Analysis

Our analysis of Stephen Reicher and Alex Haslam’s “Why not everyone is a torturer” article is inspired by the rhetorical pentagram model. Below you will find a short overview of the main points in our analysis.

In what follows, we will look at the topic of the article – how culture and leaders encourage people to become torturers.

We will present the writers and their position on the topic of the article, as well as the way they relate to their target audience.

We will also examine the reader – the potential readers of the text and the writer’s target audience. 

We will analyse how the writers use language tools to achieve their intention. We will look at the choice of words, the sentence structure, the writers’ tone, and at how the writers appeal to the audience’s trust and reason.

We will discuss the circumstances of the article, looking at the events surrounding the Abu Ghraib prison torture photos and at the historical and political circumstances.  

Lastly, we will consider the writers’ intentions to prove that culture and leadership are factors that contribute to people becoming torturers, and to persuade readers that society is responsible to examine its values and beliefs to prevent torture.

You can read the full analysis in the next pages of this study guide.