After reading through my mood diary, I saw that a major theme that I had picked out after reading “The Nose” was the nature of Kovalev to make himself appear bigger than he actually was.  My image of the character throughout Gogol’s story was that of a short, stout man who’s life goal was to make himself the most prominent figure in Russia.  He seemed to be so concerned with status that Kovalev was no longer Kovalev, but rather an egotistical shell of a human who needed to remain bigger than those around him so that he could continue to do things like make acquaintance with the wife of the State Councilor.

I designed my college based on these ideas.  I wanted to portray Kovalev as a shell of a human being who, through questing to echo the biggest status, lost a piece of himself and fell down to the bottom.  No matter how hard he tried, how big he attempted to make himself, Kovalev still could not be the best.  Eventually the addition of the great and powerful Oz indicates how false his reality is.  While Kovalev takes center screen and grows, Oz looms in the background as a reminder that Kovalev is portraying himself as something more than he actually is.  I added the pyramid over the Russian town to show that, for Kovalev, it was all about one’s position in the hierarchy.  He begins as a smaller character at the bottom, and attempts to rise to the top, where Oz looms over the triangle.  However, once he accomplishes what he sets out to do and makes it to the top, where his illusion is located, he enjoys only a moment of satisfaction before he loses his nose and falls to the bottom, only to repeat this continuous journey.  This repeats until Kovalev finally assumes his position at the top as the triangle flips and the character wakes up to find that his nose is in fact intact on his face for no obvious reason.

My Mid-Image:

** Zoe:  I changed what we talked about.  Thanks again, Austin.