The recentfiery issue of Halloween, has sparked the debate if whether or not kids shouldcelebrate Halloween.
The opinion piece, “Why my kids won’t be doing Halloween”written on 29/10/2015 by Alissa Warren published on the online pageMamamia.com. Warren contends that Halloween is “confusing” and dangeroustowards parents in a sarcastic, yet concerning tone.
Warren also includes apicture, which portrays two young children dressed in costumes walking up to adoor. The opinion piece also features a contrasting comment. Warrenargues that Halloween is dangerous as kids “beg” random and untrustworthypeople for lollies. With the intension of making parents feel negligent, Warrenmakes great use of ethos(emotions) and logos(logic), as she states thatchildren are taught several times “not don’t to talk to strangers” or” yellyelling slogans” and immediately after she soberly writes “yet, HERE WE ARE!”,”on Halloween…, you can walk in to people’s homes and knock on their doors” whichmakes parents feel that they are careless and inattentive of their own childrenon Halloween. In the same paragraph, Warren makes heavy use of exaggerated, figurativelanguage, she quotes words like “old-fashioned brain, “eagerly waiting”,herding hungry goats”,” eighth of my life telling” which imposes a concernedfeeling as parents get an insight of Warrens opinion.
The contrasting comment,shows the brighter side off communication in people on Halloween, as Ellie usesfriendly words like “neighbourhood”,” community-minded”, however Warrenfearfully repeats “strangers” throughout the text. Warren indicates thatHalloween is dangerous as kids request lollies in a serious yet sarcastic tone,to make parents feel inattentive. Warren contends that the sharing oflollies can be deleterious for the children. She expresses that her children alreadyget a large amount of lollies. With the objective to make readers feel attentive.She aggressively utilizes listing and repetition of the word “birthdays”alongside the events “Easter”, “Christmas”, “Wedding”, “Retirement party” tostate the events where lollies are provided. The tonal shift kicks in, she goesfrom aggressive to calm, as she immediately after write, “my kids get enoughtreats”. The repetition of this phrase gives the passage a breathless pace thatheightens the danger of lollies.
Parents feel surprised and concerned as itraises major concerns to the health of the children. She after also uses ananecdote, of her experience with a stranger offering her son a lolly at thepark, she replied no to her son to take the lolly. She later states that she is” just a safe one mother”.
She uses this example so parents can get
