An analysis of john berger
An analysis of john bergerPictures Don’t Always Paint a Thousand Words
John Berger makes a bold statement in saying “ No other relic or text from the past can offer such a direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer than literature,” (Ways of Reading, 106). This statement is very untrue. Literature has been the focal point of all modern learning.. Literature lets the reader feel what the author is thinking, not just see it as you would in a painting. This can be proven after reading Berger ‘s descriptions of paintings in Ways of Seeing and also reading parts of literature written by W.E.B Dubois.
When a reader reads literature it is easy to feel what the author is writing about . An author’s job is to show the reader his point of view. He does this by describing things, offering opinions, and making conclusions. By doing this the author can get his point across and the reader can hopefully relate to him. A good author will also paint his own picture by words. He will leave the reader with a picture in his head of what he is describing. A writer’s words are stronger than the stroke of an artist.
An example of this could be from W.E.B Dubois ‘s Of the Meaning of Progress . DuBois paints us a picture of his life . On page 225, DuBois describes a child , he says “ Thenie was on hand early ,-a jolly, ugly ,good-hearted , who slyly dipped snuff and looked after her little bow legged brother.” This description is something a picture can not describe. A picture cannot significantly show someone being jolly or good hearted. These two descriptions are important in learning about the character, thus literature is more precise than images.
Berger’s also states that paintings leave the reader to make many conclusions. Berger is talking about the sitter in a painting by Frans Hals. He says “ It is not possible to produce circumstantial evidence to establish what there relationships were, ”(110). Here he is saying by looking at the picture, there aren’t many valid conclusions one can make. The viewer can see five people and describe what they look like, but he cannot dig any deeper. Any other conclusion a reader would make would be built on circumstance and not evidence. Literature would be able to describe these people and possibly establish relationship and feelings, something art and pictures cannot do.
Another example, that writing explains much more than a picture is Berger’s On Rembrandt’s “Women in Bed.” When I look at this painting I see a young woman looking up at something from her bed. He writes “ there is a complicity between the women and the...
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