“Nobody

Knows”
-Rebecca Solnit

By: Kendal Smith, Hailey Kroischke,

Lucy Licea, Meghan Oh
 “When management knew, they
generally did nothing until the fact that
they had known was exposed” (11).

⇒ When the individuals considered

lllll“nobodies” find out what
llllllhappened, the people who have
lllllla voice that are considered
lllll“somebody's” feel pressured to
llllllspeak out.
⇒ Usually, the “somebodies” know
llllllwhen another person of “power”
lllllldoes something harmful, but they
lllllldon’t speak up against it until the
lllll“nobodies” become aware of the
llllllsituation.
Allusion + Parallelism Solnit references “allegations
about the movie producer
Harvey Weinstein,” infamous for
Allusion: Harvey Weinstein going to “extraordinary lengths to
● Three decades. make somebodies into nobodies”
● First-degree criminal sexual act (2006) and (Solnit 10).
third-degree rape (2013).
● 23 years in prison. Solnit then express how “he
treated women as people without
Parallelism: Action verbs rights” and how “he threatened to
● Treating others as he wished. ruin” those who opposed him
● Threatening them. (Solnit 10).
● Implies that Weinstein had a position of power--he
was a “somebody”.

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Triples
“Intimidation
Solnit’s utilizes ideas such as these in order to portray campaigns, assaults,
the darkness that women are kept in, and the and rapes” (Solnit 10)
ignorance of the ‘’somebodies.” Which is equally as
startling as what is actually done and forced upon “abuse, denigration,
women. After establishing this idea, with the initial use and assault” (Solnit 11)
of triples, Solnit goes on to reference three more
occurrences similar to the first three, but with the
foundation that change is upon them. She is able to
utilize each reference to display the improvement in
perception and narrowed ignorance in terms of such
actions.

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Antithesis
- If “nobody knew” then everyone “Lots of people
wouldn’t know. However, Solnit say knew what nobody
“lots of people knew” knew” (12)
- Nobody is someone without a
voice or a voice with no value
- Overall meaning: everyone actually
knows including the people without
voices
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Analogy
- Solnit gives “willed ignorance” a “Willed ignorance had
well-known comparison so the been a dam holding
audience can accurately relate the back consequences”
ideas (12)
- Emphasizes the ignorance of the
people who can be heard by others
but decide to keep their beliefs to
themselves

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Field of Inquiry: Power, Politics, and Justice

GI Focus/ Concept Frame: The relationship between the importance

of public appearance and speaking up against oppression

Quote: “abuse, denigration, and assault had long been regarded as

officially unacceptable but permissible as long as the public didn’t know
that those in charge had been aware” (11)

Explanation: Solnit reveals that if someone with power is aware that

someone around them is being oppressed they may often just stay
quiet and ignore it. However, if other people see them ignoring the
problem, then it can cause trouble for them for not speaking up. This
causes people to speak up when they know that others are watching
them and when they know that others have witnessed them viewing
the problem. Their fear of being publicly shamed for not speaking up
on the subject causes them to actually speak up so their need for
maintaining a good public appearance leads them to stand up.
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