Jess’ collage “The Mouse’s Tale” is a piece of work that he uses to express his rebellion toward the world. The largest man in the middle of the collage might be representing Jess, and the head portraits are lined up on the side might be representing the different kinds of people in the world. Jess is agitated by these many kinds of people. He does not want to be bothered and he just wants to smash them away from his world. Jess wants to be able to enjoy in his own space.
In the collage, the man’s head first caught my attention. It has a weird form, because the head is not round. Then, when I looked closely, I found that there’re many little men within the head. All the little men have different gestures, and I realized that this is reason the head doesn't look round. Following the directions given by the little man’s gesture, my sight traveled down to the neck and then the shoulders. From the shoulder to the wrist of the man’s hand, the little men have their legs closed, but at the tips of the fingers, their legs are spread apart. With their legs spread apart, the legs actually form the shape of a hand with fingers. Also, the feet serve as finger nails. The man might be able to use especially his finger nails to scratch his enemies when smashing them.
My eye sight then traveled back to the shoulders of the man and then to his left arm. Opposite to the little man in the man’s right arm, the little men in the left arm to left hand have entirely their body coiled up. And the coiled up structure helped shape the form of a fist. The man seemed to be using his fist to hold his head. He is acting politely to listen to those people who are laughing in front of him. However, behind his pretence, he hates those people deeply that he has to smash them at their faces, since they have the emphasis on their faces to laugh at the man.
Afterward, I put my focus to the man’s body, because there’s a dark blue spot around his stomach area. After I carefully examine the spot, I see that it is actually a man with only a body and small hands. The man’s head tilted forward; he seemed to be interested in seeing the emotions of the people outside and in line beside the wall. This dark blue man may be the spirit of the large man who directs actions for him. Since he can sense the emotions of the evil people outside, and he knows the characteristics of the man, he can motivate him take his revolt.
Later, my eyes sights were down the bottom at the man’s hips. His hips are the only parts in the body that have form. And they also have a different color than the body. It is the color of yellow grayish. Inside the left hip, there is a woman laughing and she might also be laughing at the man. Moving down from the left hip, I see the left thigh which is got the yellow grayish color disappeared. And there I see the little men again. Soon, I see two head portraits when I reached the left calve. One is of an old man, and the other one is of young man. They both have mean looks on their face. It might be that they are unsatisfied at the large man. Combining the laughing woman and these two mean men, it points out that the large man must be tired of unsatisfications, lots of requirements and mockeries. Underneath the large man’s calve; the little men appeared again in the left foot. However, the little men seemed to be tiring and burdensome since they have to bear the weight of the whole body. They have gestures that they are carrying the body. After the left foot, my eyes moved to the right foot. There are also little men in the right foot. However, contrary to my prediction, the little men in the right foot are not burdensome at all like the little men in the left foot; they are instead fooling around. One of the little men is even lying down and is playing with his legs. All of the facts that little men coiled themselves up in the left side, little men at the bottom left side have to bear with the weight of the whole body, and the there are troublesome people in the left leg reveal the audience that the man hates face people since the left side of his body is facing the crowd.
After examining the large man, I looked to the left side of the collage. I realized that there’re a bunch of head portraits lining along the side and making a circle at the bottom. All the head portraits are smiling. However, there’re different types of people. The first and second head portraits are two boys, the third head portrait is a woman, the fourth one is an old man, the fifth one is clown, the sixth and seventh ones are young men and the eighth one is a bald old man. The head portraits in the circle that’s at the bottom are also of different kinds of people. Starting from the yellow greenish one that’s on the right of the eighth head portrait, it is of a religious man because he has a small head cloth on. Moving to the right, there is the head portrait of a clown. And then next to him, it’s a man with a curly mustache and a mariner who has a blue cap on is following him. The next ones are three actors, because they all have red caps on and seemed to also have made up on. Following them is two soldiers who have green helmets on. And finally, a laughing clown is the last one and is closing the circle. To me, the line and the circle of head portraits symbolize the death penalty, hanging. Also I realized at last that there is a lion on the very top of the college. The body of the lion is slim that looks like a branch of the tree. And usually people hang themselves using the branches. The fact that the man is scared to face people and the lined up portraits look like the rope for hanging, it implies that evil people in world are forcing the large man to hang himself. However, with his rebellion at heart, the man still wishes to defeat all the evils in the world by rising himself to power.
At last, the sudden change from human’s head portraits to a lion’s head portrait not only surprises me but also tells me that Jess wanted to emphasize the cruelty of people in the world. Even though the people are laughing apparently, but deep in their heart, they think of condemnation of others. Overall, Jess’ collage The Mouse's Tale is a meaningful piece of artwork that helped him in delivering his thinking that people in the society are often cruel and selfish and that agitated him to push away the society and rather to be left alone.
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