The opiate epidemic runs rampant in West Virginia, killing parents leaving kids left alone to pick up the pieces of their parent's mistakes, wondering what happened along the way. Eli Saslow beautifully narrates the story of the Pulliam family in such a predicament in his article "What Kind of a Childhood is that". Published in December of 2016 by Washington Post, Saslow shows the devastating effects of heroin addiction and how it affects the standard American family. By using narration, imagery and characterization to tell the tragic story of the Pulliam family, Saslow effectively convinces readers to alter their mindset of addiction.
Saslow's article puts perspective into what West Virginia calls opiate orphans, children who have lost both …show more content…
Three images clearly exemplify Saslow's argument of changing the audience's ideals on addiction. One image shows Madie, the children's grandmother and now legal guardian, in front of a doorframe watching Zoie play with one of her relatives. The room that Zoie is in is light up, but the hallway Madie is standing in is dark (CITATION?). The image shows how even though things may be getting better, the death of their parents is still a lingering figure on how people think of them due to how their parents died. Another image in the article is of a wall framed with pictures of the siblings as children and a shelf in front of that well littered with teddy bears and a framed picture of the Pulliam sibling's parents at Myrtle Beach (CITATION?). This image symbolizes the lost childhood of the Pulliam siblings due to how society views addiction. In the article, Finally, the last image shows the Pulliam siblings in front of an open door in their house. The hallway behind them is dark, signifying their troubled past, but the door shines in light onto the children(CITATION?), showing that even though the death of their parents lingers in their pasts, there is hope for the future that the ideals of addiction in our society will change, and that the deaths of other parents will be
Saslow's article puts perspective into what West Virginia calls opiate orphans, children who have lost both …show more content…
Three images clearly exemplify Saslow's argument of changing the audience's ideals on addiction. One image shows Madie, the children's grandmother and now legal guardian, in front of a doorframe watching Zoie play with one of her relatives. The room that Zoie is in is light up, but the hallway Madie is standing in is dark (CITATION?). The image shows how even though things may be getting better, the death of their parents is still a lingering figure on how people think of them due to how their parents died. Another image in the article is of a wall framed with pictures of the siblings as children and a shelf in front of that well littered with teddy bears and a framed picture of the Pulliam sibling's parents at Myrtle Beach (CITATION?). This image symbolizes the lost childhood of the Pulliam siblings due to how society views addiction. In the article, Finally, the last image shows the Pulliam siblings in front of an open door in their house. The hallway behind them is dark, signifying their troubled past, but the door shines in light onto the children(CITATION?), showing that even though the death of their parents lingers in their pasts, there is hope for the future that the ideals of addiction in our society will change, and that the deaths of other parents will be