The title of ‘in the event of a
moon disaster’ is instrumentally powerful because it shows that the text is
instructions and the person giving the instructions is more powerful than the
person reading them. The lexical field of the text displays aspects of power by
using words that have connotations of death and sacrifice, such as ‘mourned’
and ‘sacrifice’, which emphasises their
defeat rather than their bravery. However the writer uses strong adjectives
such as ‘heroes’ and ‘epic’ which gives the men themselves an appearance of power
and bravery.
The
use of the Lord’s Prayer at the end of the text displays power as it is a
finalisation of the speech as it relates to the finalisation of a funeral
because it is often the last thing read out. The president gives himself power
in the ending sentence as he gives instructions that they should ‘adopt the
same procedure as burial at sea’ because he believes that they are dead and so
should everyone else. The reference to the Lord’s Prayer gives the president
more power with religious listeners as it signifies the importance of the
Christian culture in America.
Repetition
is used throughout the text to give the men who died more power, for example,
the repeated use of the abstract noun ‘sacrifice’ emphasises their power
because they are seen as being brave enough to sacrifice themselves. The
listeners are given influential power because the speech is essentially stating
that they will mourn along with the rest of the families. The use of
juxtaposing sentence starters ‘in ancient days’ and ‘in modern times’ is
effectively comparing the men who sacrificed themselves, to God which gives
them a higher status and increased power.
The
overall power in the text lies with the president as he has instrumental
political power over the listeners as he has a high status within the world and
over others. However it is suggested near the ending of the text that the
president doesn’t have as much power as implied beforehand as he himself is
given instructions to ring ‘all the widows-to-be’. NASA is also suggested to have more influential
power than the president in this speech as they had more contact with the men
that died.
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment