A Book to Show you the Light
Shaun Tan is an author and illustrator, and has worked as a theatre artist, concept artist for Pixar and even directed his award winning picture book, ‘The Lost Thing’. In 2011, he was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world’s largest award for children and young adult literature. He uses many visual literacy techniques, such as composition, colour, contrast and salience, to create books that make a huge impact on many people. One of his many picture books, The Red Tree uses these visual techniques to entice readers and showing them the realities of many people around the world, making his work very valuable to teen’s today.
Shaun Tan uses many visual literacy terms to enhance his book and bring
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a deeper meaning to his illustrations. On one page the girl is being followed by a whale-like creature, which stops the sun from reaching her.
Although the whale is huge, no one notices. The creature symbolises depression, as it is covering her is a darkness that cannot be pierced by the sun, or happiness. Although she could be drowning in the darkness surrounding her, no one would notice, just as no one notices the whale. Shaun Tan also uses salience; as the first thing the reader would see is the whale. It is so big that it takes up most of the page, and accurately describes depression: it takes the happiness, and in this case, the sun, out of the girl’s life. On another page, the girl is trapped in a bottle on a beach of skulls, with a mask covering her face, and a storm in the foreground. Shaun Tan uses juxtaposition, as in the foreground, the girl is trapped, surrounded by skulls and all she can see are black skies, however, in the distance, the sea is calm and the sky is blue. This represents that she is stuck in a place filled with darkness, and although she can see happiness around the corner, she is never close enough to touch it. Water is slowly filling the bottle, showing she is drowning and has no one to reach out to. Shaun Tan uses salience, as the first thing the reader sees is the girl, and also uses high angle, …show more content…
suggesting the girl is weak. On one of the last pages, the girl walks into her room to find a huge red tree. This symbolises happiness, and acceptance, as for the first time in the book, the girl is smiling, and has an open, happy body language, in stead of always having her down. The use of the colour red in the otherwise dull room shows she has light back into her life. The tree is the first thing the reader sees, and it immediately lifts their spirits, as the reader sees light and colour, and therefore happiness, for the first time in the book. These visual literacy techniques have a lot of value for teenagers today, as they influence the reader without them even realising. The Red Tree, by Shaun Tan is very relevant to teenagers in today’s society.
Depression affects many teenagers, especially in todays society, where body image and the media are major influences on teenager’s everyday lives. One in four young Australians have experienced or are experiencing a mental disease, and one in sixteen young Australians are currently experiencing depression. Although concern about mental health is growing, many young teenagers do not know the symptoms of depression, and even if they did, they would not have the courage to speak up and do something about it. Books, even picture books such as Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree can help teenagers to speak out about the way they are feeling and get help. This books shows people struggling with depression that one day it will get better. One day light will break through their walls and illuminate their life once again. This message and the hope that it brings will help so many people, especially in the world we live
in. The Red Tree is a reminder of hope, that one day we will be able to live with love and happiness. For most of the book, Shaun Tan used dark colour to portray dark emotions, as well as complex metaphors to show his audience how the character truly felt. However, in the last pages of the book, although the world they girl lived in was still grey and lifeless, there was colour. The colour showed that happiness can shine through even in the darkest times, and even though we may lose hope, happiness may just be waiting around the corner. The visual techniques used in this picture book make The Red Tree into a relevant book to people of all ages. The deceiving title of picture book hides the deeper meaning laced into the illustrations: one that shows the reality of a person suffering from depression. These wonderfully complex pictures can teach and help teenagers suffering from depression in today’s society; a number that is far to high. With the help of books like The Red Tree, it is very likely that more teenagers will put a name to the symptoms, and will reach out for help.
The article “A Letter To My Younger Self” written by Terrance Thomas is made to motivate readers, especially teenagers that share similar concerns and emotions as the author’s younger self. By writing a letter to his younger self, Terrance created a motivational and melancholic tone. The style of writing is, therefore, informal with a poetic touch to it. The article is written to motivate readers which results in it to have a motivational and melancholic tone. “Those moments of fear, inadequacy, and vulnerability that you have been running from, are the moments that will shape you.”.
