Give an outline of how the James Bulger Case is presented in texts 1, 2 and 3.
The first text, ”Every parents nightmare”, is a news article written by Mark McKay for BBC in October 2000. The article, in a chronologically and neutrally fashion, objectively describes the James Bulger Case from beginning to end. The text is dense in terms of factual information, as one would expect from a news article.

The second text, “Life after James”, is an article written by Blake Morrison for The Guardian Online in Februrary 2003. The article approaches the presentation of the James Bulger Case in a different way. By peaking behind thick curtains of opinions held by the public, the text man-ages to provoke thoughts and stimulate ideas. Blake Morris succesfully shifts the paradigm of the James Bulger Case by taking a step backwards, which leads the audience to the introduc-tion of the bigger picture, where he explains and examines his view; the James Bulger Case is a problem, but it is not the problem. The issue lies in the society itself.

The third and last text, “James Bulger killing; 20 years on”, is an article written by Amelia Hill for The Guardian Online in Februrary 2013. Arguably, the article is an addendum to the previ-ous text, “Life after James”. Amelia Hill takes the reader back twenty years, where she daringly questions the method of which the public, the media and the politicians used to deal with the case.
Analyse how Blake Morrison presents the James Bulger case in text 2. Here you must use your knowledge of stylistic analysis and give examples from the text to support your analysis.
Blake Morrison’s “Life after James” challenges the steadfast, sardonic and accepted view of the public and the media. By using various stylistic techniques, Morrison succeeds in pointing out that the sympathy shown by the public should not only regard James Bulger and his family, but also Thompson and Venables.
Throughout the article, Morrison makes use of artistic proof; pathos, logos and ethos.

The author uses pathos to emotionally charge sentences to enhance his message. The follow-ing, is a great example of how emotions are being added in a sentence that would otherwise have been completely factual:“That was Sunday, February 14, Valentine's Day.” The act of at-taching feelings to an otherwise inconsequential date prevails.

Another example of the utilization of pathos: "It was an adult courtroom, and an adult trial, despite the hours being shortened to school hours and the dock being raised by three inches so that the boys could see over the rail." By emphasising the age of murderes and the fact that children are able to inflict devastation in an unquantifiable degree, the author appeals to both anger and fear.

Another form of persuasive appeal employed by Morrison is logos. In his article he writes: “sales of toddler reins rose sharply, and in a survey of parents by the children's organisation, Kidscape, 97% of re-spondents put abduction as their biggest worry, ahead of traffic acci-dents, glue-sniffing and Aids.” The journalist and author combines factual data and informed opinions to support his statements.

Because of the fact that the article heavily relies on the appeal of pathos to deliver its message, the formality of the article is average. Based on the appeal of feelings, it is quite difficult to establish a connection with the reader when writing in informal language. However, the level of formality is high enough to maintain and support his ethos, which is very important for a journalist. An example of low formality would be: “Cartoons depicted timid adults kowtowing to giant, tantrumy babies.”, which sounds neat, but ‘tantrumy’ is not a word. Another example of low formality is when Mr. Morris begins a sentence with a preposition: “But evil isn't men-tioned”. A low level of formality is demonstrated when personal involvement is not being avoided. The author, on numerous occasions, uses “we” or “I”.
Taking your starting point in one of the texts, discuss your own view on the James Bulger Case. In your discussion, you must also include the terms natural evil and moral evil.
The human consciousness knows, defines and creates emotions based on the nature of con-trast. In other words, x cannot exist without y. One can apply this eastern philosophy to the bewilderment of modern culture. Evilness, be it natural or moral evil, cannot exist without goodness. Heroes cannot exist without villains. Blake Morris chooses to end his article in re-gards to the James Bulger Case by writing: Time to grow up. Evil won’t do. I agree. Imprisoning two children, pointing fingers and calling them evil is what we’ve done. What good has it done? As written earlier, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables are a problem, yes, but they are not the problem. The problem lies within the question of why did they behave in such way? The Ad-verse Childhood Experiences Study, seven years later, revealed that human behaviour is in fact not genetic. The emotional and social environment shapes the human brain and human behaviour. In other words, these boys have been shaped by traumas throughout their whole life.
Is punishing two suffering children justifiable? Amelia Hill raises the question of punishment and rehabilition, which has been a polarizing topic infiltrating all levels of society recently.
People need to realize that the public crusade, mainly fueled by the media, is being waged against two children who both, in some form or another, have been traumatized or abused throughout their childhood and have mental health problems. There is enough punishment in there that we don’t have to add even more punishment on top of that.

If punishment is chosen rather than rehabilitation, then who has the right to call the other evil?