Atta Girl, Atwood



http://www.wingyounghuie.com/p970478690/e67c754c7



The author of the photo is Wing Young Huie and this photo was taken in 2012. On first examination, one can see two girls holding signs on a stairwell. One sign says, "A bastard child, anti-social painter with a negative self-image." The girl on the left has a sign that says, " I'm no better than an animal. But all types of animals are beautiful." The girls in the photo are both white and are assumed to be college age because the photo is taken at North Dakota State University. When looking deeper, it can be observed that the photo is in black and white. This gives a more somber mood to the photo. Additionally, both girls do not seem to be happiest in their photos. It could be assumed that either the photographer told them to look a certain way, or maybe they wanted to fit the mood of the message on their boards.

Atwood and Wing Young Huie both use color to represent the concept of "othering." Atwood utilizes colors in The Handmaids Tale in order to categorize the different women. For example, red is worn by the Handmaids in the novel. Red represents fertility to show how the Handmaids are responsible for bearing children. The Marthas wear the color green. This color symbolizes environment, safety or freshness. I feel as though this embodies the Marthas because they take care of the household chores. Wing Young Huie uses black and white photos in order to show "othering." This is shown in the photo I chose because the photo is in black and white that also compliments the black and white chalkboards. Additionally, both girls are wearing darker clothing. The absence of color allows people to look at the photo without judgement or influence of different colors.







Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 24, 2017 at 10:47 AM

    I liked the way that you were able to look at this picture and infer that they were not happy and that they wanted to show on their faces the emotions that they displayed on the chalk boards. I agree with what you talked about on Atwood's use of color as symbols in a similar way that Wing Young Huie did in this photograph with the black and white coloring to avoid judgement based on colors. In my opinion, I think that it would help your audience understand your understanding of the photograph better if you had gone into more details about what the deeper meaning of it may have been. Overall I think that you did very well at explaining this photograph in relation to the novel and backing it up with the examples of the use of color in each piece.

    ReplyDelete
  2. beautifuldeenSeptember 24, 2017 at 3:40 PM

    I totally agree with the idea that Atwood and Huie use color to portray "othering" in their work. I think that language is used a lot as well to show the concept of "othering." Atwood writes Offred's perspective on the regime using negative language to show her refusal to conform. Additionally, Huie photographed a girl with a sign that wrote "A bastard child, anti-social painter with a negative self-image," to show how the concept of "othering" is well aware in the society.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's in a name?

"Are you guys related?" A question I have been asked my entire life, and the answer is most likely no. Growing up around people of the Jewish faith, the last name "Kaplan" is common in my community. However, I never looked deeper into meaning, because my last name irritated me. When researching my last name, I was not surprised to find that the origin was Jewish. It also comes from the name "Cohen", another name with Jewish origin. In contrast, my first name is quite obviously different than the other Rachel's and Ava's I grew up with. When researching the name "Hayley", the name has derived from an English town meaning "hay clearing."The name Hayley is Anglo-Saxon, other spellings such as Haley are of English origin. However, as I grew up my last name bothered me less. I came to terms with my culture, thus appreciating how my last name connected me to my Jewish faith. Quite literally my last name does define me. It defines ...
Read more

Witch-slapped: Macbeth's fall from grace

Image
3. Do you believe events in your life have been guided by  fate  or chance? Why or why not? Based on the text, what do you think Shakespeare's attitude was towards fate? Does Macbeth have any choice in his actions or was everything predetermined?  Use examples from the text as your support. To some extent, I believe the events in my life have been guided by fate or chance. The reason I believe this to be true in relation to my life is because I believe many events have occurred without my control. For example, I met one of my best friends at a concert. She wasn't originally allowed to go to this concert, but went last minute, additionally, she ended up in the row right in front of me. Moments like this believe me to think that some occurrences are  motivated by chance. However, I always have doubt when thinking about the systematic aspect of every event that occurs. To relate this, one may say it is fate that one has 4 classes a day with their ...
Read more

I've got you covered...

Image
The first cover on the left contains darker colors and presents the boat alone in the center of the image. The purpose of this image is to draw the readers attention to a primary symbol in the book. The boat symbolizes freedom and a lost childhood in the book, which relates to the title of Never Let Me Go. The one on the right seems to portray the main character Kathy, in a green field. Kathy is seen with an almost solemn expression as she is surrounded by beautiful scenery with bright and vivid colors. I think the purpose of this is to convey the theme of appearance versus reality that is present throughout. From the outside, Hailsham is a nice school full of happy, carefree children. The reality however is that they are going to grow up and donate their vital organs. The cover on the bottom left portrays the internal organs of the body against a dark grey background. The purpose of this cover is more straightforward because the grey background gives a negative connotation to the c...
Read more