Most of My Friends Hate America, Fargo, North Dakota (2012)
http://www.wingyounghuie.com/p970478690/h669adbf9#h669adbf9
2) When first looking at this picture, a lot of different things are automatically noticed, the “Most of my friends hate America,” sign, and the overweight man in the captain America suit, with the hood that covers his nose. The location of the photo being North Dakota is interesting. The Dakotas are not something Americans living outside of them hear about, when I think of North or South Dakota, I think of just emptiness. After this denotative examination, I began to make more connotative observations. The text on the sign “Most of My Friends Hate America,” once pondered, brings out a lot of observations about the population of the United States. My generation is known as the “America Hating” generation. Constantly all over social media, in classroom settings, or day to day conversations people are criticizing the United States, and our overall sense of nationalism is decreasing. It is almost starting to become “cool” to think America sucks. Then you have the other perspective, the people who love America, like the man depicted in this picture. His Captain America suit displays he faces the minority against his friends, and that he loves where he lives, despite living in a place like North Dakota. His wearing of the Captain America suit almost makes him seem harmless and innocent. It makes one wonder his personal life, and the people in it. It makes me wonder why most of his friends hate America, and why he doesn’t.
3) Huie uses the process of othering by portraying this person as unusual, because he supports America, unlike all his friends. In the place he lives, it is foreign to have a sense of nationalism, and he clearly is out of place in his Captain America suit. In HT, almost any social group could be portrayed as “othering.” The Gilead Reformation could be seen as “othering,” made evident by the Japanese folk that came and toured the area, asking Offred about her life while they were there. Atwood furthers this idea of a strange society that Offred lives in by Offred’s constant flashbacks to a life we are more familiar with, and one that is more similar to ours.
