Analiysis ‘Muscle Binds’

Sport has been the object of cult for many centuries. However not everyone shares this position. The author of the article ‘Muscle binds’, Dina La Vardera, expresses her attitude to the sports activity.

The article touches the problems of obsession by physical exercises. The author calls upon to remember that there are a lot of other pleasures except sport and it occasions more health and social problems than it seems. Being an expensive short-lasting fashion, exercises make people forget about everything except their beauty, even their own death does not matter anymore. They train the bodies but neglect the minds. According to the author it’s better to be a couch potato but not a self-righteous young person with rippling muscles.

The title of the article reflects the contents of the article in full measure: one is bound to train not to have cellulite, one is bound to train to follow the fashion, one is bound to train to come to term with oneself, and finally, one is bound to train to be healthy.

As the article is written in ironic way it is quite easy to read but the real sense is caught only by the end. It makes the reader understand that he/she is either a silly “hunk” or a lazy “potato”.

The passage is written in a very chatty informal publicistic style to draw reader’s attention, to persuade them to get the author’s point of view and to entertain them. It is chosen for the target audience who consists of young people. The title ‘Muscle binds’ contains an oxymoron as the word ‘muscle’ has a positive connotation and is associated with health and the word ‘binds’ is negatively connotated, its meaning is ‘tightened’. At the very beginning the readers swallow the bait that makes it easier to convince them of the truth of the author’s words. The vocabulary is emotionally coloured (‘oldsters’, ‘youngsters’, ‘smugness’, ‘ephemeral fad’). The repetition of words with negative meaning (‘abhor’,’hate’) represents the idea of unfavourable attitude. The following stylistic devices are observed: periphrasis (young and sensible beings), metaphor (ephemeral fad) and zeugma (to inflate their insoles and their egos). Dina La Vardera addresses to the audience directly through the pronouns ‘we’, ‘you’, ‘your’ and she uses imperative sentences (‘Don’t let all the youngsters – and let’s face it…’, ‘take heart’). The usage of rhetorical question and questions-in-the-narrative is quite often (‘Where’s the virtue in sport, fitness and the body beautiful?’, ‘What do they all have in common?’). These questions create a dialogue between the author and the audience for better understanding.

The aim of the article is to share the opinion with the audience. The hyperbole observed through the while text develops the idea of sport negation down to the limit. It’s done to make people buy and read the article. In reality Dina La Vardera calls everyone to pay less attention to the appearance and to think about inner world. The aim is reached as the passage emotiolizes the reader, it attracts the attention and it’s easy to keep it through all the text. The language answers the purpose, the usage of all devices is quite reasonable.