I chose to do a The New Yorker magazine cover with a realistic cartoon because I wanted it to continue my op-ed choice for a news outlet. This cover is seen by all readers of this magazine and I imagine in it would be my op-ed article that will further show and educate people about homelessness in New York. The New Yorker generally has a cartoon cover that comments on political and societal issues, which has in recent years been in a digital cartoon style. 

The rhetorical strategies I used was mainly pathos. I appealed to the audience’s emotions through the visual essay with the focus on a person experiencing homelessness holding up a sign that says “i might as well as be invisible” while the rest is blurred. The focus that draws the viewer to this individual creates a clear image of a person struggling while those around either ignore or walk around and away from the person experiencing homelessness on the street. I also draw a bit on ethos because it is my moral ideology and agenda that we must treat people who experience homelessness like human beings who need help. I really believe that New Yorkers have become desensitized and have a negative stigma towards people who experience homelessness. 

This “invisibility” that people who experience homelessness face is such a huge problem in New York City and this visual essay is pictured in times square, which is one of the most prominent and famous places in New York City that is easily recognizable. I did this to show New Yorkers what they ignore everyday. From my experience there is very few places in New York City where you won’t come across someone on the side of the streets asking for help. This visual essay makes the people who experience homelessness the focus so that the next time a New Yorker who comes across a person that experiences homelessness they will actually see them. They wont just be part of the background anymore. 

I  liked how this visual essay can be interpreted in many different ways even if I did have a specific goal in mind. When a viewer sees this “New Yorker” cover they’ll also come to their own conclusion, which I think is harder to do in many written pieces. Written essays and works often are persuasive and have a certain goal which is much clearer and forthright. 

Composing this essay differed from any other essay I have ever written because it did not have to contain words (besides for the magazine title and the cardboard sign). I never thought that an essay could be an image and I got really excited to do this essay because I have always enjoyed art. “Traditional” essays were always a pain for me because I don’t really like to write. This visual essay forced me to think about a way in which I could convey my message without writing it clearly out.