A dollar a day language analysis Essay

Recently, in the Daily Telegraph Angus McDonald wrote an opinion piece about how Indian children are being exploited for cheap labour and how the government is not dealing with the problem as Angus believes they are accountable for the responsibility. This issue has recently blown up in the media, due to the recent information about the average day of a child labour living in India. Angus McDonald uses emotive language, logical evidence, case studies , appeals to a sense of justice and a photograph, along with an alarmist tone to convey the message that the government need to step up and stop child labour. Angus McDonald uses emotive language to make the reader empathise with the child labourers. McDonald uses a highly descriptive language to convey how Manu (the featured child labourer) lives his life and uses this to create a symbol or generalisation that all Indian Child labourers spend their days the same as Manu. The writer also uses emotive language in conjunction with a highly descriptive writing style to show the vast span between Manu and his products. Angus uses his emotive language to forward the premise of hypocrisy between that of Manu, an underpaid child labourer, and the expensive garments he makes. This makes the reader feel sincere empathy for Manu and all child labourers like him. This empathy that we feel while reading Manu’s story makes us yearn for a better future for Manu. This is the point in the article that Angus mentions how the police are combating the situation. McDonald mentions that they are trying but they are only getting â€Å"the tip of the iceberg†. This phrase makes us believe the government is not doing enough to help Manu and the rest of the child labourers, and therefore directly links to McDonald’s contention about how Indian child labourers are being exploited and government is not doing enough to stop this crime against humanity. The use of logical evidence and case studies within Angus McDonald’s â€Å"A Dollar a Day† essay, provokes the reader into believing that Angus McDonald is highly educated on the matter and that we should agree with him. The use of his case study of Manu gives the issue a small scope on the problem but  as we read through the article, Angus McDonald zooms out and looks at the broader topic. This small scope case study shows us the problem at its roots, then when Angus zooms out and shows us the broader issue of the government not controlling child labour problems efficiently, we feel informed of the matter and connecting to the whole issue because of this case study. The alarmist tone pulls information together nicely with the case study as it gives a real sense of urgency to the issue and this makes the reader side with the writer almost instantly. Angus McDonald uses logical evidence and case studies to push forward that Indian child labourers are being exploited an d the government need to be doing more to help. The writer uses the appeal to sense of justice language device, to arouse anger at the people taking advantage of these children and to make the reader feel as though the Justice Department of India are doing an inadequate job. Angus McDonald goes out of his way to make the criminals mentioned in his article look even worse then what they are. He uses the criminal’s mistreatment of the children to evoke a sense of injustice in the reader by writing sentences such as â€Å"a life of servitude† and â€Å"[a child’s] living nightmare†. These phrases make the reader feel great anger towards the criminals, but just as the readers are most enraged Angus McDonald turns the tables and explains that the criminals are bad but it’s the Justice Departments lack of input that has caused this problem to be so severe. This turns the reader’s anger towards the Justice Department and therefore siding with Angus McDonald’s contention. The writer’ s use of sense of justice helps him manipulate the reader into believing the government should be doing more to stop Indian child labour. Presented to us first in this issue is the picture of a child we are led to believe is Manu. This picture gives a face to our case study. This gives impact to the reader as now we have a much more emotional connection to Manu. This image is linked to the first couple of paragraphs where Manu’s life is described. Once again this makes the issue seem more real and makes the article more impacting. The actual picture is well done as it gives a good contrast between the blue garment and the dirty workshop and the poor  child. It shows the actual society contrast between Manu and the people who buy his clothes. The image is also sloped downwards as though we are looking down upon Manu, meaning pity or guilt. The image used in this piece is a strong device to link the issue to a visual and give it depth into the life of Manu. Throughout Angus McDonald’s piece he explains that Indian children are being exploited as child labour and the government is not doing enough to stop the issue. Angus McDonald uses emotive language, case studies, logical evidence, appeal to a sense of justice and an image to reinforce his opinion that to help children in India the government must do more.