Hail to the Lion

To stick with the Penn State them for one more week, this last image I find to be very rhetorical, but also very representative of all the happenings so far at school this year. The Penn State lion head, one of the most iconic college logos in the United States, took on a new look just a few months ago.

courtesy of USA Today

Where it first began, I cannot say, but it is easy to see why the lion head with the tear added spread so quickly. Like the cover of The Penn Stater, which I wrote about in an earlier post, this image quickly became something that seemed to express what words were unable to.

The Nittany Lion, which for years could do no wrong, which was idolized by many, suddenly became anthropomorphized to fit in with everyone else. An image that was as heartbreaking as it was comforting.

Particularly in the image above, it is shown in a downtown storefront (The Family Clothesline) window. I think that this one is especially powerful, because, not only is it in a heavily trafficked area, but there is nothing impersonal about this version.  It is not merely some graphically designed image on a computer screen, but it is hand-drawn, crafted out of sympathy and sorrow.

The image has appeared more than once of course, for there have been several times to shed tears this year. First showing up after the scandal in November, it could be seen in Facebook profile pictures, on shirts at People’s Nation, in magazines, and (of course) all over the web. The next time it would appear was just weeks after we had gotten back to school. For some, syllabus week served as a time to celebrate being back in Happy Valley, to forget about all the questions they faced at home. This sentiment disappeared quickly a few weeks later with the passing of Joe Paterno.

Again, the campus mourned. And, again, the lion cried.

Incredibly rhetorical, the image of the tearful lion mirrors the emotional state of a University in both a literal and symbolic way.