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Hunting for Humans

There is an article written about albinism in Malawi and the dangers that they have to face. Those living with the condition of albinism are living with the risk of being hunted for their bones It is believed that the bones of an albino will bring wealth, happiness and good luck. This article begins with both appeal to fear and appeal to pity, starting directly with the title of the article: “Hunting for humans: Malawian albinos murdered for their bones”. As the article begins its opening, readers are met with an introduction of Agness Jonathan. The introduction goes on to describe the situation of the girl; Agness is hunted, along with the rest of the albinos of Malawi for her bones. The writer of the article uses both appeal to fear and appeal to pity in such a way that captures the attention of the reader and brings them to continue reading.

Throughout the article, while still using fear and pity to attain attention, the writer of the article uses relevant information of the situation itself. She tells of the dangers that occur for people with albinism in Malawi daily. As the article continues to progress, readers are met with different stories or examples of those that have to endure these dangers. One of the stories she tells is that of the girl introduced to the reader at the beginning of the article, Agness Jonathan.

At the end of the article, readers are met with a quote from the girl herself: “It really raises fear...Why should people hunt me like they’re hunting for animals?” It seems as though the purpose of including this quote into the article was to bring back the appeal to pity. It is an upsetting thing to learn that there is a young girl in such a situation as this, so by adding a quote in which the reader can almost hear the fear and sadness in the girl’s voice is an effective technique. It leaves the quote fresh in the reader’s mind, especially by inputting the quote at the end of the article.

This article was well written with an effective use of the fallacies of appeal to fear and appeal to emotion. I, as a reader, felt compelled to read the article by the title alone, but found myself reading the article through to the end. The author of the article may have used fallacies in doing so, but she was successful in gaining my interest and attention.
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Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 6, 2016 at 7:31 AM

    This is a great article. It is very sad that people actually hunt other humans for their bones.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MikeOctober 6, 2016 at 2:48 PM

    It's terrible that people have to live worrying about being hunted.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 6, 2016 at 5:15 PM

    Very wel.l written post. Intriguing topic, good organization and very informative

    ReplyDelete
  4. DarcyOctober 6, 2016 at 8:24 PM

    Wow this blog post was so good. It was very engaging to read and it was very informative. It also was very well written, it was really intelligent writing.

    ReplyDelete

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