Letter to Daniel by Fergal Keane
LETTER TO DANIEL
The "Letter to Daniel", written by Fergal Keane- an international journalist, is a strong emotive piece of writing, which would not have been nearly as effective without the detail that Keane has used. The main feature of the text is the letter format that Keane has used, addressed to his newborn son, Daniel, who obviously cannot read yet. The letter is exceptionally personal yet it was always intended for publishing. This begs for the question; "Why has Fergal Keane written this?" to be asked. In my opinion the piece is used for catharsis, and as a statement from Keane about how he now forgives his father for his behavior in the past, as I learned about in the separate piece "Letter to my Father", also written by Fergal Keane in response to his future (written December 1995 two months before his son was born).
"And at the end I gave up writing, gave up calling. I gave up"
I am going to describe the details that Keane has included in "Letter to Daniel" and show how they have made an impact on the text as a whole.
In the first opening paragraphs of "Letter to Daniel", Keane creates a peaceful and tranquil ambience with the soft tone in his word choice and sentence structure. "Cradled" and "soft quiet", create the impression that Fergal Keane is happy as "cradled" is gentle and "soft quiet" shows Keane was noticing the calm silence of his apartment. The second paragraph is cleverly written, as it removes the grammar and replaces it with "a new grammar" to emphasize Keane's point that Daniel has changed his life. There is a strong feeling of union because Keane refers to him and his family as "we" and "your mother and I". He continues to create an atmosphere of hope and luck further on when he talks about how Daniel's birth was "good Feng Shui" and how the Chinese staff were repeating "so lucky, so lucky".
Keane then uses contrast, after talking about his comfortable family life and talks about the dangerous and distressing things he has seen
The "Letter to Daniel", written by Fergal Keane- an international journalist, is a strong emotive piece of writing, which would not have been nearly as effective without the detail that Keane has used. The main feature of the text is the letter format that Keane has used, addressed to his newborn son, Daniel, who obviously cannot read yet. The letter is exceptionally personal yet it was always intended for publishing. This begs for the question; "Why has Fergal Keane written this?" to be asked. In my opinion the piece is used for catharsis, and as a statement from Keane about how he now forgives his father for his behavior in the past, as I learned about in the separate piece "Letter to my Father", also written by Fergal Keane in response to his future (written December 1995 two months before his son was born).
"And at the end I gave up writing, gave up calling. I gave up"
I am going to describe the details that Keane has included in "Letter to Daniel" and show how they have made an impact on the text as a whole.
In the first opening paragraphs of "Letter to Daniel", Keane creates a peaceful and tranquil ambience with the soft tone in his word choice and sentence structure. "Cradled" and "soft quiet", create the impression that Fergal Keane is happy as "cradled" is gentle and "soft quiet" shows Keane was noticing the calm silence of his apartment. The second paragraph is cleverly written, as it removes the grammar and replaces it with "a new grammar" to emphasize Keane's point that Daniel has changed his life. There is a strong feeling of union because Keane refers to him and his family as "we" and "your mother and I". He continues to create an atmosphere of hope and luck further on when he talks about how Daniel's birth was "good Feng Shui" and how the Chinese staff were repeating "so lucky, so lucky".
Keane then uses contrast, after talking about his comfortable family life and talks about the dangerous and distressing things he has seen