Lying on Facebook

Argument: My profile picture shows that I am a “Good Jew” and regularly practice Judaism.

Claim 1: The picture shows that I enjoy going to Jewish events and recently went to one, however I actually haven’t done anything Jewish in over a year.

Support:

From first glance at this photo and the caption, one would infer that all three of the people in the picture are Jewish and are attending an event, possibly a recent holiday such as Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. The caption, “pretending to be good Jews” implies that we don’t usually go to a lot of Jewish events, but we decided to go to this one because it was important. We are all smiling, have our arms around each other and appear to be having a great time.  However, the truth of the picture is that my parents wanted us to go to services but none of us wanted to go. Instead of just not going, we went to Hillel on Rosh Hashanah and had the lobby receptionist take a picture of us, hence the caption “pretending to be good Jews.”

Claim 2: The picture implies that my friend on the right is Jewish even though he is actually Catholic

Support:

My friend Zach on the right is the only person in the picture wearing a Kippah, which is usually the tell-tale sign of a Jewish person. Ironically, he is the only person in the picture who is not Jewish. He simply just happened to be with us when we went to go take the picture. Even though you can’t tell, I am actually wearing a Kippah in the picture too, however because of the color of the Kippah and the angle of the photo, the Kippah isn’t visible.

So you’re probably wondering, “Why go through all this trouble for a stupid picture?” My answer is simple: “Lying is the most fun [you] can have without taking [your] clothes off” (Casanova, Facebook full of facades and lies). I wanted to make my mother happy that I went to services, so we thought of this funny idea and decided to go for it. The lie ended up turning the picture into a great story.

Get Shorty's

Shorty Pics

Shorty

I chose to do this narrative the way I did to give the feeling of a long journey. As you read, there are pictures in the background that flow into each other to create a very linear feel to the story. Everything in the background directly relates to what is being said in the written text to help the reader visualize the whole adventure. I used actual pictures of the restaurant and food because they were available and most important to the story; however everything else was just images that could be related to the story. I used images such as the man traveling down the road to instill the feeling of hopelessness that I felt when we were lost. Then in contrast I used an image of a far off distant light to show the feeling of retribution we felt when we finally found our way. The pictures of the dog, the family, and the van are not the actual ones from my life, but they help the reader get a picture of the initial warm family setting that I was in before we get lost. I also used a comical picture of an angry man to show my frustration at the whole situation. Just saying I was angry doesn’t have the same emphasis that the picture adds.
The second narrative reads completely different than the first one. From only the images you can barely guess at the order of events that happened. You would probably only be able to infer that I went on a trip, got in a car crash, and wound up at Shorty’s. However, once you add the written text and arrange the pictures behind it, it paints a much more detailed account of the events.

Barthes’ Five Codes of Meaning in The Sixth Sense

*HER. “She said you came to the place where they buried her… asked her a question. She said the answer is: everyday. What did you ask?” The enigma posed by Cole is: what did his mother ask his grandmother at her burial place? This is formulated into a simple question directed at the mother. You know everything Cole previously says about the grandmother is true based on the mother’s reactions and emotions. She is crying deeply and holding her hands to her mouth in shock. You know an answer to the enigma is coming soon because the mother has been moved by what her son has said. However, she delays the answer because of her emotions and natural skepticism. She then gives a suspended answer in the form of her stammering because of how emotional and upset she is. She is struck so hard by what is said that she has trouble getting her voice to sound. Once she is able to speak she discloses the answer: “Do I make her proud?”

**SEM. When the mother is apologizing to Cole about missing his play she says, “I’d give anything to have been there.” This refers to later on in the scene when they discuss how Cole communicates with his late grandmother and how she actually was at the mother’s dance recital. Without knowing what is coming up ahead it is impossible to notice this subtlety. But after re-watching the scene you understand that there is a parallel relationship going on. By introducing this line earlier in the scene, the viewer can make a comparison to the relationship between the grandmother and mother, and the mother and son.

***SYM. The mother is wearing her seatbelt the entire time while Cole is not. This small notion signifies the mother’s insecurity about her own mother that is about to be addressed. All of the years since the grandmother’s death she had been unable to let go of the fight that happened between her and her mother before her dance recital. She doubts if her mother was ever proud of her and longs for an actual answer. Even though they are in dead lock traffic that doesn’t move an inch throughout the entire scene, she keeps her seatbelt on as a sign of her unresolved issues.

Orchestra Hero

 

When I try to visualize an orchestra, I usually end up thinking about something that looks along the lines of this image. As you can see, this is a very typical display of what an orchestra is composed of and how it is set up on the stage. Just by glancing at this image you can tell that it is composed of professional musicians based upon the looks of the players. They all have perfect posture and you can see that there is huge range in their age distribution. They’re also playing in a hall that is far nicer than most amateur orchestras play in. This picture appears to have been taken before the beginning of a concert because there is no maestro in front of the orchestra and the players are all sitting down. If they were standing I would probably assume they were standing for a round of applause at the end of the concert. Overall the image is very conventional. It makes good use of point of view by making you feel like you are in the audience at concert. If someone had never seen an orchestra before or didn’t know what one was, I would probably show them this image.

  

Now, here is the same image again, but this time I added in the guitar hero logo and made it an advertisement for the “next big video game,” “Orchestra Hero.” Just by adding in two words, I changed the entire meaning of the image. Before it was a beautiful photograph of a professional orchestra, now it’s a bad advertisement for an even worse video game. The image went from being pro music and art to being pro pop culture and technology. According to Faigley on page 53 in Picturing Texts, "The process of seeing a visual text is different from reading words. Words can be highlighted, boldfaced, capitalized, or italicized to draw a reader's attention to add emphasis where desired." For the added caption I decided to use the actual logo for the game "Guitar Hero." By doing so I added emphasis to show the viewer that I am parodying a popular video game. Had I simply written the words "Orchestra Hero" at the top, many people would probably not understand the reference.