Protecting Your Children: A Discussion of Living and Learning
Children must experience life’s lessons on their own, to truly learn and benefit from them. This may be difficult for parents, because their ultimate goal is to protect their kids from any potential harm. Take for example, a young child learning how to walk; protective parents will want to catch their child before they fall to prevent their child from possibly getting hurt. However, the child will only learn to successfully walk, if he or she falls and learns to get back up and try again. In the image, the illustrator utilizes techniques to suggest that parents should play a significant role in their children’s lives, but still allow them to live and learn important life lessons on their own.
We can see a mother looking out of a window watching her son play outside with the trees in the yard. The mother appears to be worried, giving the viewer a sense of unease; it seems as if she is concerned about her son’s safety, but at the same time wants him to learn what can happen if he is not cautious while playing. The son’s body forms a loose ‘S’ shape, which implies he is carefree, calm, and having an enjoyable time. Specific parts of the image are blurred out; like the portion of the son and the yard, and instead focus on the anxious mother. This technique allows the viewer to unravel the thoughts of the mother as she is tempted to go and retrieve her child. Light and dark techniques are also used; the mother is mostly dark, except for her head. This infers that her mind is the only thing that is preventing her from stopping her son from getting hurt – because it is the right thing to do – even though, her heart and body want to do otherwise. Dark colours are used toward the trunks of the trees as if to symbolize threat – or danger. Although the young boy is blurred, he still immediately comes to your attention because of the contrast of his bright white body to the shadowy trees. The white of the son signifies his innocence and purity. The window symbolizes the fence between shelter and vulnerability; the mother wishes for the boy to be with her – where it is safe -, but then again wants him to experience life’s teachings. What the mother is doing is correct, because she is allowing him to experiment, get hurt, and learn, so he will grow as a person. Although, this is very difficult for the mother to do, she continues, because it is for the well-being of her son.
Learning from your previous mistakes, will instill respectable lessons and morals in to you. When I was younger, I would always be jealous of my sisters ability to ride two-wheel bicycles, while I was stuck on a pathetic tricycle. I became obsessed with the image of me riding a ‘big girl bike’, as my dad would call it. After all of my complaining, my dad finally agreed to teach me how to ride a two-wheel bike – I was ecstatic. Every day after supper, my dad would take me bike riding; time after time I would sit on the way-too-high seat from my sister’s hand-me-down bike, while he would hold a tight grasp on the end of my second-hand bicycle. By the end of the first week of this ‘baby-like’ treatment, I got tired of it and was