Continuing our discussion from Monday's class about Paul Gaugu's paintings, the one similarity in all the ones I've seen is the look in the subject's eyes. All the paintings focus on a woman, and in the two we looked at in the class, both women have a questioning glance in their eyes, almost as if they are seeing us as the readers and wondering why we are viewing them. What's strange however, is that in the cover art of Lucy, this time the woman is not making eye contact with the viewer. She has her head tilted down with her eyes looking down as well. What's also different is that she has her hand up in between us and her, almost as if she is trying to tell us to stop viewing her: stop judging her.
We talked a lot about the difference between viewing people and being viewed yourself and I think this relates a lot to Lucy. Throughout the novel, she's consistently being the viewer of the people around her. She notices the relationship between Mariah and Lewis crumble to the ground; she judges Mariah's friends; she takes pictures of the people around her. She spends so much of her time being the viewer and yet it's ironic because as we continue to read the novel, we, as readers, act as the viewer of her, and make our own judgments of Lucy. What's even more interesting is the connection between this concept and Paul Gaugu's cover art. Savage Poems focuses on a woman whose body language is anything but inviting. She doesn't want people viewing her, making judgements, and I feel like this portrays the character of Lucy so well.
We talked a lot about the difference between viewing people and being viewed yourself and I think this relates a lot to Lucy. Throughout the novel, she's consistently being the viewer of the people around her. She notices the relationship between Mariah and Lewis crumble to the ground; she judges Mariah's friends; she takes pictures of the people around her. She spends so much of her time being the viewer and yet it's ironic because as we continue to read the novel, we, as readers, act as the viewer of her, and make our own judgments of Lucy. What's even more interesting is the connection between this concept and Paul Gaugu's cover art. Savage Poems focuses on a woman whose body language is anything but inviting. She doesn't want people viewing her, making judgements, and I feel like this portrays the character of Lucy so well.
1 comment:
Interesting observation about the gaze (or lack thereof) of the women in the paintings.
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