Literary Analysis: The Photograph

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Manisha Khadka John Remarek Language and Composition Literary analytical essay 28th Nov 2017 The Photograph Photographs can usually visualize the words or writings of the people, nature, and our surroundings and beyond. “The Photograph” is one of the short stories from Nigeria included in the book named the “Cries from the heart” which has been narrated by Jennifer Basset; however, the writer of this story is Sefi Atta. In this story, it shows how “sometimes we only see what we want to see” in the photos (1). This story shows the thirst of the photojournalists to take the photo and highlights the fact that photographs are the strong medium to describe the problems or emotions of a certain person or country than words but usually, it depends on people how they interpret and accept the meaning of them. As described in the story, photojournalists were more concerned about taking the photos of what was happening to the part of African people and then publishing them through social media. “You’ve caught the face of hunger in Africa” was said by news editor in the story seeing the photo of a skinny and weak girl and later which was published in the magazine as “Starving Africa” (2). This statement shows how one picture’s story was symbolized as the one and only story of that particular nation. Since those pictures were from Africa, people easily believed what they saw and how those were described.