Saturday, October 10, 2009
Samantha's Analysis of Pedro and Me
I chose to analyze the panel on page 54. In this panel, Pedro is standing in front of approximately 1,000 of his classmates, teachers, and peers and tells them that he is HIV positive. I believe that this takes extreme courage on Pedro’s part. It may be not so bad to talk to a school where you don’t know anyone and admit you are HIV positive, but to admit that to your school, where you know many of the faces, that’s bravery. This fits in with the novel because it shows that he is choosing to speak out and inform people about HIV and AIDS. This panel is particularly important because at this point, he is going out on a limb to tell his entire school. This is the point where they either support him through fighting this disease or stop talking to him because of it. The wording on this panel is very simple, yet it gets the message across. By putting the words in the white box, surrounded by black, I think it emphasizes his confidence. It is a small box, so he may be a little hesitant, but he says it with assurance. I think the details that matter are all of the student’s facial expressions. To me, they all looked either shocked or sad. I didn’t see anyone that looked to be disgusted or antipathetic towards Pedro. I’m sure this is makes Pedro feel a little better, knowing that the school doesn’t hate him now because of this. I think that this is a symbolic panel because with Pedro’s back facing the reader, it literally shows it is him versus the student body. The symbolism I see is that this isn’t just Pedro standing against his peers, it is him standing up to fight his HIV. He may not have a good chance of surviving it, but he is going to stand his ground to give it his best shot.
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This happened when Pedro was 18 so this was in front of his senior class. I couldnt even imagine given a presentation in front of that many people and Pedro talked about his personal life, he is very brave. I think you describe the schene perfectly when you say that is symbolizes what Pedro sees which is him versus the student body.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a nice job explaining what Pedro wass feeling during his speech. You also explained the possible consequences he may face after exposing the fact that he was HIV positive, including rejection from his peers, which is a major concern in high school. In order to analyze the panel further, you could talk about the fact that there appears to be a bright spotlight on him, which could be symbolic of his purpose on a larger scale. Also, a couple of the people in the audience are talking to each other and probably discussing Pedro's shocking speech. Some of the faces in the audience even appear to show anxiety. Finally, this was also the pivotal moment in Pedro's life when he decided to be an HIV educator.
ReplyDeleteYou share very intricate details in your explanation of the panel in your paragraph - nicely done. My thought was when I looked at this panel was that Winick created the scene with Pedro's back to us to get us thinking about what we would do in Pedro's position and to make us empathetic to the gigantic risk he was taking for the sake of his classmates. The risk of being completely transparent with them and hoping they wouldn't fear or ostracize him but would listen and take his advice to heart to protect themselves.
ReplyDeleteThis panel is one of the most important panels in the book, in my opinion. You did a great job of taking it apart and analyzing all the pieces. This panel does set the stage for Pedro's future. I think that he realizes after he speaks that he found his calling. That is speaking out about HIV/AIDS education to students to help prevent it from happening to others. I can tell by your writing that you do feel strongly about this panel and about the stance that Pedro had. All in all I think you did a great job.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job analyzing this panel. I do have one question though and that is why did you have to do it by yourself. It was supposed to be a group project so you should not have had to do this alone. With the speech bubble being that small I wonder if it is supposed to symbolize how small he might have felt having to say that to the whole school as well.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you pointed out the point of view being behind pedro. I hadn't even thought of thinking about that as I read the novel. It is obvious after you point it out that Winick wants the readers to see the audience as though we are the ones who are standing in fron of a crowd of people stripped down to a disease, being judged. I think you did a great job with your discriptions, and reading your paragraph, i was reminded clearly of the panel that you picked for it.
ReplyDeleteI think your group did a really good job explaining this panel to us. I think that Pedro did show how brave he was by doing this. I like how you told us the story of this panel by reading so much more into then what was there. I agree that this was a huge part of the story from Pedro’s stand of point. That he wasn’t defined as someone living with AIDS but someone that was going to help the school he attended.
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