GOOD MORNING, JANE AUSTEN

Allow me to introduce you to….

THE HUMANS OF NEW YORK

FIRST, A QUICK WARM-UP What’s going on in this picture? Remember to identify people, objects and actions in order to justify your answers.

ACCORDING TO THE NEW YORK TIMES “This week’s image is from the April 25, 2013 ‘Pictures of the Day’ post on the Lens blog. All four living former presidents joined President Obama during the dedication ceremony at the George W. Bush Presidential Library in The original caption reads: Silvio Berlusconi, center, the former prime minister of Italy, during the dedication ceremony at the presidential library. This was not the first time Mr. Berlusconi was caught sleeping at official functions.” picture-may /#more

PLEASE COPY IN YOUR NOTEBOOKS September 16, 2015 Objective: Identify tone and mood in a multimedia format. Remember: Tone – attitude of the writer Mood – emotional effect on the reader *While each literary element corresponds to a unique perspective, both are based on author’s word choice (text), or composition (photograph).

AS WE ANALYZE THESE SELECTIONS: Identify at least 3 key words or phrases. The more, the better (without just quoting the whole statement.) Identify at least 3 elements of the photograph. These could be images that seem to represent or contradict the words or phrases you selected. (Again, the more examples you have to justify your interpretation, the better.) Use the words, phrases and parts of the image to describe the tone, or attitude, of the speaker. Describe your mood, or reaction, regarding the combination of all of the above.

“I’m the assistant manager at a nice restaurant. I’m happy with my job, but I work thirteen hours a day and I’m not able to save a lot of money. My wife is a beautiful woman, and sometimes I feel guilty that she chose me. I feel a lot of responsibility for some of the stress she’s under. She could have been with a much wealthier man. Instead she’s having to worry about whether we have enough money to have kids.”

EXAMPLE ANALYSIS 1 Key words: assistant manager, nice restaurant, happy, thirteen hours, guilty, responsibility for stress she’s feeling, worry about having kids Key aspects of photo: nice suit, take out bags, serious face, empty street Tone: The tone of this selection is stressed. He says that he works long hours, but doesn’t make a lot of money, so much so that he is not able to have kids. Worrying about making his wife happy is also stressful for him. However, there is an element of happiness to this quote. He likes his job, and he loves his beautiful wife. These two seemingly contradicting feelings blend together to show us the reality of this man’s life. Mood: My reaction to this quote and picture is sympathy for this man. It must be hard to be happy at work, but struggling at home. Additionally, he loves his wife so much, but that love comes with some guilt. For those reasons, I feel bad for him. I am also curious about how his wife feels in this situation? Does she love him unconditionally? Does she feel the regret that her husband refers to?

“I don’t have anything personally against homeless people. But I try to avoid getting into conversations with them. Because I may be walking later with one of my influential friends, and the homeless person may come up to me and start acting like we’re friends. And how’s that going to look? You’ve got to choose who you’re seen with. It’s a matter of optics.

EXAMPLE ANALYSIS 2 Key words: against homeless people, avoid conversations, influential friends, homeless acting like we’re friends, how is that going to look, choose who you’re seen with, optics Key images: no face, black hand, cigar Tone: This selection has a very negative and exclusive tone, although the speaker tries to pass his opinion off as neutral. He says he doesn’t have anything against homeless people personally. He uses the word optics to sound medical or scientific, to clean his words from the prejudice. However, he makes it clear that image is the most important, who you are seen with, how things will look to people around you. Moreover, his face doesn’t even appear in the photograph. Just his hand with a cigar, which is a symbol of high social status. Finally, it is ironic, because we can see that the speaker is African-American, so one could assume that he has faced some prejudice or discrimination in his life, and yet he is discriminating against homeless people, even though he tries to make it seem like he doesn’t have a problem with them.

EXAMPLE ANALYSIS 2, CONTINUED Mood: I feel disappointed and ashamed when I read this caption, for this man, but also about homelessness in general. The speaker appears to be a well positioned individual: he talks about influential friends and smokes fine cigars. He may even be influential himself. As such, it makes me wish that influential people would do more for the benefit of the less fortunate. Now, some people say that being homeless is a choice, and they blame the homeless person for creating their own negative situation. Maybe that is true sometimes, but I don’t always believe that is the case. How can you tell just by looking at someone? All of this makes me wish that people were more tolerant and understanding, and also that they could get the help that they deserve when in need.

YOUR HOMEWORK, DUE FRIDAY Go to and select one entry that interests you. Avoid any inappropriate content. Following the steps that we took in class today to write an analysis of your entry. Remember: cite specific examples, describe with lots of detail. Include anything you think is important to understanding the tone and mood of the photo and caption. You should post your entry on the class blog under the title “Humans of New York – Photo Analysis” by Friday morning at 7:00am. You will present your selection and analysis in class on Friday. Include the link to your selected human and your paragraph analyzing the content.