The Perfect Picture Analysis

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Privacy Breached by Media Do the media have the right to ''invaded the sacred precincts of private and domestic life'' (Warren/Brandeis)? James Alexander Thom is of origin from Gosport, Indiana, who is a freelance writer and an author to several historical novels. In his essay, ''The Perfect Picture'' he is retelling a personal experience about how media has made ‘‘human sufferings ... a spectator sport’’ (Reinkin/Osten, 485). He narrates a tragic scene where he as a young reporter witnesses a sorrowful event in which a grandfather accidentally runs over his baby granddaughter with his pick up truck. The narrator as the writer has the golden opportunity to snap a ‘’perfect picture’’ of the situation, but is confronted with a dilemma within…show more content…
Narrative essays are told from a specific point of view which is either in the first person or the third person. In the essay ‘The Perfect Picture’, Thom uses a first person narrative, which is evident by the use of the pronoun ‘I’. For instance, in Thom’s essay he elucidates the first person point of view in the opening paragraph by stating: ‘’I was a young police reporter, driving to a scene I didn’t want to see.(Reinkin/Osten,484)’’ Thom uses this point of view to depict an event from his personal experience, that gives him room to make judgments and have an opinion which greatly influences the reader. Writing in the first person allows Thom to add more personal details. If he had used general examples instead of a specific one, and wrote in the third person, it would have been one dimensional, cold and impersonal, lacking any…show more content…
It incites and structures the flow of events. In Thom’s essay, the narrator is conflicted with two thoughts. He is split between his professional side and his compassionate humane side. Thom, has a golden opportunity to take ‘‘the perfect picture’’ that would have gained him a prize winning photograph, but he decides not to because he chooses to make the right decision by giving the family their rightful space to heal and overcome the feeling of shock and despair without being put under the magnifying glass for every one to scrutinize. By doing this, Thom draws the reader closer and makes them empathize with his effort to do the right thing. I profoundly understand the reason Thom didn’t choose to take the picture, as I have self been a victim of media’s intrusion. I am born and brought up in Iran in a Bahá’í family. In Iran this religion is not accepted and is strongly condemned. The media does not exactly defend our rights as human beings but instead fuels the burning fire that exists in society. We are not given any rights in society or allowed to go to college. Every move we make is scrutinized and speculated. And even if we make an innocent mistake – it is a blunder and is unforgivable and must be punished. I have experienced people barging into our house and tearing the place apart just to find Bahá’í holy books in order to burn them and tear them, so that we may not be able to pursue our faith. All of this is a product
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