Essay 3: Comparing and Contrasting Two Image

Two Unique Versions

Goals:

This essay offers practice in looking (reading) closely and moving from describing

observations of specific details into stating larger ideas which can be expressed in a thesis

statement. You might think of this as expanding from “local” ideas (specific observations) to

one “global” idea (a more comprehensive claim and thesis). In addition, this essay offers

practice using the comparison and contrast method of organization, a method with many

useful applications.

Reading:

Please read Chapter 14 on “Responding to Visual Representations” as well as

Chapter 7 on “Comparing and Contrasting” in

The Bedford Guide for College Writers

Images:

You will be writing about what you think is the

significance

specific

similarities

and/

differences you observe

when studying two images together. For your paper topic,

please choose ONE SET of two images from the

three

sets linked

below

Set 1:

“Destitute Pea Pickers in California” by Dorothea Lange

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8b29516/

“

Marie Antoinette and her Children” by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun

http://www.wikiart.org/en/louise-elisabeth-vigee-le-brun/marie-antoinette-and-her-

children-1787

Set 2:

“

Approaching a City” by Edward Hopper

http://goo.gl/SyHuKZ

“South Broadway at Chelton Avenue”

by Camilo Vergara

http://goo.gl/37uw5a

(Note: If you are unable to access the NY Times site, you can also see Vergara’s image here:

http://tigrepelvar2.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/13gaspumps_4.jpg

)

Set 3:

“

Washington, D.C. Government Charwoman” by Gordon Parks

http://goo.gl/E2DeU4

“

American Gothic” by Grant Wood

http://goo.gl/GmNI5b

Assignment:

Working with one set of images,

compare and contrast

the two images in that

set, and

illustrate and explain your reasoning as to the main point(s) of comparison and/or

contrast you find important for the viewer to study

when looking at and thinking about both

images. Your

thesis

should make an overall claim which states

why

you think it is useful,

informative, interesting, significant, meaningful, etc to compare/contrast the images in the

particular way(s) you describe in your essay.

You will

support your thesis by describing specific examples of details you observe while

viewing the images yourself

so that your reader can look at the images and see your basis for

comparison/contrast and understand

why

these similarities and differences are important to

consider. Assume that your reader has seen the two images you are discussing but that

he/she does not have them available while reading your essay, so you will need to be very

clear and specific when you refer to the images.

Generating Ideas:

You need to come up with a

dominant idea

, which means that

it is not

enough to simply list details about each image: you have to make a larger point

. By “larger

point,” I bet you can guess that I mean that you need to have a

thesis statement

, which

means that you have to

make a specific claim

in your discussion of the two images,

showing how the details you observe in these images help to prove the larger point you are

making about what the viewer can learn from comparing and contrasting these images in the

way(s) you explain in your paper

To come up with your thesis, start by observing the images carefully and reflecting on your

observations, and

do some freewriting

about some of the questions from the “visual analysis

checklists” in the textbook

in Chapter 14

. Reread the observations described in your

freewriting. What are the main things you notice about these images? Do you see more

similarities or more differences? What effect do the images have on you as the viewer, and

why do you think they have this effect?

Hopefully, there is an idea or two you keep coming back to when thinking about the images. If

you had to sum up your overall experience in trying to observe, think about, and freewrite on

these images, what would you say? Do you think people will discover something new if they

compare and contrast these images that they might not see in one image alone? What can

people learn from looking at these images together?

Structure/Organization:

There are a couple of different options for structuring a

comparison/contrast paper, as explained in Chapter 7. Please also see the .pdf file from the

UNC Writing Center in the Essay 3 folder for some useful ideas.

Two common patterns of organization for comparison/contrast are the “opposing” pattern

(also called “block” or “subject-by-subject”) and the “alternating” pattern (also called “point-by-

point”). Our textbook gives detailed templates for both patterns.

With the opposing pattern, in the body of your essay, you discuss the images one at a time:

you first have a paragraph in which you discuss one image on a series of specific points of

comparison/contrast (not mentioning the second image in that paragraph), and then you