WP2: Statement of Purpose

When comics are thought of, many instantly think of the weekly “Sunday comics” that appear in the newspaper. These comics (example above) are usually abstract, colorful figures making a joke about an aspect of life or politics. While this is a common example of comics, it is not the only. Comics are defined as a representation of the world by Scott McCloud's essay, "The Vocabulary of Comics.” This representation is “filled with icons that we call pictures” and words that help support the pictures and guide the audience in the frame-by-frame storyline. My comic, “She’s Okay”, from the archive “A Softer World” (directly below) is a very different interpretation of comics. My comic is modeled off of "romans dur" by George Simenon. According to the New York Review of Books, romans dur are defined as material " in which [they] display a sympathetic awareness of the emotional and spiritual pain underlying the routines of daily life."

Understanding the difference between my comic and what would be considered “everyday comics”, I will address how my comic correlates to the definition of romans dur that New York Review of Books presents by providing the audience with a look into this “emotional and spiritual pain.” This argument is constructed from technical elements such as saturation, vectors of attention, cropping, word choice and font choice that all contribute to the overall structure and aesthetic of the comic.

While analyzing this argument, it is also important that I keep in mind my audience. Primarily, my audience will be my fellow peers and my professor. This audience will be aware of the same concepts as I am and contain the same knowledge of analyzing material such as photographs and comics. While this is helpful to the audience in terms of understanding the terminology and examples I present, this also makes this audience my most critical. They will know very quickly if terminology is used wrong or if my argument does not add up.

As mentioned in CDA p.40, context of audience is just as important as whom the audience is. I can imagine that my audience will be on the college campus in places such as a study room, a dorm room, or even an office. My peers and professor will first be considering my argument in helping me revise my paper, and later on grading the completeness and thoroughness of my argument.

Other than my main audience, there is also a possibility of anyone else that can access my blog on the internet to read my analysis. This is the hardest thing to consider when writing an argument in that I cannot guess at their background or the context in that they may read my blog. Therefore, I should keep my analysis on a level that would be acceptable to a variety of people reading it.

Overall, I hope to provide an argument that shows that comics can be more than just the humorous cartoons in newspapers and comic books. I want to introduce my audience to, what may be the new, concept of romans dur and translate the definition that New York Review of Books provides for these types of comics into my analysis of “She’s Okay”. While I do this I hope to maintain a simple, detailed approach that my audience will understand. I do not want my audience to finish my analysis confused or left wanting more. I also want my audience to understand that there many other ways of argument other than just essays and photos, and furthermore want them to include comics in their description of materials of argument in the future.

Works Cited

Wysocki, Anne Frances and Dennis A. Lynch. Compose, Design, Advocate: A Rhetoric for Integrating Written, Visual, and Oral Communication. New York, NY: Pearson-Longman, 2007.

Denny, Norman and Brookner, Anita. "Red Lights". The New York Review of Books. 27 March 2010. Web. 26 March 2010.

McCloud, Scott. "The Vocabulary of Comics."

WP2: "Romans dur"

Comics consist of sequential frames that display a narrative in almost a mini-film fashion. Each frame builds onto an idea or event, with speech bubbles and underlying narrative to help guide the reader. Although to most people comics are categorized as humorous, there are many other types of comics that exist. One of these different types of comics is "romans dur" or "hard novels". The comics that are archived on my selected website, A Softer World, are modeled off of "romans dur" by George Simenon. According to the New York Review of Books, roman durs are defined as material " in which [they] display a sympathetic awareness of the emotional and spiritual pain underlying the routines of daily life."


A Softer World, comic #44, displays this definition well. Instead of presenting a joke on politics or an adventure of a super hero, this comic presents the secret thoughts of everyday people. The way that the typography is presented in the comics is almost like being able to look into someone’s mind and see what they are thinking. This "romans dur" is very similar to the popular Post Secret project. In this project people send all of their secret burdens to a man who puts them all anonymously in a book. The secret-sharers include a picture and typography to go along, expressing their deepest secrets. These secrets are usually very shocking and emotional. We are made aware of the "emotional and spiritual pain" that The New York Review of Books states is embedded in romans dur and projects like Post Secret by this combination of typography and photography.

