Elucidate E-Literature Main MenuTable of ContentsWhat Sources did We Use?A list of all the sources that we used in our scarlar pagesAbout the Student AuthorsAlice Jiang8c8d874f0e1c60751d4ca652cd908ee689aa7bbdNyssa Goodrum32be20efea42552a791bc7fd1cc0e901e93a8550Sonia Kumarddeec80791de97f88b75c9821154d247ab0c87feBrooke Hollenbergeredb79f0c7cdb53b3e039fcd57a19662109e86bf6
Holding on
1media/scalarimage2_thumb.JPG2019-11-17T20:01:26-08:00Sonia Kumarddeec80791de97f88b75c9821154d247ab0c87fe354474An image of the narrator's hand holding onto a wallet, that is mistaken for a weapon by police.plain2019-11-17T20:11:15-08:00Sonia Kumarddeec80791de97f88b75c9821154d247ab0c87fe
12019-11-17T20:18:38-08:00Holding on11The imagery used to show that what the narrator was holding was not threatening or dangerous.plain2019-11-18T16:54:03-08:00 The image is of the narrator's hand holding on to the wallet (Obadike).
A wallet is an item that is common to most adults, containing identification information and money that is used on a daily basis. This is used in the image to help connect the reader to the narrator. Assuming that the audience of the narrative is adults, the reader likes carries a wallet with them whenever leaving the house, so they would understand the fear and anger of the narrator and his loved ones when the presence of the wallet is used to justify the shots fired at him by police because he was holding it.
The image itself has low contrast, making the picture appear blurred, and the wallet is difficult to see. This is used to show how it may have been difficult for police to see what was in the narrator's hand. However, the position of the hand in the image also seems to show that the narrator is not holding a weapon, furthering the sympathy that the reader feels for the narrator.
This idea of using preconceived notions to determine what a person is seeing is further described in "The Mind's Eye", by Oliver Sacks, taking on the perspective of a blind man, https://www.amazon.com/Minds-Eye-Oliver-Sacks/dp/0307473023 (access to the entire novel from Amazon).