Invictus

The greatness of Nelson Mandela challenges everybody—but especially his heirs

Text of the article: Invictus

In the present work I’m going to analyze an article from the English-language weekly news: The Economist.

The Economist is one of the most famous news magazine in the world. It deals with current topics that are about politics in the world, wars, science, technologies etc.

The title of the article is Invictus, that means invincible and it refers to Nelson Mandela’s career. It is curious to notice that the Latin word Invictus refers to the title of a film, shot in South Africa in 2009. The film is about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which was hosted in that country following the dismantling of apartheid. This title can attract the reader’s attention because it is an evident reference to the subject. The reader can immediately remember the film and he can connect it with the subject of the article: Nelson Mandela. The subtitle explains the meaning of the title in a better way. It is under the title end under it there is a photo.

An editor’s note can be read under the photo and in this note he wants to apologize with the reader for the publication of the article. In fact it was published both before and after Nelson Mandela’s death.

The article is organized into three sections: introduction, main body and conclusion.

In the introduction the subject is presented with general information about his life and career. In the second section, the main body, some particular aspects and events of Nelson Mandela’s life is describe, presenting him like an hero who fought against racism and apartheid. He believed in a better world and he wanted brotherhood, tolerance and peace to be the main aspects of people’s life. At the end of the article Nelson Mandela is remembered like an hero, who has united a lot of people for one reason: to fight the discrimination, the apartheid.

Another topic of the article is the economic topic, that obviously has importance. South Africa economy is an important aspect connected with/linked to Mandela’s life. For this reason the article has been inserted and published in The Economist. In the first part of the article the general information are furnished. But along the article the language becomes very complex, difficult and specific. This article is addressed to a well-educated readers, who is expert in economy issues.