WP1 - Prewriting Assignment 3

Cancer is one of the scariest words that can come out of a doctor's mouth. Cancer is vicious, destructive and deadly. And even though there are ways to fight the disease, it is extremely difficult. And for many, the battle is ultimately lost to death.

In 2006 over 500,000 American's lost their life to cancer, contributing to 23.1% of all human deaths in the United States. To put that number in comparison, that's more than the number of people who died from diabetes, influenza, alzheimers and all other unintentional accidents combined.

But death is simply the end result. Trying to fight and battle cancer is perhaps the most difficult part of all. For many, chemotherapy is the best option, because this treatment kills cells that multiply (including cancer).

Chemotherapy also has many adverse affects. The most visible sign is hair loss, which can make even a beautiful woman with long hair go bald in a matter of weeks, just like the girl in the photograph.

Chemotherapy doesn't stop with your physical appearance. It also affects the way that you feel. Most people who undergo chemotherapy feel nausea and vomit regularly. Chemotherapy is also very tiring, and can leave victims feeling exhausted constnatly. And even if it works and kills the cancer cells in your body, the results can come at a cost. Chemotherapy can also cause damage to your heart, liver and kidney which can also cause other health problems.

All of this information provides important context for the photograph I have chosen. Not only does the bald appearance of the girl give a clue into what she is dealing with. But it's important to understand why chemotherapy is hard, and what this girl has probably been through. Even with great treatment from wonderful doctors, there is a very real possibility that the girl could die. Or has died from chemotherapy.

I also look into the mother's eyes and wonder if there is a financial situation in this story. Deciding what kind of chemicals, duration and even where you undergo the treatment can have major implications on the cost of chemotherapy. In this picture it looks like the girl is in a hospital (the most expensive choice) which means the mother is probably paying a lot for her treatment.

All of this makes you think about the story behind this photograph. What kind of stress has this family been through? What bills do they have to face on a weekly basis? And for the poor little girl, what has this done to her? Does she enjoy life at all any more? Will she get better?

Cancer is a terrible disease, and this photograph to me brings a human face to the problem. Cancer kills people just like us. Our friends and relatives. The people closest to us. 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 men have a chance of developing cancer in their lifetime.

What are you doing about it?

Works Cited

"Cancer Statistics 2009"A Presentation from the American Cancer Society. 2009. American Cancer Society. ACS

"Cancer." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 01 October 2004, 9:35 CST. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 10 Aug. 2004. <Cancer> <Chemotherapy>

WP1 - Prewriting Assignment 2

This picture can be described in one word - closeness. This image is cropped to focus entirely on a mother and her daughter. There is nothing else in the background.

The photograph could have been taken in other ways. We could have seen the girl in her hospital bed. There could be IV's and medicine in the background. Or perhaps we could have seen these mother and daughter outside of the hospital environment, perhaps going for a walk or having dinner. But the photographer instead decided to go in a different direction.

The focus on the people as opposed to the background or the conditions they are living through is also important. It made me think of the fact that people often label cancer as a disease, and it's victim's as a number. It's important to remember that these are real people being torn apart by this terrible disease. My grandma died of brain cancer, and one of my good friend's is losing his mother to breast cancer. These are terrible things that are happening all over the world, and in this case our focus is brought to a little girl who has had to grow up so fast.

This photograph didn't use any color. And I think the person who took this did it for a reason. Color is often synonymous with happiness, feeling and good things happening in life. Perhaps the photographer intentionally made this photo black and white to demonstrate what might be missing from life when someone has cancer. It's a powerful method of ethos to show us that while life goes on when you fight a battle with cancer, it can take away the very things that make it so special. Hope and happiness, freedom and relaxation.

While the picture is black and white, the people in it are certainly not. This image was clearly not taken for a family album or for friends. I think it was taken to show the world. The girl is sending a powerful message of ethos. We know she is sick, and that she is struggling. But she has not given up. She is still fighting. And she can still smile in a dark world. Her presence lights up this frame, and in a way overpowers the lack of saturation in the photograph.

Overall I feel this picture used elements such as cropping, focus and desaturation to tell a vivid story in just one snapshot. The cropping shows two people, and the focus is on what this disease has done to the, and how they have responded to it. The lack of color I says that cancer takes something from you. But their pathos shows that love can overcome anything, and gives us a powerful feeling of ethos. We care about the people in the image, and we want this little girl to get better.