Contrasting Photos: A Soldier's Home Coming

631 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Descriptive essay examples about a photo

War has always been inevitable throughout the history of the world. The outcomes can differ greatly; it’s usually either a win or a loss. Wins or losses are just definite statements, but photos can represent these statements. Alfred Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square” shows an American sailor kissing a young woman right in the middle of Times Square, despite their surroundings. This iconic photo was taken after the U.S. declared victory over Japan in World War II, and was published in Life magazine a week later. John Gap’s (III) photo shows a young girl being consoled at a soldier’s funeral in a local high school gymnasium, later to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. This humble photo was taken during the war still raging in Afghanistan, showing that these types of losses happen quite often, as there are no iconic photos for Afghanistan compared to the photo shot after the win over World War II. Unlike its counterpart, this photo was published only at a local level on a website. Both these photos show a soldier being dismissed to go home from war. Although the two photos share that common factor, the scenario in which the soldier comes home differs greatly. Through these photos, Albert Eisenstaedt and John Gaps III help evoke pathos and give the observer a sense of the pride and the devastation felt of a home coming from war using photographic elements such as framing, focus, and angles. Eisenstaedt’s photo reflects the elation that U.S. citizens felt after President Truman declared that World War II was over and they had won victory over Japan. The black and white coloration of the photo shows that this is an older, yet classic photo. Set in the heart of Times Square, this photo captivates the observer and captures a... ... middle of paper ... ...e has lost. Set in the gymnasium of IKM-Manning High School, this funeral accurately portrays the devastation felt when a loved one has perished in war and is returned in a casket. This photo focuses on the home coming of a soldier, but unlike “V-J Day in Times Square”, it’s shown in a negative way. The vivid colors of the U.S. flag’s stripes as well as the blue from the VFW flag are bold against the seemingly monochrome photo. Red, white, and blue are distinct in this photo, representing the Americanism and freedom that this soldier has brought. The balance of colors is split: bold colors of freedom on one side, and black of the garments of mourners on the other. Although there is freedom, there was a price to be paid; a life. People all over the country lose family and friends to the perils of war. Unfortunately for this soldier, he came home resting in peace.

Show More
Related

  • The Boston Photographs Analysis

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    Instead of telling readers what to think through words, readers can form their own point of view from a photo. A photograph that showed different interpretations was taken during WWII after the destruction of Iwo Jima in Japan of Americans soldiers raising an American flag in the ruins. Some viewers may perceive this act as patriotic, and others may have thought it was an act of terrorism and revenge. Either opinion could be argued and the photograph is the evidence. Since photographs can be unbiased, they can also hold truthful detail. For example, one photograph from the Vietnam war depicted a Vietnamese police officer shooting a Viet Cong in the streets. There are a lot of emotion in that photograph that words cannot describe all; which included the fear and hostility that was upheld during the time. Newspapers need to print more of these kinds of photographs to educate people the ugliness of war and death. Ephron pointed out, “throughout the Vietnam War, editors were reluctant to print atrocity pictures. . . That 's what that war was about.” War and its deaths are a part of history too, and history needs to be kept true and unbiased. As long as the photos are not altered nor used for propaganda, they can be

    Read More

  • Loss of Innocence in A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

    1483 Words  | 3 Pages

    A prominent theme in A Long Way Gone is about the loss of innocence from the involvement in the war. A Long Way Gone is the memoir of a young boy, Ishmael Beah, wanders in Sierra Leone who struggles for survival. Hoping to survive, he ended up raiding villages from the rebels and killing everyone. One theme in A long Way Gone is that war give innocent people the lust for revenge, destroys childhood and war became part of their daily life.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Soldiers Home And The Things They Carried

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Power of the intangible things, fear, guilt and love is demonstrated in The Things They Carried and Soldier’s Home. In The Things They Carried two of the themes are about fear and love, In Soldiers Home one of the themes they talk about is guilt. The writers of the two stories apply to the same idea. In Soldiers Home, Ernest Hemingway mentions guilt in the story. In The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien mentions fear and love in the story. Both of the authors had the same general idea to write about Soldiers coming out of war and how they survived but do there ideas connect?

