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Douglas Lee
English 115
Professor Malvin
27 October 2016
Depression: The Not-So-Obvious Illness
Depression is a mental illness that numerous people around the world deal with. To bring
attention to this illness, the media advertises through things like commercials or posters, or
sometimes, even drawings. In one specific drawing, a depressed woman is depicted holding a
happy mask in front of her sad, ghostly white face. In the space around her, there is nothing but a
vacuous, gray atmosphere. These choices that the artist made with their drawing convey to
viewers what it is like to suffer from depression. To portray the mental illness, the artist employs
the three rhetorical appeals through their color choice and object placement to showcase
depression.
The color choice of an artist often plays an important role in the meaning of their
artwork. In this image, the artist sticks to a dull color scheme to convey what it feels like to be
depressed. In doing this, the artist is appealing to viewers pathos by making them feel the level
of emotional pain being experienced by the woman. In Bangs Picture This, the author explains
that white or light backgrounds feel safer to us than dark backgrounds (94). For this image, the
dark background is used to convey to viewers the dangers of depression. It gives off the
impression of nothingness and a mental emptiness. It is almost as if the artist is portraying a
limbo-like state that the woman is now in due to her depression. With the choice of the gray,
empty background, the artist shows what someone who is suffering from depression might be

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going through internally.
In addition to the choice of a gray background, the artist also chooses to make the woman
a ghostly white. In color psychology, white is the color of new beginnings, but in this image,
white does not seem to represent that (Olesen). Here, the color white is a metaphor for
hopelessness. Many victims of depression report feeling hopeless or having a bleak outlook
on life and that is what her colorlessness represents (Smith). With their color choice, the artist
invokes the bleak feeling onto the reader, thus appealing to their pathos. With these things
considered, one can see that the artists color choice mainly played into the emotion of the image.
In portraying the woman as this ghostly white character, the creator conveyed the hopelessness
that people suffering from depression deal with every day.
Typically, creators of ads or images tend to place objects that they want to stand out, in
the center of their ad or image. They do this because the center is the point of greatest
attraction (Bang 84). In the selected image, the object in the center of the page is the mask, and
therefore, has the greatest prevalence. The artist attempts to appeal to the viewers ethos by
employing this mask that he has purposely placed in the middle. It seems that the artist is
showcasing the mask to convey to viewers that going through daily life with depression is like
acting, but only the victim knows about it. They put up a false persona to appear fine in the eyes
of other people. Through presenting the mask, the artist may be trying to show viewers that not
everything is always as it seems. In doing so, they are showing people that many depressed
people just walk around like everyone else even though they are feeling differently than the
average person. That said, the viewers ethos is called into play. Perhaps the artist is suggesting

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that people who do not suffer from this illness should try and understand depression more. This
way, they would know how to approach it and look for warning signs. The artists decision to
bring the most attention to the mask forces the viewer to reflect upon their own morality and see
that depression is not always plainly evident. Sometimes, it is just hidden behind a false smile.
Although there are no words or statistics in this drawing, the artist still manages to subtly
appeal to the viewers logos. As said earlier, the gray background of the image represents the
dangers of depression. Many people typically think that depression is just a never-ending sadness
or a bleak outlook on life, but it is much more than just that. According to the article, 8 Ways
Depression Is Dangerous for Your Health from, depression can lead to or worsen symptoms of
things such as heart disease, obesity, substance abuse, etc. There is also the most dangerous
risk of depression and that is suicide (8 Ways Depression Is Dangerous for Your Health). Per the
same article, two-thirds of all suicides are caused by depression. This information, although
not blatantly stated, is being divulged through the dark background. The artist takes advantage of
the background and uses it to portray to viewers the complexity of depression.
In addition to the logos in the dark background, the artist also employs it in the woman
herself. Through this character, the feelings that are associated with depression are conveyed. In
an article from the Huffington Post, fifty victims of depression describe to readers what it is like
to live with the mental illness. One person described having depression as feeling like one is
drowningexcept you can see everyone around you breathing (Baker). Another person
described depression as being in a dark, inescapable place (Baker). These feelings relate to
the image because viewers see the real woman behind the mask suffering, yet she continues to

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hold up this mask. One could say that the woman in the image is, figuratively, drowning in her
own false representation of herself. Viewers can see her deep, emotional pain, but the real
woman peers through the eyes of this happy face, therefore, no one knows that anything is
wrong. So essentially, the sufferer feels as if they drowning all by themselves and no one knows
but them. The second feeling relates to image because one can see that the woman is surrounded
by nothing but darkness. As long as the mask is up, this dark place that she is in will remain
inescapable. Viewers see that there is no light in the image and because of that, the hopeless
mood is set. The light is a symbol for hope and due to there being no light, there is no escape
from the dark and hopeless place or mental state. Although her color pertained mostly to pathos,
the woman herself also appeals to the viewers logos. Once again, even though it is not plainly
stated, the artist subtly implies the logic portion of depression in this aspect of the image.
Nowhere on the picture is it said that the image is specifically meant to be about
depression. Yet, for me, depression is the main thing that the image evokes. The gloomy,
colorless nature of the picture immediately bring about the impression of depression. If that were
the only part of the image, most people would probably skip right over it because it would be
uninviting and boring, but then there is the crying woman holding a mask of her face. This makes
the image shocking and draws viewers in to look at it. The woman holding the mask draws
attention to all the people who suffer from depression who might be walking around through life
like this as well. It is not easy to plainly spot someone with depression, but if people better
understood it, they could learn how to decipher some of the signs. That is what the image is
attempting to accomplish in my eyes. The artist wants to bring awareness to this illness and
suggest that people educate themselves more about it.

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Depression is a very serious illness that many people deal with and that many people do
not know much about. It is hard for people to understand something that they do not live. For
people on the outside looking in, it seems like an easy fix, but that is not, at all the case. Using
the three rhetorical appeals in the choice of colors and object placement in the image, the creator
of this drawing helps people to better understand how it feels to have depression. With that better
understanding, people can now educate themselves further on the mental illness and learn what
to look for. This way, depression can eventually become a disappearing plight in todays society.

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Works Cited
Baker, Danny. 50 Sufferers Describe Depression For People Who've Never Been Depressed.
The Huffington Post, 7 May 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dannybaker/depression_b_5267263.html.
Bang, Molly. Picture This: How Pictures Work. SeaStar Books, 2000.
Olesen, Jacob. White Color Meaning The Color White. ColorMeaningscom, 26 Nov. 2013,
http://www.color-meanings.com/white-color-meaning-the-color-white/.
Smith, Melinda, and Jeanne Segal. Depression Symptoms and Warning Signs. Depression
Symptoms &Amp; Warning Signs: How to Recognize Depression Symptoms and Get
Effective Help, http://www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/depression-signs-andsymptoms.htm.
8 Ways Depression Is Dangerous for Your Health. 8 Ways Depression Is Dangerous for Your
Health, 20 Sept. 2016, http://healthguides.healthgrades.com/finding-the-best-depressiontreatment/8-ways-depression-is-dangerous-for-your-health.