This definition of "romans dur" really helped me transition from the Sunday comics that I am used to, to this type of material (romans dur). I am now able to, instead of just looking at this comic as random text on a split three-framed presentation; see the underlying meaning and argument behind this comic. This comic is expressing the secret thoughts and emotions of someone I may walk by every day. Like previously stated in my cursory analysis, the build that is created with each frame helps us take the comic step by step. The development of the pictures helps us learn from each frame more and more about the situation. The picture in the background has more of meaning to me now that I know the definition and goal of this type of comic. Instead of being just a random picture, the picture of the embracing people and hood of the car is like a vision of what this person would ideally want: for everything, and everyone for that matter, to be okay and to be able to hug their loved one dearly. Looking further into the picture I noticed that the picture was lacking in sharpness. While at first I just imagined that this photo was just really old, I feel that this "fuzziness" adds to the "dream" look of the photo: it’s not real, but only a dream.

The typography is just as important to me as the photograph. While the photograph allows for a sense of pathos to be developed because of the embracing bodies, it does not fully tell the story. The text reads "but she was just having a bad dream, really she's okay." This allows the audience to make assumptions and tie the photograph and the typography together. The phrase "...she was just having a bad dream..." helps argue the "fuzziness" of the photograph contributing to a dream scene. With another form of medium, such as just the photograph, this comic would not come off as emotional or shocking.

WP2: Cursory Analysis

The comic strip that I chose is from the “A Softer World” archive. This comic strip is a three-panel comic strip that, instead of having three different pictures for each panel, has one picture cut into three panels. This is very interesting in that with each panel, the audience in introduced to more detail and more emotion. When looking at each panel separately, without influence from the next one, you can build on thoughts and ideas of what the comic strip is trying to express.

The first panel reads “I’d like to read a story in the newspaper that ends with…” and only has a dark greenish brown background and a small triangle of black in the lower right corner. When looking at this panel alone, you cannot see that this panel is actually the grass of the overall panel. The second panel reads “but she was just having a bad dream,” This panel introduces a subject, “she” and gives more detail to the picture, we now see black and white in the lower portions of the panels, but it is still not evident to what this might be. The final panel reads “really she’s okay.” I would say that this panel is the one that really brings understanding to the strip. You can now see that the figure of color is a car and there are bodies introduced. These bodies are hugging very tightly, showing an obvious connection.

While looking at this comic strip emotions were definitely invoked. The text argues that the author wishes “she” was okay and that this happening that the author refers to was “just a dream”. The author does not express what the happening is, but as an audience we can develop our ideas of what it may be. I have a personal experience with a cousin of mine passing away after being hit by a drunk driver. Seeing the car in the lower panels of this comic strip and the context of the text made me think of a car accident, that the audience wishes the car accident was just a dream. You can also infer from this comic strip that “she”, the subject that the author mentions, was either hurt very badly or passed away from this happening. Similarly to the analysis of photographs, I felt a strong sense of pathos from this comic strip. There is the pathos of what the words, forming a story, are telling us and the obvious pathos from the two bodies hugging dearly.

I would say that the way this comic strip was presented is very effective. The typewriting in the comic strip is like the “thoughts” that are going through the authors mind and the picture almost a “dream” of what she wishes she could do: hug her friend/loved one tightly and have everything be ok.

