Napalm-Girl

Question 3

Digital Communication and Fluencies

From my perspective, I do not think that the image is inappropriate, given the context. The photograph Napalm Girl is a picture of young children running down a road in Vietnam on June 8^th 1972. The children all have a look of sheer terror and fear on their faces, and it seems as though they are running away from something horrific, by the looks of it. Behind them are some soldiers, who do not look even slightly phased by what is happening, and who aren’t helping the injured children in any way, but instead they are herding the children down the street like cattle.

There is a huge contrast between the two different subjects. The children are helpless and hopeless, screaming for help. They look small and weak. The soldiers are however tall and powerful, with their guns and helmets. They are not injured and are not conveying any emotion. In the background, there is a scene of devastation. It is clear that there has been an explosion of some sort. There are clouds of smoke billowing from the ground, and the area looks bleak and damaged. We learn later that this is because the village in the photo has just been napalmed (attacked with bombs). The main subject in the picture is a naked young girl, who looks like she is in agony.

Kim Phuc (the young girl), at this time, was a nine-year-old girl living with her family in the village of Trang Bang in Vietnam. On this day, the South Vietnamese Air force dropped Napalm bombs on the village, injuring and killing innocent civilians. Kim Phuc was one of the victims. She suffered severe third degree burns from the attack, and two of her infant cousins died as a result of bombing.

The main reason this picture was such an iconic one was that no one had really had to look at the victims of war before this. Because of censorship, footage of war was banned in America and other countries. The Vietnam War, however, was not classified as a real war, so for the first time, people had to see the truth about the war in their newspapers and on their television screens. This photograph showed people the devastation that war brought to men, women and children alike. They could finally put a face to the thousands of war victims. Because of this photo, people could no longer hide from the facts. War was not just or fair, it was sick and evil and was hurting innocent people, such as Kim Phuc and the people of her village, who never did anything to provoke the napalm attack, or deserve the devastation they were put through. Since this photo, people have had to re-evaluate their thoughts about war, or at least, start thinking about the pain it causes.