Close Reading, October 7

             The first thing you'll notice about this article is that it isn't ordinary.  And you'd be right, it isn't something you'll see a newspaper, but you might see it National Geographic, or simply on a newspaper's website.  This is because the Editorial Notebook: "Impressions of Haiti" by Lawrence Downes (http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/04/09/opinion/04122010-HAITI_index-1.html), is a photo journal.  However, photographs can be close read, and there are short captions that explain the images that can be analyzed using DIDLS.  The most prominent parts of DIDLS you will find in this photo journal are imagery, details, and syntax.

             One amazing thing about this photo journal is how the caption of one of the pictures can bring about an image in your mind, sometimes the image is different than the one in front of you.  If you look at slide four you'll see what I mean.  In this slide the caption discusses the scene in the photo, the "mountain range of wreckage... with foothills of cracked concrete and bricks," and Downes is literal, that's what you see, the rise and fall of peaks and valleys of the rumble.  He also uses imagery that gives a distinctly different image, "The streets were veins carrying blood and oxygen through a corpse."  When cities are described they are often described as pulsing or beating like a heart, which makes us think of life and upbeat happiness.  When Downes writes the above sentence we start off with that image, of a lively city, until we realize that it ended differently than we expected; it ended with the word corpse.  That helps show us Downes' point in this slide, which is the immense and sudden change of life to death.

            In slide seven we see Downes' prominent use of detail.  He uses it in the picture as well as in the caption.  This time however, the slide and caption are basically identical.  The detail in the picture is the random groundskeeper in the middle of it.  Without him we have a completely different picture.  Without him we see another ruined building, but with him we see how selfish and stupid the government is.  With him the picture's meaning is that when a government would rather spend money keeping the grounds of the presidential palace clean instead of helping the refugees, recovery is going to take longer than it should.  Thousands of people needed a place to go and the details in the caption, "Still, groundskeepers kept its lawns tidy, the grass clipped and raked, and free of trash and refugees." show us where said refugee's are on the government's list of priorities.

            Authors often use syntax to help show meaning.  In slide thirteen Downes helps prove this point.  The sentences are chopped up with commas and semi-colons giving a stuttering and hesitant feel to what Downes is saying.  However, the small pieces of each sentence are blunt and to the point which shows us how the Haitians approached the task.  It is stuttering for Downes is hesitant, not wanting to watch the men go about unearthing the dead in such a matter-of-fact way, whereas the men jump right in knowing it has to be done, for no one can stand the stench.

            Downes uses imagery, details, and syntax in his pictures and words to help truly reveal the meaning of each slide, and the article as a whole.  The Haitian government needs to get its priorities straight if they want to get people back in homes, and the people need help, they can't deal with all of this death alone.