Tag Archives: Money

AO2: Money by Misha Ahmad

The title of the first passage is ‘Whats money?’ And is from the novel written by Charles dickens named ‘Dombey and Son’. The title of the second passage is ‘Zimbabwe grapples with hyperinflation’ and it is a news report from January 2009. The theme of the first passage is money as in the first line Paul says,” Papa! What’s money!” In this extract Mr.Dombey has a conversation with his young, anxious son who is lonely and lacks a mother, as she passed away shortly after giving birth to him. I believe the theme of the second passage is facing reality and modern struggles as the title itself says ‘ grapples with hyperinflation’ and grapples means struggles. The second passage is about Zimbabwe’s descending economy and the struggle of the local people as they are ‘unable to afford a square meal”( line 14)
The purpose of the first passage is to entertain as it is a narrative and writer expresses his own ideas. The targeted audience is young adults or adults, anyone capable enough to understand the irony of the passage. The purpose of the second passage is -to inform- as it is a news report. The targeted audience of the second passage is all newspaper readers or readers of a specific magazine for example a world affairs magazine. And the passage would inform the readers of the situation of the economy in Zimbabwe.
In the first passage the author is trying to create an ironic tone between the father and the son. As the son asks Mr.Dombey what money can do, he replies and says,” Money, Paul can do anything”(line30) the curious child then said “Why didn’t money save me my momma?”(line45)  We can see from the description of the paragraph that Mr.Dombey was in a difficulty. Line 9:”Mr.Dombey was in difficulty”. In the second passage the writer has an objective and formal tone as we can see from the sentence structure, line1: ” Zimbabwe is grappling with hyperinflation officially estimated at 231 million percent, and its currency has virtually lost its value.” The main objective of the writer is to convey the  message to the audience. Keywords like ‘hyperinflation’ and ‘ worthless’ have been repeated as to add an emphasis on the reader.
In the first passage the writer uses figurative language which can be effective to highlight points. Line36: ” as though the fire had been his adviser and prompter” also in line34, ” as if his wit were in his palm and he was sharpening it”. Both being similies, highlighting the point and also effective for giving the reader a description. Irony is effective for humiliating a character as the writer uses it to humiliate Mr.Dombey. Mr.Dombey says, ” A good thing cant be cruel” referring to money. The son replies and says ” if its a good thing and can do anything, I wonder why it didn’t save me my momma.” Creating an effect on the reader.
Dialogues are used in the second paragraph which can be effective to engage the reader and make the context irrefutable. For example, line16: ” Now we can hardly look after our families- Taxi driver”. “We are given pay rises but they’re worthless- lecturer”. ” I don’t know if I’ll have a job at the end of the week- businessman”. The writer uses statistics and evidence in the passage which forces the reader to believe upon it. Line3:” One US dollar was trading at this date around ZW$25 billion”. The writer also divides the paragraphs and gives subheadings, ” Living with Inflation” which gives emphasis on the subject of discussion.
In the first paragraph the writer uses dialogues and unique vocabulary to convey his point that money can not do anything and how all questions of an innocent child can not be answered by an adult. In the second passage the writer uses general vocabulary as to convey the message of the struggles of hyperinflation to his audience, with using evidence, statistics and dialogues at the end of the passage the reader is convinced as to the struggles of the local Zimbabwe people.