My Name

My name 

Lit Lang Post 2 

9/27/2015

My name is Wrenn Daniel Pallas. In order to explore the meaning of my name it is important that I state my heritage. I am half Greek and half Italian. In Greek and Italian culture names are very important and respected. A baby is always named to honor someone in your family and to keep the family lineage alive, that is why both my Dad and my youngest brother share the name Nicholas. My name Wrenn, was created to honor my Italian grandfather, Rinaldo. Wrenn is a shorter name from Rinaldo. My last name comes from my Greek grandfather. My Greek grandfather was born with the last name Paterekas. When he moved to the United States he shortened it to Pallas, so it was easier to pronounce. I feel a lot of honor having my name and knowing that it carries the legacy of my family. I was not named after a bird.

I often experience the dilemma of having two selves when I am playing soccer. Soccer is the ultimate team sport that takes a complete group effort in order to be successful. With that said, everyone wants to be a hero. At practice it is really easy to make the right decisions that will benefit the team, whether that be cross the ball instead of shoot, or pass instead of dribble. When it comes to the game, that simplicity goes away. Everyone remembers who scored the goal, but no one remembers who got the assist. Personally, when I play I consider myself a maestro. That is due to my position on the field, as a midfielder my job is to orchestrate my teammates in order to make the right plays, this is why I have more assists than goals. However, late in the game I still find myself struggling whether to go for glory myself or pass the opportunity to someone else.

Wing Young Huie

We are the Other - David and Lou, South Minneapolis, MN (2012) 

A denotative examination of the text (little picture- what do we see on first examination? 

At first examination you see two men, a white man and a black man. They seem to be taking a cigarette break for they are smoking a cigarette on the porch of a low income house. 

A connotative examination of the text (big picture- what do we "discover" by looking deeper?)

By looking deeper at the picture it is clear that there is an obvious relationship between the two. They both have the same facial expression which indicates that they have similar values and opinions which is key for a good friendship. By reading the caption at the bottom of the picture, it confirms my assumption that the two are very similar. I think it is really cool that these two have such connection that we as the viewer look more at the connection between the two people rather than the obvious fact that these two are of different races.  

How do Wing Young Huie (in your selected photograph) and Margaret Atwood (in The Handmaid's Tale) present the concept of "othering" through  image, layout/format, language, and/or color? You may compare the two texts/approaches, contrast, or both. 

I find it really interesting how Huie presents “othering” in the image above. The photograph shows a connection between two people that most people dont usually associate together. What I mean by this is that some people might this strong connection between two people odd because they are of two different races. One way Atwood is similar to Huie is she presents “otherness” based on physical qualities. Huie uses race, while Atwood uses fertility. In The handmaid’s tale the women who are infertile are the ones that are outcasted by society. In a sense Huie does the same, for the men you see photographed are stereotypically the image that comes to mind for people who do not contribute greatly to society.