Your feelings about what you read in freedom next time.

Bec McKemmish
Freedom next time by John Pilger has a great deal of impact on its readers. The use of facts and statistics and anecdotes, expert opinion and the use of descriptive and emotive language leaves the reader feeling sad for the effected people and angry that the government didn’t do anything extra to help and protect them, I am no exception.
The anecdotes in the chapter “Liberating Afghanistan” are written in detail and how they occurred that they bring pain and sadness to the reader, for example the anecdote about a woman getting raped and cowering in a corner. “what will happen to her?’ ‘we watch her, but she may kill herself.” Anecdotes like these throughout the text make me feel sad and angry that the government isn’t doing much to help the citizens in these countries. Through the text there is descriptive and emotive language used to have an emotional effect on the reader. These can include, “a teenage boy with stumps and part of his face missing” “flesh of two people blown up by a bomb” “those who survived had oil poured on them and set alight” the use of emotive and descriptive language make me feel empathy for these people and saddened. Another technique used in the text that has an emotive impact on the reader of the text is the use of facts and statistics, these show the reader how bad the situation is, for example “25000 people killed in Kabul” “only 3% of all international aid is spent in Afghanistan has been for reconstruction” this makes me sad about how many people are getting killed and angry that the money sent to the country for aid isn’t being spent on what the county needs.
Overall the use of techniques in Freedom Next Time by John Pilger shows the readers how bad the county really is and how the government is doing little to change things. This has the emotional impact on readers to feel sad for the people living in the country and angry at the government for doing little to help.