The Awakening

The Awakening

Visual Literacy

This is a poster of the famous illustration, The Awakening, my roommate got from the Library of Congress. It was the centerfold of a suffrage issue of Puck Magazine in 1915. The image is a suffragette parody of Manifest Destiny. The woman in yellow draws the eye first. She is reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty and her cape train reads "Votes for Women." She has a hand extended, much in the same shape as God's hand in 'The Creation of Adam', which is pointing towards the eastern states. Following her guiding gesture, you look to the black states where women are crawling on top of each other to reach out towards the liberating Votes for Women figure. The color scheme and the desperate faces of these women is also reminiscent of artwork of the river Styx. The women in the blacked out states guide the eye back to the liberating woman from whom you look to her feet to read the names of the states that she is walking on, which were the first to ratify women's votes. From there, you visually zoom out to take in how large the portion of the nation is that has not made it legal for women to vote. The power of this piece is emphasized by the fact that there are few words, most of which are state's names. Yet the intention is clear and the need for equal rights is palpable.

Lauren Sims

Lauren Sims

2/29/2020