Saturday, March 31, 2007

Reflection





This photo brought a lot of ideas to my mind. At my initial glance, it made me think about the rising fears we are having about our children. It seems as though children aren't safe anywhere any more. Every time we turn on the news we hear about kidnappings, drive by shootings, molestations, and more. I mean, some of my friends are scared to let their kids play in the yard of their own house. We have all of these fears that the "boogie man" is going to come and hurt our children.
When I looked at the picture in further detail, a started to think about all the different pressures children are exposed to today. Besides normal pressures to do good in school, and to be a good person; now children have pressures in their own neighborhoods to join a gang, or drink and do drugs. It made me realize that there are a lot more negative pressures on children these days, even compared to when I was younger, which wasn't that long ago.
This realization started me on a deeper reflection of the photograph. With the dark figure seeming like the child's shadow, does this represent the child's future? With all of the negative pressures on children, it is likely that some may turn out to be the menacing figure in the photo. In thinking back on my initial reaction, does the fear that children get about their environment force them to join a gang to feel safer, or make them want to numb themselves with drugs and alcohol so they don't have to think about the fears.

2 comments:

Jonathan Tran said...

Yeah i just looked at that photo and it's pretty nuts. I mean today, I don't think kids are exposed to more things as they use to. I think it's about the same, and really more dependent on the location.

But kids growing up is a part of their lives you know. So if they have some harsh experiences it's just part of growing up. I'm going to be supportive and backing up my kids whatever they do. Growing up is so cool + important.

Nga Le said...

That was a crazy picture. I like black and white pictures a lot. The first thing that came to my mind was how frighten that poor little kid look running as fast as he can from satin. Its almost as though death was following him because his life was about to come to an end. The wall in the background also adds effect to the photo. Good Reflection!