Eunice Amoaka
English 1101
Dr. Crowther
03/06/2022
Covid hit hard
From 2020 till now, a global pandemic happened called Covid-19 which is “A highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. SARS-CoV-2 is thought to spread from person to person (…)” This disease touched the world and affected people in diverse ways. Below are three pictures that are going to describe what effect the pandemic had on people. First, a picture of a man where one side of his face looks normal and on the other side, he looks completely different with a mask on. Then, a picture with a paper man laying down surrounded by torn papers from a newspaper describing the pandemic. Finally, a picture of six workers sitting down in front of a factory and a text saying: “shutdown due to covid-19”. Looking at the pictures, we can see that the pandemic affected our lives physically, mentally, and economically.
Picture 1
Picture 2
Life before and after covid dramatically changed; we went from walking around freely to social distancing, from not wearing a mask to wearing a mask everywhere we go. The background of picture 1 is black on both sides. But if you look closely, there are two different shades of black on both sides. We see a man’s face. Half of his face has a mask, and the other side does not have a mask. On the side without the mask, he looks calm and healthy. He looks like a normal person without worries. But on the other half, he is wearing a mask, his face looks pale, his eyes look watery, and he looks like he is ill and sad. The brightness of the man’s face makes the left side lighter like there is a light coming out of him. On the right side, his face color is grayish like a pale color and the background is black but darker because of his face. You can see that his face color changed on both sides. The perspective here is that the man’s life has changed, and he is not the same person anymore. He might be sick, lose a loved one, lose his job. So many things might be happening to him. This picture shows Pathos as it captures the emotion of the man. This picture illustrates life before and after Covid. Each person experienced something different during that period. The argument this picture is making is that covid hit hard. Nobody was expecting something like that to happen and it took us by surprise. Life after covid changes and affects not only our living lifestyle but also our physical. How we all have changed somehow due to covid. The argument the picture makes is that covid changed how everything was. It is like living in a different world. Things have changed; the way people live has been turned upside down. Covid could have had a big impact on each person. Many people have lost a loved one and everyone has experienced social distancing from people, even family.
Each person has diverse ways to deal with a situation, but for some people covid caused deep depression. And during covid many people were depressed. The background of picture 2 is blurry. The torn papers look like they come from a newspaper. The papers are positioned in such a way that they are about to sink him. I see a paper man (it represent a person) in the middle with words surrounding him. The paper man looks depressed, and he seems numb because of his blank face. He is not smiling or crying; he has a straight face. I see different words that are a little bit blurred. They all have different meanings. The color of the background is gray. The words are mostly written in black, but there seems to be a word written in distinct colors. The paper man is yellow, and, on his feet, he has this red thing that looks like a cut. The argument this picture is making is how broken a person might be due to covid. There are multiple texts, and each has its significance and relationship with Covid. The Panic of hearing about this virus, the fear of getting it or dying from it, the news aggravating the situation by saying the number of people dying, the number of cases rising, the worry of if the situation ever going to end, wondering if the government is implicated in whatever going on, business shut down, the economy going down, people not being about to go to work due to the shutdown, they had to pay for rent, taxes, some people were struggling to even eat, questioning if taking the vaccine is a good idea or not, etc… All those words describe depression, all those words describe what a person might be going through during the pandemic. Pathos is represented here because it is about depression. Each word describes an emotion or can even make a person emotional. Even the paperman describes an emotion even though his face looks emotionless. This picture proves that covid did have a mental effect on people deep down. The paper man may represent a person who does not show his emotion or a person going through something and not knowing himself what is going on.
Economically, people have suffered from the shut down during covid. In the background of picture 3, you can see a grid with a word written on it. Looking inside it looks like a factory. They are six people (workers) sitting on the floor. They look sad, disappointed, discouraged. Some of them put their hands on their head, a sign of despair. They are wearing work uniforms and their hats (part of the uniform) in their hands or on the floor. The color that strikes the eyes the most in the picture is yellow. Both the hats and the uniforms are yellow. Although, they have different colors too, like one of the hats is white and two of the uniforms are orange but with some yellow on them. The text on the grid saying: “shutdown due to covid-19″ describes how many businesses, stores, were shut down leaving people without a job. This perfectly relates to the picture as the six people lost their job, they lost a way of making money for themselves and their families. How are they going to survive this crisis? So many questions. How are they going to pay their rent? How are they going to provide for themselves or their family? It is emotional to think about it, which brings pathos to the picture because the six people are just sitting down. Their faces have so many expressions so the readers can see the impact covid had on people economically.
Looking at the three pictures, we can see how covid has affected us in different ways; They all come together to describe each person’s life somehow during the pandemic and what damage it caused in our daily lives; negative damage not only on one aspect of our life but every domain of our life. Our lives turned around after covid; the situation has caused depression, and many people have lost their jobs due to covid losing a way of providing for their family. Will we ever go back to the way we used to be?