"At Least There Was No Trouble"

The Handmaids Tale portrays many of the issues that were described in both Talking Back and Sins of Silence. In the text Sins of Silence one part stood out to me more than the rest, "But no matter! I was stone. Silent. Hard. Emotionless. Nothing was going to hurt me!" In The Handmaids Tale Offred says something similar was told to her by her mother, the she should steal herself and he wouldn't get hurt. The interesting thing is in both Sins of Silence and The Handmaids Tale they disregard their rules, Offred begins a strange unknown relationship with the commander, and Mai Kao Thao moves to America and learns differently.

I found it intriguing in Sins of Silence that she felt she was losing her "Self," I interpreted this to mean that she was losing who she was, her individuality, and her passion for life. I think that this is seen in many of the more compliant handmaids, they appear to have given up all hope for their world to return to the way it was before as well as resigning themselves to the repression they are subjected to now.

I like, Saumya and Rahul see the huge space between the rights of men versus those of women. When you go outside and watch India go by, you see very few women. Yet if you were to stand in a kitchen, you would only see women. Like in Talking Back the men were in charge of church and the women the house. After doing some research I found that in 1998 less than 40% of women in India were illiterate, this kind of life style (one without the power to read) is seen imposed on the handmaids in The Handmaids Tale as an attempt to control the women. http://www.census.gov/ipc/prod/wid-9801.pdf

"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"

Different propaganda it seems, have similar qualities to one another.  While people were presenting their posters many said the same things for their choice in color, text, layout and images, they all wanted and needed to be remembered. Many of the posters had a large image in the center that drew your eyes, while at the same time having large text that otherwise would have dominated the poster. It seems to me that with propaganda posters it is very similar to just talking, because many people believe that if you say it louder more people will remember it, same a posters, the larger its written the more likely people are to remember it.  However we also have to take into account what is being said, if it is dull and has no weight it will probably not be remembered whether it is loud or not, but if it is interesting and catchy than it might be more memorable.

Another thing that I would to really connect all the posters was that we were focusing on making people feel rather than providing information for the public to decipher. To do this many of us portrayed people of power, abusing said power, as ugly, as disfigured, and things emphasizing the worst. Looking at other propaganda posters through history I found that many of them also changed or portrayed the image of a “foe” as hideous and ugly.

According to http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111500/proptech.htm there are about eleven different types of propaganda. The types that this site explains include: Assertion, Bandwagon, Card stacking, Glittering Generalities, Lesser of Two Evils, Name Calling, Pinpointing the Enemy, Plain Folks, Simplification (Stereotyping), Testimonials, and Transfer.  Some of the more frequently used types of propaganda in our class was card staking, this is when you present information however you omit facts that are against your argument. Glittering generalities was also used my many of us because it is easy to use a word that implies that it is already good, or bad. Some of the posters that were very specific about their cause used Pinpointing the Enemy because it is very effective at gathering all the bad stuff and piling it onto one person, however simplification is very similar and also widely used because it provided an opportunity to exaggerate a problem or person and to glorify others.

Blog Portfolio

1. Coverage
I have done all blog posts on readings

2. Depth
http://samantha94englishblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/experiencing-novel.html

3. Interaction
http://samantha94englishblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/very-different-world.html

4. Discussions
http://samantha94englishblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/implications-of-truth.html#comments

5. Xenoblogging
http://rahdigga27.wordpress.com/2010/10/01/scary-korean-story/#comment-11

6. Wildcard
http://samantha94englishblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/very-different-world.html