Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (12:00 p.m.) The Burn Journal | Page 5

frustrating or threatening event and involves unplanned, enraged attacks on the object perceived to be
the source of threat/frustration” (NCBI). In Israel, the people are reacting not only to their frustration
over the fight for control of the holy land, but also their frustration with violent actions that have taken
place in the past or present. We can see that this creates a sort of cycle. If person A is frustrated with
person B and attacks them, person B is then frustrated from being attacked and attacks person A, person
A is then frustrated that person B attacked them, and so on. This is demonstrated in Banksy’s piece as
well through the anonymity of the male in the picture. There is no clear indication of whether the male
figure is Israeli or Palestinian. This sends the message that Banksy is not choosing a side, or telling one
side to back down, he is sending an overall message of peace to both sides hoping to end this cycle of
reactive aggression.
How can we tell that Banksy is pushing for peace?The contrast in this piece seem to be one of
the biggest clues to Banksy’s message.The violent individual in the painting is black and grey, colors
that are associated with unhappy or unpleasant events. We assume the individual is violent because of
the stance he is in and the attire he is wearing which is usually associated with gang members, a
backwards hat and a scarf covering his face. In contrast, the flowers, which are the only part of the
piece not showing aggression, are bright and cheerful shades of orange, yellow, pink, purple, and green.
This contrast draws attention towards the flowers whose colors can be interpreted as peaceful or happy
colors. Also, the flowers themselves can be seen as a symbol of peace because they are placed there
instead of what someone in that stance would normally be holding, a symbol of war, the grenade. The
symbolism of this piece seems to agree with the works of Śāntideva,a philosopher, who argued against
frustration saying that “it accomplishes little” and ending frustration or suffering “can lead to
ha ppiness”. (Santideva).The frustration in this piece can be seen as being the black and grey imagery
which is depicting violence, violence that has been going on for decades and seems to have
accomplished nothing. The happiness in this piece can be seen as the flowers being a symbol of
happiness indicated by the bright colors and suggest the end of violence.
Although this interpretation may be true, we can take this in another direction as well. Maybe
Banksy is not making a case against frustration and for happiness. Perhaps instead he is making a
statement about what is the logical choice for the two groups to make rather than an emotional choice.
We can look at the situation from a stoic approach. Stoics believe that humans are purely rational rather
than emotional and that the only reason why humans make irrational choices is because their logic if
flawed due to false statements they believe about the world (Seneca). For instance, these two groups in
Israel have both lost many lives over this conflict that divides them, the emotion they feel towards the
city of Jerusalem. Both groups believe it is bad if the other has control of Jerusalem and that is why that
are reacting in frustration and violence. From a stoics point of view this is false reasoning because in
their opinion “The Stoics hold that the only good is virtue and that the only evil is vice”(Seneca).
Therefore, a stoic would say that it is not bad if the other group has control of Jerusalem and therefore
the reasoning behind taking these violent actions to get control of the city is wrong and further actions
like this are irrational. In this case, the angry young male represents a person making an irrational
choice based on a false pretense. The false pretense can be represented by the grenade that we think is
there but actually is not. And the flowers represent the truth, that only good is virtue and only evil is
vice. Through this lense, Banksy is urging the public again to stop violent actions but this time he is
urging it in a logical rather than an emotional way.
Whichever way we look at the piece, we can see Banksy’s argument for an end to violence and
a call for peace in Jerusalem. Making the statement that Banksy thinks it is possible to live in a world
without violence by placing this piece in one of the most violent areas in the world. It is interesting to
note that there is some irony here, Banksy often himself chooses graffiti as an art form which is illegal
in many countries. Usually illegal activity and peace do not seem to go hand in hand. There is also the
issue that many of the ideas Banksy suggest like call for changes in society, for instance he advocates
for more racial equality which recently protesters for racial equality have been engaging in some violent
actions. Similarly, during eras such as the civil rights movement there are usually violent actions that
seem to spark social change. While Banksy seems to promote peace, he also promotes ideas that may
need violent actions to get conversation started enough to promote real change .
5