Composition

Ben Okri begins his article “ ‘I can’t breathe’: why George Floyd’s words reverberate around the world” by saying that perhaps it was George Floyd’s dying words that affected people so deeply. The headline of the article suggests that Okri is going to discuss why Floyd’s murder managed to stir such worldwide protests when similar events in the past have gone largely unnoticed. The body of Okri’s article is also structured around the phrase “I can’t breathe” and the different ways it relates to the current social context, to show why these words had such a strong impact on the people who learned about Floyd’s murder.

Okri’s article can be split into three parts depending on the topics that are covered. In the introduction, Okri discusses how the phrase “I can’t breathe” relates to people’s current fears about the Covid-19 pandemi...