My Reanalysis of "Tanya"

Hi Chiayen and Ras,

My mind swirled while watching Monte’s Digital story for the first time. Probably it was because of the competition between narration and background music all throughout except in the last part. I watched it a number of times, each time lowering the volume until I am able to make sense of the semiotic devices employed in her story. Thanks to your interpretations. I have a good number of ideas to start with.

The theme of Monte’s story is the experience with her first true friend, Tanya. The narration is clear about this: “She never knew what friendship was, not until she met Tanya.” I agree with both of you that the swing painting may symbolise childhood memories filled with fun and play. The painting, however, looks very strange to me having no seats. Its colour may also be associated with sadness and solitude. I reckon that the swing is an attempt to signify lack of friendship and a rather bleak childhood.

The next image signifies how she maintained distance from all the people she encountered along the way since she could not tell their pure intentions. Monte depicts herself as someone amidst squares of images of people without faces. This might be symbolic of her being a logical observer as she grew up putting an iconic image where she is in the centre of the abstract images of people around her. I deemed the feeling of Monte here is that she could not rationalise their intention which might explain the square-shaped image formed using all these peoples.Still, the shade of colour suggests melancholy.

Then she met Tanya with whom she established a good friendship, but she will die soon. These she highlights by flashing Tanya’s image twice. The technique leads the viewers to perceive Tanya using two dimensions: a friend of Monte, and a dying person.

From there, Monte continued with a description of Tanya's battle against death Tanya using an impactful picture of a very sharp tool, a human body, and a skeleton. Flashing it the second time is Monte’s technique to show the contrast between her foreshadowed death and her strength and bravery. With the words’ in bold letters, “no fear” more clearly embedded on the three images on the second flashing of the images, Monte implies Tanya’s distinctive attitude: her being sensible.

Next are the enumeration of Tanya’s desires and her course of actions to attain them. Being a single mum with two kids, she did not like to leave them astray, so she put them in a home to secure them. Aware of the limited funds available Tanya dreamt of forming an organisation meant to sustain the resources available so that dying “parents like her die in peace.” And then Monte highlighted the need of Tanya that moment: a friend.

Let me share how I viewed the semiotic devices used. The picture of Tanya’s beautiful kids is touching. The big smiles on their faces mirror their innocence (of Tanya’s condition) and their inner joy. The video clip of Tanya exhibits her enthusiasm in life. It is disconcerting to see how energetic and vibrant-looking she is knowing the difficulty she faces. The calmness on her face is captivating. But she is doomed. Probably, it is the reason why Monte chose two empty autumn-shaded garden chairs amidst a black background to signify the temporal friendship between a living and a dying, foreshadowed by the element of autumn with a black background which prefigures the coming of death—Tanya’s death and the end of their friendship.

After this, Monte used silence to express her lonesomeness. I agree with you, Chiayen, that it was an effective technique. Then she continued to give credits to her friend’s strength using news clips that featured Tanya. The juxtaposition occurred upon Tanya one day when she came to a realisation that she only accomplished one thing. Monte stated it this way: “She found a real friend; that was me.”

For someone who experienced being in a spotlight like Tanya, I reckon that what she meant was, even though she had sincere intentions, people who provide help do it to gain popularity or for self-recognition. This could be the reason why Monte used a painting with pairs of montages with some shadows of people without faces as Tanya’s relationships with them are not real. The only thing real was the true friendship between them.

I am not sure for what the next image was but I knew that the words “acceptance” on the bottom left side of the painting and the word “damp”on the bottom right which was closely focused later foreshadowed Tanya’s death. Probably Monte has been crying and has not resigned to Tanya’s death, signified by “damp.” This could be what she meant when she said, “not letting her dreams die with her.”

The next part is the climax of the story. The swan song of a dying person is presented. Monte showed her face at last with Tanya facing sideways. I found the encounter moving. Monte revealed herself at the best moment. The easing in of their image adds to the overall dramatic and suspenseful effect. Indeed it was an emotional tour de force.

Monte used a plain white background next to signify Tanya’s passing away while she continued her narration highlighting her disbelief that her dead friend knew her that much (That is symbolised by “her middle name”) This is another powerful semiotic device and it almost put me into tears. The lyrics came in at the perfect time. Then there were moments of silence. Maybe these were intended for Monte and her viewers to recover from the experience.

Like you, I am not familiar with the abstract painting. Somehow, I find it a device to end the story in a positive note after the lyrics of the music reverberate through the empty white slide. For me, the painting is Tanya’s image depicted like an angel (as Rachel expained) with a halo and wide- opened eyes but with mouth shut. Maybe I am imagining too much but probably it is Monte’s memory of her true friend who could still be fully alive in her thoughts.