Assignment 4: A World in Pictures- Mia Alexander

A mother and her children pretend to have been shot at the Westgate mall shooting exactly a year ago in Nairobi, Kenya


This picture startled me when I first saw it on the news last year. The first things that came to mind were that I hope they are just pretending and "where is this?" . When I got the full story it still broke my heart because of the circumstances which they survived. There were many people in the mall that day that did not make it but this family did. I think what comforted America about this picture was that the mother was with her kids first and foremost. Almost everyone can relate to the attachment of one's mother and fewer can relate to the mother role itself. This picture enforces the idea of family cohesiveness and brings to the surface that unthinkable situation in which one loses their children, their parent,  or their spouse. This picture not only comforts, it also terrifies the viewer. The image is a reality check. Not everybody made it out safe. Kenya was changed forever because not only was innocence stolen from children that day. Lives of children and adults, who thought it was a normal day, were taken. Like other terroristic attacks, this will shape the lives of everyone involved, remaining in the back of everyone's mind. That terrible day brought nations together to try and pick up the pieces and I will never forget how this picture in particular made me feel.