For my capstone, I filmed and edited a video on the history, core values, and benefits of Science Leadership Academy. I wanted to make something for possibly people looking to apply, or anyone who wants to know more, really. I interviewed Mr. Lehmann and some students to get not only my own perspective, but the perspective of many others about the community and history of SLA.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/13G8bA2bdnKWx6JpWviC21qjo-H8UlCq_
My project focuses on many of the people that the man and boy have encountered on the road. There are many occurrences of the man and boy throughout the drawing. The man is visualized in a purple shirt, used to represent his personal battle between good (blue) and evil (purple), and the boy is wearing yellow as he is hopeful and optimistic, therefore being one of the shining lights left in a dark world. There are four obstacles on this map, in chronological order. The first one classified as “the rat”, is on page 61, where a man kidnaps the boy and the man threatens to shoot him. The rat “dove and grabbed the boy and rolled and came up holding him against his chest with the knife at his throat. The man […] fired from a two-handed position balanced on both knees at a distance of six feet. The man fell back instantly and lay with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead.” The picture shows the man firing at the rat while the rat has a knife in his hands and is in hot pursuit of the boy. The next thing on the timeline is multiple people in “the bunker” that the man and the boy end up stumbling upon on pg. 103, where they find “naked people, male and female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands. On the mattress lay a man with his legs gone to the hip and the stumps of them blackened and burnt. The smell was hideous. Jesus, he whispered. Then one by one they turned and blinked in the pitiful light. ‘Help us, they whispered. Please help us.’” The picture shows the despair on the face of the people in the bunker, while the man and boy are expressionless in shock. The second to last occurrence is “the thief”, who ends up stealing the man and boy’s cart, and the boy breaks the news to the man on pg. 250, where they follow the tracks of the cart and chase the thief. After they find him, the man tells the thief to “Get away from the cart. He looked at them. He looked at the boy. He was an outcast from one of the communes and the fingers of his right hand had been cut away. He tried to hide it behind him. A sort of fleshy spatula. The cart was piled high. He’d taken everything.” The man holds out his gun and threatens the guy, telling him to give everything to them, even the thief’s own clothes. And then the last one is where the boy encounters his new family after the man dies. “Someone was coming. He started to turn and go back into the woods but he didn’t. He just stood in the road and waited, the pistol in his hand. He’d piled all the blankets on his father and he was cold and he was hungry. The man that hove into view and stood there looking at him was dressed in a gray and yellow ski parka. He carried a shotgun upside down over his shoulder on a braided leather lanyard and he wore a nylon bandolier filled with shells for the gun”
Song 1 - Past Life by Tame Impala https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kZ2W5f-H3k
This song speaks about seeing a former lover from a “past life”. It correlates with the memories that Offred frequently has of Luke during the night chapters. The song talks about all the things of a former partner, including the “smells” of them and that coming back to them. Most of the beginning in the story shows Offred’s heartache while reminiscing about her former partner. The memories provide her with an escape from the harsh reality of her society, however she is concerned that she is losing these memories of him, saying in chapter 40 that she should’ve paid attention “to the details, moles, and scars, the singular creases; I didn’t and he’s fading. Day by day, night by night, he recedes, and I become more faithless”. Her story about Luke and the cat in Chapter 30 describes him as the man who she really loved, which is why she misses him so much.
Song 2 - Somebody’s Watching Me by Rockwell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY
In the song, although he is just any ordinary person, the singer feels as though he is being watched. The Handmaid’s Tale takes this song to a whole new level as Offred is never alone, therefore always being watched. She has to walk with another handmaid, and since the laws of Gilead are so strict, obviously there’s going to be a lot of people reinforcing those laws and making sure the place is in order. The song says they are “just an average man with an average life” and that “all I want is to be left alone in my home” however privacy in Gilead, again, is very limited. Not only is the government big on surveillance, but they encourage their citizens to keep a close eye on the others too. On page 29, Offred talks about the handmaids always having to walk together with each other: “She is my spy, and I am hers. If either of us slips through the net because of something that happens on one of our daily walks, the other will be accountable”. This implies that you can not rebel or break the rules at any time, because someone else will also take the blame if you do something wrong and get away with it.
