“The Baby in the Plastic Bag” by Brent Jakob Oksens

1. Article Organization

1.1. This story is told in chronological order told in order from when they find the baby boy to when they try to get help, to when they get him to the hospital.

2. Tone

2.1. The Tone throughout the article is stressful, or sad. This is because throughout the article, they keep stating the time getting later, and they are running out of time to save the baby. It’s also sad, because it explains that a mother left him in the cemetery alone in a plastic bag to die there. In the article it states “What might have happened if he hadn’t managed to fill his tiny lungs with the air needed to cry, to make his instinctive call for help?......It’s not impossible to imagine that the plastic bag might have been tossed into an enormous waste bin,” which is very sad.

3. Point of View

3.1. The point of view of this article is third person because of the pronouns used (He/She).

4. Main Ideas

4.1. Helpfulness

4.2. Life

4.3. Pity

4.4. Babies

5. Theme Statement

5.1. In “The Baby in the Plastic Bag,” Brent Jakob Oksens shows that Helpfulness is the most important trait a person can have.

6. Literary Devices

6.1. “Most of the grass in the graveyard has been transformed into a rustling carpet of autumn leaves that crunches beneath Tor Schou Nilsen’s feet as he hurries on his way.” This can be both a metaphor, and imagery, because he explains how the grass has been “transformed” into autumn leaves and explains the crunching noise it makes when he runs.

6.2. “She catches a glimpse: a boy. His head is glistening, his face wrinkled, his eyes closed.” This line uses imagery to describe the baby that they’ve been trying to save the whole article. This is also the first time in the whole article that they revealed the gender. I think that they did this on purpose to show that they were in such a rush that they didn’t care about the gender, and it wasn’t really a priority to them.