Rough Draft 2

Violence has permanently stained the history of Rwanda from before the establishment of its independence to the modern day, the three primary tribes that inhabit the country constantly fight over land and power over the country. The Tutsi and Hutu, the two prominent tribes in Rwanda that together cause the most damage, have fought over governmental positions since the time that Germany and Belgium ruled with the “domestic” feuds escalating into one of the largest wars and genocides of the twentieth century. The beginning of the genocide instigated when the Hutu took over the government and exiled or murdered the opposing Tutsi tribe to Uganda. For a few years the Tutsi planned their return to Rwanda through the use of violence against absolutely every person they saw get in the way of their dash toward the government. The fight between the Tutsi and Hutu was at its peak in 1994 when the fighting became indiscriminate between ethnicity, age, or tribe; everyone that got in the way was murdered. Eventually the fighting slowed down when the Tutsi regained control over the government and banished all rebel Hutu to Uganda. The fighting never completely ceased because the banished Hutu continually attacked random villages in rebellion against the Rwandan government. In 1996(the year the photo was taken), the government decided to solve this problem by invading Uganda and killing the remaining Hutu resistance in an attempt to establish equality and safety in Rwanda.

Even though the Rwandan government works toward peace and stable economy, the outlook is bleak since several of the children have been left in the worst circumstances, for example poverty and mental illness. Twenty percent of Rwanda's children were left parentless, forced to care for themselves, and dealing with anxiety disorders from horrific scenes they witnessed daily. For the longest time the children forced to live on the streets have been overlooked by the government, so the kids were reduced to stealing and other questionable means of surviving, leaving them at the bottom of the social hierarchy. A few years after the genocide, several humanitarian organizations focused their energy primarily on the orphans of Rwanda in an attempt to educate and rehabilitate them in order to reincorporate them back into society, in hopes of eventually fixing Rwanda's failing economy. The future still looks bleak for the people of Rwanda as it continues to focus on the present situation rather than the future, so a majority of the children are forced to drop out of school and work in the fields in an attempt to bring in money for themselves or their family.
Striding Girl illustrates a scene two years after the Rwandan genocide, during the time when the government invades Uganda and the rebels randomly attack people and entire villages. Every aspect of the photo reveals the austere nature of the Ugandan people; from the dark, muted hues to the vectors of attention working to unravel a piece of Rwandan life through the photo. Rhetorical appeals are woven together to reveal an underlying allegory about the state in which Rwanda finds itself and a circle of events that continually reappear throughout its history. The allegory alludes to the crossroads that Rwanda finds itself at in this part of history, governmental decisions that can lead the country to economic prosperity or continual failure based upon the next generation of children. Simply the image of the young girl walking up the road toward an unknown destination strikes the attention of the audience as the vectors of attention circulate around the setting of the photo, illustrating the story of the girl and Rwanda in the moment. Striding Girl illuminates the austere mood in Rwanda only a few years after the genocide. The photo attempts to invoke pathos through logos using rhetorical appeals of vectors of attention, coloration, and lighting to describe the unfortunate situation that Rwanda finds itself two years after the infamous genocide ends.

Color plays a prominent role within the photograph as it sets the initial mood with muted and darker hues such as grays, blacks, and browns. The only vivid hues are the dyes on the girls clothes, but the saturation of the picture is also very low further darkening the colors. The obscure nature of the color in the picture invokes adjacent emotions, such as depression and repression, that set the general mood in the photo. The cloudy nature of the photo, due to the decreased saturation of color, dissipates inconspicuous details within the photo forcing all the initial attention upon the foreground and the striding girl. The color enhances the first point of attention, being the figure in the foreground, through the brighter hues and excessive use of lighting to call attention to her and her actions. The clothes that the girl wears, having the multiple vibrant hues, attracts the attention toward her first and begins the story that the photo begins to illustrate. The attention on the girl does not focus on what she is doing rather than where she is going, since the lighting highlights her movement and helps conceal the package she carries. Harsh lighting intensifies the brightness so that the package turns white so the top of the package dissolves into the background of the picture. The figure of the girl is aligned with the sides of the photo, showing the audience her importance in respect to the picture, attracting attention to her figure.

The lighting of the photo conducts and influences the vectors of attention, where the eye is directed, through its harsh usage to highlight key components. Looking away from the camera up the broken road, the first vector of attention follows the girl's gaze up the road further enforcing the theme of an unknown future or journey. The attention shifts from the girl and her brightly colored clothes to the road that has been well lit by the sun, making it brighter than the surrounding neutral tones. The road is not parallel to the borders of the photo evoking curiosity from the audience as to where the the girl strides. Peculiarly, the lighting highlights only the predicted path that the girl is to take, while the rest of it lies in shadow making the rubble that lies beside it stand out even more.

Again the lighting of the photo plays a dominant role because it subtly steers the eye away from the road toward the darkened forest in the background. Rwanda is primarily an agrarian country, therefore fields such as the one illustrated in the photo are important to society but it appears that there are no people around to farm the land. Low saturation accounts for the almost invisible white buildings hidden amongst the foliage since the hue is almost as dark as the surrounding dark green of the trees and bushes. The buildings provide a plausible answer to where the girl may be going, a village that is hidden within the trees. The fact that a village is hidden from the view of a casual person illustrates the continuing hostility toward random people in Rwanda and the need for some kind of defense. The photo uses the saturation and lighting to reveal and conceal the buildings in the background shows that the violence and fear has not left the country of Rwanda even a few years after the government supposedly established equality and banished the killers.

The photo cleverly uses logos in the construction of the vectors of attention to strategically lead the eye of the audience to illustrate the theme of crossroads or an unknown journey. The direction the girl stares leads the audience to look forward, up the road upon which she travels. The vector includes her face, which has a very solemn expression, an emotion which would be the complete opposite of what would be considered good behavior in Rwanda. People from Rwanda usually greet complete strangers warmly as if they have known the other person for years. So the girl's seeming emotionless gaze sets the mood for the remainder of the photo. Imperfections such as the black stains contrasted against the brightly lit road stand out as if they were obstacles in the road, but there is not sign from the figure that this is irregular as she has a serious expression and unwavering stance. Rubble and supposed oil stains on the road help illustrate the poor conditions daily encountered by the inhabitants of Rwanda, enforcing the sinister and bleak state in which Rwanda stood at the time. With the highlighting and direct reference with a vector of attention, the girl's unwavering gaze ahead, the road plays a primary part in illustrating the photo by directing the audience away from who the girl is to where she is going. The question is where is the girl going.

The next vector of attention provides an answer to the question the the photo proposes by moving the audience's attention from the foreground to the subtle background and everything that it ultimately serves to conceal. The white buildings nestled within the forest are well concealed and are barely visible, but once they are seen they evoke curiosity. Why would people hide their village in trees? (Sorry to whoever is reading this but I'm tired so I'm going to bed)

The photo works to appeal to the negative emotions of people, such as pity, to make the audience care about the children in Rwanda. The emotion is linked not only to the girl seen within the picture by displaying the poor conditions she walks through, but the child photographer who takes the photo and also have to endure the same conditions as the girl. Precautionary elements in the photo, such as the hidden village in the background, hint at the continuing violence and fear people have of being killed. Even though the government attempts to alleviate the situation and cover up a majority of the atrocities, forgotten children dying daily, the photo though not explicit, hints at the impact that the genocide has had on the country. Rwanda at this point in time needs help recuperating.