    Read More

  • The Guilt They Carried in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried

    1414 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the aftermath of a comparatively minor misfortune, all parties concerned seem to be eager to direct the blame to someone or something else. It seems so easy to pin down one specific mistake that caused everything else to go wrong in an everyday situation. However, war is a vastly different story. War is ambiguous, an enormous and intangible event, and it cannot simply be blamed for the resulting deaths for which it is indirectly responsible. Tim O’Brien’s story, “In the Field,” illustrates whom the soldiers turn to with the massive burden of responsibility for a tragedy. The horrible circumstances of war transform all involved and tinge them with an absurd feeling of personal responsibility as they struggle to cope.

    Read More

  • Battleship Potemkin, From Here to Eternity, Saving Private Ryan

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though the films “Battleship Potemkin”, “From Here to Eternity” and “Saving Private Ryan” are all movies based on military life during war time the variation in time periods and culture made each film very different. These differences did not take away from the impact the films had on their audiences at the time or the messages they were each trying to covey. The Horrific images and hear wrenching scenarios helped to evoke strong emotions and patriotic feeling from audiences allowing film makers to pass along their truths. Thru these films we are magically transported to several dark periods in the world history and left to experience the pain, fear, isolation and ultimately the triumph of these soldiers’ lives.

    Read More

  • Soldiers Home

    1589 Words  | 4 Pages

    figures out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. And yet our

    Read More

  • Visual Rhetorical Analysis

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    This photograph, taken in 1967 in the heart of the Vietnam War Protests, depicts different ideologies about how problems can be solved. In the picture, which narrowly missed winning the Pulitzer Prize, a teen is seen poking carnations into the barrels of guns held by members of the US National Guard. This moment, captured by photographer Bernie Boston symbolizes the flower power movement. Flower power is a phrase that referred to the hippie notion of “make love not war”, and the idea that love and nonviolence, such as the growing of flowers, was a better way to heal the world than continued focus on capitalism and wars. The photograph can be analyzed through the elements of image as defined by ‘The Little Brown Handbook’ on page 86. There are a total of nine elements that contribute to the communicative quality of an image. The message that this particular image tries to convey is the strong sense of way that conflict should be handled; by way of guns or by way of flowers. The ‘way of guns’ is violence and excessive force which heavily contradicts the ‘way of flowers’ which is a more peaceful and diplomatic way of handling conflict or disagreement. This photograph depicts these ideologies through its use of emphasis, narration,point of view, arrangement, color, characterization, context and tension.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Torie Deghett's The War Photo No One Would Publish

    1495 Words  | 3 Pages

    Images can manipulate many scenarios but it’s tactic used to show the realities of our world. Despite what we see, picture taken of the war and events occurring in the war doesn’t mean they aren’t real. We all live in a messy world and history is constantly repeating itself. Pictures are taken to spread awareness and empathy. It is a reason DeGhett argued that the Iraq brunt solider photograph taken by Kenneth Jarecke should have been posted in order for the public to get a sense that the war occurring at the moment is nothing like in the movies. Images are powerful and we must learn to always look closely and

    Read More

  • Photographic Images: Perceptions of War's Pain

    752 Words  | 2 Pages

    It was not until the 19th century that a very powerful tool was examine in depth by different viewers, photographic images. In the depression years, war was not seen by others as what war really is, and or what war can do. Some perceived war as an act of heroic action, and were not really aware of the pain that war brought to others remotely. Photographs were and continue to be visual representations of current and history events. In Regarding the Pain of Others, written by Susan Sontang. She analysis many factors in how war is perceived in images/photos by different viewers. Susan Sontang also reacts to a key point word that Woolf ’refers to as “we” when it comes to relating to the pain of others and there experience of this subject.

