Rhetorical devices

Contrasts

Your exam question asks you to look at Adam Ramsay’s use of contrasts in the article “This should be Scotland’s rewilding election”. 

The main example throughout the text is the contrast between the positive consequences that rewilding can bring to the Scottish environment and the potentially disastrous effects of ignoring the decline of nature in Scotland or not acting fast enough. Ramsay presents this contrast in different ways. On a linguistic level, he uses words and phrases with strong negative meanings such as “life on Earth drowns in a whirlpool of destruction” (ll. 20-21) or “dormant, muted, […] dying” (l. 64) to present the effects of dewilding that Scotland is currently suffering. He contrasts these with words and phrases with positive, hopeful connotations such as “allowing ecosystems to flourish” (l. 73) or “stunning landscape” (l. 28) to refer to Scotland’s past beauty which he hopes will be recovered with the help of rewilding. 

The contrast between the two possible futures ahead of Scotland can also ...