WP1: Final Draft

Author's Note

This writing project challenged me and took quite a bit of effort in making. While I have taken classes that required I analyze poems, novels and plays, this writing project was a whole new experience for me. Photography, before this project, was more of just a visual recording of memories that I have made with friends and family. It was not until after completing this project did I realize how much really went into photography and how interesting it can be to analyze. At first, it was very difficult for me to talk about “key technical elements” when looking at a photograph. I am a very structured person that prefers facts over opinion. I like to learn concrete concepts and then develop my ideas around them. This analytical project made this very hard for me to do. There were not many “concrete concepts” to analyzing photographs. There definitely were terms and elements that went into analyzing the photograph, but ideas and opinions could definitely change based on which of these terms and concepts you used. There was definitely a contrast between what ideas I developed from a picture and what the person next to me todeveloped from a picture. This project took a lot of creativity for me. Honestly, I do not think I could have completed this project with the level of understanding and confidence as I have without our textbook, Compose Design Advocate. This book gave me some of the concrete terms that I needed. I also found that class discussions really helped me. Our class contains some of the brightest University of Nebraska-Lincoln Honors Student I know! With all of us incorporating our interpretations and ideas behind analyzing photographs it brought a unique level of mutual understanding. It was like learning another language to me, I knew the words and sort of how they should be used, but I did not fully understand how to use these terms and analyze my photograph until I practiced with others. I definitely saw a level of growth in my writing style and confidence during this project.

My paper has evolved quite a bit since day one! I, at first, was a little confused as to what a photograph’s argument could actually involve. I came from many different angles: analyzing pathos in the baby, analyzing both the argument that could exist in the photograph and the argument that may exist from the photographer. I finally landed on what I feel is a powerful argument from this photograph: that “through technical elements such as natural lighting, cropping, framing and vectors of attention this photograph develops pathos that argues the dramatic difference in lifestyle that these orphan children live compared to average American children.”

I did not make too many major changes in my essay between my first and second draft. Many of the changes that I made contributed to presenting my essay more clearly to the audience. This included addressing which photograph my essay pertained to (by suggesting where the audience should look to find my photograph), clearing up some wording issues that may come off confusing to the audience, making my argument more precise and detailed (adding in the "differences" that I suggested in my original argument), reorganizing paragraphs (four and five) and just tweaking my essay to better fit my overall argument. I feel that having peer reviews really helped me work out minor problems that my essay had. These reviews offered great guidance of things to look at.

Overall, I can say with full confidence that I put my all into this paper and am very pleased with how it has developed.

Rough Draft 2
Rough Draft 1
Statement of Purpose

WP1: Final Draft

In the center of Africa, just below the equator, is the country known as “The Land of a Thousand Hills”: Rwanda. This country is most known for the tragic genocide that its citizens endured in 1994. Rwanda’s population was ethnically split at this time around 65 percent Hutu and 35 percent Tutsi, two tribes that lived in harmony many years ago. After trouble started between the two tribes, things only went downhill. This genocide was very well planned, with the goal in mind to eliminate Tutsi citizens from Rwanda. Checkpoints were set up all over the country to help find every person whose identification card labeled them as a member of the Tutsi tribe. Men were killed on the spot, women sentenced to sexual violence, and children were forced to become part of the Hutu militia. Even Hutus that were associated with any Tutsi tribe member were not safe from the hands of the Hutu militia. This time period was violent and devastating, and led to many families being torn apart.

Besides enduring the horrors of the 1994 genocide, the citizens of Rwanda have had to be strong in yet another horror- the epidemic of HIV/AIDS. Rwanda is on the low end of the underdeveloped countries list and therefore does not have adequate healthcare to deal with this complicated and deadly disease. An example of this underdeveloped healthcare is in Rwanda’s child mortality rate: in Rwanda- 1 in 5 children die before their fifth birthday. While in the United States being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS can be very devastating, we still have the means to help fight it and keep the patient alive. In Rwanda, HIV/AIDS is almost a death sentence. Most Rwandans cannot afford care, or in some places cannot even find it. After these victims of HIV/AIDS pass away, many children are left orphaned. Over 600,000 children were orphaned in 2001 due to this epidemic.

