The following text is in the form of a leaflet, a type of
propaganda against Russia in Britain during the early stages of the first world
war, this can be said as the bottom of the page states, “Leaflet by British
Pacifist Norman Angell, 1914”. It discusses the once was ongoing conflict from
Britain’s perspective; hence we can safely say that it is a propaganda. The
piece of text targets the English audience in order to serve its own purpose.
This was done by using some factual information, appealing to the audience also
by using literary features, all resulting in triggering the mood of the
audience in order to enhance the leaflet’s purpose.
The target audience that this extract aims to reach out for
is the British people, more specifically unemployed and uneducated people. The
leaflet aims to inform the people of England, of avoidable actions that are to
be taken by them as a whole nation. While simultaneously educating them of the
consequences that would result if they proceed with the actions that the author
is trying to warn them from. The leaflet’s
first line states, “If England goes to war, it will be on the side of Russia”,
the line informs the English people of what is about to take place if their
nation joins the war. The British Pacifist who wrote this text, approached the
audience through establishing a sympathetic connection, as in lines three and
four, he informs the audience of how Russia payed a tremendous amount of money,
which will seem to successfully attract audience to read the text while
engaging with it more thoroughly, as money was even more valuable a century
ago. The reason money was said to be more valuable, is due to the fact that a
lot of money was used up for buying equipment suitable for wars, as well as it
was a period of time before the inflation that we know about took place, also
the fact that the author decided to include that in the text, portrays its
significance and importance.
The leaflet starts off with a title written in bold and
caps, “WHY FIGHT RUSSIA” which
attracts audience to make more than just a glance with the piece of text. Then
the write starts to inform the readers (British Population) of the role that
Great Britain will lay, as well as the side they will take, this can be seen in
line 1, “If England goes to war, it will be on the side of Russia”, moving
along the lines, the English writer further asks a rhetorical question, “What
is Russia?” (2). This then allowed the writer to take advantage of historical
events and facts, such as, “Russia is the country … designs on our Indian Empire”
(10) and “It is the Russian … St. Petersburg” (14). These previous statements
did not only intend to educate the audience, as the main purpose was to
cultivate the negative sight that the English people are to view Russia with.
As the readers start to read more through the text, they will start to notice
that the sole purpose of the text is to avoid going to war, in order to avoid
fighting on the side of Russia and next to them, since allies are meant to help
one another, here Britain sees no gain in being any form of help for Russia.
The main theme is the theme of liberty and independence, showed through how
Britain doesn’t believe in fighting a war along side with their enemies, “A war
for Russia is a war against civilization” (17).
The tone used in the text is critical, as all we see is the criticism
of Great Britain Russia. Which allows them to enhance the purpose of the text,
allowing it to be grasped by the audience easily as they will start to believe
in it too. The tone of criticism resulted in creating a thrilled mood for the British
audience. As during a time period before joining a war, the people would have
felt as if they are hopeless and have nothing to do but see their country join
the war. However, this piece of leaflet the people of Great Britain that their
nation will not participate in the war, creating somewhat the thrill that was mentioned
previously in this paragraph.
Literary devices were present throughout the text. At the
very top of the leaflet, we see bias by headline, stating, “why fight for
Russia?” the statement appealed to the audience allowing them to have their
attention taken from the start, as it’s appealing. Ethos, Pathos and Logos were
all present as well, as they help dictate the sole purpose of a given extract,
which is done by providing factual information (appealing to the audience as knowledgeable
and informing them), “which we spent 50,000,000” (3). This previous quote is an
example of Logos. In line (20) the writer asks the audience a guiding question,
“which is the greater peril to this country”, this metaphor also the audience
to compare the benefits of another country to their own as a peril that they
are to cherish, admire and support. Then also it says, “the slaves of a corrupt
autocracy” (25), here instead of referring to them as “citizens of a corrupt
autocracy”, the world slaves is to be used instead. This allows the audience to
form a negative idea about Russians, which is in fact, the mean purpose of this
given extract. Then another sentence in bold states, “ A war for Russia is a
war against civilization”, this metaphor portrays what it will be like if they
fight with Russia, it explain how civilization can be so vulnerable, hence
unethical to fight for such cause, and also not really required as far as how
bad Russia is to be concern.
