The purpose of this paper is to establish and state the relationship between words and pictures in the picture books. The paper is based on the picture books and uses examples from the chosen sources to show how pictures and words are inter-dependent in the picture books. It is a secondary qualitative study that uses written sources like picture books and articles. Quotations from the selected books are used to establish the validity of the points stated in this paper. The finding of this analysis is that both words and pictures have to be used together in picture books in order to create a clear and complete meaning to the readers. Good artists and writers have to, thus, incorporate the use of words in picture books.
List of terms
Complement – This term means to assist or help, as used in this case.
Picture books – Books with pictorials for children reading
Captions – Words accompanying a picture
Visual – Able to be seen physically
Setting – The place from which the picture is taken
Characterization – The process of developing the traits of characters in a story
Viewpoint – The perspective from which a picture story is understood
Words and pictures
Picture books normally cover varieties of reading materials for children. Picture books range from the toy to Mother Goose books used by the very young children. There are also the picture books that are full of plots, which are aimed at satisfying older children who are experienced. Therefore, as Perry Nodelman (210) notes clearly, picture books are meant for the young children and have stories as well as useful life information communicated through a series of pictures accompanied by brief texts. It is vital to note that both texts and the pictures in these books play a very distinct role from the ones used in other books. In these books, the pictures and the words in text form normally complement each other to bring out a strong and clear meaning to the readers, which cannot be achieved if either of them is excluded. This paper proves that words and pictures cannot function independent of each other hence must be used together for the intended clear meaning to b achieved.
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Words without pictures are vague and incomplete
Words are vague and incomplete if they are used without pictures. Therefore, pictures complement words by clarifying the information being communicated. Just like pictures, words too need to be accompanied with images in order to be clear and easy to understand. It is said that words that lack pictures are vague and incomplete. If one writes a text without including pictures, such a text becomes incommunicative when it comes to significant visual information (Nodelman, 211). Words alone cannot express visual information in a complete and accomplished manner. They have to be complemented by pictures as an illustration of the visual information. It is these pictures that give the words a vivid view in the minds of the readers. It becomes very easy to have a vivid remembrance of the text when images are included. Therefore it is a two way scenario, where both words and pictures are necessary for the proper communication of given information.
Contributes how to the development of reading comprehension
Pictures when used with words improve the practice of reading and comprehension. They make it easy for the readers to get a vivid comprehension of the story. It is important to observe that a common feature in picture books is the employment of pictorial text to present content. This pictorial text is always integral to the storyline of the book. The words used normally bring about the much needed enhancement of the actions, characterization and settings. A picture book is said to be well written if the pictorial and word parts complement each other perfectly (Fang, 132). By complementing each other, the implication is that the reader cannot just understand the message of the entire story by way of reading the words written only or the pictures alone. High quality picture books normally have the words used and the pictorial illustrations combine to tell a story or present a given message to the readers. The full meaning of the entire picture book is developed by the interaction between the words and pictures used (Fang, 133). In this sense, the picture books are rightly viewed as a very different genre from the traditional; literary works that use the verbal language only.
Pictures establish the setting
Pictures normally establish the setting of a story. They give a pictorial view of the environment in which a particular story is set. As words describe the setting of the story, it becomes clearer to the reader when the image of this environment is shown.
“ Ida played her wonder horn to rock the baby still, but never watched”.
In the picture above, it can be seen that the child is playing a musical instrument while facing away from the child. The words in the caption accompanying the image, identify the instrument as a horn. Therefore, readers are able to understand the actions taking place in the picture by reading the words in the caption.