With the thousands of children left orphaned after the genocide and the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic, a place was needed for these children to continue their lives. That is when the project and gallery that my photograph belongs to, “Through the Eyes of Children”, was born. After experiencing the horrors of the 1994 genocide herself, Rosamond Carr helped start the Imbabizi Orphanage. She has dedicated her life to helping these children continue their lives despite their hardships. Being inspired by Ms. Carr’s dedication and charity, in 2000 David Jiranek came up with the idea of the project “Through the Eyes of Children”. At first, the orphan children were simply given disposable cameras to take pictures of things close to them - themselves, their friends, and their country - to be displayed on their walls or in picture books. A year later, the U.S Embassy helped take this project to new heights: they offered the children a place to display their work and earn money to help their education. This is now what the project is all about: helping these orphans.

Most Americans are aware of the Rwandan genocide and the many victims that lost their lives. However, there is another class of victims that can be forgotten from this event: the orphan children that were left behind. The untitled photograph by Devota (immediately above) helps bring these forgotten orphan children to the minds of the world. It exposes the environment in which these orphans live and the emotions that they feel. Through technical elements such as natural lighting, cropping, framing and vectors of attention this photograph develops pathos that argues the dramatic difference in lifestyle that these orphan children live compared to average American children.

Analyzing this photograph in terms of coloration and vectors of attention, it is recognized that the baby’s vest, the gasoline can, and the blanket make a makeshift “triangle of color” against the dull colors of the soil, wood, and corn husks. This keeps your eyes in lower right vicinity of the photograph. This untitled photograph also uses natural lighting; making the photo more realistic, as if the viewer is standing right there, in the muddy Rwandan soil. There are natural spots of sun and shade, bringing random variations of brightness throughout the picture. When first looking at the untitled picture, your attention is drawn to the crying baby's face, cornhusks, part of a wooden beam and an empty gasoline can, the lighted areas of the photograph. Looking further into discovering the main vector of attention of this photograph, we bring these two concepts of lighting and coloration together: your eyes wander from the baby to the baby’s surroundings to the “triangle of color” and then back to the baby. This leads the viewer to discover aspects of the baby, as well as aspects of his environment. The baby overlaps as a vector of attention in both the color scheme and the lighting. I feel that while there is not a formal framing, this acts as a form of natural framing for this picture. While the baby is not literally the “center of attention”, these technical elements around him help frame him as the center of attention.

Along with an established vector of attention via lighting and coloration, cropping is another important technical element in this photograph. The photograph is cropped in such a way to emphasize the baby and his surroundings. To the right we can see what looks like to be a pant leg, imply that the photographer took this picture on more of a personal level, kneeling down on the same level as the baby. This, as well as the baby’s attention pointed directly at the audience draws us in and allows us to become part of the picture instead of just observing. This technique helps deepen pathos in the overall picture. We can feel this baby’s need for comfort, its sorrow. This is an obvious appeal to pathos that this photograph presents. This photograph definitely tries to evoke emotions and create an emotional connection between the baby in this photograph and the audience. The obvious pathos in the photograph expresses emotions that we as audience members know and have felt ourselves. This connection helps the audience put themselves in the crying baby’s situation.

Once we have developed a sense of pathos for the photograph, we can return to the main argument. From the lives that most of us live, we know that this environment is not a good environment for such a small child to be living in. We can develop sympathy for the baby from this. The nests of blankets that serve as this baby’s “play pen” are dirty and torn. The baby’s clothing is also not in the best shape, and only consists of a vest: no diaper, no pants, and no shoes. Most babies also usually are not set to play in the dirt next to pieces of old wood and gasoline cans. We are made aware of the kind of environment that the children of Rwanda, as young as the baby in this picture, live their lives in. This makes us want to reach out and help them, give them a clean place with toys to play in. The baby is also not happy, but instead is sorrowful and upset (this displays obvious pathos, discussed earlier). It makes the audience wonder where the baby’s parents are, where his comfort will come from. From the tragedies that Rwanda has suffered, it can be assumed that this little boy may have lost his parents from the HIV/AIDS epidemic and can act as a “stand in” for the thousands of children that lost their parents during the 1994 genocide. Adding on to the sympathy that can be developed from this photograph, some of the audience may even relate to this child and have experienced loneliness, abandonment, and/or poverty. This also brings up a sense of empathy that can be incorporated into the photograph. Those who have experienced what this child is going through can relate on a more personal level and may want to reach out and help more. Overall, this is the main argument of this photograph- while giving the audience insight of what these children go through it demands sympathy and encourages help from those who can relate empathetically and sympathetically to this child.

