Chiara Kama-Sigliano

BAC LLCE ORAL

INTRO

How does art denounces the issues in our society ?

Art, art, art. A word that we constantly hear everyday, everywhere and that keeps on
evolving. It goes from the statue of Davide in Firenze to a grafiti of banksy in The 5th
Avenue of New York City or even a love music sang by Edith Piaf in a little street of
Paris. Yet, to create these masterpieces artists need inspiration. These revelation
can appear from their own experiences, somebody they admire or the issues of our
society. But what do I mean by issues ? All the inequalities that sadly exist and that
we need to face everyday like gender inequalities, racism, discrimination, global
warning, homophobia, and sadly too much more.
PB : That brings me to my main point : How does art denounces the issues in our
society ?
PLAN : 1- Different ways to denounce depending on the artists : allegory, dystopya,
musical comedy, music, graffiti (comparaison)
2- All having the same goal : DENOUNCE INEQUALITIES. Which type of
inequalities ? The aim of denouncing ? The result on the reader.

3 DOCUMENTS WORKED IN CLASS :

1) The Handsmaid Tale : book CHAPTER 16 TO 21
+ passage here that I chose of the book
The Handmaid's Tale is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret
Atwood.

In this amazing piece of art written by Margaret Atwood, we understand how women
are always facing sexual inqualities. Effectively, in The Ceremony, Offred needs to
have sex with her Commander : Fred, that’s her duty as a Handsmaid and because
of Serena being sterile. In Gilead the violation of women has been legitimised and
ritualised. We can therefore witness how women are treated as “wombs with legs”
and nothing else.. Nothing is censored in this description of the passage to really
open the reader’s eye of this brutality scene. In addition, early on, the government of
Gilead strips women of their human rights, particularly their economic rights,
by restricting women's access to financial institutions by closing all the bank
accounts held by women and turning the contents over to husbands or male
family members. This book is therefore showing us how men are always
represented as powerful and putting their urges on top of everything without even
considering women. The opinion of Offred was not even a question as long as Fred
desires were fulfilled.
=GENDER INEQUALITIES, MEN AND POWER, RAPE, SEX THAT IS
ALWAYS IN THE WILL OF MEN
 2) Animal Farm : book
+ passage here that I chose f the book
The novel Animal Farm, by the political allegory by the writer George Orwell, is
a story parallel to the events of the Russian Revolution. A tyrant can be
described as an absolute ruler, a ruler who governs aggressively or brutally, or
one who uses authority or power to fit their needs. The book Animal Farm by
George Orwell is an allegory for the Russian revolution, whose main character,
Napoleon, demonstrates characteristics of this time period. Napoleon shows
signs of being a tyrant when he essentially forced work on sundays. When he
begins governing harshly and aggressively Napoleon’s actions hint at tyranny.
He abuses his authority for power in many situations throughout the book
showing his personality as an absolute ruler. After Snowball’s departure in
chapter 5, Napoleon begins to turn into a tyrant over Animal Farm.

When the pigs take "You would not rob us Squealer argues here that
control they move into of our repose, would without 'repose' the pigs can't
the farmhouse and you, comrades? You carry out their work and so Mr
 taking sleep in beds would not have us too Jones will return. Squealer
control - creating inequality tired to carry out our uses personal pronouns to
between themselves duties? Surely none of create a difference between
and the other you wishes to see the pigs and the other
animals. Jones back?" animals.

This book is therefore a political allegory that critisize the rise of power and
how it can change men. With power they became exactly what they hated and
oridinary indiviudals to continue to believe in a revoolution that has been uterly
betrayed. It therefore denounces the rise of power of Joseph Staline and the
Soviet Communism.
=CORRUPT POWER, COMMUNISM, CRITIC OF HUMAN AND HOW THEY
DO WHAT WE DID TO THEM, POLITICS, UNFAIR SOCIAL CLASSES

3) West Side Story : musical comedy

West Side Story is a musical comedy conceived by Jerome Robbins with
music by Leonard Bernstein.
 The musical explores the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two
teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. The Sharks, who are
recent migrants from Puerto Rico, and the Jets, who are white americans. In
the book we witness how people are always fighting for more territory and are
ready to kill for it (throwback colonization America) and when Tony dies during
a rivalry between the 2 gangs. This tension between the 2 gangs is a real
issue and how it brings delinquance and how love is impossible when you
don’t belong to the same culture. Power in West Side Story is an issue
communicated through both race and gender. Race is encoded in the musical
and plays a role in determining power. The stereotyping of Puerto Ricans
occurs by displaying the characters as exotic dangerous creatures. Between
the two gangs, who are both groups of troublemakers, the Sharks are the
 ones being characterized as more dangerous. Also, throughout the film, most
musical numbers are performed by the white American characters and the
Puerto Ricans in the film do not have as many musical numbers. Additionally,
going into the topic of gender, masculinity is one of the themes that
demonstrates men as a dominant figure despite Maria also being a lead role.
Difference is encoded in the film using mise-en-scene to differentiate the Jets
and the Sharks who are different races, but also, the roles of the characters
play distinguishes difference.  The Jets for example, can be associated with
flying objects and “something that makes advancements in power and
mobility”(Martinez and Ue) while the Sharks can refer to the dangerous
underwater creature as a symbolism for the dangerous or violent Latin
stereotype.
= DISCRIMINATION, POWER, DIFFERENCE