Depression affects teens everywhere, some teens are upset about home life, school life, or just personal issues in general. Jessica states, “Running aired out my soul. It made me feel alive. And now? I’m stuck in this bed, knowing I’ll never run again” (Van Draanen 6). Jessica is one of the most determined athletes on her track team, the one thing she wants to do most in the world is run, and she can’t do it anymore because of her leg. Jessica says, “So I am getting used to it, and I am gaining confidence but I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever race again. It almost doesn’t matter, though. I can run” (Van Draanen 279). The author makes it aware that Jessica is depressed, but eventually she becomes the happy girl who can run again. The author wants people to know that sometimes things are hard and you get upset, but everything will get better it just takes time. I know that depression is a very serious issue to deal with, and I think time really does fix all
Depression affects teens everywhere; some teens are upset about home life, school life, or just personal issues in general. Jessica states, “Running aired out my soul. It made me feel alive. And now? I’m stuck in this bed, knowing I’ll never run again” (Van Draanen 6). Jessica is one of the most determined athletes on her track team, the one thing she wants to do most in the world is run, and she can’t do it anymore because of her leg. Jessica says, “So I am getting used to it, and I am gaining confidence but I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever race again. It almost doesn’t matter, though. I can run” (Van Draanen 279). The author makes the reader aware that Jessica is depressed, but eventually she becomes the happy girl who can run again. The author wants people to know that sometimes life can be bitter and leave people feeling upset, but everything will get better it just takes time. I know that depression is a very serious issue to deal with, and I think time really does fix all
Imagery is used by the poet to express her poetic concern. The poem "The Tiger" is completely an extended metaphor. As the central metaphor, the tiger symbolizes the poet's creativity and potential. However, such an image is expressed in a restricted way as the tiger is "behind the black bars of the page" which represents the poet's poetic inspirations that is also trapped under the fixed attitudes of society.
The red tree by Shaun Tan is all about depression. Shaun Tan wrote this book so the readers and viewers know what it is like with depression. The last picture is the book is when the girl is in her room with the tree uses lots of techniques including body language for an example the smile on the girls face which means she might feel happy agian and her gazing up to the tree. It would make the auidence feel happy as the girl found something to make her happy as some days beign with nothing to look forward to.
I chose to read and comment on Barbara Kiefer’s “Envisioning Experience: The Potential of Picture Books.” Kiefer’s main point in writing this essay was to get the message across that children enjoy picture books that allow them to identify and make connections with the characters or the plots, and that while reading and analyzing the pictures, they gain a better sense of aesthetics and how to interpret them.
After a four week survey of a multitude of children’s book authors and illustrators, and learning to analyze their works and the methods used to make them effective literary pieces for children, it is certainly appropriate to apply these new skills to evaluate a single author’s works. Specifically, this paper focuses on the life and works of Ezra Jack Keats, a writer and illustrator of books for children who single handedly expanded the point of view of the genre to include the experiences of multicultural children with his Caldecott Award winning book “Snowy Day.” The creation of Peter as a character is ground breaking in and of itself, but after reading the text the reader is driven to wonder why “Peter” was created. Was he a vehicle for political commentary as some might suggest or was he simply another “childhood” that had; until that time, been ignored? If so, what inspired him to move in this direction?
He doesn’t understand why what he has seen or read in magazines isn’t true, but he comes to realize that it’s not what you see, literally it’s what you see when you can’t see. This also applies to the action in Ground Swell, you can see the wind blowing the waves and the waves crashing against the boat, but you cannot fully see the picture which can lead to confusion by the person viewing the painting, but you can see people in the picture and when you look at things from their point of view you can then see that their focus is on the buoy that is afloat. This buoy is also a symbol of unknowing. For the painting, the repetition that makes up the waves shows small movement in the art, which is a part of minimalism.
There are several symbols in the story that help to emphasize that point. One powerful one is the boat. It is small and alone on the ocean, with only the occasional patch of seaweed or a seagull or two to keep it company. The waves themselves are the ups and downs of life. At any moment, a ‘wave’ can come and swamp you, leaving you stranded without a clue what to do, and more just keep coming. Just as in life, “…after successfully surmounting one wave you discover that there is another behind it just as important and just as nervously anxious to do something effective in the way of swamping boats.” Line 9.