When there are no words included, the readers can only understand that the mother of Snow White was gentle and morally upright from the Burkert's pictures if they share same knowledge of appearances and gestures. With the shared knowledge of gestures and appearances, readers can also tell that Burkert purposes to have them view the mother of Snow White from an objective distance (Fang, 136). However, without the knowledge that the picture is a representative of Snow White’s mother, it is very difficult for the readers to realize the person who is gentle and good-mannered hence they may not find the picture useful to them. In essence, without words including the name of the person on the picture, it does not communicate anything of interest to the readers. It may have been that context defined by the meaningful words that would have informed the way of understanding the picture even if it were raised in a gallery titled Portrait of a Woman . Had it been accompanied by the text Portrait of a Woman as its caption, readers would have read it the way they do for pictures and find out more details.
Pictures determine mood
The mood of the story is perfectly expressed by the pictures included to accompany the words. Words only give the virtual description of it, but images show the real mood of the story visually.
"They stole my sister away!" she cried, "To be a nasty goblin's bride!"
In the picture above, the child seems really upset and a reader cannot know why she is angry unless they read the words in the caption. The words give meaning to the picture by stating the reason the child pictured appears to be angry. At the same time, readers can see that the kid is missing from this picture. Through reading the words in the caption, we get to understand that the kid was stolen.
Pictures develop plot
The plot of the story is also well developed by pictures. In the picture books, the pictures and the words in text form normally complement each other to bring out a strong and clear meaning to the readers, which cannot be achieved if either of them is excluded. In this paper, it has been established that both words and pictures are not independent of each other. They depend on each other for the purpose of creating a clear and useful meaning to the readers. The interaction between words and pictures is very significant for the development of reading comprehension. Words normally anchor pictures. The titles o the pictures are expressed in terms of words. On the other hand, pictures illustrate the visual information presented by words. Words alone cannot perfectly present visual information to readers. It is, thus, vital to note that a good writer and artist must understand the best ways of integrating words and pictures in developing a clear text for the readers.
Pictures provide different viewpoint
Moreover, pictures normally present a different perspective of the story from the one that would be got if words alone were used. One may rightly hold the position that pictures are capable of showing readers things that words may not be able to do. The implication of this statement is that in presenting the surface appearance of things as well as objects, a picture normally offers more visual information than it is necessary for the verbal message. For instance, an artist may want to depict a woman standing in the open room, but to achieve this intention, he or she must illustrate a specific woman with a specified shape of the nose while standing in the open room. In the novels, most characters usually lack noses, elbows and clothes. People are then left to develop an assumption that they have these details. Moreover, such details are never vital for the readers’ understanding of the characters in novels.
Words reveal internal significance
However, words are also very significant and they reveal the internal significance of a story. The importance of words is that they only focus on that which is significant and relevant. However, since each illustrator has to accord a character a nose regardless of its significance, a picture usually has information that could be not relevant to the reader. The details may not be required for the understanding of the narrative. For readers to be directed at what is significant, a context of specific and relevant wants has to be used. This can assist in reducing the number of words, which a given picture is capable of evoking.
Pictures contribute to coherence
Pictures normally enhance the coherence of the story. Notably, the picture presented in Wild Things , which shows Max making mischief as he chases a dog with a fork, would be turned instantly if the words in the text accompanying it read, "The dog ran so fast trying to escape the bad boy that she nearly banged her head on the door." With these words in the text accompanying the picture, the text would shift to become mainly about the dog, but not the Max (Nodelman, 215). Therefore, with the use of words, the same gestures and appearances in pictures may refer to different situations. If a reader is able to view a picture and develop a belief that it indeed shows what words describe of it, then search a person has known the relationship between words and pictures. This relationship is that of complement. Words and pictures assist each other in creating useful meaning to the reader.
Pictures without words are vague and incomplete
Equally, pictures are incomplete and vague if used without words. The application of words to pictures is a process that entails changing visual information into verbal. The words may not necessarily be spoken aloud. The wordless books also need one’s knowledge of the manner in which narratives work before any meaning can be deduced from them. Although many people may hold the view that a picture communicates many words, it does so only under specific conditions (Sendak, 33). These specific conditions do include a context of words within which a given picture is set.
