This is the same message that is given off in the previous image, and also a lack of clothing like the previous image, which not so much tells us of his careless personality like the fact that he is under water but just because he is in the bath and clothes are not normally worn in the bath. The thing in this image that most shows of his reckless and oblivious personality is just the pure fact that he is laying under dirty water risking his own life as he could drown to death just to escape a few seconds of his old life before he runs out of breath and has to return back to the normal world. This is very similar to the way that the previous image showed the main character gazing out of the window hopelessly like they also wanted to escape from their day-to-day life as he is trying to by hiding himself under water.
There is not a huge usage of additional props in this image. The most noticeable use of props would be the small pieces of bathroom equipment in the corners of the bath. These are bath liquids, soap, a razor, and a toothbrush on the windows sill. This indicated that, regardless of he fact that he is under the water in the bath and the whole room is a mess, this bathroom has all the equipment of a normal bathroom. This shows that if you take away the mess this would be a very normal and ordinary bathroom, just like the room in the previous image was an adult’s room and very ordinary and stereotypical to what and older persons room (compared to a younger persons) would look like. This shows a slight contrast as the props within the bathroom are relatively ordinary and what you’d find in a normal bathroom where as what this character is doing in this bathroom is far from normal behaviour.
There is not much to talk about in terms of the setting on the image. One thing that is interesting about the setting on the image is the fact that it is in a bathroom and bathrooms are places in which you have total privacy. If you look at how close the sink is positioned to the bath then this indicates to you that the bathroom is very small and cramped. The fact that he is in a small and cramped bathroom could be symbolic as, just like bathrooms are a away of gaining privacy and being away from the rest of the world, he is doing exactly that by holding himself under the water.
By holding himself under the water it is the same principles as being in a bathroom as he is trying to be by himself and get away from his normal world. Another thing that may have some symbolic meaning could be the fact that he is choosing to hide away from the world under water out of any other place that he may also be able to do that. If you think about water, water can represent the calmness and tranquility of a still ocean. This is a huge contrast to the miserable and depressing reason why he is using the water as the water he is in is green and dirty, almost like because he is in this water, the un-natural and carelessness of why he is in this water has turned it from a calm blue to discoloured and filthy.
If you look at the interior design on the image, there are lots of things that are similar to the image I had analyzed before, in which the design of the room is extremely messy and dirty. In this image the tiles on the walls are broken, with mould and dirt all over the walls and on the bath and sink. Similar to the other image, this is also symbolic of the characters life and personality. The breaking of the tiles symbolizes the almost brokenness of his life as he feels he has to escape from his old life only if for seconds because he doesn’t like what’s going on.
The use of interior design is used in a similar symbolic way as the previous image as it is used to represent the characters life and personality and give out the message that they certainly are not happy with whatever situation they are in. An also obvious contrast takes place within this image in which the whole interior design and setting on this image is essentially old where as the character within the image certainly is not even though the interior design symbolizes him as a character. This is reflected in how the image is advertised with the boxed holding the information about the show emphasizing this use of symbolism as it is made to look like a worn out wallpaper as it does with the other image.
If you notice the main usage of colour in this picture, there is hardly any use of bold or significant colours within the image. This had been done on purpose in order to get emphasize the miserable and depressing message given off. As you can see, the image mainly consists of the colour green but severely off-coloured to keep with the tone of the image. Most of the main things that you can see in the bathroom are a discoloured green such as the bath, sink, mould on the walls and also the water. The colour green is associated with nature and life, and just like I said with the previous image, there is a contrast between this and the character as it shows how green means life and nature but what the character is doing in this image is far from natural but normal to him.
Lighting is used shrewdly in this image in the same fashion as it was in the previous image. If you also look at the corner of the image, it shows the edge of a windowsill, which indicates that there is a window in the bathroom. This has specifically been shown as the image is made to look as if the light from the room is coming from this window. This can be told by the way the shadow in going diagonally down in the right-hand corner. This is very similar to the previous image in which the light from the window was shining on the character to emphasize her as the main part of the image. As the image is very bright, it can be inferred that it is around morning as it was in the previous image. However, what is different about this image is that in this image he is trying to hide away from the bad things in his life where as the main character in the previous image was staring out the window and almost longing for something better.
To conclude, I believe that this image is the same as the previous image in terms of the way that teenagers are represented. I believe that this image represents teenagers to be miserable and un-happy with their life. I believe that unlike the previous image this image is not as realistic. This is because I believe he is laying under the water for the use of symbolism when in real life we do not do things in order to make them symbolise something which makes this image much less plausible than the image I had analyzed before. When I look at this image, I consider it to be a negative representation of what teenagers these days are like. This is because it gives the impression to the audience that most teenagers these days are very un-happy with their lives and would do anything in order to escape it even if it was for a few seconds as you hold yourself underwater in an attempt to lose attachment from you day-to-day life.
I think that, similar to the previous image, the response to this representation would depend on the age of the audience member. This is because teenagers would disagree with this as not all teenagers are stereotypically un-controllable and un-happy where as the older audience members may agree with this representation, as they believe that a lot of teenagers do in fact act this way. If anybody were to find these images offensive it would be teenagers as it only shows a negative representation of what teenagers are like causing some of the more older audience members to be fooled by this representation and believe that this is in fact common amongst teenagers when really it is not.
By Harry Luke Mulvany
Again Harry an accomplished piece of analysis with use of media terminology. You have really explored the symbolism and linked it to the representation of teenagers. Well done.
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