Free Range Chicken Language Analysis
The article ‘Chickens Range Free’ written by a freelance writer Jo Smith conveys the idea that the activists who’ve offered a truck-load of chickens, freedom from their cages were a very humane thing to do. Through his explanations, a reasonable tone has been applied effectively to convince the readers to agree with him. The author has also employed a very confident tone when mentioning how this action has been clearly justified due to human rights.
However, although there have been people who have opposed this action of freeing the chickens, the author tries to dominate his stand by employing the use of different persuasive devices such as the inclusive technique, directive language, and analogy, which in this article, have been applied very effectively and successfully. A photograph has also been provided to enhance the arguments of the author. Foremost, the author tries to engage the reader to feel that locking chickens up in their cages is inhumane, through the use of inclusive language.
This can be seen when the author mentions that “We believe, as humans, we are not only doing the animals an injustice when we mistreat them, but that we are also doing ourselves an injustice. ” This quote elicits fear to the reader by making them feel as though if he or she opposes to this statement, they are not considered as humans or they would feel left out as they believe that they would be the only one who opposes to the issue.
As a result of this effect on the reader, the reader will decide to agree with what the author said is correct, that is freeing chicken was a humane thing to do. Next, the author applies the use of directive language to suggest an idea on how humanity can be improved. The author demands that “We must reform this attitude to our fellow inhabitants of the earth” which implies the action of locking chicken up in cages should be stopped as it is a form of abuse to animals; an inhumane act.
This suggestion sends the reader a sense of great importance that this demand is essential for the world in order to become a better place; to improve humanity, and because that is what ultimately everyone wants, the reader is then encouraged to do something about stopping this abuse and also agree with the reader that freeing chickens was a correct thing to do. The analogy technique has also been applied by the author to arouse the reader’s sympathy for the chickens and also emphasise how cruel humans have been to chickens.
He makes the reader think “If only more people ould realise that animals, as sentient beings like us, have rights that should be respected”, humanity would have been better. This quote works effectively in convincing the reader to believe that when the reader tries to put oneself in to a situation of one of the chickens, and then discover how cruel human beings have been. It makes the reader feel that if they were the ones who have been treated this way, they wouldn’t have liked either. Thus due to this enlightenment, the reader will be most likely to agree with the reader that freeing chickens was a noble thing to do.
The imagery in the article, which captivates the reader immediately, emphasises the cruelty of mankind towards the chickens. This photograph of chickens locked up in a small case can emotionally manipulate the reader as it may cause one to feel sympathy for the chickens. Because a photograph is reliable and that it is evidence to show that humanity is indeed down to this level, the reader will believe what the author said is right and that something should indeed be done about the treatment of chickens.
As such, the overall impact brought upon the reader would be generally the fact that they feel that chickens have been mistreated and also the fact that humanity has decreased to a very low level, which was the main objective of this article. The use of analogy have mainly put forth these effects as it causes the reader to know how the chickens feel by making them ask themselves what it would be like if this has happened to them.
This issue has also been made to be perceived seriously and greatly important via the author’s employment of inclusive language because it has engaged the reader to feel part of the issue. And because they feel that this issue is serious, the adoption of directive language is most likely to be able to convince the reader to do something about it. As such, these techniques were the most appropriate to apply to do its job in achieving the goal of impacting the audience; making them feel that freeing the chickens out of their cage was a very humane thing to do.
