Stephen Morrow
English 151
17-Oct-2011
Combating Addiction: You are not the only one that suffers.
Introduction: Ethos and some logos.
Addiction is obviously a serious problem, not one that everyone should have to face, but certainly one that you should pity if you’ve had someone close to you suffer through it. Both of these articles will show you the destruction it can wreck on you, your life, your loved ones, and your career. The first will show the effects it can have on your family while the second shows what addiction will do to yourself. It is a disease. One that at best, you live through and recover. However, at worst, it can destroy your life or your family’s. It leads into serious depression that only seems to feed itself through the consumption of more alcohol. This disease has been defined as both mental and physical. Mentally because of the aforementioned depression and physically because of the dependency that can build up, the damage it can do to the body (both short and long term), and cumulative toxic build-up. It’s always hard for an alcoholic to admit, at least publicly, that they have the problem in the first place. It has a huge social impact, and as such, the sufferer doesn’t want to be seen as a bad member of society. A lot of the times, they will actually deny they even have a problem in the first place. Thinking that they can always stop when they want to is another common sign of an addiction.
Description and Analysis for Ad 1
In the first advertisement, http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/aa_ceara_family?size=_original, we have a very disturbing picture of a man, the father figure of a family, who is over looking the edge of a broken highway, possibly contemplating suicide. His head is downcast, as he’s probably thinking his life is downtrodden. In his hands, he’s holding a rope. If we follow this rope, we find that it is tied to what would have to be his family, all huddled together in fear for their father and husband. The mother has her arms around her daughters, possibly trying to comfort them or maybe protecting them from the truth about their father, trying to not let them know that their father is living with the problem. We even have “man’s best friend” sitting alongside the family, as even the family dog has been pushed away and can’t even provide comfort for the crest-fallen father.
Backing up a little bit away from the family, we see the darkened skies overtop of the family, representing tough times. This reflects their feelings as a whole, not just the fathers. When one member is suffering, they all do, together, something the father has seemed to forget. He doesn’t realize that committing the suicidal act that’s going through his mind will drag them all down to his level of hell. Again, this is represented by the rope thats held in his hands, but not tied around him. By not being tied directly to him, it’s meaning becomes clear that it’s his decision. If he jumps, he’s taking them down with him by his own decision. He’s not being forced to ruin their lives by any means.
In front of the father, we see a gap in the highway. He believes the answer is on the other side, but the gap is just to far for him to jump. The end of his disease, the fix for his family, is just one big step thats to far away. He thinks it cannot be done. It’s simply impossible. But the answer is just like the incomplete highway. The father thinks it’s impossible. But his knowledge of how to overcome his problem is just like the bridge, incomplete. There is always an answer. This comes to us in the image of the AA, or the Alcoholics Anonymous symbol. This symbol is dead center of the ad, to grab our attention. It even comes complete with it’s own ray of light shining down over the father, offering warmth and enlightening his path. It offers hope to those that suffer from this disease. The symbol is in fact surrounded by bright light and luminous clouds. This easily represents a guardian angel of sorts. Watching over families like the one in the picture. Offering hope and solutions to a problem that seems impossible.
Description and Analysis for Ad 2
Abuse can be defined in many different ways and aspects. It can be viewed as one thing or another. There is both physical and mental abuse. From an outside source, or from within. http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/kenilworth_clinic_inner_struggle_woman, shows a woman who’s back is shredded by her own hands as evidenced by the blood on her fingers and nails. Her body is all twisted and she’s obviously in agony. She is causing her own pain. This is evidenced by the text on the ad “When it is you against yourself.” While everything about this picture shows physical abuse, you get the feeling its more about mental anguish. We don’t know what this womans problem is, but whatever it is is tearing her up inside. We understand this due to the damage we see on the outside. Most people that have an addiction are like this person. Whatever hell they are going through in their mind always shows up on the outside. It affects their lives, their jobs, their families. All of those things suffer as well. The woman is also alone. She doesn’t have anyone else in this ad. She has nobody to help her, nobody to understand or to offer support.
But like this ad shows, there is always hope, always help around the corner. This ad gives us words of support by letting us know that you don’t have to be the victim to your addiction. It doesn’t have to rule or ruin your life.
Conclusion and comparison
While you might look at the second ad and not understand what it has in common with the first one, both ads show people suffering from addiction. It has ruined their lives. It has hurt them to the point that they are hurting themselves, and to them, there is no way out. In the first ad, the father is so far gone he is contemplating suicide and he knows that he can’t even ask his family for help. He feels that he is all totally alone. He is a lot like the woman in the second ad. While we don’t see her family, she believes that she is alone. Even the border of shadow around her shows that she believes she’s the only one in the world who understands what she is going through. For people suffering from addiction, feeling this way is common. They know there is help, but they feel that the help is either too far away, it won’t work, or that they have to get themselves out of their own problems. This thinking does not help, as evidenced by the fathers downcast face and the woman’s shredded skin.
But ultimately, there is help. Through either the AA symbol we saw in the first ad or the clinic’s web-site address on the second one, help is out there. Knowledge is the best way to help these people. These ads help put that knowledge out there. Their message is clear, “You are not alone in your problems. There are people who can and will help you. You do not have to suffer alone.”
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