My Name and the Struggle of Being Two People at Once

Honestly speaking, my first name doesn't mean much to me. I once watched a documentary that touched on whether or not first names can influence the outcome of peoples' lives, a part of which can be heard here:  http://freakonomics.com/2013/04/08/how-much-does-your-name-matter-a-new-freakonomics-radio-podcast/. For me, my parents chose a generic name to meet the one concern that if my name was too unusual I would stick out and not be viewed in a good light. The name 'Kyle' doesn't have any symbolic meaning... It's just normal. My last name, however, means more to me. My family and I always seem to get compliments on it; "LaCivita, what a beautiful name! Where does it originate?" The answer to that question always stirs up some emotion inside of me. It is an Italian name that I take pride in owning. I think back to my grandparents and great-grandparents that immigrated to the United States years ago with the same name, and I admire how far we've come as a family.

In my personal experience there has always been a distinction between the way you act around your peers and the way you act around adults. I do not mean to arouse a 'bad' connotation, but this distinction seems to stir up the idea of leading a 'double-life.' For example, when I was a child I would always go over my friends' houses to hang out. When I was greeted by their parents, I would be polite and courteous, holding back the crazy and spontaneous child that I was, as I was always taught to do. The second we would go downstairs to hang out outside of their parents' watch, my friends and I would fart and giggle and usually say whatever came to mind. This is natural, but there is only one problem:  why can't we be ourselves around adults? Because of how we are taught to behave in certain situations, we hold back our feelings and emotions, which ultimately hinders our communication. If I felt comfortable saying whatever was on my mind to adults, I would have been more confident and I probably would have learned a lot more throughout my childhood. I wouldn't have refrained from asking questions in fear that they might be considered foolish or inappropriate. This could have lead to a better understanding of the world which would have given me more insight, and insight is something many children and teens seem to lack nowadays.

Wing Young Huie and The Handmaid's Tale

 

We are the Other (2012 - 2013)

photos.wingyounghuie.com

Wing Young Huie

 

<a href="http://photos.wingyounghuie.com/p709406511/e79df8012"><img src="http://photos.wingyounghuie.com/img/s3/v43/p2044690450-2.jpg" width="400" height="264" alt="Wing Young Huie: We are the Other (2012 - 2013) &emdash; " /></a>

 

When first viewing this photograph I see two men working at an auto-repair shop standing in front of a old and destroyed car. They are both wearing black, and one is particularly large. The larger man is holding up a sign that reads: "Serving complexity + perfection is me." This seems as if it refers to his occupation of fixing cars.

 

After analyzing the photograph in-depth, I realize that the sign the large man is holding is a contradiction. "Serving complexity and perfection is me" represents beauty, good looks, and perfectness. However, he is clearly very overweight and doesn't fit the stereotype of a visually appealing, beautiful person. This shows that there is more to a person than what appears on the outside. The destroyed car may represent his inner feelings, or how the world perceives him from the outside. However, he fixes these cars and makes them beautiful again, signifying that anything can be beautiful if you look past the initial judgments and assumptions one may have.

 

Both Wing Young Huie and Margaret Atwood present the concept of "othering" through image and language by using the same style and register. Wing Young Huie presents a contradiction in his work: He portrays a very large man that fits the general stereotype of being overweight, ugly, and unhealthy, but his occupation contradicts that stereotype because it involves fixing broken things and making them beautiful again. Atwood also uses contradictions in her work. On the outside, all of the women in her work are categorized as the same, only valued for their reproductive potential. However throughout her work, she reveals the deep thoughts and aspirations that women have, and portrays many distinctive personalities that different women have, contradicting the initial idea that they are all the same.

Both of the uses of contradiction are based on the initial idea of stereotypes, Wing Young Huie's being the stereotype of being overweight and ugly, and Atwood's being the stereotype that all women are the same and only good for one thing. These stereotypes separate people as "others" in real life and in Atwood's work because people make assumptions based on the stereotype that they fit into. They use a very similar approach, but the general stereotypes are different. Atwood uses a particularly feminist viewpoint to convey her message. Wing Young Huie uses more of a humanitarian approach to convey his message. Both of them convey the message that stereotypes falsely represent people in a way that is discreet and non-explicit.