Expository texts are read with a certain context and purpose shaped through the writer's tone and language. Furthermore tone constructs the writer's attitude and also creates the meaning behind a text. All these conventions are interrelated, meaning they influence each other. In juxtaposition to extract 1 - The Diary of Anne Frank with extract 2 - Go Ask Alice the writers have both used a certain context and purpose which determines their choice of language and use of tone. These texts convey elicit and melodramatic tones in addition to creating a particular version of reality. The reader is encouraged to gain an understanding of the text's meaning and also the attitudes, beliefs and values that are presented as a result.
The Diary of Anne Frank is set in the early nineteenth century, when Nazi forces occupied Germany during World War 2. Frank a German Jewish-teenager and her family are forced to live in silence within the "Secret Annexe", where they spend life in constant fear and anxiety. Most certainly the family will be discovered and be imprisoned in the German concentration camps. The other extract Go Ask Alice is set in modern times. It is about the life of a teenage girl Alice and how she goes through the long hard road of adolescence. Alice suffers from the effects of drugs and lives in a mental institution. .
From extract 1 we acknowledge the social and historical context surrounding Frank at the time of the holocaust. This context motivates her to write with a nostalgic and courageous tone. From her diary we see she lives life on edge and at times it is "fatalistic". For instance Frank opens the entry with the lines saying she is "expecting the invasion any day" which constructs her tone as tense and nauseous. Frank seems to be caught up in the midst of things concerning the war, her family and most importantly her country, yet she remains calm and brave. This is noticed when she declares "Do not rest people of the Netherlands; everyone is fighting with his own weapons to free the country, the people and their religion".
They rest in the corners like parts of her body, hair cells, skin tissues, tiny specks o memory. ... She sends Naomi a package of correspondence with letters, newspapers and a diary. ... With the juxtaposition of Naomi's two aunts, Naomi respects each and acknowledges the meaning of their different experiences upon her. ...
A vast literature consisting of histories, diaries, memoirs, poetry, novels, and prayers has emerged in an effort to understand the Holocaust in terms of its religious and secular implications. ... Finally, as the victims are being led away to the gas chamber, they started first slowly one-two-three-became faster and faster: so fast it finally sounded like a stampede of wild horses and-quite of a sudden-in the middle of it they began singing the "Shema Yisroel" - "Hear, O Israel" - the Jewish command to love God, a prayer of comfort and hope as a symbol of their unity in the face of death. ....
