HOW CAN POETRY BE USED FOR PROTEST?
Speak your truth
What
|
How
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Why
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Effect
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Persuading questions
|
"Now,
comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours?"
|
To make
the other animals question their positions on the farm.
|
This
rhetorical device is used to encourage the animals to rebel. Old Major asks
the question and then he provides the animals with the answer he wants,
persuading them that he is right.
|
Controlling questions
|
"Are
you certain that this is not something that you have dreamed, comrades? Have
you any record of such a resolution?"
|
Squealer
controls the others by questioning their memories.
|
This
rhetorical device is used to make the animals doubt themselves. Orwell
shows how rhetoric can be used negatively.
|
Repetition
|
"Long
live the windmill! Long live Animal Farm!"
|
Here
Napoleon uses repetition to reinforce his message.
|
Repeating
‘Long live’ helps emphasise Napoleon’s point that he wants Animal Farm to
continue forever. Whilst this appears to be positive, here Napoleon uses the
sentiment to make a scapegoat (an individual irrationally blamed) of
Snowball.
|
Emotive language
|
A cry
of horror burst from all the animals.
|
The scene
when Boxer is taken away is very emotive.
|
The fact
that the ‘horror’, in itself an emotive word, ‘burst’ from the animals gives
a clear indication that their fear was so great it almost exploded from
within them.
|
Direct style
|
Boxer
was never seen again.
|
Orwell
uses very plain language to describe Boxer’s disappearance.
|
In
contrast to the emotive language seen above, Orwell uses direct and
understated language. This helps to make Boxer’s treatment more
tragic.
|

“They are part of the finest fighting force that the world has ever known. They have served tour after tour of duty in distant, different, and difficult places.” – President Barack Obama“With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Suffering breeds character; character breeds faith.” – Rev. Jesse Jackson“Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” – Yoda
“Not all schooling is education nor all education, schooling.” – Economist Milton Friedman“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” – Scientist Carl Sagan
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” – Neil Armstrong
“…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” – Abraham Lincoln“He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac.” – Jack Kerouac
“Put out the light, and then put out the light.” – William Shakespeare, Othello“For the love of God, man, for the love of God.” – Me, all the time“You’re not fully clean unless you’re Zestfully clean.” – Zest Soap commercial
“She’s no dummy” (she’s smart)“This is no small problem” (this is a big problem)
“Homeowners are the innocent bystanders in a drive-by shooting by Wall Street and Washington.” – Sen. John McCain“It’s raining men.” – The Weather Girls
“We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.“You’re as cold as ice.” – Foreigner

