Wealth over Health

Rhoda Tackie Yarboi

Professor Watson
English 1302 S32

Wealth over Health or Health over Wealth? Save a life today.

People tend to look for wealth forgetting about their health and mostly after they have gained their wealth cannot save their health. Pictures tend to convince as to do the unimaginable just because hey mostly encourage as to what we think we are not capable of doing. The picture above clearly implies that we should help save a life but has a deeper meaning of speaking to people who spend all their time working to earn money and then think they have it all in life. Here I believe the image achieves it’s purpose because it stirs up a feeling to help donate blood because it makes you empathize with individuals who are in the same situation and the inscription on the image makes anyone think beyond what the image portrays so here we see that though we are being emotionally convinced we are being provoked to think about wealth and health and not just donating blood. Pictures appeal to pathos, logos and ethos which tend to one way or the other speak to everyone. As individuals of a technological age most of our decisions are influenced by the images we see around us because what we see tends to draw our attention and speaks to us in different ways. I believe images have the ability to change our mood, how we feel and how we think. The image above can be classified in having the ability of changing a persons mood from happy to sad or sad to happy. A person earning a lot of money who hasn’t thought about their health might be sad and a healthy person earning an average amount will be very excited to help save a life. Most of the time we create meaning through stories images project in our mind and they also tend to remind us of sad or happy moments we have experienced. Pictures, videos and all forms of visual imagery carry power which is able to convince us more than what we read or hear on radio. With the picture above we see blood and it make anyone alarmed to see what follows because as human beings blood is one of the most important things we need in our bodies since it helps regulates the functions of all our organs. Here, the blood could have filled the container to create an image of shortage of blood in our mind which is a form of persuasion to help you save someone who is loosing blood. On the inscription on the poster it says, “save 3 lives without spending a cent” comparing three human lives to a cent just to show that money cannot help in all cases but as a human being you should know you are more important than money and so don’t spend all your time trying to get it but just spend a little of your time donating to someone who needs a little of your blood. I believe the red cross on the poster can also be speaking to Christians who believe Christ died on cross and shed His blood for healing. We are easily influenced by images because they tend to illustrate the unimaginable and give us confidence. In the image above we see ourselves as life savers due to the power the image creates in our mind and we now forget the pain of the needle being passed through our skin to get the blood out. We easily feel good because images persuade us to do the impossible and see the invisible. Most phrases we hear on our TV ads are “Look, it’s easy” or “Microwave for 10 minutes and you just made the best meal’’. We feel impressed and have a sense of accomplishments when we see such words speaking to us in the form of images.

The main purpose of images is to make us want to think we can do something which we don’t believe is possible and persuades us further that we can do it. In the second image it speaks clearly without the help of words. If you don’t take good care of your health whiles you have money you spend all your wealth on different kinds of medicines. This can also be a mild way of communicating to a particular audience that money is not everything because you can be purchasing medicines either to prevent a disease or cure a disease but you cannot be guaranteed an assurance on better health. In the article Health is Wealth and Wealth is Health – perceptions of health and ill health among female workers in Savannahkat Laos , “Health was defined as a condition that is needed to be able to work and collect money.” I think this definition was used because the sex workers need to get money to take care of their health. The amazing thing about images is that they are able to relate to each and everyone just like the pictures above. Most images are successful because they tend to persuade, inform and advertise to a large group of people. We make decisions based on what we see and though some images have a deeper meaning they are able to speak and achieve their aim of persuasion. We see through both images that we don’t only have to focus on our wealth and exclude our health but focusing on both will make you happy and will also make society a great place to be. Our health and wealth are very important and without both the journey of life is a tough one. Visual images find themselves in different contexts relating to different people but to make your point clear one needs to make an image have a connection with every individual and carry power to change the mood ,thought or action of a peron.