Mariam Waggeh
FIQWS Composition
Rhetorical Situation

    On the first day of FIQWS with Ms.K my classmates and I were handed two images and were asked what feelings were evoked in us based on what we saw. The first image Norman Rockwell’s “The Problem We Live With” evoked a feeling of sadness that a young girl was stopped from going to school based on the color of her skin and was antagonized every morning by adults. The second image was a political cartoon of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos  by Glenn McCoy, which evoked a feeling of injustice as the business women is opening a pathway to making money off of children’s free education system.
    
     The purpose of Rockwell’s illustration was to inform its viewers of segregated America. Rockwell uses the story of Ruby Bridges and how she was the first African American to attend an all white school. My view on this painting is that it explicitly displays what segregated America was and how it affected the school system. The purpose of McCoy’s illustration was to inform viewers on DeVos’ proposition to economize public schools or in other words make a business of them.

    The genre of these images are nonfictional political cartoons. Which is deemed appropriate because how else would you speak on a political issue other than on a political cartoon.

    I believe that Rockwell’s image relates to me more because like Ruby Bridges I am the odd one out or the one who is physically different from my peers. Although I do not face discrimination for the most part I do feel a sense of separation.

    My views on the Ruby Bridges painting was that it explicitly displayed the core values of many Americans during its time. Simply the fact that the races were to be separated and not intermix. My view on the DeVos painting is that education and economy shouldn’t directly categorize under one another. I believe  that education is free and it should always remain that way.

    As my classmates discussed their views on these images I was opened to a perspective that I hadn’t really thought of before. These images represent racial classism the photo containing Ruby bridges depicts a young black girl who is in need of security to enter a school which she was already given the right to. Meanwhile an upper class business woman has security to enter into a building for reasons not deemed appropriate. Which shows that society chooses to accept whatever they deem to be appropriate to them at the time.

    These images in my opinion signify societies true colors. That the greater mass believes they can pick and choose what suited them during their time. So if America doesn’t want to allow interracial school systems then the won’t  while the DeVos image represents the economizing of schools in which the general mass doesn’t agree but eventually will. Which comes back to my opinion that political cartoons are biased. They only tell one side if the story. If one wanted the real untold truth then they must do their own research.