The Right Word

In both ‘The Right Word’ by Imtiaz Dharker and ‘At The Border, 1979’ by Choman Hardi, they use repetition to present attitudes to differences in people. However, they both also use different language techniques to highlight the differences.

In ‘The Right Word’, Dharker uses repetition to present attitudes to differences in people. This is suggested when it states ‘ his hand too steady, his eyes too hard is a boy who looks like your son, too.’ This suggests that the boy has seen too much of the war even though he is young. The word ‘hard’ suggests that she has seen too much and no longer shows emotion to the war because he has grown up around it and is used to it. The word ‘too’ suggests that every thing he does, he does to an extreme to protect himself.

Similarly, in ‘At The Border, 1979’, Hardi uses repetition to present attitudes to differences in people. This is suggested when it states ‘The autumn soil continued on the other side with the same colour, the same texture.’ This suggests that there was no difference between the countries but the ‘people [are] much kinder.’ This suggests that people are only kind to their own people even if there isn’t much separating them. The word ‘continued’ emphasises the lack of difference between the countries yet people still want to cross the border so badly.

In ‘The Right Word’ the poet also uses rhetorical questions to present the attitudes to differences in people. This is evident when the poet states ‘Is that the wrong description?’ This suggests that the speaker is confused because she doesn’t know who is outside the door, it could be anyone from ‘a terrorist’ to ‘a martyr.’ She is also questioning herself and showing doubt about her description. It also suggests that she doesn’t know who the good ones and the bad ones are anymore. The word ‘terrorist’ suggests the speaker has used very strong words to show us who he is. A terrorist is seen as a very bad person and as she calls him that without knowing him shows that she quick to judge a stranger. The fact that she also calls him a ‘martyr’ shows that she drastically changed her mind when she still hasn’t seen him.

In contrast, in ‘At The Border, 1979’, the poet uses oxymoron to present attitudes to differences in people. This is evident when it states ‘The land under our feet continued divided by a thick iron chain.’ This suggests that the same strip of land has been divided into separate countries by a chain, which can be easily crossed. The word ‘divided’ shows separation which suggests that people may have different attitudes to the people on the other side.

To conclude, ‘The Right Word’ by Imtiaz Dharker uses repetition and rhetorical questions to present attitudes to differences in people. ‘At The Border, 1979’ by Choman Hardi