A picture book that lacks words becomes a complex narrative for a child to understand. Although pictures do have the ability to convey information, when no words accompany them, they do so in a subtle and complicated manner. The information communicated by a picture has to be accentuated and enhanced by words describing it. It is possible for people to learn information about medieval Europe as presented in Burkert's illustrations for Snow White (Fang, 138). However, this is only possible if we understand that the details contained in the pictures are characteristic of the Medieval Europe. Such insights can only be caught if the reader is told in form of words. Of course it is true that the pictures used in the picture books give information that cannot be achieved through the use of words, but texts are required to explain the meaning the meaning of the picture (Fang, 139). Readers of the picture books need words to complement the pictorial messages by telling them what they represent. It is only through the use of words that a reader can be told what is being shown by the picture in the book. Once people understand what is being presented by the picture, they are able to make perspective and deduce relevant information from the pictorials.
Words focus the picture
Moreover, words normally focus the information presented in the picture. There are indeed many aspects of pictorial meanings that demand the clarification of words in texts accompanying the pictures. For instance, it is impossible for a reader to simply tell that a given picture is about flashback. Words have to be used in order for the readers to clearly know that what they see in the picture is simply a flashback. It is the reason one finds it very difficult to tell that the pictures in Happy Owls by Piatti represent the visual images that the owls are talking about, without the presence of the accompanying words (Nodelman, 217).
Readers can easily be confused regarding all the things shown in pictures, if they speak more than words. Therefore, picture books have to be in a state where a reader has to consult the words in the texts in order to get a meaningful direction regarding the line of understanding them. For instance, the Mona Lisa by itself may or may not be an interesting picture (Nodelman, 218). It only becomes interesting to the reader when it is accentuated by a number of words to give more useful and clear meaning. It is important to note that no picture can make meaning if it is not introduced with a title. The title must be expressed using words and this is the importance of words in picture books.
Words establish temporal relationships
A picture book achieves temporal relationships through the use of words. Pictures have the ability of communicating a lot of information to readers. They are of great visual significance, but only if words are used to give them a more meaningful focus. It is these words that normally tell people what is more about the pictures, which warrants the interest of the reader (Sendak, 43). The process of attempting to comprehend what a picture is all about is an act of interpreting the visual information in verbal terms. It is vital to know that reading a picture with an intention of deriving a narrative meaning is a process of using the person’s knowledge and comprehension of words. The two parts of a picture book are not independent of each other, but work in a complementary combination aimed at creating a more interesting meaning to the readers.
Seymour Chatman, a very renowned scholar, says in What Novels Can Do That Films Can't that a camera is able to shows information, but does not describe it for the reader. The meaning of this statement is that pictures normally illustrate to people the kind of objects that should interest them. However, a picture does not point out the specific points and features that readers have to concentrate on in order to gain the intended information. For instance, while a novelist my say that a particular woman is beautiful, but the picture is able to depict this beauty in visual terms. Within the picture books, words are used to focus the attention of the readers in a way that makes them to be assertive. Words are significant in picture books because they can offer a cognitive map, which may be applied to pictures with an intention of finding out the different details contained in them. This effect of words in pictures is referred to as anchoring. Barthes says, “...the text directs the reader among the various signifieds of the image, causes him to avoid some and to accept others,” (Nodelman, 220). Words within the picture book normally work as anchoring labels. For instance, a picture of an object accompanied by the words “This is a cat” makes readers to view it in a completely different perspective (Nodelman, 220). When characters are pictured, it is not easy to tell what goes on in their minds unless words are used to describe them.
References
Fang, Z. (1996). “Illustrations, Text, and the Child Reader: What are Pictures in Children's Storybooks for?” Reading Horizons 37(2): pp.131-141.
Nodelman, P. (1990). “Chapter 7: The Relationships of Pictures and Words.” Words About Pictures: Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books . University of Georgia Press. pp. 210-220.
Sendak, M. (1981). Outside Over There . New York, NY: Lothrop, Lee and Shepard.