Song 3 - Violent Crimes by Kanye West https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSY7u8Jg9c0
This song is about Kanye West speaking his opinion on women and how he wants God to forgive him for seeing women in a different way than he does now, ‘cause now he sees “women as something to nurture, not something to conquer”, which is contradictory to the book, as the leaders definitely see women as something to “conquer”. The “violent crimes” talked about in the song are the treatment of women around the world, and how men can be “savages”, “players”, and “monsters”. This relates to the citizens of Gilead treating the women very harshly and batting an eye to a more equal alternative. Offred reflects on the rights, or lack thereof, that she is given, and says that she’s not even allowed hand lotion or face cream, because they are considered vanities. She also claims that women in Gilead are “containers, it’s only the insides of our bodies that are important”.
Song 4 - The Scientist by Coldplay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB-RcX5DS5A
The lyrics in this song are pretty self-explanatory, the song’s chorus is “Nobody said it was easy, It’s such a shame for us to part, Nobody said it was easy, No one ever said it would be this hard, Oh, take me back to the start”. This relates very much to Offred having memories about Luke in the night chapters. One quote that stands out to me was when Offred said that Luke “wasn’t a doctor. Isn’t.” This is Offred trying to convince herself that Luke is still alive, because not even she fully believes it. It is stated many times in the book that the chance of Luke being alive is pretty slim.
Song 5 - Stairway to Heaven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkF3oxziUI4
This song represents the very end of the book when Offred goes to the mysterious van. One of the possibilities that awaits Offred is death. This song talks about a woman “buying” a stairway to heaven. This relates to Offred somewhat accepting her fate at the end of the book, saying she is steeping “into the darkness, within; or else the light”. Offred says these words uncertain of her future, and the book ends without us knowing what ends up happening to Offred. But as death is one of the possibilities, this song is fitting for the final chapter.
The wall of Gilead serves many purposes. When you are alive, it keeps you inside the republic. When you are dead, you hang on the wall. And it symbolizes the new civilization they live in. I chose to make a visual representation of Offred in her handmade outfit, staring at the wall that keeps her enclosed. It shows bodies on the wall (not drawn too graphically), and the quote from Aunt Lydia saying “This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will. It will become ordinary”. This piece resembles the enclosure of the republic where Offred is stripped of her rights and treated as no human being ever should be. Obviously the rules in the republic of Gilead are very strict, and the bodies on the wall are basically a message from the leaders, the message being that if the rules are bent, that’s where you’ll end up. And the rules are bent many a time, meaning many feel the wrath of the wall. Offred herself realizes herself how much these salvagings are happening by saying she “didn’t hear the bells. Perhaps I’ve become used to them” (Atwood 32). The wall, as though some might look at it as a pile of bricks, others might look at it as a symbol. A symbol of civilization moving backwards. The wall restricts the people in a modern world where everyone should have freedom in their everyday lives. The possibilities should be endless, however the wall puts restrictions on said possibilities. The bodies on the wall almost seem like a strategy from the higher ups, as if to show the people who defied the rules, the people who wanted nothing more than to be past the boundaries, past the tens of feet of brick. They hang them exactly on that brick, as if to convince the others that if they try to get past this wall, they will be up there next. Especially since there are unoccupied hooks next to the occupied ones, and according to Offred the hooks symbolize “appliances for the armless. Or steel question marks, upside-down and sideways” (Atwood 32). The people on the wall always have a symbol near them, showing why they have been punished. This is an attempt to show the people what exactly they are NOT to do. But at this point in Gilead, it’s not about what you cannot do, it’s about what you are actually allowed to do, because that’s a much shorter list. The blood released from the prisoners symbolizes the inhumanity of the leaders, and the lengths they go just to try and prove a point to the citizens. Lydia’s quote in the bottom right is said on page 32, where Offred describes the features of the wall. And she is making it clear that these bodies hanging on the wall is just the beginning, that this is almost definitely going to be a common occurrence from now on.
