Roman Scott

English composition

Dr. Crowther

Essay  #2 Photo analysis Draft

Images are a great way for time to be captured and looked upon later. The following Images were all taken during the pandemic and all relate to me in a personal way. The first image is of my grandma beaming after she dyed her hair purple. The second image is of  my dad and the precautions he followed to make sure the neighborhood kids had a good Halloween. The third and final image is a screenshot of a text I received late October; it was an ad attempting to persuade me to “vote red” in the upcoming presidential race. The three images are unique in their own ways yet are tied together through a similar experience.

Image one is a picture that represents the experience of many people during the pandemic. All throughout 2020, people grew bored of sitting in their rooms and needed something to spice up life again while locked-down. A common theme was people changing their appearance, especially when it came to hair. Dying and cutting hair are simple and easy and only need a few materials. The pandemic sent many people into this frenzy and it soon became a fad. Many look back at this time with regret, as is the case with the image shown. The story behind it is simple. My grandmother grew weary of sitting in her home alone and needed something to pick her up. Before the pandemic, dying her hair purple would have been an outlandish idea that she’d turn her nose up at. However something about being locked-down for a year changed her opinion. Now, that things have returned to somewhat of a ‘normal’ state the thought of dying her hair returns to something she would never consider.

The pandemic made people do things they would have never considered. With little contact to the outside world, other people seemed to only exist through a computer screen. The fear of judgement no longer existed or was at least lessoned. How could these little pixels on my computer actually judge me? It is not like they are real people? A slight exaggeration, but many people felt this way, including myself. This lead to changes, temporary or even permanent, in hopes to make the pandemic lock-down more bearable. With less judgment people explored more parts of themselves and learned what they did and didn’t like.

The second image was taken on Halloween in the year of 2020. The image is of a father trying to make the best of what is available to ensure that the neighborhood kids had a Halloween at all. Before then, parents all around the US were worried on how to make this happen. What precautions to follow to keep everyone safe? Would Halloween even happen that year? This meant parents had to get creative. Masks were decorated and added to costumes. Candy and snacks were individually wrapped to ensue same consumptions. United, the neighborhood worked together finding ways to make Halloween happen. Unity was seen all throughout the pandemic. People putting their differences aside and coming together as one.

Taking care of kids is no easy task and the pandemic made it more challenging for parents. Kids missed out on many social opportunities, birthdays, holidays, school. Parents had to find ways to make up for the loss of social interaction. Following the precautions set by the CDC, parents invented new ways of gathering and celebrating to keep some sort of ‘normal’ life for their kids.

While the pandemic brought us closer together, while apart, there were forces that worked to divide us. The third image was an ad I personally received late October, right before the presidential election of 2020. The text reads “Vote Red” in a big bold font. The ad was aiming to persuade me vote for the then presidential nominee Donald Trump. The lack of logos and ethos were the ads downfall. The ad failed, as I was more worried about how I received this message from a spam number than I was interested in voting red. The ad also lacked any sort of evidence to back up its argument to vote red.

During this time the nation was more divided, split between ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’. Fear tactics involved pathos and were used in hopes to scare individuals into a certain way. They often lacked any sort of logos and were used with a big name or a political party to add some credibility. When logic and evidence are missing fear is used to ‘persuade’ which is never a good thing. Scaring people does not do any good. It does not actually change the mind, it merely makes the individual too scare to voice their own opinion.

The pandemic is not over yet, however things are starting to look better. What was learned over the course of the last two years will not be forgotten. Things changed and new ways of doing things were created. People are resilient and people are malicious. People are compassionate and people are narcissistic. The pandemic highlighted the best and the worst of people. What do you think the books will say about you?