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Symbolism In The Invisible Man

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1. The chief difference between Wyeth's painting and Wall's photography is that the former acts as a complement to aid the readers' understanding of the general story, while the latter acts as that of the protagonists' life, in the point of view of the protagonist (in this case,) himself. As the text says, the former, though more popular than the text itself, becomes "less meaningful" without the original documents, because the synthesis of the Literature and the illustration is what provides the readers with the full experience of the book—to imagine and be entertained by a story that does not usually happen (393). To go further, the reader cannot live in it; the reader can only use it as to help one's imagination/experience of the said fiction …show more content…

I generally agree with the comments of the MoMA’s critique that Wall opened an entirely new way of illustration, in that Wall’s approach was so inviting to the audience. The focal point of the picture is to the protagonist of the novel, “the Invisible Man”, and such emphasis does draw some eyes to the protagonist. However, at the same time, the whole picture is overwhelmed by the number of the lightbulbs above the man. Though everything is in real-life sizes, the amount of the lightbulbs acts as a hyperbole, as the text suggests (394). Such override of the focus provides the audiences with more depth of cognition of the situation, and many times, it is not frequently possible in two dimensional settings, such as (comparatively) plain illustrations like those of Wyeth. In that sense, I think Wall’s photography has opened a new way of the illustration. However, at the same time, I think his brilliancy is solely due to his use of the medium of photography. In other words, I think his only contribution to the illustration industry is the use of the film, which conveys different sets of images and cognition. Films could always do that, and perhaps thousands of the photographers have used such techniques in their work; there is nothing new about the technique itself. So the only difference Wall made was his synthesis of the film and the Literature to illustrate that specific

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