Visual Essay
Draft 1
Venison: Reflection
I composed this piece with the goal of unraveling emotional confusion as a way of shirking accountability. The scene in Disney’s 1942 movie Bambi, is considered iconic in its ability to expose children to parental loss. This scene was impressed on me as child viewing it. It explores the heavy surrealism and helplessness and lack of belonging that lingers after death leaves with a loved one. It starts with Bambi and mother indulging in early spring grass. Though Bambi gets carried away, his mother remains attentive and is soon aware of man’s invisible but audible presence. The music in the background evokes panic and is titled, “Man is Coming”. Suddenly the two are running to the sound of a gunshot and Mother cries out, “Faster! Faster Bambi! Don’t Look Back! Keep running! Keep running!” and sentiments of dread can be traced in her tone. A second gunshot goes off and Bambi is seen running alone. It is noteworthy that man is not seen; even his guns aren’t seen, only heard. Though man here is the human being, while Bambi and his mother are animals, this intentional distance gives the viewer leeway to identify with the animals, the victims as opposed to with the murderer, the hunter. The scene wraps up with Bambi reaching a safe distance only to look back and realize his mother is not coming home. The goal of my essay is to render the human liable playing off of the way in which Disney humanized Bambi and his mother. We are the catalysts of tragedy with selfish motives.
I broke the scene into screenshots that capture the action and emotion of the scene. Unexpected food, resulting in joy and unity. Mother’s alertness; man’s invisible entrance. Mother’s instructions. Without Mother. The lest image, Taking the span of two images, is a photo from online showing a deer shot in the snow which is what the viewer presumes happened to Bambi’s mother. This photo is reality. To the right of the dead doe, almost invisible, are the cut lines for a butcher to follow when slaughtering and dividing a deer. This image is meant to show the selfish motives behind the murder. Each image is accompanied by a quick caption emphasizing the key emotion of that moment. The text is blood red, the same crimson that is seeping out of the bullet hole where the deer was shot. The text of the final photo is leaking like blood out of the wound and reads, “We found your mother.” The intended goal is to say, this is what happened and it wasn’t an accident. Found is sort of ironic in the sense that it gives the impression of accident. This is not how the hunter feels; he feels victorious as though he conquered it not as though merely he happened upon it.
Composing a visual essay was a lot more difficult than I had expected. From the start I knew I wanted to exploit Disney/cartoons usage of humanizing animals to make my argument. Quickly, I decided that the scene of Bambi’s mother’s death was the scene I wanted to focus on. How exactly to do this was the difficult part. I tried a few things till I realized a simple composition made the message easier to read. Once I decided on the comic like strip layout, everything else fell into place. Next, I realized captions help guide the view leading me to generate the last caption first, “we found your mother.” The others the movie essentially provided me with.
The genre of this piece is a digital image meant for viewing on the web. It can either be used as a standalone piece to be shared via twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. by animal rights
activists or employed as an opener or closer for a greater argument for vegetarianism/veganism/animal rights/anti-hunting. The image is emotional because it relates to a scene that caused many children to experience new emotions of loss and reveal the unexplored side of that scenario. Because it is primarily an emotional argument promoting any I think it must open or close. In a string of cold, factual vegan diagrams such as the following BuzzFeed article, https://www.buzzfeed.com/whitneyjefferson/charts-to-help-start-a-vegan-diet-tips there is no impactful emotional appeal. I could see it fitting in perfectly at the end of this article as a message to the reader, “the reason for abstaining from meat should transcend just health benefits.” The reason I became vegetarian actually was because rationally vegetarianism made sense but emotionally I did not connect, I had been eating meat my whole life. I wanted to compensate for the emotional numbness by taking on vegetarianism. Similarly, the image wants to close that gap- to help the viewer internalize the ethical problem of eating meat. Animals like humans are sentient, and suffer loss and we are apathetic. I want to end this apathy.
