Final Exam 2 Blog 1

Image one is a public service announcement on the issue of enslaved workers that are forced to make jewelry.  From a first glance the image, I can see an African’s hand that has blood on it by the wrist indicating that it was cut off and it has a wedding ring on the ring finger.  There is a text in cursive writing above the hand and there is times new roman text under the hand.  The ring could represent marriage and the severed hand could show a problem with marriage or violence that occurs from marriage or with the jewelry.  There is clearly a message and it could be there is violence and oppression related to the making of the wedding ring.  The audience seems to be married couples and future married couples and one could see this in a jewelry store or magazine. 

            After taking a closer look at the colors in the image, one can began to learn more behind the image.  The colors that stand out are the red of the blood and the silver of the ring.  The blood could represent the blood shed with overseas jewelry-making or and exaggeration of the problems of marriage.  There is not a lack of color in the image, but the image does not take up too much room, so there may be a small lacking of color.  There are also some interesting features aside from the colors.  The hand still appears lively and not dead even though it is severed off.  Also, the texture and dark color of the skin suggest possible race or ethnicity involved.  The most important part here seems to be the text. 

            The upper text has a phrase that says, “For every hand taken in marriage, another hand is taken away.” The lower text discusses how Guerilla’s will cut off the hands of enslaved workers in case they think about stealing the jewelry that they are working on.  It also says, “Beauty isn’t worth death.”  It is also important to see that the upper text has more elegant, cursive font style as opposed to the times new roman text at the bottom.  Perhaps they wanted the fact to be bold and simple and easy to understand and they wanted the message to be seen easily.  The image is hard to interpret without text and the text is there to show the problem behind the hand.  The producers of the image seem to be some help organization for Africa and this shows that it is a problem that lies in Africa.  It is assumed that the audience plans on getting married and purchasing rings for marriage, therefore they can get there message out to these people.  The text is persuasive in being straight to the point at showing the brutal truth that the jewelry we buy has blood behind it.  The appeal of death and the suffering of others in order to get what we want make people feel guilty for buying rings that were made by these people.  Guilt is one of the most effective strategies and it is used here to get the message across as well.