Protests That Change Teh World – “Weapons Training”

Good morning publishers of penguin. Today I’m here to present three texts that I believe should be included into the anthology “Protests that Changed the World” Each of these texts share similar context and are the same in purpose. The power of a speech lies in its ability to persuade an audience successfully. With this in mind the three texts which I believe have shown great ability to as persuading audiences is The poem “Weapons Training” by Bruce Dawe, Charlie Chaplin’s speech from “The great dictator” and the song “Where is the love” by The Black Eyed Peas.
Weapons Training is a piece of war poetry written by Burce Dawe in 1970. This poem is considered a dramatic monologue spoken by an aggressive and intimidating sergeant who’s training soldiers that are about to be sent off to war. Bruce Dawe has used rhetorical questions to encourage the reader or listener to consider the message or viewpoint. The rhetorical questions ‘what are you looking at? , What are you laughing at? , What are you going to do about it? ’ used in Weapons Training are said in an aggressive tone, clearly used to bully its audience.
https://phdessay.com/love-poem/

Saying it in an aggressive tone provokes fear through the audience manipulating them into supporting the use of weapons. Although it is an issue one might usually not choose to support, the fact that it is said in such an intimidating tone encourages the listener to support it due to the fear of what the consequences might be if they don’t support what the speaker is promoting. The author also uses repetition of the word “dead” this is clearly directed towards the soldiers in order to emphasise the officer’s message. This is a form of teaching the soldiers to hate, fear and listen to authority in order for them not to die needlessly.
Repetition has also been to install fear into the audience as a way of turning them against weapons; he is emphasizing the harsh reality of what happens when weapons are used. The use of onomatopoeia in this poem like ‘click’ and ‘pitter-patter’ has the similar effect as the rhetorical questions. It creates a sense of imagery that is almost deathly and horrifying which is also incredibly intimidating towards its audience giving them an insight into how horrific the use of weapons can actually be. It is clear that the author’s goal was to convince the audience about the harsh effects of using weapons, which he has successfully achieved.
The speech evoked immense support against the use of weapons and violence from the general public. Bruce Dawe has used this style of writing to effectively describe the sound of weaponry to show how the soldiers were being turned into weapons themselves. The second text that I have chosen for this anthology is Charlie Chaplin’s speech from the Great Dictator. This speech comes from a satire comedy of Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler in which Charlie Chaplin has re-worded Hitler’s speech and instead of saying “I” all the time he uses “we” which completely changes the meaning of the speech. We all want to help one another… We all want to live by each other’s happiness… We don’t want to hate and despise one another” this is a form of Inclusive language, which Charlie Chaplin has used in his speech, as it’s a very adequate technique with a very influential meaning, which also allows the audience to feel included. Charlie Chaplin has also used the technique of accumulation: “Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed” this technique it’s considered to be a very powerful way to demonstrate what greed has not only done to humans but to this world.
Repetition is used several times by the author of this speech in order to really get his message through to the audience. An example of repetition is “You people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness” This is an effective way to persuade the audience as he’s tone of voice is not demanding instead he’s just showing he’s point of view towards war and what it’s turning humans into. “Where is the love” by Black Eyed Peas is my last chosen text.
This song is an anti-war anthem, in which they grieve a variety of worldwide problems and many issues are discussed. “Negative images is the main criteria Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria” is a metaphor which stands out quite a lot in this song. It refers to how negative images in the media and society affect our youth today. The negativity is what influences young minds today, and is blamed as the result for many acts of crime by young people. The Black Eyed Peas use the repetition of the phrase “where is the love? to emphasise the message they are trying to deliver through this song, which is asking the audience where the love has gone. It is well known that repetition is a tool of manipulation, which is what they have tried to do through the lyrics. Lastly there’s the use of rhyme. Rhyme is a technique that is used several times through out this song. An example is “But if you only have love for your own race, then you only have space to discriminate and to discriminate only generates hate”. The use of this rhyme in this song is to alert the audience about how strongly hate effects our world.
It is referred to as an ongoing cycle, where if you only have respect and love for your own race, it automatically generates hate for the others. The aim of these lyrics is to highlight how the effects of hate in our world and the use of rhyme certainly accentuate the message. In my opinion these three texts are all very adequate for this future anthology “Protests that change the world” as the three texts have a great message and have all been effective when persuading it’s audience against the issue of war.