In the newspaper article, how does Rachel Campbell-Johnston convey to the reader her views on the experience of going on the roller-coaster? In your answer, refer to the language she uses and the way she presents her ideas.
Following on from today's lesson, write 3 PEE chains for one of the four sections of the article which answers the question posed above. Make sure that your explanation is as detailed as possible.
In the third section of the article it starts with ‘The Man’ who has been repeatedly mentioned throughout the whole article. The man has been on the ride many times, and when it says he was ‘ominously quiet’, it shows that he must have been fearful about going on the ride again. The fact that he is obviously scared helps the reader understand the writer’s view of the ride as being a terrifying experience.
ReplyDelete‘The man in the carriage behind me was ominously quiet’.
The word ‘ominously’ comes from the word omen, which means bad things will happen. It also describes the word ‘quiet’. This shows that when the roller coaster was at its highest peak, bad things were ahead of them. This implies that even though the man has been on the ride many times before, even he gets scared about going on it, which forces fear onto Rachel, which was her first time on the ride. The fact that the actual article is three-quarters complete and yet the ride has not actually started shows that she is building tension by describing her (and the man’s) feelings rather than the experience of the ride itself.
Further on in the article it has a short paragraph which is sandwiched between the two bigger paragraphs.
And then the horizon just vanished’
This catches your eye as soon as you turn the page. The two words ‘horizon’ and ‘vanished’ are the first two words you see which makes you think of how high she actually was, and when she says ‘the horizon just vanished’ it makes the reader think something bad is going to happen and want to read on. The word ‘vanished’ means that she felt as if she was on the edge of the world. It’s also very effective because of the short sentence, which creates a dramatic pause before she drops from the highest peak.
Finally in the article Rachel Campbell-Johnston says
‘I was hurtling through space’
The verb ‘hurtling’ suggests that the ride was going really fast, and the force of it was making her feel as if she was floating. Also the word ‘space’ implies how high she really was, and how hard it was to breathe, as its really hard to breathe in space, and when you go on a ride, and fall from its highest peak it takes your breath away.
In section 2 in the article written by Rachel Campbell Johnson, she talks about the build up to the top of the ride. She also says and describes like every other section how the mysterious man was talking to her, in the whole section she uses many similes and metaphors to describe and specify how she was lead to the pinnacle of the ride
ReplyDeleteIn the section she uses such similes as,
“Trundling away from its platform with me like an egg in a carton”
By saying this she implies she is venerable, as in an egg carton it is tightly compact and safe as egg is delicate and venerable to get damaged. As by saying this the reader can form a sense of understanding on how dangerous the ride is and the safety precisions carried out to keep the rider out of harms way.
Also used in this section are metaphors such as,
“ I could see the whole of pleasure beach spread out below, its merry-go-rounds no bigger than musical boxes, its coaster tracks like Meccano toys and the frills of water that ruffled out and around the log flume look as still as waves when you watch them from an aeroplane window”. By saying this she is implying that the ride has climbed to a height that perception has been distorted so that once big things appear to be tiny to the naked eye. By saying this the reader can almost empathise with the rider that they too are taking part in this ride.
Dianna and Lucy
ReplyDeleteThe third section is all about Rachel Campbell-Johnson describing her feelings about the roller as the ride begins. As the ride begins Campbell-Johnson uses a lot of personal pronouns. Her repeated use of ‘I’ stresses how afraid she is. She uses this word repeatedly to emphasise how she is feeling and to show that at this point she is only thinking about herself.
Campbell-Johnson structures her piece of writing to ensure that the attention is drawn to a specific part, she does this with the phrase “And then the horizon vanished.” By placing this line on its own it draws the reader is going to look there and shows that these are dramatic words.
Another way Campbell-Johnson shows her views of the roller coaster is by her use of short sentences. ‘I was in freefall. I was hurtling through space.’
Another way Campbell-Johnson shows her views of the roller coaster is by her use of rhetorical questions. ‘Would I faint? Oh my god was I going to faint?’ Including rhetorical questions expresses Campbell-Johnson’s feeling of panic. This makes the climb to the top of the roller coaster much more frightening and dramatic.