Overall, I deeply feel that the argument of this photo is a very important one. I believe that the photographer wanted others that look at this picture to think of the children of Rwanda and remember all of the hard times that these children and their families have gone through, and are still enduring. The photographer wanted the audience looking at this photograph to sympathize and understand the difference in lifestyle that these children live, be grateful for what they have, and give what they can.

Works Cited

Information from these sites contributed to the making of my essay

"Orphan Crisis." Orphans of Rwanda. 2008.
http://www.orphansofrwanda.org/learn/orphan_crisis.php

"The Project" Through the Eyes of Children. 2006.
http://www.rwandaproject.org/fr_theproject.html

"Rwanda's Long Search for Justice". BBC News. 2008.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3246291.stm

"Rwanda". Wikipedia. 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda

"Origins of Tutsi and Hutu". Wikipedia. 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_Tutsi_and_Hutu

"HIV/AIDS in Rwanda". Wikipedia. 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_Rwanda

WP1: Rough Draft #2

In the center of Africa, just below the equator, is the country known as “The Land of a Thousand Hills”: Rwanda. This country is most known for the tragic genocide that its citizens endured in 1994. Rwanda’s population was ethnically split at this time around 65 percent Hutu and 35 percent Tutsi, two tribes that lived in harmony many years ago. After trouble started between the two tribes, it only went downhill. This genocide was very well planned, with the goal in mind to eliminate Tutsi citizens from Rwanda. Checkpoints were set up all over the country to help find every person whose identification card labeled them as a member of the Tutsi tribe. Men were killed on the spot, women sentenced to sexual violence, and children were forced to become part of the Hutu militia. Even Hutus that were associated with any Tutsi tribe member were not safe from the hands of the Hutu militia. This time period was violent and devastating, and led to many families being torn apart.

Besides enduring the horrors of the 1994 genocide, the citizens of Rwanda have had to be strong in yet another horror- the epidemic of HIV/AIDS. Rwanda is on the low end of the underdeveloped countries list and therefore does not have adequate healthcare to deal with this complicated and deadly disease. An example of this underdeveloped healthcare is in Rwanda’s child mortality rate: in Rwanda- 1 in 5 children die before their fifth birthday. While in the United States being diagnosed with HIV/AIDS can be very devastating, we still have the means to help fight it and keep the patient alive. In Rwanda, HIV/AIDS is almost a death sentence. Most Rwandans cannot afford care, or in some places cannot even find it. After these victims of HIV/AIDS pass away, many children are left orphaned. Over 600,000 children were orphaned in 2001 due to this epidemic.

With the thousands of children left orphaned after the genocide and the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic, a place was needed for these children to continue their lives. That is when the project and gallery that my photograph belongs to, “Through the Eyes of Children”, was born. After experiencing the horrors of the 1994 genocide herself, Rosamond Carr helped start the Imbabizi Orphanage. She has dedicated her life to helping these children continue their lives despite their hardships. Being inspired by Ms. Carr’s dedication and charity, in 2000 David Jiranek came up with the idea of the project “Through the Eyes of Children”. At first, the orphan children were simply given disposable cameras to take pictures of things close to them - themselves, their friends, and their country - to be displayed on their walls or in picture books. A year later, the U.S Embassy helped take this project to new heights: they offered the children a place to display their work and earn money to help their education. This is now what the project is all about: helping these orphans.


Most Americans are aware of the Rwandan genocide and the many victims that lost their lives. However, there is another class of victims that can be forgotten from this event: the orphan children that were left behind. The untitled photograph by Devota (immediately above) helps bring these forgotten orphan children to the minds of the world. It exposes the environment in which these orphans live and the emotions that they feel. Through pathos and technical elements such as natural lighting, cropping and framing, and vectors of attention this photograph argues the difference between a life filled with clean clothes and a proper living space that we, as audience members, may live and the dirty, poverty-filled lives that these children endure every day.

