Comparing The End of the Imagination and The Redfern Speech - Essay Example

Arundhati Roy and Paul Keating, to convince the audience to believe in what they are saying, used the strategy of adding emotional appeal to their evidence, and by doing so, has struck the deepest cord of their heart. It is not only the evidence, but the emotions and imagination attached to the evidence, which helps Roy and Keating to win the hearts of the audience, and hence, it will not be wrong to say that it is the emotions, and not just the evidence, that helps person to convince others in the process of communication.

Arundhati Roy In her essay “The end of the imagination,” Arundhati Roy has expressed her strong views against the nuclear tests conducted by Government of India in 1998. Roy has taken aid of strong evidence, through facts, reasoning and future possibilities, to convince the audience about her disapproval towards the nuclear tests. The evidence that Roy has used to convince the audience are discussed below. The consequences of nuclear war The first strategy that Roy has used to prove her stand against the nuclear testing by Indian government is the description of the consequences of the nuclear war.

Roy has described the horrors of nuclear war in a vivid language. Instead of just using the words ‘destructive’ or ‘harmful,’ she has clearly described how the villages, rivers, wind and human body will be affected by the nuclear war. This vivid description gives a ‘feeling’ of the horrors of nuclear war and creates a clear picture of its consequences. The picture of what really happens after the nuclear war, and how it affects the environment and human beings, shocks the reader. Hence, the clarity of the effects of nuclear war on human body, the atmosphere, on future generation through poisonous radiations and the effects on environment, works as a strong evidence to prove why she is against the nuclear testing.

The second evidence Roy uses is by questioning the sanity of men who can get access to the nuclear weapons. Suicide bomber psyche Indian government had given ‘deterrence’ as a reason for their decision to go ahead with nuclear testing. However, Roy has argued that the theory of deterrence has flaws in it. She has questioned Indian Government’s understanding of the enemy. Roy feels that one cannot consider the enemy to be similar to self. That is, she has expressed her concern over the terrorist groups who are not ‘deterred’ by the nuclear capacity of the enemy as they have a different psyche.

She discusses the psychology of terrorists who are ready to die in order to kill. She calls this a ‘suicide bomber’ psyche. Terrorists are so strongly brainwashed to believe in their cause that they do not hesitate even a bit to destroy themselves in order to prove their point. They are ready to perish, and are insane enough to destroy millions of lives. Roy says that if the nuclear bomb gets in hands of such people, then the ‘theory of deterrence,’ proves baseless. To convince this point, she has provided the evidence of death of Rajiv Gandhi.

Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, was assassinated by suicide bomber. Using his assassination as evidence, Roy questions the Indian Government’s understanding about the enemy psyche. Roy questions that when even a man of premiere stature like Rajiv Gandhi was not saved by the