Trang



The picture shows a young Vietnamese running naked because she was burning from the napalm attack that U.S soldiers conducted in her village. When I first saw the picture, I felt a sense of fright, horror, and at the same time, I was deeply saddened. As soon as I look at the picture, my eyes always lead to the girl in the middle. She is all naked, and she is the only one who is naked in the picture. Because she is wearing no clothes at all, one can see that she is so skinny, so small, her ribcage can be seen. The expression on her face is unforgettable for me – she is screaming with fear, with pain, and there seems to be no hope at all. The kids are all screaming and even crying as they run away from the bomb attack. All the other children are around the naked girl, most of them had white shirts on, which helps create the background. The diagonal lines created by the road that they are running along, ending at the horizontal line where the sky and the earth meet, make the path seem to have no end. The sky in the back of the children is darkened by the smoke and dust. The shades, from darker at the bottom to lighter towards the top, create the feeling that the smoke, the dust, the darkness are running after the children. The picture is like a tremendous chase where the little ones are the victims. The picture is in black and white, which helps to evoke stronger emotions from the viewer. The black-and-white effect puts great emphasis on the horrific emotion, as the lives of the children in the picture, or the future of the country, seem hopeless with the shades of gray dust and ashes. The colorlessness of the picture contributes greatly to the emotions that one has whenever he/she looks at the photo. I, myself, feel a sense of guilt and helplessness as I can do nothing but look. The moment that the photographer captured the image was so precious, so right that anyone who views this picture will feel the horror, sympathy, and even guilt.

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