Blog Post 1: "Others" in the real world and The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale

Wing Young Huie's photos all had a purpose to them than was just on the surface. The one I chose was very interesting and I thought was relevant and prominent to beliefs today. The piece was taken during a three year project that Huie completed which involved photographing diverse neighborhoods in St. Paul. It was called the University Avenue Project and lasted from 2007-2010. Here is the photo.

When first observing this photo we see a black man sitting on the sidewalk in a yellow costume (probably a chicken) holding a sing that says "No Wait Special" and has a big yellow price that takes up almost the whole board, saying "$24.99." It looks like a used car dealership of some sort because in small letters below the price it says, "Most vehicles plus tax" and there is part of a car in the foreground of the photo. In the background we can see part of a white building that does not look very nice or fancy. On the surface this may seem like a random picture, but when you take time to think about the purpose of this photograph, there is a message and a comment on societies beliefs.

When looking deeper into the image I see that it is tackling the issues of low wage jobs and poor communities, specifically black communities. However, I think this photo is portraying an image that the American society deems as typical of a black teenage male; not staying in school and as a result having to work minimum wage jobs in order to support their poor families or themselves. Huie is trying to comment on the whole stereotypical attitude that Americans have towards black people when it comes to their educational abilities.

When looking at this photo we are able to pull out these bigger picture meanings because the photographer does an excellent job at using techniques to make it possible for the audience to analyze it. Specifically, Huie plays off stereotypes and public bias to highlight the concept of "othering" in our society today. Huie does this by using mainly visuals and color. Similarly, Margaret Atwood tackles "othering" in her futuristic society, but she uses descriptive language and imagery to depict this.

In Huie's photo his main goal is to show the "othering" of black people, specifically males by inferring how society believes they are not useful for anything because of their unintelligence, aggressive behaviors, and unwillingness to work hard. While this may be true with some black people, what Huie is trying to say is that there are people of all colors and races that fit into the category describes above and not just black males. Also he wants Americans to understand that it may seem like black teenagers bring this terrible situation onto themselves by dropping out of school, but this may not always be the case. There could be other reasons why and they could be working theses jobs in order to pay for college. But instead of thinking of other reasons, Americans go straight to the conclusion that these people are not smart and probably some are criminals who are in a completely different category of citizens from people such as hard working white males. Huie is able to convey this message to the audience through the use of a vibrant colored costume that the man is dressed in to really highlight that he is the main part of this picture. He also photographs the man with a serious almost depressed looking face to depict that this is not what he wanted with his life but maybe he could not get a job anywhere else because of his color skin. He wants to show that this is not how it is supposed to be.

In comparison, Atwood uses imagery in her language to depict the way society considers Handmaid's like Offred. In contrast Atwood also uses a great deal of descriptive language unlike Huie who has a very simple picture with not too much detail or density.  At one point Offred explains, “We are containers, it’s only the insides of our bodies that are important. The outside can become hard and wrinkled, for all they care, like the shell of a nut. They don’t want us to look attractive” (Atwood 96). In this quote Atwood uses these two techniques to show that the Handmaid's are considered "others" because they are supposed to look uglier than normal citizens or higher officials and they only have one purpose, to bear children.

In conclusion both authors are trying to show the audience that "othering" is a major problem in society that causes many social groups to form and inequality to occur. The problem gets worse and worse if nothing is done about it. Huie and Atwood want as many people to become aware of this problem as possible in order to understand that something needs to be done to stop it. They want to show that it happens everywhere and could be even worse in the future like Atwood shows.



Works Cited

The Handmaids Tale Novel

http://www.wingyounghuie.com/p929219206/h66b2c695#h66b2c695