Reguarding the Pain of Others

Mallorie Semanchik

Cimpko-Beller

English Composition I

October 28, 2014

What is Really There?

No one person in this world has the same mindset and views as another. Images will never be the same because everyone will have a different idea to what they are seeing. An image shows you a moment in time and the media or whoever displays the image may give an image a certain impression. But we should think to ourselves, is that what was really going on? I chose Ways of Seeing by John Berger and Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag. In the article, Ways of Seeing Berger talks about how a child sees before it learns to speak. Seeing also enables an individual to relate to the environment that surrounds him. Words are used to try to explain the environment that surrounds. Words cannot settle the matter because they are static and the surrounding environment changes. There is a constant gap between the words used and the sight seen. While in the article Regarding the Pain of Others, Sontag writes about how she thinks it is not right to have imagery of war and suffering of others. In Sontag’s argument that displaying the dead could have a shocking impact on the domestic public opens a new view on Berger’s argument that images rather than words can help us see through the “mask of innocence” that evil wears. Berger’s argument is that our view of images is based on how we see ourselves helps view Sontag’s argument that images give a more traumatic view on events.

After reading “Ways of Seeing”, Berger makes it clear that the way we view our visible world helps to see Sontag’s argument that everyone has their own option on war. Berger states, “We only see what we look at. To look is an act of choice. As a result of this act, what we see is brought within our reach though not necessarily within arm’s reach” (Berger 238). What Berger is saying is that humans only see what we would like to see. If we do not want to see a disturbing image from war then most will...