    Read More

  • The Legendary American Kiss in Time Square

    868 Words  | 2 Pages

    the “Time Square Kiss”, photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Eisenstaedt was a photographer for Life magazine, who traveled to Times Square after hearing that Japan surrendered to the United States. Eisenstaedt wanted to capture the end of war celebration in Time Square for Life magazine. He took several spontaneous photographs that day but only one photograph was published in Life magazine. The photograph depicted an American Navy sailor and a nurse passionately kissing in New York's Times Square celebrating the end of World War II. The photograph of the American Navy sailor and the nurse signified a

    Read More

  • Fighting the Vietnam War and Communism

    610 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fighting the Vietnam War dramatically changed the lives of everyone even remotely involved, especially the brave individuals actually fighting amidst the terror. One of the first things concerned when reading these war stories was the detail given in each case. Quotes and other specific pieces of information are given in each occurrence yet these stories were collected in 1981, over ten years following the brutal war. This definitely shows the magnitude of the war’s impact on these servicemen. These men, along with every other individual involved, went through a dramatic experience that will forever haunt their lives. Their minds are filled with scenes of exploding buildings, rape, cold-blooded killing, and bodies that resemble Swiss cheese.

    Read More

  • War and Memory in Irene Zabytko?s ?Home Soil?, Bruce Weigl?s ?Song of Napalm?, and Wilfred Owen?s ?Dulce et Decorum Est?

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it.

    Read More

  • The Trauma of War Conveyed in Ninh's Short Story, A Marker on the Side of the Boat and the Film, Barbed Wire and Mandolins

    1810 Words  | 4 Pages

    War is cruel. The Vietnam War, which lasted for 21 years from 1954 to 1975, was a horrific and tragic event in human history. The Second World War was as frightening and tragic even though it lasted for only 6 years from 1939 to 1945 comparing with the longer-lasting war in Vietnam. During both wars, thousands of millions of soldiers and civilians had been killed. Especially during the Second World War, numerous innocent people were sent into concentration camps, or some places as internment camps for no specific reasons told. Some of these people came out sound after the war, but others were never heard of again. After both wars, people that were alive experienced not only the physical damages, but also the psychic trauma by seeing the deaths and injuries of family members, friends or even just strangers. In the short story “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh about the Vietnam War, and the documentary film Barbed Wire and Mandolins directed by Nicola Zavaglia with a background of the Second World War, they both explore and convey the trauma of war. However, the short story “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” is more effective in conveying the trauma of war than the film Barbed Wire and Mandolins because of its well-developed plot with well-illustrated details, and its ability to raise emotional responses from its readers.

    Read More

  • Reader-Response on Soldier's Home

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    The initial reaction I received from reading Soldier's Home, and my feelings about Soldier's Home now are not the same. Initially, I thought Harold Krebs is this soldier who fought for two years, returns home, and is disconnected from society because he is in a childlike state of mind, while everyone else has grown up. I felt that Krebs lost his immature years, late teens to early 20's, because he went from college to the military. I still see him as disconnected from society, because there isn't anyone or anything that can connect him to the simple life that his once before close friends and family are living. He has been through a traumatic experience for the past two years, and he does not have anyone genuinely interested in him enough to take the time to find out what's going on in his mind and heart. Krebs is in a battle after the battle.

    Read More

  • The First World War: A Brief History with Documents

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...though people believe that, those on the home front have it just as a bad as the soldiers, because they have to deal with the responsibilities of their husbands, there is nothing that can compare to what these men have gone through. The war itself consumed them of their ideology of a happy life, and while some might have entered the war with the hope that they would soon return home, most men came to grips with the fact that they might never make it out alive. The biggest tragedy that follows the war is not the number of deaths and the damages done, it is the broken mindset derives from being at war. These men are all prime examples of the hardships of being out at war and the consequences, ideologies, and lifestyles that develop from it.

    Read More

More about Contrasting Photos: A Soldier's Home Coming

Open Document