Teenage Depression. Everywhere you look these two words appear together as one, in newspapers and magazines, as well as in scholarly reports. Teenage depression is one of today's "hot topics" this among other teenage mental health problems, has been brought to the forefront of public consciousness in recent years after several incidents involving school shootings (CQ 595). The environment that teens grow up in today is less supportive and more demanding than it was twenty years ago. Not only are the numbers of depressed teens rising, but children are also being diagnosed at younger and younger ages. Studies have found that, "There is an estimated 1.5-3 million American children and adolescents who suffer from depression, a condition unrecognized in children until about 20 years ago" (CQR 595). This increase in depression is due to social factors that teenagers have to deal with everyday. A recent study found that, "About five percent of teenagers have major depression at any one time. Depression can be very impairing, not only for the affected teen, but also for his or her family-and too often, if not addressed, depression can lead to substance abuse or more tragic events" (NAMI.org). Gender roles and other societal factors including the pressures on girls to look and act a certain way, the pressures on boys to suppress their emotions and put on a tough front and the pressures on both sexes to do well in school and succeed, all contribute to depression in teens today. Depression is a growing problem which crosses gender lines and one that needs to be dealt with with more than just medication.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Voices in the Park were published at either end of the twentieth century, a period which witnessed the creation of the modern picturebook for children. They are both extremely prestigious examples of picturebooks of their type, the one very traditional, the other surrealist and postmodern. The definition of ‘picturebook’ used here is Bader’s: ‘an art form [which] hinges on the interdependence of pictures and words, on the simultaneous display of two facing pages, and on the drama of the turning of the page’ (Bader, quoted in Montgomery, 2009, p. 211). In contrast with a simple illustrated book, the picturebook can use all of the technology available to it to produce an indistinguishable whole, the meaning and value of which is dependent on the interplay between all or any of these aspects. Moebius’s claim that they can ‘portray the intangible and invisible[…], ideas that escape easy definition in pictures or words’ is particularly relevant to these two works. Potter’s book is, beneath its didactic Victorian narrative, remarkably subtle and subversive in its attitudes towards childhood, and its message to its child readers. Browne’s Voices in the Park, on the other hand, dispenses with any textual narrative; by his use of the devices of postmodernism, visual intertextuality and metaphor, he creates a work of infinite interpretation, in which the active involvement of the reader is key.
From the beginning, the four characters in the aftermath of a shipwreck do not know "the colour of the sky" but all of them know "the colours of the sea." This opening strongly suggests the symbolic situations in which human beings are located in the universe. The sky personifies the mysterious, inconceivable cause of reality , which humans cannot understand, and the sea symbolizes the earthy, mundane phenomenon, which humans are supposed to perceive. The symbolic picture generated by the above conflict implies the overall relationship between the individual and nature. In fact, the daily life of human beings is at the mercy of the uncontrollable waves of the sea; while, at the same time, the essential part of reality remains unknown to feeble, helpless humans.
To elaborate, it is meant to represent Gary’s self-esteem, the utterly strange sensibilities, his weirdness and Aboriginal tradition/knowledge and so forth. Evidence of this is when Blackley finds this whale and it connects the pieces in their head about how it’s got more of a personal value, instead of a whale. It shows Blacky coming to terms with himself, and this is definitely a part of growing up. When the message gets older, they start to learn about yourself and the whale helped this message. In support of this is when Blacky says, “When you think of somebody all the time it means one of two things - either you hate their guts or you like them a lot.” This quote clearly represents his self-esteem and his sensibility to be a little cynical towards others. The effect on the reader is that Blackey is growing up and that he’s not only trying learn about himself, but the world around him. This is important, as it shows real character development throughout the
A children book is an extremely substantial and significant form of literature. It educates, affects and amuses at the same time. Although its main audience are the small children, the majority of adults in fact enjoy this type of literature as much as children do. This can be explained by the capacity of children literature to deal with great themes and topics that are too large for adult fiction. (Philip Pullman) For its great importance, the style and technique by which it is produced, is a major concern for both of the authors and critics. One technique has a particular impact in the children book, that is to say, illustration. Bearing the visual nature of children in mind, we understand that their books should be delivered with
A young, teenage girl sits with her friends, talking, laughing, and making jokes. She seems completely normal and happy, even. What people don’t know is that this is nothing but a mask covering the loneliness that seems to run through her veins, and the unexplainable sadness that never goes away. She fears speaking of it, of admitting the uncontrollable hatred she feels for everything about herself, so much that she contemplates ending it all. The fact is, suicide is the third leading cause for death in people under the age of twenty-five. Our country needs to stop seeing this as a casual thing. Depression, anxiety, and suicide in youth are real and serious issues that we need to be more aware of in today’s society.