Roland Barthes’ “Rhetoric of the Image“ essay from Image – Music – Text, Translated by Stephen Heath. Hill and Wang, 1977. (excerpt)

Questions/Prompts:

  • How do images hold and convey meaning?
  • What are they trying to say?
  • How do they persuade and influence us?

Reading Response:

Images hold and convey meaning because it’s one of the easiest ways for the brain to process information. These images specifically raise the thought in one’s mind how pasta relates to Italy. The chosen colors of the ad remind a person of the flag. The shopping bag shows freshness in the product, like when you go shopping and bring home fresh groceries. They are trying to say, in my opinion, the best kind of pasta would be of an Italian brand, and it is going to have a better taste, which is why it needs to be seen as fresh groceries. They persuade us by giving us the ingredients needed to make a simple pasta, and how being able to make this simple pasta, all from one grocery bag, will give us that Italian feel and taste. They influence us with the colors, having all the ingredients, and  putting the words to the side instead of the center. Being able to get to a wider audience is important because although the words are in Italian, everyone else that doesn’t know Italian, can still make out the meaning of the image and how it is about pasta. The image is what truly makes it easier for everyone to understand.

Hypothesis Annotations:

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  3. annotation 3