Evocative Language/ Ledger's Funeral

Article Used: Heath Ledger's Final Farewell ends in sunset swim

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Teachers, don't forget that we will be using this blog post for our common assessment tracking.


Summary: Heath Ledger, the critically acclaimed actor who died several weeks ago of drug-related causes, was buried in his hometown of Perth, Australia. More than 500 people attended the memorial service. After the service, there was a wake near his favorite beach. About 50 people entered the water at sunset in celebration of Ledger's life.

Prompt: How does the author of this article use language to evoke images and feelings in the reader?

While we generally think of news articles as objective and unbiased accounts of events, journalists can affect the way that readers process information by choosing their language carefully. For example, in this article the writer says that the people at the wake "threw off their clothes," evoking the image of clothes flying through the air in a cartoonish way. It also evokes the feelings of a playful loss of control and reckless abandon. At another point in the article, the author describes the event as a "sunset wake." He could have described the time at which the wake occurred in several ways (such as late afternoon, the actual time, or dusk), but by choosing 'sunset' he evokes the feelings of peace, beauty, and awe that people associate with watching a beautiful sunset. It also taps into feelings associated with endings in general because sunsets are often used as symbols or metaphors for closure and death.