Draft 2
Venison: Reflection
The scene in Disney’s 1942 movie Bambi, is considered iconic in its ability to expose children to parental loss. This scene was impressed on me as child viewing it. It explores the heavy surrealism and helplessness and lack of belonging that lingers after death leaves with a loved one. A subtler issue brought up in the scene is that of man’s disruption of animal life. It starts with Bambi and mother indulging in early spring grass. Though Bambi gets carried away, his mother remains attentive and is soon aware of man’s invisible but audible presence. The music in the background evokes panic and is titled, “Man is Coming”. Suddenly the two are running to the sound of a gunshot and Mother cries out, “Faster! Faster Bambi! Don’t Look Back! Keep running! Keep running!” and sentiments of dread can be traced in her tone. A second gunshot goes off and Bambi is seen running alone. It is noteworthy that man is not seen; even his guns aren’t seen, only heard. Though man here is the human being, while Bambi and his mother are animals, this intentional distance gives the viewer leeway to identify with the animals, the victims as opposed to with the murderer, the hunter. The scene wraps up with Bambi reaching a safe distance only to look back and realize his mother is not coming home. The goal of my essay is to render the human liable for tis scene and its greater metaphor by playing off of the way in which Disney humanized Bambi and his mother. We are the catalysts of tragedy with selfish motives.
I broke the scene into screenshots that capture the action and emotion of the scene. Unexpected food, resulting in joy and unity. Mother’s alertness; man’s invisible entrance. Mother’s instructions. Without Mother. The last image, Taking the span of two images, is a photo from online showing a deer shot in the snow which is what the viewer presumes happened to Bambi’s mother. This photo is reality. On top of the dead doe, in black dashed lines are the butcher’s markings, which direct him when slaughtering and dividing a deer. This image is meant to show the selfish motives behind the murder. Each image is accompanied by a quick caption emphasizing the key emotion of that moment. The text is blood red, the same crimson that is seeping out of the bullet hole where the deer was shot. The text of the final photo is leaking like blood out of the wound and reads, “We found your mother.” The intended goal is to say, this is what happened and it wasn’t an accident. Found is sort of ironic in the sense that it gives the impression of accident. This is not how the hunter feels; he feels victorious as though he conquered it not as though merely he happened upon it. It tugs at the cognitive dissonance of the scene in the movie.
Composing a visual essay was a lot more difficult than I had expected. From the start I knew I wanted to exploit Disney/cartoons usage of humanizing animals to make my argument. Quickly, I decided that the scene of Bambi’s mother’s death was the scene I wanted to focus on. How exactly to do this was the difficult part. I tried a few things till I realized a simple composition made the message easier to read. Once I decided on the comic like strip layout, everything else fell into place. Next, I realized captions help guide the view leading me to generate the last caption first, “we found your mother.” The others the movie essentially provided me with.
The genre of this piece is a digital image/meme meant for viewing on the web. It can either be used as a standalone piece to be shared via twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. by animal rights activists or employed as an opener or closer for a greater argument for vegetarianism/veganism/animal rights/anti-hunting. The image is emotional because it relates to a scene that caused many children to experience new emotions of loss and reveal the unexplored side of that scenario. Because it is making the emotional appeal with the intention of permanently impressing on the viewer, as opposed to a colder, more logical argument it seems better as an opening piece or a closing piece in an article. In a string of cold, factual vegan diagrams such as the following BuzzFeed article, https://www.buzzfeed.com/whitneyjefferson/charts-to-help-start-a-vegan-diet-tips there is no impactful emotional appeal. I could see it fitting in perfectly at the end of this article as a message to the reader, “the reason for abstaining from meat should transcend just health benefits and environmental impact.” The reason I became vegetarian actually was because rationally vegetarianism made sense but emotionally I did not connect, I had been eating meat my whole life. I wanted to compensate for the emotional numbness by taking on vegetarianism. Similarly, the image wants to close that gap- to help the viewer internalize the ethical problem of eating meat. Animals like humans are sentient, and suffer loss yet we are apathetic. I want to end this apathy.
