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On Hope By Daisy Jeffrey Chapter Summaries

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Climate change is an accelerating environmental issue that significantly influences many elements of modern society, a theme explored by the voice of young climate activist Daisy Jeffery. Daisy Jeffrey’s memoir On Hope (2020) recounts her experience as a young Australian committed to climate advocacy and explores the destructive climate crisis currently impacting Australian environments, governments and youth. The non-fiction text employs written conventions, including figurative and inclusive language, to delve into Jeffrey’s interactions with various attitudes found in Australian society in response to the climate crisis. Jeffrey explores the ideas of environmental degradation, government inaction and youth activism, in relation to the theme …show more content…

At the beginning of her memoir, Jeffrey asks her readers to consider ‘‘How much more wildlife and how many more people will have to suffer before our state and federal governments finally take action?’. Jeffery’s use of a rhetorical question depicts the suffering climate change has inflicted on Australian society and wildlife, drawing attention to the neglect of the Australian governments in combatting the issue, therefore representing their apathetic attitudes. In the context of the Labour party leading the Australian parliament, climate change has slowly started to become a recognised issue in Australia. However, the overall focus of all proposed political plans regarding climate change lacks urgency and long-term solutions, as if the issue is not of concern to governments, or the motive behind such plans are disingenuous. Jeffrey illustrates this lack of effective response to climate change amid her memoir, through the addition of a simile, used to compare the Australian government’s approach to climate solutions with band-aids, ‘It’s like being faced with a gaping wound and reaching for the band-aids’. The use of imagery evokes a visual image of an extensive wound to be compared with Australia’s climate crisis, symbolising the true severity and demanding nature of the issue. Further, the simile conveys that, in light of the vast and detrimental impacts the Australian environment is experiencing due to climate change, the Australian governments are ‘reaching’ for an easy fix, instead of implementing effort and action sustained solutions. Jeffreys inclusion of a rhetorical question and similar to explore the idea of government inaction regarding climate change in Australia, represents the attitude of apathy encompassed by leaders in the parliaments, found in contemporary

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