Category: ELP

My Interpretation-  There are levels to the interpretation of the 3rd poster. Firstly, the illustrator chose to draw girls marking the norms of the 21st-century gender roles, followed by them belonging to the two most controversial racial backgrounds – the “white” kid holding a gun and the “black” kid holding red riding hood which was banned in America for the usage of a wine bottle. The irony is that the white girl is sitting absolutely safe holding a gun which also gives us a cultural connotation of “white” being a superior race however the black girl who’s race is considered “dangerous” and “violent” to the world is sitting with a children’s book – the red riding hood which is a work of fiction and absolutely harmless. Therefore, the girl with the gun appears to be safer than the girl with the book.

USEFUL PEER INTERPRETATIONS-

ASHIMA- In the third PSA advert, we see a young black girl holding a copy of ‘Little Red Riding Hood,’ and a little white girl holding a gun. The text reads “One child holds something that has been banned in America to protect them. Guess which one.”
Initially, it is assumed that the advert means the gun, but ironically, it is the fairytale that is banned. The ‘reasoning’ behind the banning of the book is that she has a bottle of wine in her basket, which does not make it kid-friendly. The gun, however, isn’t banned, heightening the peculiarity of the situation. The irony, in this case, is that, to be very point-blank, is that although 15000 kids died in school shootings in the US in 2019, the guns are still not banned, while Little Red Riding Hood has harmed absolutely nobody, and still is illegal. Thus, the tone of the advert is sardonic, deliberately contradicting the meaning behind it.

Meira- The visual element of a child holding a gun next to another child holding a book is comparing a weapon to a normal everyday object. The irony is knowing that guns are not banned in America so by process of elimination the storybook is – which the child is ultimately using to protect themselves. The text below confirms “we keep little red riding hood out of schools because of the wine bottle in her basket.” When compared to weapons, it seems foolish/nonsensical/absurd to ban a storybook for such a minor reason when guns – which are not banned, are definitely not any less child friendly. Although we know that guns are not banned, we may be surprised by the fact that a children’s storybook is, even though we know the consequences from both of them differ hugely. This comparison depicts the illogical way in which laws are formed creates frustration and confusion within the audience.

In Hellboy, the use of dark colours and heavy shadows creates an eerie atmosphere and helps establish the setting of the comic – a town with supernatural entities. The red pigment used for Hellboy stands out from the drab colours used in the background and the other characters, which help us determine him as the main character or the “evil protagonist” in this case. The colour red also connotes danger, which reveals Hellboy’s role as a mercenary or someone compelling enough to surpass the other entities. The sarcasm and authority are also expressed in Hellboy’s lines when he asks about the troll, “I didn’t come here to talk about me,” which shows his confidence and adds up to the mysterious atmosphere of the comic.

In the last image, we notice the illustrator has given a lot of reflection space between each panel. Where one usually anticipates the comic to have a violent end, we see reflection. The illustrator intentionally chose to leave a panel empty with only Hellboy with proximity to the reader to leave space for the reader to understand what is brewing in Hellboy’s head when he saw not a single drop of blood spilt. There is a contrast between this outcome and previous outcomes of Hellboy’s doings because he mainly retorts to violence as a measure for victory. However, the witch is already aware of Hellboy’s past, as indicated by her words, ” I wonder how you will feel about it.” This gave me a hint that she knew this was his first non-violent confrontation and provided words of wisdom as he reflected, looking out towards the stones and the sea. A wise mother figure in the witch is revealed and contrasts the central theme of violence.

Recently, I studied the conventions of prose and how some short stories connect. I found the connection between George Saunders’ ‘Sticks’ and DEB OLIN UNFERTH’s ‘Likeable’ particularly interesting due to the theme of isolation and societal seclusion running through the stories, which currently is an issue in the society as well.

The two stories have a similar structure where each of them is divided into paragraphs. Interestingly, we noticed that the break in every section showed a change in the time. For example, in ‘Sticks,’ each paragraph shows growing alienation from the father until the final split where the kids physically relocate, and the father comes in terms with the situation and implicitly asks for forgiveness via signs. However, in ‘Likeable,’ each paragraph shows a flow of thought. The series of self- questioning and contemplation over time indicates the author’s take on why they didn’t like the girl. Sometimes the frequent contemplation also makes me wonder if the author is under peer pressure and is merely trying to console herself not to see the other side of the girl and look at her from a singular perspective?

Furthermore, we learned about the usage of ‘Bathos’ as an intentional anticlimax technique via these stories. Both stories begin with similar atmospheres of bitterness and end by connoting ‘death’ abruptly. Although the stories portray severe problems in the characters’ lives, the bathos adds anti-climatic humor to the text. In ‘Likeable,’ the idea of shoving the girl in a hole and leaving her, there adds a sense of dark humor to the author’s reference to the girl dying isolated from the world. I feel bathos hides the sadness of the text, and it is more evident in ‘Sticks,’ where the pole is a metaphor of the father who has said to have died, again, due to isolation and alienation from his family. The fact that the pole is removed and thrown away on ‘garbage’ day gives me a hint that the author is mocking the father to be trash and, therefore, implicitly adds humor to the text.