Do these images
imprison?
Here are Student thoughts....
Bert Mikosh: It is true that when we take a picture of anything, especially
living, we sort of capture the object or imprison it. Remember, the Native
Americans would not, for the longest time, allow their picture to be taken since
they believed that this picture would capture and imprison their spirit. The
woman in this story is definitely in a prison whether in a picture or not, but an
image does add a twist to her predicament. You could say the movie is a living
object and when we take a frame from this movie, and put it somewhere to be
displayed, we in fact freeze or capture that image.
Brandi Mahon: The movie does an incredible job illustrating the narrator as
completely insane from day one. It didn't allow the reader or in this case the
audience to decide for themselves. When we make clips of the movie we do indeed
imprison the woman because you have no way of knowing what has happened before or
what is to come. We imprison her more because we make judgments of a thirty
second clip that could possibly affect our bias for the movie or the story itself
before we have a chance as an individual to read the story or watch the movie.
Brandi Jones:
By analyzing the references to motherly instincts, to spousal
subservience, and to female image, one is contributing to the imprisonment of
the woman along with society of that day. For example, when a singular argument
or film is made a certain impression is set in the mind of an individual, which
is not familiar with the story, the imagination of that person would not
function as actively in searching for independent thoughts and opinions since
many were laid out before them to either hear or see. Additionally, a picture
from a film, say included with a written analysis, would provide one frame from
an entire movie. Obviously, this would not be revealing the story in its
entirety, imprisoning the woman to the physical appearance and instantaneous
action of only that moment in which the frame was taken. This one picture will
close all of the doors for the emotions taking place except those obvious to the
naked eye. By not showing the whole story and not allowing a new reader to know
all of the facts, prejudice and/or bias is certain to follow. Thus, by just
displaying a certain selective photo, while it might add to the attractiveness
of the presentation of the item, does nothing more than open the door to bias,
and does not facilitate complete understanding of the story. And by doing this,
the woman is further imprisoned, and her perspective lost.
Joy Goodie: The pictures which we take from the film simply reflect the
stereotypes of helplessness and care giving roles of women. By analyzing the
effects of such images we can eliminate the detrimental effects that our author
faced. While the female in movies and film today are really no better than they
were at the time of this story, the significant difference is in that this
imagery is not politically correct in this society.
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