effect that resembles the eerie reality of the genocide. This artistic detail helps in communicating the tone of the Holocaust to its audience. In contrast, Hotel Rwanda avoided depicting the violence that occurred in the past accurately which may appear a little indefinite and diminished. Overall, when judged on its ability to accurately portray history, Schindler's List is successful in
Writing a story about a genocide that you did not live through is an extremely difficult story to tell. Uwem Akpan went into the mind of a nine-year old girl during the Rwanda genocide, in his short story called My Parent’s Bedroom. This story exemplifies his deservingness to be selected for the anthology of short stories from around the world. Akpan tells the story from the perspective of a nine-year old girl named Monique whose parents are both from different cultural groups, the Hutu and Tutsi. These two groups of people are killing each other because the Belgians had taken over Rwanda during a time of imperialism and had favored the minority Tutsis over the Hutus.
When the Rwandan Hutu majority betrayed the Tutsi minority, a destructive mass murdering broke out where neighbor turned on neighbor and teachers killed their students; this was the start of a genocide. In this paper I will tell you about the horrors the people of Rwanda had to face while genocide destroyed their homes, and I will also tell you about the mental trauma they still face today.
“A garment of light to drape over a man broken by the immensity of absence and make him beautiful(45).” The garment of light is represented by Karl’s children who can either choose to live past the genocide or continue it; their hatred or unity will fuel the outcome of Rwanda’s future. Karl’s children are the ‘garment of light that make him beautiful’ because Karl puts effort and hope into his children being the ones to “succeed in freeing him of his pain…to see life go on…break the chains of infinite grief