In the article, “Starving Children Don’t Cry”, Nicholas Kristof sheds light on the negative effects that the current pandemic has had on developing countries, especially Yemen. He begins by writing about how too many children are dying as a result of starvation. One of the main negative effects that Kristof speaks of is the financial situation within these countries that have led famines beginning to rise for an additional time since 2017. This resulted in many innocent people and children dying. Also, the pandemic made it increasingly difficult for people with illnesses such as AIDS, malaria, polio, and even Vitamin A deficiency to get the proper meditation that they need to treat their conditions. Another main issue the author stated was that the pandemic would escalate child marriage rates, genital mutilation rates, and reduced access to contraceptives which may add to the unintended pregnancy rates. As a result of the author illuminating these issues, she comes to the conclusion that one of the main solutions to this issue was to have greater efforts to distribute the vaccine globally, debt relief and assistance from wealthy countries. Therefore, the author’s attempts at these strategies are effective enough to more likely bring the reader to a conclusion that they can help and also strive to make a change within the world in terms of world hunger and many other issues that were stated in the article.
In the beginning of the article, Kristof opens up by simply stating how terrible starvation can be and then proceeds to explain the symptoms that one most likely undergoes when dealing with severe starvation. However, he did this by using a 2nd person point of view to get his point across. This strategy appeals to emotion; the author is intentionally leading the reader to imagine how awful starvation is and how devastating it would be to starve to the point of nearly dying. In the article Kristof states, “Starvation is agonizing and degrading. You lose control of your bowels. Your skin peels off, your hair falls out, you hallucinate and you may go blind from lack of vitamin A. While you waste away, your body cannibalizes itself: It consumes its own muscles, even the heart.” By writing in a 2nd person point of view, it allows the reader to feel included in the article and creates a sense that the author is speaking directly to the reader. To add on, Kristof includes facts about starvation that the reader most likely does not know about. This could be due to the fact that the audience for this article is mainly those who are in a better financial standing and not suffering like the people living in developing countries are. More than likely, these people don’t know what it’s like to suffer to this degree, which is why the author made such an emphasis on including these symptoms. This strategy is effective because when allowing the reader to step into the shoes of others that may be suffering from starvation, it paves the way for a surreal comprehension. This contributes heavily to the overall attempt to get the reader to feel convicted and make a move. Therefore, opening with these facts is an exceptional attention grabber to effectively speak about the starvation crisis that has been worsened due to the pandemic.
After Kristof writes about what it’s like to go through starvation, he then proceeds to tell the story of a little 4-year old boy named Abdo who lives in Yemen. This is an appeal to both facts and emotion. In the article Kristof states, “Yet Abdo Sayid, a 4-year-old boy so emaciated he weighed just 14 pounds, wasn’t crying when he was brought to a hospital recently in Aden, Yemen. That’s because children who are starving don’t cry or even frown. Instead, they are eerily calm; they appear apathetic, often expressionless. A body that is starving doesn’t waste energy on tears. It directs every calorie to keep the major organs functioning.” By using the strategy of storytelling in this case, there is a possibility that the reader would imagine someone that they know who might also be around the same age going through the same thing, resulting in them truly feeling the pain of knowing this same young boy and were not able to help in his situation. Also, it is not common knowledge that people or children who are starving severely can not cry
due to the fact that the target audience mainly consists of people who are in a more stable financial condition and have never gone through such a traumatic experience. Using this strategy is effective because it allows the reader to open their eyes to how serious this situation is. To add on, the author includes information of a helpless child which would effectively stir up emotions because any person with empathy should believe that no child should have to go through this.