Prompt 7: Ambiguity

Discussions of ambiguous art can often reflect the great divides in societies and lead to fruitful debate. In a post online, a woman wrote about her assignment for a writing class in which she left clues and symbolism to convey that one character was being abused by her husband. She claimed the men in the class interpreted the story differently; the men were more comfortable with the abusive character as they did not interpret him as abusive. When the writer revealed her attempted meaning to the rest of the class, she was advised by her professor to to show the husband being abusive to her or an animal. The ambiguity could have helped spread her message because it could start a dialogue about how abuse is not easily seen by those on the outside due to lack of knowledge on the warning signs. Similar situations can occur around any piece of ambigious art. Because of this, ambiguity is a giver of topics for those of differing backgrounds to debate. It becomes both a tool for teaching those who are seemingly against you about the true meanings of your standpoints and what you have invested in them and a tool for understanding those you once thought had shallow or unfounded reasoning for their beliefs. The reader can become a different person or change another person using the ambiguity of a text. Ambiguity gives us a better understanding of the people around us, society, and ourselves. The text can be appreciated as a peacemaker. (Sorry for any typos I missed. Im using my phone for this one.)

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 19, 2017 at 7:18 AM

    Wow, I honestly did not even think about the debates ambiguity causes because most people only focus on the creativeness ambiguity allows. I think it is very interesting on how the men interpreted the story differently. The fact that the men were more comfortable with the abusive character shows how different the male brain works and interprets things such as abuse. The way you discussed ambiguity and the different examples you used really opened my eyes to the way we all look as things through a different viewpoint. Even though we blogged about the same topic the way in which we wrote about it was extremely different, which I really liked!! At the end of your blog you mention how ambiguity allows for a better understanding for people around us which is what America really needs at the moment so I think It was very cool how it tied into the world today!

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