A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided

Indledning
The TED talk “A tale of two Americas. And the mini mart where they collided”, is a speech, written and spoken by American writer; Anand Giridharadas, who is of Indian descent, in March of 2015 in Vancouver BC, Canada.

Giridharadas’ speech is based on a story of a Bangladeshi’s story of how he wanted to change America's problems after being shot in the head of a white supremacist, but the overall point of Giridharadas’ speech is to show that America needs to change.

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Uddrag
In the text excerpt above, we hear about Raisuddin Bhuiyan trust and faith in his God, and we also hear how Giridharadas uses figurative language, by saying; “scalding, birdshot pellets puncture. ”

The effect that figurative language has on the reader or listener, in this case, is that the recipient or audience can imagine the situation in his or hers head because every scene in the story is said with many adjectives and it makes the speech more bearable, and light, instead of hard and heavy.

One thing that repeats in Giridharadas’ speech is contrasts, it is especially seen in the example below, where Giridharadas tells what life was for Mark Stroman, both the good side and the bad side.

However, the point of the excerpt is to show how Giridharadas uses contrasts in both a positive and negative way:

“Sometimes, that little boy would be at school, he’d suddenly pull a knife on his fellow classmates. Sometimes that same little boy would be at his grandparents’, tenderly feeding horses.3”

Giridharadas also makes another contrast, but this time he does it to show what Americas real problems are, and how status doesn’t solve the “basic” problems of society:

“America is simultaneously the most and the least successful country in the industrialized world. Launching the world’s best companies, even as record numbers of children go hungry.

Seeing life-expectancy drop for large groups, even as it polishes the world’s best hospitals.4” America may have some of the best hospitals and tech companies, but America also has a low life-expectancy and many families with children go hungry because they can’t afford food or food stamps.