Analysis Of Flavio's Home By Gordon Parks

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“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” (Albert Einstein). “Flavio’s Home,” written by Gordon Parks, can be considered one of Parks’ most memorable photography works. Parks’, enduring much hardship of his own as a teenager, turned his struggles around and used it as inspiration for others. His article tells of a twelve-year old boy and his family, stricken by poverty. Through an acutely informative and subtly persuasive article, Parks adequately uses pathos, diction, syntax, and imagery to tell his readers about why and how poverty “is the most savage of all human afflictions.” Speaking to his Life Magazine readers, Parks’ purpose for writing this article is to first …show more content…

As mentioned earlier, sentence structure works directly with diction, and while the words are extremely significant, syntax plays a big role as well. The long, drawn out sentences serve a great purpose. In the case of “Flavio’s Home,” this extensive syntax portrays the long, drawn out lives that these people live. The readers can actually feel time passing slowly as they read the frightening details about the favelas. On the other end of the spectrum, he utilizes short phrases as well, known as segregating sentences. These serve to emphasize critical pieces of information that Parks wants to jump out at the …show more content…

However, even through all the words formed into the sentences that painted the favelas in a tragically beautiful picture, he never states that someone needs to help. He needed to provoke a sense of disappointment that this is what other parts of the world are like, and he accomplished that through an emotional connection. He wanted to provoke that call-to-action feeling capable in everyone, and his readers found that claim. At the end of the article it states, “Parks’s photo-essay on Flavio generated an unprecedented response from Life readers. Indeed, they sent so much money to the da Silvas that the family was able to leave the favela for better living conditions. …” Parks’s readers felt the hope and despair that Parks administered through his writing just as they saw the image of hope in Flavio’s

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