Propaganda is what the government, or supreme rulers
use to guilt and rally the people in their nation for a bigger cause.
"the spreading of ideas,
information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an
institution, a cause, or a person”
In this
picture, a woman is holding her child with another trying to climb her. She’s
on her knees with her hand raised above her, as if to try to stop someone or
something. The illustrator used muted blues, whites, grays and others to convey
that the picture is supposed to be dark and sad. The first thing my eyes are
drawn to in this picture is the child tugging on their mother. There is also a
bunch of clutter and random house hold items surrounding the woman. I think the
illustrator did this to show that they are suffering. I believe the artist was
trying to make the public feel bad and sympathize for the woman and her
children, to the point of them wanting to buy liberty bonds. The ideal targets
for the audience are family oriented people, specifically woman. Because of the
use of children, and “must children die and mothers plead in vain,” the
reaction of buying liberty bonds, I think, would b e higher because people care
about the well being of women and children.
The
first thing my eyes are drawn to is the red cross behind the girl. The color
really helps bring the symbol forward. The girl is wearing an American flag as
he outfit that turns into the sea. The artist did this combination to show that
America will help over seas. The girl is used to symbolize Lady Liberty, but
with the sadness in her face, she’s pleading for Americans help over seas.
Pointing with one hand, showing where to go, and palm up in the other as a
stretched out hand to grab to help, this girl is speaking to all of America
asking for anyone and everyone to help, specifically with money because “They
are giving their lives out there… you must give every cent you can spare.”
The only image on this poster is able to speak to everyone. The dead soldier on it is able to speak to how he was able to sacrifice everything, including his life, so everyone else should be able to sacrifice a few cents. Using only black ink for the drawing and red for the print, the print really stands out making everyone want to read it, which is where it says "This boy has made his last great sacrifice." I think they intentionally used the word "boy" so it really comes across as to how young he was and so it speaks to the women. The posters a veered towards everyone, but women specifically because the men were off fighting, so the main decision makers (for the most part), were the women. This poster, I believe, was mainly used to guilt people into buying liberty bonds.
I don’t think I’m uncomfortable with the
idea of federal government spending tax dollars to create propaganda, but I’m
not necessarily comfortable with it. I think the main use of propaganda is to
get money from people, so why would they use money to make something to ask for
money?
I think the federal government felt it was
necessary to invest in producing propaganda posters during WWI because I don’t
think the people really knew what they were getting into, because nothing major
had happened to the country. I believe they used the propaganda posters to help
the people understand how serious it is getting involved in the War.
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