The Goat and the Apple: A Junior Narrative Illustration by Katherine Higgins (2013)

For my Narrative Illustration, I depicted a young man who, breaking a long family tradition, wants to work with animals. The son goes home from college for Thanksgiving and at dinner is asked how he likes his classes. As the conversation starts to heat up about how the son is going to live his life, the son decides how to fix things. Instead of becoming a doctor, he will apply his completed credits to a pre-veterinary major, as this will allow him to work with animals without frustrating his dad by wasting a semester of expensive education.The scene I illustrated was the dinner scene, wherein the dad is represented by a goat and the son by an apple. The goat is outlined with words such as, ''tradition'' and ''doctor'', and sits on a flimsy looking chair. The apple consists of words like, ''youth'', ''decisive'', and ''career''. The apple rests on a sturdy table of ''family'' and ''community''. The goat, given the chance, would eat the apple, but the apple remains untouched, hinting at the story's resolution. Artistically, the goat is bland. The only colors involved are brown, black, and more brown. The goat goes well with the blue and green background setting, and blends into the image smoothly. The apple, being an apple, is red with a little bit of orange as well. These colors contrast with the blue and the green, making the apple seem hot and feisty. This helps to support the father's traditional point of view, as well as the son's decision to take the road less travelled.