Read the attached article first and consider the way the author has attempted to persuade you.

Compose a 400-500 word persuasive piece of writing in which you persuade your marker to read
a specific author, emulating the attached article.
Remember to consider your high modality language, rhetoric (pathos, ethos and logos), call to
audience, universal themes, inclusive language and figurative language.

Tove Jansson

At the very end of World War II, a new world came into creation. A world filled with white
hippopotamus-looking creatures, an anti-establishment nomad, a fierce freeloader, and
many other peculiar creatures. A world filled with idyllic Finnish landscapes, sweet
friendships and romances, and a never-ending supply of funny little conversations. A world
that while providing some of most endearing stories is full of so much profound melancholy
and existential dread.

This mystical world emerged from cartoons and child-friendly prose of Tove Jansson in her
widely revered Moomin series. It is said that when you start looking for the Moomins you
will start to see them pop up everywhere: from merchandise, child sections of the library
and even twitter profile pictures. But what has drawn so many people to these large-nosed
creatures?

Jansson has created a world so full of likeable and relatable characters that she achieved
one of the hardest feats for a child’s author – she made her books even more appealing to
adults. I very much doubt a four-year-old could grasp the existentialist musings of the
philosopher Muskrat or the anarchist-undertones from Snufkin but the burgeoning Moomin
internet fandom certainly does.

Jonsson’s works are so impactful that they have been translated into over 50 languages and
have spawned many spin off media like the movie “Moomins on the Rivera” and the TV
show “Moominvalley” that have captivated both a new audience of children and adults.

You may wonder what can be contained in these stories that make them resonate with so
many people. Within the wholesome exterior of these small, illustrated books there are
moments so emotionally haunting that are bound to pull a few tears from the most stone-
hearted person.

Who cannot sympathise with Moomintroll, having been transformed so that he is

unrecognisable to his family, pleading for his mother to recognise him (an allegory for
growing up)? Or who could not feel the hallowing sense of mortality in Moominland Winter
when the moomin’s beloved squirrel dies? Or who would not grasp their book in
apprehension as the Moomin’s approach the end of the world In Comet in Moominland as
the rivers dry up and all the beloved characters could do was lie down together waiting for
their untimely demise?

However, all these stories pale in comparison to the absolute tear-jerker that is the
Jonnson’s most personal story Moominland in November where several friends of the
Moomins visit the Moomin’s home to spend the winter with them only to be greeted with
an unwelcoming empty home. The book ends with a little child Toft waiting in the house for
the Moomins that never came. This little Toft is often seen as an authorial manifestation of
Tove Jannson herself, waiting for her own family after her parent’s death. And we the
audience end the novel with the realisation that little Toft will spend the winter all alone
waiting for a family that has gone missing, just like how we too will face or have faced loss
and its accompanying cold loneliness.

In a world plagued by increased anxiety there are not many authors that can spur such great
emotions from us. So, if you want to laugh and cry over pictures of cute creatures and some
of the saddest and endearing stories to emerge from literature, Tove Jannson has got you
covered.