ADH pre-reading task

SeongJun Choi

Dr. Maloney

20 January 2020

Word Count 500

Gordon Park’s photography “Bessie Fontenelle and Richard Climb the Stairs” was created in 1967, New York. The collection of his photographs depicts the daily struggle of a Harlem family by portraying their daily life under poverty and segregation. Parks targets the general public and emphasizes the harsh living conditions of Black people. Overall, the photograph utilizes symbolism, composition, and lighting to raise awareness on the issue of racial inequality and depict the black communities’ struggles against poverty and segregation.

The photograph first uses symbolism to convey the theme of inequality and racial discrimination. While the characters are walking up the stairs, a toy tricycle is placed on the second floor. Since juveniles typically enjoy and crave riding a toy tricycle, it symbolizes hope and equality that the black people strongly desire. Hence, because no one is riding the tricycle and the two characters are unaware of the toy tricycle, the photograph conveys that demand for equality has not been commonly recognized and achieved in society. Furthermore, the stairs in which the characters are walking, which is the only path for the characters to go upstairs, represent the gradual steps and efforts necessary to improve the living conditions of the black people.

Hence, the photograph also employs composition by placing the objects and the characters based on their respective significance to convey the theme of poverty. The black characters on the first floor are located in the lowest position in the picture; therefore, the text implies that the living conditions and rights of black people are not society’s interests and priorities. Moreover, the high angle shot aids the audience to view the black characters as powerless and vulnerable. This encourages the audience to have more authority than the characters in the photograph, which represents black people as the social minority. In this way, the photograph displeases the audience and encourages them to recognize how they have been privileged in society compared to the black people.

The photograph lastly utilizes lighting to show the contrast between the hard times in the past and the improved conditions in the present. While the background behind the characters is pitch dark by creating an ominous and melancholy mood, the stairs in which they are walking are bright due to the shining light. This suggests that the black people experienced a temporary improvement in their living conditions after the suffering. However, the background of the second floor turning black again alludes to the bleak future of black people with a clear contrast between light and dark. Furthermore, because the woman is facing the bright side and turning her back against the dark, the photograph implies that black people are expecting an improvement in living conditions and trying to escape from poverty and segregation.

Through the usage of symbolism, composition, and lighting, the photograph of Parks indicates the necessity of aiding people struggling from poverty and social injustice. Park attempts to remind the audience of the values of equality by creating a humanizing effect on the characters.

I focused on the portrayal of racial stereotypes in our society and how it can be seen on pages 202 to 204 and in the text(American Born Chinese) as a whole. I focused on how the extract and the text as a whole use verbal features, visual features, and symbolism to subvert and reinforce the racial stereotypes present in our society. In terms of my oral, I think I did well in understanding and interpreting the text. I also think I did a decent job in focus and organization as I believe my oral maintained a clear and sustained focus on the task. However, I still need to improve on the language part and try to various vocabularies and syntax. I would also need to use different elements of style to enhance my oral. In order to prepare for the next oral, I will focus more on analyzing the extract itself and prepare to answer the questions. In the next oral, I will try not to make errors in my communication and make my analysis insightful so that I can improve on my analysis and evaluation.

Kendrick Lamar’s album DAMN astonished me with several significant messages related to social issues. I found out that all the songs in Kendrick Lamar’s album DAMN are connected with each other and they also have a lot of biblical allusions. I was surprised by how Lamar connected himself with Jesus in “DNA” and “Yah”.   The figurative language such as metaphors also enhanced my understanding of the lyrics. The album first starts with a story of an old woman and told Lamar that he “lost something”. I think the narrative in this work has not been as direct as Kendrick’s previous works, and his intuition on the subject is also weak. In this work, Kendrick talks about the resistance to a repressive society as a black man (DNA.) and criticizes other black artists who are on the side of the system and only pursue their own interests. He also talks more about the realities of the society in the United States (XXX). These stories remind me of Kendrick’s previous work “To Pimp A Butterfly,” but the difference is that Kendrick’s concerns are scattered all over the place like debris, not functioning as a theme at the center of this work. This album ends with the song “DUCKWORTH,” which talks about “coincidence” and “fate” behind the birth of Kendrick Lamar. Then, the song ends with the sound of gunfire, which connects to the first scene of “BLOOD.” At this point, the story reminds us of the “lost thing” that Kendrick Lamar had. Many obstacles including Kendrick’s oppressed fate as a ‘black’ person and the burden and doubt that comes to him as an artist made Kendrick agonize and wander. However, he ultimately chose to accept his ‘fate’ as if his beginning was accidental and fateful. The courage is not to avoid but to admit one’s own ‘fear’ and to accept them as they are under ‘belief’. Therefore, Kendrick Lamar’s album “DAMN” was really attractive to me with its meanings behind the lyrics.

Word Count 300

Several significant features are used in this cartoon to achieve its purpose: to enlighten the viewers about the importance and value of family. The cartoon targets English literate who have lost loved ones and experienced devastating feelings. One of the significant features the poster uses in this poster is symbolism. Typically symbolizing death and mourning, the black rose in this cartoon represents loss and memory the character shares with his grandfather. The depiction of black rose in the beginning and the end of this cartoon highlights the value of reminiscence in the character’s longing for his grandfather. Furthermore, the cartoon employs a distinct structure by dividing the story into three parts. This cartoon is not in chronological order; instead, when transitioning from the first part to the second part, the black panels gradually decrease by indicating time transition. Hence, this cartoon’s second part does not have vivid colors and is mostly black and white, which exposes that the character is lost in deep thoughts. This allows the audience to connect this story with their own experience and think about themselves how it feels like when they confront pain by losing their family. Hence, when the character is emotionally agitated on page 5, the cartoon uses emanata and extreme close-up to vividly depict the character’s crying face, thus emotionally affecting the audience by pathos. Lastly, the cartoon utilizes many captions and capital letters to emphasize certain words such as “IT” and “TRUTH.” By emphasizing these catchy words, which all indirectly refers to the plot, the cartoon instigates an interest with its broad scope and stimulation to curiosity. The parallel structure in “his face, his smile, his talks,” and word choices such as “love” contribute to establishing a sentimental tone, which aids the audience recognize the significance of love and family emotionally.