Amnesty International Leaflet Analysis

Authors Avatar by vutantruong (student)

Will the pain of brutal torture make you cry out? Well of course it will.

Amnesty International is a charity aiming to help and free political prisoners who are being constantly killed and tortured for no certified reason. The campaign itself is displayed in the form of a leaflet and it is aimed at students in further education. It carries a sophisticated style however it comes across slightly informal to relay the information quickly.  The aspects of plain register such as “everyday things” makes the text relatable and quick to read, however the formal, high register vocabulary like “urinated” holds a much more serious concept.

This leaflet holds the shock factor by the pure emotional tone it expresses throughout. “Children disfigured with hot irons”, is a short burst of information which injects horror to the reader. The verb “disfigured” is a high register verb. The fact that it is polysyllabic portrays it’s seriousness and it holds a specific meaning.  The connotation of the verb would be something that isn’t normal, therefore suggesting that the whole concept of being disfigured in itself not normal. The noun “Children” expresses the vulnerability and defencelessness of the victims being harmed. It emotional attaches the reader; making them angry at what they have just read and holds them to read on.

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  “Eyes”, “lungs”, and “stomach” are a few of the hyponyms that the torture is described amongst.  Amnesty International chose these specific nouns to define the intensity of the torture.  The noun “eyes” comes across much more delicate and fragile than “head” for example. Therefore when the verbs “gouged” or “smashed” is associated with “eyes”, it illustrates and intensifies the extreme amounts of pain, purely by the contrast of words.

    The majority of verbs in the text are written in the past tense, for example “Stabbed” and “Raped”.  The past tense shows it’s past’s certainty. This emphasises ...

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