Figurative Language Essay

Proponents of federal funding being used for forms of social welfare—and other solely finically aiding programs—to help improvised communities often juxtapose poignant language when describing the people benefiting from SNAP and similar programs, with abrasive language when describing any opposition to social welfare to create a sense of pathos that calls upon readers to endorse a future with these programs out of empathy to the people they help. To first bolster the idea that a future without social welfare programs is a harsh, uncaring world that lacks empathy, authors like Jana Kasperkevic in “Welfare Programs Shown to Reduce Poverty in America” describe the tactics of those who would cut funding as “slash-and-burn,” with ideologies that …show more content…
Now that the initial path was cleared, authors tend to counter the previous, biting language with figurative language that incites images of a Normal Rockwell family, drawing on a readers’ pathos through their sense of family to support finical programs. Turns of phrase like “people in their families that they knew lost their home” (Kasperkevic) draw on the word “home” to emphasize the domestic aid social welfare programs provide, tugging on heartstrings to emphasize how these programs are necessary for the family units struggling. Another example is the use of “struggling to put food on the table,” (Kasperkevic) a phrase that brings to mind struggling parents trying to care for their starving children, further calling on reader empathy with the idea that the weakly, impoverished family relies on the benefits provided by SNAP and similar programs to bolster the idea that federal spending needs to focus on finical aid