In Syria, President Hafiz al-Asad’s image is everywhere. He is praised on television, in newspapers, and during spectacles as the gallant knight, father and premier pharmacist. According to Lisa, she fails to understand the reasons behind calling the president such names and even calling the president immortal. In her opinion, she rubbishes these acts as nonsense. However, she provides an answer by saying that the cult of personality reinforced the president’s power by demonstrating that his regime can compel people to say the ridiculous and to avow the absurd (Wedeen, 1999). According to Lisa, the president’s influence on the people had grown too much that there was virtually nothing that could be done to convince the people otherwise. She further explains that the more skeptical a Syrian is, the more the cult oppresses him. The Syrian population do not understand the method the president uses on them, but they just blindly follow him.
In Samar Yazbeck’s article “Woman in the Crossfire”, she prepares the reader in all stages of her writing to the end. She gives a chronological explanation of events as they took place, beginning with her take on the revolution against the rule of Asaad, the beginning of the revolution, and through to the current state of the revolution. Her tone remains the same all through the article. She is saddened and displeased with the president’s rule and the excessive use of force on the citizens. She also explains how she is displeased with the way the people outside Syria are misinformed about the situation in their country and how she would wish everybody gets to know the truth behind the revolution.
Just as in most articles, in her concluding paragraph, she sums up her writing by maintaining her position on the revolution. She says that as she had earlier stated, her heart is broken and that she would never be at peace again. Additionally, she maintains that she will never stop fighting Asaad’s regime, no matter what the post-Asaad future holds, Asaad is a tyrant, murderer and sadist, and whatever is to come, it cannot be worse (Yazbek, 2013). This is the same tone that she began the article and ended it. Her article in the Guardian has the same ending, as the former, in fact, the tone in the articles remain the same all through the article to maintain the reader’s perception of her topic. Her main intention in writing this article is to inform the people who do not know what she considers the truth behind the revolution and make them understand the bad things the Asaad’s regime does to the citizens such as the merciless killings.
Reference:
Yazbek S. (3 May 2013). The Syrian revolution has changed me as a writer: Samar Yazbek on how the relationship between her life and writing is now informed by reality, not fiction. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/03/samar-yazbek-syrian-revolution-writing
Wedeen L. (1999). Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
