Response to Atta Girl Atwood

Project: University Avenue Project
Author: Wing Young Huie
Date: 2007-2010
Place of Publication: http://www.wingyounghuie.com/p929219206

When I first looked at Wing Young Huie’s photography’s this one really courts my attention.  I think this photograph is different from many of his others and at the same time it states a very clear and important message. It is also interesting due to the contrasts and parallels that connects Huie’s work to Margaret Atwoods book the handmaids tale.

By the first look at the photograph, I noticed a child placed in the center with a drawing and a written statement. Most of the child is hidden by the drawing/statement but I am able to see the sad eyes looking directly at the camera. It looks like the photograph was taking in a classroom and none of the other (probably older) students are focusing on the child in the center. The statement “A tiny ant with huge dreams” in combination with the simple childish drawing make the photograph even more interesting.

After further looking at the photograph I started seeing how the child holding the drawing might be symbolizing the statement, “A tiny ant with huge dream”. The child is tiny compared to the others student, he looks sad and alone but he wants us to know that in spite of the difference he is still a person that matters. Even though he is small and alone he is happy and have big dreams.

I think Wing Young Huie’s purpose with this photograph is to show that no matter your size, you can still dream big. Compared to the other students in the room, the child is a lot tinier than the rest, but it does not mean that his/her dreams can’t be as big. Huie is probably using an ant because the ant represents a society where each individual belongs to a group with a certain task, and where the individual’s feelings, thoughts and dreams are not important. Huie uses visual effects such as color, placement, perspective in the photograph to bring the message to the audience. By placing the child in the center and by using bright colors in the child drawing he creates the othering effect.

In Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaids tale all individuals also belong in a certain group, this could for example be the handmaids. In the society of Gilead, the individual’s feelings, thoughts and dreams are not important, as it is only the society main goal and expectations that is important. In comparison to Huie’s photography, the Handmaids are as ants in the society of Gilead. The handmaids have only certain tasks, as the ants, and they have no opportunity to change the situation. However, even though the society only sees them as tiny workers and only as a group, the individual characters still have their own thoughts and dreams. The group identity is used both by Huie and Atwood. Huie uses the ant and Atwood describes the color code used in Gilead. Atwood's portrays this in the book by the people that are rebellions against Gilead, i.e. as the characters such as Moria and Offred.