David and Lou- Blog Post 1

The photograph shows two men on a porch. One is a white man, who is smoking a cigarette, and one is a black man. They both look comfortable and caught off guard, as if they didn't know the photograph was being taken. That, or they just wanted a serious photo. In the description of the picture underneath, the artist wrote that they were best friends and had been for seven years. Looking deeper into this picture, the audience can infer that it may not be common for two people of different races to be hanging around together. The looks on their faces give almost a "so what" look, as if this is not typical to see and they are going against the norm. The photographer of this picture formed a picture that seems to make the audience feel like the "other". As I said before, the two men look very comfortable in their surroundings and give a standoff face that makes it seem as though the photographer or the audience is the outcast.

Atwood also creates this sense of othering in her work, The Handmaid's Tale. In contrast, Atwood does not other the audience but instead welcomes them into the world of Offred. It is the character Offred, herself, who is othered. One of the most obvious ways in which the author creates this is by giving the Handmaids there own outfits and head pieces. At one glance a character in the story could see that Offred is a handmaid. In fact, all the different roles in the Gilead society, have their own way of marking who they are, by what they wear.

In each of these pieces of work, Wing Young Huie's and Margaret Atwood's, the ways of othering are shown through the imagery and story telling, as opposed to the creator specifically telling the audience. The viewers can see these works and draw their own conclusions on what they mean. The photograph seems to touch on the issue of race, whereas The Handmaid's Tale never discusses race but does discuss the gender issue. Both of these are issues in today's society and they are evoked in these texts/pictures.