More often than not, individuals prefer to conceal the truth rather than divulge it in order to prevent hurt, anger, or mistrust. It’s like a preservation tactic used to appear innocent and prevent others from initial hurt; lying proves to be an ineffective scheme since the truth always comes out and people often feel even more hurt when the truth has been kept from them. The human race incessantly tries to keep damage to a minimum even though such controlling methods are often futile. John Berger, in his piece “Hiroshima,” claims that the pain and morbidity of war-particularly of America’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II-should be remembered and that the most explicit forms of art that were made by those who suffered
…show more content…
The two authors have similarities and differences in their views about war images; some contrast, when they argued about the morality and reason behind war images; some are parallel, as how both Berger and Sontag claim that it is crucial that people are apprised of the pain and suffering that was experienced during the war; and some just complicate each others’ argument, when they each discuss the myriad of effects that war images have created. Berger elaborates that war images provide the onlookers a small but significant glimpse of the events that occurred during the war, and that without clear depictions of the war, we would be forced to resort to quantitative reasoning. On the other hand, Sontag argues that war images should either be enhanced or censored to provide the public with more “acceptable” portrayals of pain, which she also claims to be less emphasized in melancholic war images that are …show more content…
In “Hiroshima,” Berger writes, “[t]his [, a drawing of an old man entitled “At about 4pm, 6th August, 1945, near Yurozuyo bridge] prompted an idea of launching a television appeal to other survivors of that day to paint or draw their memories of it [, the bombing at Hiroshima]” (237). Berger implies that the reason why thousands of entries were submitted was because the survivors felt nostalgic and they wanted others to know about what happened on that day. He is saying that people don’t want to forget the past; they want to be able to move past these memories by reflecting on them and by going through the process of acceptance. Whereas, Sontag stated, “one can gaze at these faces for a long time and not come to the end of the mystery,” (366) referring to images of death and suffering. She is implying that people cannot understand beyond what they see; they can merely observe what is in the picture but they cannot deduce anything substantial from it. She notes that people could stare at these images and never come to a conclusion as to what is actually happening, nor can they identify the stories that came with such images. Furthermore, when she wrote, “censorship… has found a large and influential number of apologists,” (Sontag 369)
The two authors have similarities and differences in their views about war images; some contrast, when they argued about the morality and reason behind war images; some are parallel, as how both Berger and Sontag claim that it is crucial that people are apprised of the pain and suffering that was experienced during the war; and some just complicate each others’ argument, when they each discuss the myriad of effects that war images have created. Berger elaborates that war images provide the onlookers a small but significant glimpse of the events that occurred during the war, and that without clear depictions of the war, we would be forced to resort to quantitative reasoning. On the other hand, Sontag argues that war images should either be enhanced or censored to provide the public with more “acceptable” portrayals of pain, which she also claims to be less emphasized in melancholic war images that are …show more content…
In “Hiroshima,” Berger writes, “[t]his [, a drawing of an old man entitled “At about 4pm, 6th August, 1945, near Yurozuyo bridge] prompted an idea of launching a television appeal to other survivors of that day to paint or draw their memories of it [, the bombing at Hiroshima]” (237). Berger implies that the reason why thousands of entries were submitted was because the survivors felt nostalgic and they wanted others to know about what happened on that day. He is saying that people don’t want to forget the past; they want to be able to move past these memories by reflecting on them and by going through the process of acceptance. Whereas, Sontag stated, “one can gaze at these faces for a long time and not come to the end of the mystery,” (366) referring to images of death and suffering. She is implying that people cannot understand beyond what they see; they can merely observe what is in the picture but they cannot deduce anything substantial from it. She notes that people could stare at these images and never come to a conclusion as to what is actually happening, nor can they identify the stories that came with such images. Furthermore, when she wrote, “censorship… has found a large and influential number of apologists,” (Sontag 369)