White Girl Irony

When first reading this assignment, I was excited because I had an excuse to look up what my name meant, something that I never have done before. I've heard of people's names meaning "princess" or "kindness" and stuff like that, but when I searched the name "Melanie," here's what I got:

Melanie; "From the French form of the Latin name Melania, derived from Greek...meaning 'black, dark.'"

Well, that explains a lot. The whitest white girl in the world was literally named "black."

I read on. The name "Melanie" was the name of a Roman saint who donated all of her wealth to charity, as legend tells. This connects to me because I have always seen the importance of kindness. No, I am not perfectly kind one hundred percent of the time. But I do try to be. When I was younger, I wouldn't want to tell my mom that I didn't like the clothes she was picking out for me because I didn't want to hurt her feelings. So naturally, I did the kinder thing and let her buy them anyways and then never wear them. I also need to be more charitable through monetary means. I often get so caught up in what I need that I forget the much more important needs of others. I could provide food for a starving family, and I'm here worried about getting a dress for homecoming.

The conflict between living up to two names is that the individual is never the same as the whole. I, personally, see myself as an outgoing, extroverted person when I am not with my family. However, I am pretty much the complete opposite with my family. In a family of six strongly opinionated people, it is hard to voice your thoughts. So naturally, I step back to allow room for others.
Consequently, I am two completely different people depending on the environment in which you interact with me. Those who know me through church or have met me through my family see me as a more quiet and reserved individual. If you were to describe this version of me to my friends and others, they wouldn't think you were talking about the same person.
In this dual personality, I guess there lies the issue of which person is really me. I guess I have to settle with being both; the fact that I morph into my environment is part of who I am. I try to allow for others to voice their opinions when they need to and when there are less extreme personalities in a situation, I step up to fill their place. I guess, in that way, I am charitable.

Religious Dopplegangers

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We are the Other - Easter Sunday, 38th & Chicago Bus Stop, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2012)

Jaymie, who this morning was on his way to Word of Grace Baptist Church, grew up a block from the bus stop. After I asked him what his favorite word was he told me a story about his mom. He was with her when she was on her deathbed, a picture of Jesus hanging over her. “I thought she was gone,” he said, “but then her eyes opened and her face started to glow.” He told me that people don’t believe him when he says that her face glowed.

When he was nine his mom had a nervous breakdown and she was sent to a state hospital. His father wasn’t around so he and his two brothers and sister were separated, ending up at various orphanages and foster homes. One brother he never got to know, who was a baby when this all happened, called him out of the blue ten years ago. Some sixty years had passed. He said his name was Steve and that he now lived in Cleveland.

He has no idea what happened to his other brother who had polio and an iron lung. “Maybe he was adopted,” he said. I was going to ask him about his sister but then his bus came.

Jaymie worked at grain mills most of his life and made decent money. Keeping up with his expenses was always a problem though. When I asked him for his contact information so I could give him a photo he said that he’s homeless and is at a Catholic shelter. “I gambled too much last year”.

--Written by Wing Young Huie, 2012 --http://know.wingyounghuie.com/tagged/We+are+the+Other/page/2

Upon first examination, this picture features an old man on a bus stop bench, holding a small chalkboard sign that says "salvation."  He has a tote bag of belongings and is holding what looks to be a bible. He is dressed for colder weather.

However, when you look closer in on the picture, the story of this man comes to life. He has very religious roots, as Huie explains in his back story. Huie implies that "salvation" is the man's favorite word. The man's face looks confused, like he doesn't know quite what is going on. Nevertheless, he maintains a tight grip on the bible in his hand, demonstrating a deep connection to Christianity within the man. We see the simplicity of the man's life by his lack of belongings as he awaits his bus to who knows where.

I picked this picture because this man is a doppelganger of a man in my church. To me, this man represents the "other" version of the man I know, if he were in a complete different financial situation and had experienced the hardships that this man has. Both of these men have a strong belief in Christian religion and center their lives around it. Huie represents the "other" in this picture as those who are less fortunate and homeless. He shows this by the meekness of the man awaiting his bus with his small bag of belongings. The man could have been a beggar, as he is homeless, but instead Huie chose a man who is just trying to go along with his life although he does not have much. His tight grip on the bible and the word on the chalkboard represent the things he finds most important in his life: both of which are rooted in God.

Atwood's depiction of the "others" is also through the lower class, but via the handmaids. She uses language to develop the difference in social classes. This is seen in how the handmaids communicate with others. Offred is even more alienated because she goes against the language of the "others" when she is in a comfortable environment. 

Both of these sources show a foundation of religious belief in relation to the "others" and how it influences their lives. While Huie's photo is more positively based upon religion, Atwood shows the negative misuse of biblical teachings and how they can restrict the "others."