Analyzing this photograph in terms of coloration and vectors of attention, it is recognized that the baby’s vest, the gasoline can, and the blanket make a makeshift “triangle of color” against the dull colors of the ground, wood, and corn husks. This keeps your eyes in lower right vicinity of the photograph. This untitled photograph also uses natural lighting; making the photo more realistic, as if the viewer is standing right there, in the muddy Rwandan soil. There are natural spots of sun and shade, bringing random variations of brightness throughout the picture. When first looking at the untitled picture, your attention is drawn to the lighted areas of the photograph. This portion of the picture consists of the crying baby’s face, cornhusks, part of a wooden beam and an empty gasoline can. Looking further into discovering the main vector of attention, we bring these two concepts of lighting and coloration together: your eyes wander from the baby to the baby’s surroundings to the “triangle of color” and then back to the baby. This leads the viewer to discover aspects of the baby, as well as aspects of the environment. The baby overlaps as a vector of attention in both the color scheme and the lighting. I feel that while there is not a formal framing, this acts as a form of natural framing for this picture. While the baby is not literally the “center of attention”, these technical elements around him help frame him as the center of attention.

Along with an established vector of attention via lighting and coloration, cropping is another important technical element in this photograph. The photograph is cropped in such a way to emphasize the baby and his surroundings. To the right we can see what looks like to be a pant leg, imply that the photographer took this picture on more of a personal level, kneeling down on the same level as the baby. This, as well as the baby’s attention pointed directly at the audience draws us in and allows us to become part of the picture instead of just observing. This technique helps deepen pathos in the overall picture. We can feel this baby’s need for comfort, its sorrow. This is an obvious appeal to pathos that this photograph presents. This photograph’s argument definitely tries to evoke emotions and create an emotional connection between the baby in this photograph and the audience. The obvious pathos in the photograph expresses emotions that we as audience members know and have felt ourselves. This connection helps the audience put themselves in the crying baby’s situation.

Once we have developed a sense of pathos for the photograph, we can return to the main argument. From the lives that most of us live, we know that this environment is not a good environment for such a small child to be living in. We can develop sympathy for the baby from this. The nests of blankets that serve as this baby’s “play pen” are dirty and torn. The baby’s clothing is also not in the best shape, and only consists of a vest: no diaper, no pants, and no shoes. Most babies also usually are not set to play in the dirt next to pieces of old wood and gasoline cans. We are made aware of the kind of environment that the children of Rwanda, as young as the baby in this picture, live their lives in. This makes us want to reach out and help them, give them a clean place with toys to play in. The baby is also not happy, but instead is sorrowful and upset (this displays obvious pathos, discussed earlier). It makes the audience wonder where the baby’s parents are, where his comfort will come from. From the tragedies that Rwanda has suffered, it can be assumed that this little boy may have lost his parents from the HIV/AIDS epidemic and can act as a “stand in” for the thousands of children that lost their parents during the 1994 genocide. Adding on to the sympathy that can be developed from this photograph, some of the audience may even relate to this child and have experienced loneliness, abandonment, and/or poverty. This also brings up a sense of empathy that can be incorporated into the photograph. Those who have experienced what this child is going through can relate on a more personal level and may want to reach out and help more. Overall, this is the main argument of this photograph- while giving the audience insight of what these children go through it demands sympathy and encourages help from those who can relate empathetically and sympathetically to this child.

Overall, I deeply feel that the argument of this photo is a very important one. I want others that look at this picture to think of the children of Rwanda and remember all of the hard times that these children and their families have gone through and are still enduring. While some worry about getting homework done in time and complain, these children are just trying to live their lives day by day and get the most education they can. I want the audience looking at this photograph to sympathize and understand the difference in lifestyle that these children live, be grateful for what they have, and give what they can.