The Prince Of Tides

Vijayan Prabhu Harish

The Prince Of Tides is an article from a magazine written Piyush Roy. Basically, this article
talks about the life of a celebrity. The main aim of this article is talk about how he overcame
his various obstacles in his path and how he can also serve as a role model for his die-hard
fans. He has relayed this message across to his readers clearly through the use of his unique
language, style and format.

The author in this case had started of with the title The Prince of Tides. The title itself
gives a brief summary of what he is going to write about. For example in this case, the
words Prince and Tides are of a larger font compared to the other two words in the
title. Through this, the reader will understand the emphasis that is placed on the word. Not
only does it place the emphasis but also gives the impression of a tide. The title itself is a
metaphor allowing the reader to understand what the article is about. Basically tides are the
raising and falling action of seawater along the beach and this refers to the ups and downs
one would meet in his life. Thus, the prince of tides basically refers to a person who was
able to overcome the difficulties that he encountered in his life. Moreover, the words such
as unpredictability from the first paragraph also shows that he has met up and downs in
his life.

Then the writer moves on to write a quote that was said by Saif Ali Khan. That motto is
similar to a motto or principle that the celebrity follows and this motto or principle is able to
give the summary of what the text is really about. As we move on, we can start to see that
the writer has an intended audience in mind and that are the Bollywood fans and to be
specific Saif Ali Khans fans. This can be seen from the phrase in paragraph one which,
states, Two decades on, he has survived. In this case, we can see it is an assumption that
the reader knows what has been going on with the celebrity over the two decades. So this
writer had written with a specific audience in mind. He also mentioned movies like Love
Aaj Kal and Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic. This mentioning of movies confirms that his
intended audience is Saifs Fans. Moreover one of the writing techniques observed in
paragraph one is alliteration and also the rule of three. When the phrase strive, strife and
style are written in groups of three, the writer will be able to consume that information
which in other words mean that they wouldnt miss out on that information about that
celebrity. Moreover, the writer uses slangs in this article and a good example would be the
phrase ultimate cool dude from line 8. This shows that the writer is targeting at the young
people who would read this type of article. This is because teenagers mostly likely the
people who use such slangs.

The picture used in this article is pretty big and the main aim of this is to get the reader
attention. So when a reader flips through the magazine and when they see the picture of
Saif, they would know that the article is related to him and hence would be tempted to read
it.

In this article, the writer started with how he was an unsuccessful actor in the beginning and
then soon became a popular star in the Bollywood sector. Moreover for each part of his life,
the writer chose the type of words that would fit the situation. For example, when he was
an unsuccessful actor, phrases such as simple laidback attitude and non- strategized
The Prince Of Tides
career choices were used. However after he became successful the writer used phrases
such as his ambivalence and mixed palette of roles. So in each situation the type of
words used gives a rough idea of his characteristics to the readers.

In the second last paragraph, the writer used metaphors such as steers clear of the demons
of smugness and has tasted blood. This shows the reader the type of person Saif is which
is strong-willed and hardworking. Moreover, the last two lines have repetition. The uses of
such literary device is to place the emphasis on what the writer is writing and hence show
the type of person Saif is.

At the end, the writer ends it of with a summary of the passage so that the readers could
understand the essence of the passage and would be able to take away something good
from that article. Hence, to sum up, the writer had made perfect use of the various literary
devices such as metaphors, alliteration and repetition to portray Saif in good light and to
also get the attention of his readers.