2 OF MY PERSONAL CHOICES OF DOCUMENTS

4) Black, Dave : MUSIC

Lyrics
Look, black is beautiful, black is excellent
Black is pain, black is joy, black is evident
It's workin' twice as hard as the people you know you're better than
'Cause you need to do double what they do so you can level them
Black is so much deeper than just African-American
Our heritage been severed, you never got to experiment
With family trees, 'cause they teach you 'bout famine and greed
And show you pictures of our fam on their knees
Tell us we used to be barbaric, we had actual queens
Black is watchin' child soldiers gettin' killed by other children
Feelin' sick, like, "Oh shit, this could have happened to me"
Your mummy watchin' tellin' stories 'bout your dad and your niece
The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice
A kid dies, the blacker the killer, the sweeter the news
And if he's white you give him a chance, he's ill and confused
If he's black he's probably armed, you see him and shoot
Look, black is growin' up around the barbershop
Mummy sayin', "Stay away from trouble, you're in yard a lot"
Studying for ages, appreciatin' the chance you got
'Cause black is in your blood, and you ain't even got the heart to stop
Black is steppin' in for your mother because your father's gone
And standin' by your children when you haven't proven karma wrong
Black is doin' all of the above then goin' corner shoppin'
Tryna help a lady cross the road to have her walkin' off
Black is growin' up around your family and makin' it
Then being forced to leave the place you love because there's hate in it
People say you fake the shit, never stayed to change the shit
But black is bein' jealous, you'd be dead if you had stayed in it
Black is strugglin' to find your history or trace the shit
You don't know the truth about your race 'cause they erasin' it
Black has got a sour fuckin' flavour, here's a taste of it
But black is all I know, there ain't a thing that I would change in it
Look, black ain't just a single fuckin' colour, man there's shades to it
Her hair's straight and thick but mine's got waves in it
Black is not divisive, they been lyin' and I hate the shit
Black has never been a competition, we don't make this shit
Black is deadly
Black is when you're freezin' in your home and you can't get sleep but never feelin' empty
'Cause you got 20 cousins in your country living stress-free
Walkin' for their water, daughter wrapped inside a bed sheet
Black is distant
It's representin' countries that never even existed while your grandmother was livin'
Black is my Ghanaian brother readin' into scriptures
Doin' research on his lineage, findin' out that he's Egyptian
Black is people namin' your countries on what they trade most
Coast of Ivory, Gold Coast, and the Grain Coast
But most importantly to show how deep all this pain goes
West Africa, Benin, they called it slave coast
Black is so confusin', 'cause the culture? They're in love with it
They take our features when they want and have their fun with it
Never seem to help with all the things we know would come with it
Loud in our laughter, silent in our sufferin'
Black is bein' strong inside and facing defeat
Poverty made me a beast, I battled the law in the streets
We all struggled, but your struggle ain't a struggle like me
Well how could it be when your people gave us the odds that we beat?
I mean, fuckin' hell, what about our brothers that are stuck in jail?
That couldn't bust a bell, they held a bird and gotta live with it
Black is bein' guilty until proven that you're innocent
Black is sayin', "Free my fucking niggas stuck inside in prison cells"
They think it's funny, we ain't got nothin' to say to them
Unconditional love is strange to them; it's amazin' 'em
Black is like the sweetest fuckin' flavour, here's a taste of it
But black is all I know, there ain't a thing that I would change in it
The 21-year-old rapper raised issues of racism and inequality in his
performance of his hit song Black. Showing how Black people are more than
just « Black American » that white people took everything they had and
created them as slaves without any valid reasons. They need to work much
more to have a tiny gratitude. Society especially in America always point them
as agressors and crazy « monkeys », as for white people « they had a bad
day, they would never do that”. This powerful song touched me a lot because
by multiple examples of inequalities that black population is facing everyday
 and all the time we realize how the system is selfish and so ridiculous. For a
color ? Because of a skin color racism exists ? White people should be sent to
hospitals with their ego and brain so fucked up.
= RACISMMMM

5) Banksy
Banksy is a Philanthropist, anti-war and revolutionary, he takes his art as a
means of communication to loudly proclaim his dissatisfaction with certain
aspects of society, certain political situations or even certain decisions taken
by world leaders.  Kissing Coppers is a Banksy stencil that pictures two British
policemen kissing. It was originally unveiled on the wall of The Prince Albert
pub in Brighton in 2004. Banksy simply uses homosexuality as an example of
a common identity for which people are discriminated against to call into
question the moral and societal authority of individuals such as policemen and
the Queen.

=HOMOPHOBIA, AND CRITIC OF SOCIETY WHO CREATES

STEREOTYPES LIKE POLICEMAN WHO ALWAYS TO BE MASCULINE
AND WITH 0 FEELINGS.