How Neil Gaiman uses his own experience

In this part of the guide, we will talk about how Neil Gaiman uses his own experience in the article “So many ways to die in Syria now”, which presents Neil Gaiman’s experience of visiting a refugee camp in Jordan and talking to refugees.

Neil Gaiman uses his own experience to create a connection with the target audience of his article, Western readers. His experience is meant to show that, like many Westerners, he did not have a realistic image of a refugee camp until he saw one:

Before I came out here, I tried to imagine what a refugee camp would be like. It would consist of several rows of tents in a field. It would be dusty, of course, because the field was in Jordan, where it is dry, and it would be a big field, because there were a lot of refugees. I had not imagined cities. (ll. 60-62)

This helps the writer suggest that the refugee crisis is more severe than people imagine, as there are thousands and thousands of refugees fleeing Syria, which means that an adoptive country like Jordan needs to find space and build infrastructure to accommodate them. This encourages readers to reassess their own understanding of the numbers of refugees, as well as the need to accommodate and help them all.

Neil Gaiman also uses his own experience...