Visual texts allow the audience to interpret the meaning more effectively than actual text based documents. To achieve this goal, the author uses elements such as texture, color, symbols and gaze to widen the visual portrayal of the text, which creates unique arguments that differ for each viewer. Within this specific piece, the author uses many aspects that individually add to the argument as well as combine with another element to strengthen the overall message. However, throughout the piece the argument that is developed within the frame is how no matter what struggles or wounds your past may bring you there is a light that can lead you out of your darkness. Life allows you to move forward and shapes you into a new person, bringing your scars and memories with you but leaving your dark past behind you, which “shows a damn good story.”

A strong element, such as color, can shape the viewers focus to one area of the frame and then guide their eyes to another area and it continues to do that until you’ve seen the full image. However, color keeps leading the viewer to one particular frame or area to establish importance, which could be seen as the theme of the overall image. For example, in “shows a damn good story” the first thing color draws your attention to are the bright blueish-green eyes staring at you. The woman’s eyes are bright even though they are surrounded by dark colors that continue to get darker. By following the element of color, the viewer is able to follow along the pathway of light. Every section of the frame is either a brownish dirt color or a solid black color which surrounds the eyes, allowing the attention to once again be brought back to the light shining through the darkness. Also, the blood surrounding her eyes prevent the audience from seeing her skin tone except for the hand shining bright outside of the wooden blocks. With these aspects of color added it allows the audience to see the overall message of how you are able to move towards the bright future without holding onto the dark past.

Along with the element of color the use of symbolism enhances how the audience can view the overall goal the image is able to achieve. The main symbol that is brought to the audience's attention from the start is the wooden barrier the woman is trapped behind. The barrier acts as both an element of color and symbol, however the barrier symbolizes an outside force attempting to hold her from escaping her past. Another symbol is the rope in which she is holding onto. The rope symbolizes her support to escape her dark past, while it is the only thing that she is holding onto in the picture. While the rope is there to support her leaving her past her hand shows that it is getting increasingly harder for her to escape. This could be seen as a symbol of her trying to let go of everything she has been through, but she cannot fully let go. Her hand symbolizes that even while she is holding onto her one life line it continues to get harder for her to leave. The bandage on the hand she uses to hold the rope is covered in blood and dirt, which could symbolize the constant grabbing on and holding on to everything that has happened to her and not allowing the wounds to heal. By using these symbols, it allows the audience to understand the struggle this woman has to go through to try to move past her dark past and into her bright future. However, she will always be reminded of the things that have happened which can be symbolized by the scratches on the arm that is free from the restraints and bandages and the cage she is forced to be held in. 

The element of texture truly brings out the small details within the frame, for example the rope, bandages and wooden gate all provide textual evidence of her situation being rough due to the nature of their fabric and what they are made out of. The blood on her face seems to be dark and dried which can cause discomfort if it stays on for long periods of time, as well as her clothes being seen as dirty rags that are stained with her blood. The importance of these objects being rough signify her past experiences and how her steps to move forward will be rough and not something quick and easy. The wood and rope seem to be in a very good condition, however the longer you have it in your possession the more you fall apart, which plays into the use of symbolism and how she ultimately takes the stuff she cannot move past with herself as she grows up. Along with texture, the gaze ultimately portrays the young woman as someone who has been through an extraordinary amount of hardships that has forced her to mature and move on. You can see this by how the image instantly connects your eyes to the woman’s eyes and allows you to see into her story. All of these objects are used to symbolize hardship in the woman’s life but also provide a rough texture for the audience to be able to place themselves in the woman’s shoes.

Overall visual texts allow the viewers to interpret their own meanings behind the image and the elements involved allow them to sway the audience one way or the other to get a general message from the visual text. However, the elements within the picture all overlap in order to portray a similar message of the woman trying to move forward with her life and ultimately leaving the most of the past she can behind. However, symbolism, texture, gaze and color represent all of the things she carries with her along with all of the things she left behind. These elements also rely on one another to provide visual evidence of a rough past and situation the woman has been in and is encountering in this moment. 
