Pāhonoa te oro

An even neutral tone is maintained in the opening paragraphs, despite the fact that Zephaniah is describing events that troubled him at the time. He reports events without reacting to them. In this way, readers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions, and this makes Zephaniah’s points more convincing. On two occasions, he simply tells readers what he thought when faced with a teacher whose comments troubled him. Zephaniah shows his self-restraint when provoked. In his final two paragraphs,