Thais G. Hanks
Professor Bell
English 1301
15 February 2018
Humanity Speaks Louder Than Duty
“The Perfect Picture,” written by James Alexander Thom, perfectly demonstrates a cruel
capitalistic society where human tragedy propels a commercial market. As a police reporter,
Thom was called to report the news of this simple and old working man who, backing up his
pickup truck, accidentally killed his granddaughter. Thom finds himself one click away from a
big opportunity in his career to become a well-known and valued reporter. Thom struggles the
whole time with whether or not to take the picture. He sees that this scene would make a perfect
picture, but his heart feels the weight of its imperfection. In the end, his humanity speaks louder
than his professional duty.
Tom arrived at the old man’s house, where he witnessed a scene of rude and intrusive
reporters. They had their cameras and microphones already pointed at him, like a thief in a
robbery pointing a gun at his victim, wanting to deliver the daily news to propagate the sellable
tragedy of this family. Thom felt deeply compassionate toward the grief of this grandfather, who
was in a state of shock and fully perplexed. From the beginning, this man was treated as
commercial content, devoid of empathy. Despite his feelings, Thom was determined to do his
job, as he said, “And I, like a good reporter, went into the house to find someone who could
provide a recent photo of the toddler.” Thom was aware of his duty and tried to exert it; however,
entering the old man’s kitchen Thom saw, as he said, “sitting on a chair beside the table, in
profile to me and unaware of my presence, was the baby’s grandfather looking
uncomprehendingly at the swaddled corpse. The grandfather slowly leaned forward, curved his
Hanks 1
