Analysis Of The Article Harry Who By Susan Dominus
Harry Who?
At first glance, there is Daniel Radcliffe at the front of the magazine, he is well known and puts a smile on a person’s face. However, after further investigating the image there is something off about him. He is not smiling or using his childish face to vow the audience. His expression is complete opposite of that. Daniel Radcliffe is one of the most famous child actors after portraying Harry Potter in eight films. His acting career started when he was eleven, which meant that he would not go to school and be a normal kid. The filming took up ten years of his life where he did not go to school and did not really interact with anyone besides the set crew.
The creator of this image is trying to say that Daniel has lost his childhood due to the production of the films. This is done through the composition, audience, and context. The composition of the image is important because through different position of the objects, the creator can capture the message that is being conveyed. In this instance, Daniel Radcliffe is standing located in the middle of the photograph, which means that the message is going to be used in relations to him. However, it is not the first thing that the reader of the magazine notices; the bright yellow words stand out against the black and white background. The positioning of the words also play a key role because the reader has to look from top to bottom of the image in order to read the whole message. In this instance, the viewer would see the word “Harry” which is followed by the image of Harry Potter, and the word “who?”. This is supposed to create a dialogue that the reader has with the creator of the image. This is done to grab the attention of the audience, however, this also creates the message that Daniel is having problems in life because of what acting has done to him.
By the look on Daniel Radcliffe’s face the reader can see emptiness, as if he has no idea what to do in this world because he has no skills. His face is the center of the image and the creator draws attention to how Daniel looks like. He is unshaven, has bags under his eyes, and is wearing a simple hoodie. This is done to show the simplicity of his character and that he cannot afford any nice things that most of the people who went to school and college could. In addition to that, he is staring into the viewer’s eyes and his eyes show that he is lost and does not know what to do in his life. Also, he looks very worn out which can be seen by the fixated look where every single detail of his face is visible.
The black and white background, which looks more like grey, signifies maturity and from the context, knowing that Daniel finished making Harry Potter movies, it is implied that he has crossed into adulthood. Daniel Radcliffe is known as the child actor who is portraying the world known Harry Potter, however, what the creator is trying to say is that after the movies ended, he became less famous and does not appear in many movies. This is seen through him covering his head with a hood which only reveals his face. This makes him blend in with everyday people, which is also shown through the use of color grey, which also signifies day to day life. Daniel would not stand out from the crowd in a grey color because it is not vibrant and does not catch the eye. In addition to that the grey color is used to show some sad moment in life and this is seen in the subtitle where Susan Dominus claims that Daniel is a recovering child star. After finishing the Harry Potter movies, it took him a few years to land another big role. The creator chose the word “recovering” to show that not all is lost because as of 2013, when the article was written, he was already casting in other films. This changes the whole mood because the audience only now realizes the problems that he is facing.
The intended audience is anyone who has seen the Harry Potter movies. The creator uses pathos to appeal to the emotions of the audience, because seeing the movie star in such condition draws pity from people and would suggest for a donation. However, Susan also used ethos, not in a traditional sense of advertising, but because this famous person is going through this, there are others just like him who go through the same problems. An example of that is Macaulay Culkin, he is the kid from the home alone series. The movies took up a huge amount of his time which meant that he didn’t go to school or had many friends. After getting all the money, he became a drug addict, however, he is only now turning his life around at the age of thirty eight. The creator of the image hopes to shine the light on all the child actors that cannot go back to normal life after screen time.
The photograph and the article about Daniel have the message that there are many people like him, however, it’s not too late to change his life around. The message is clear, child stars have a problem and they need all the help that we can give them. Through the various aspects of the photograph such as the color and expression, the creator was able to create a very powerful image. The interesting fact is that there are many child stars that no one hears from after they are famous.
