In today’s society, there is an immense amount of pressure on student athletes to achieve the unreachable expectations bestowed upon them by their coaches, parents, or teachers. The visual text, The Adventures of a Student Athlete by Brason Haney, displays the different effects on a student athlete from these pressures to perform perfectly. By analyzing, The Adventures of a Student Athlete, it becomes evident through the lack of words, body positioning, different camera angles, facial expressions, and background color that there is a message arguing that expectations of student athletes should be lowered due to effects of athletic and academic stress such as depression, sleep deprivation, and especially drug abuse.

There are a great amount of stylistic elements throughout the visual text that further illuminate its message to the audience. One stylistic choice that is effective in drawing the audience’s attention is the decision to not use written text to caption the photos. The lack of words functions as a tactic to drive the audience to observe the photos and reflect on what the visual text is demanding the audience to do about the problem. The different photos in The Adventures of a Student Athlete, aim to make its audience aware of the dangers of the stressful lifestyle of a student athlete, along with calling them to also intervene in any potential situation where a parent or coach is demanding too much from the athlete.

The picture introduced on the title page of the visual text is a stylistic choice because of its foreshadowing of the athlete’s feelings he will experience on the course of his adventures such as stress, depression, and physical fatigue. From the beginning, the audience obtains a sense that unfortunate events are about to happen to the student athlete in the visual text because of the body position of the young man in the picture. The subject of the photo is pictured from a long shot to be sitting down while hanging his head in a form of sadness. Without the longshot to show the athlete’s body language, the observer couldn’t infer that the male in the photo has experienced some sort of defeat either on or off the court. The significance of the title page and its photo should not be overlooked because of its ability to own many important details that ultimately introduce the audience to the theme of the visual text. 

The different angles presented in each photo are able to appeal to the emotions of the audience in several ways. For instance, the drug abusive nature of the teenager is shown in the extreme close up shot of the subject’s hand in possession of the hypodermic needle can create a feeling of sadness from the audience because of the thought that the student athlete has hit his breaking point where he is no longer able to cope with the stress of juggling school and sports on his own. Or instead, the audience could be feeling disappointment or anger towards the athlete because of his decision to essentially cheat his way through tennis. Or nonetheless, it could simply bring forth the feeling of shame and guilt of a fellow student athlete partaking in the same illegal acts of abusing pills and steroids. The struggles of the protagonist in the visual text bring forth nothing but negative feelings for the audience. The issues presented are relatable for the audience because the feelings of the student athlete are felt by everyday people on a daily basis. 

Within The Adventures of a Student Athlete, there are several different instances where symbolism is indirectly displayed. For example, the protagonist’s facial profile is not entirely revealed until the final image, in which the audience sees him smiling with his parents after his graduation ceremony. The idea that the subject’s entire face resists to appear is a stylistic choice made by the author to convey the shame and guilt the subject experiences from Adderall and steroid abuse. In the final photo of his profile revealment it is apparent through his facial expression and body position that he feels no more remorse for illegally enhancing his academic and athletic performance because he was able to succeed and graduate. This photo’s frame is extremely important in telling the final detail of the visual text. The frame includes the backdrop of a social media page showing that the parents are incredibly proud of their son to the point that they want to show the whole world what he has accomplished. The photo has so much to say about the parents’ unawareness of their son’s illegal activity.

 This visual text paints the unflattering light of the stress that student athletes experience. However, the visual text’s background color, disagrees. To illustrate the hidden innocence within the student athlete, the background of the entire presentation was made white because white is often associated with innocence and purity. The white background could also be seen as a symbol for how the outside world perceives athletes as innocent rule followers whom work hard and achieve awards, but instead, the photos in this essay tell a different story entirely.  In fact, the belief of the visual text is that student athletes are pushed to their limits by his/her peers until he/she eventually crumbles to the point of desperation where the comfort of drugs is vital to perform exceptionally. 

The visual elements of background color, different camera angles, and facial expressions displayed in The Adventures of a Student Athlete are crucial to the communication of the message to the audience because without them the visual text would not be able to appeal to the audience’s emotions and effectively bring to light the effects of stress on the student athlete. 
