LSAT 108, Section 1, RC Passage 1, Frida Kahlo

RC Passage 1 Explanation

Paragraph Summaries

1. Critics have studied Kahlo’s paintings for their psychological meaning, but not their political meaning.
2. Mexican intellectuals idealized the Aztecs.
3. An example of a painting where Kahlo used Aztec symbols with political effect in a self-portrait.
4. Three contrasts about Kahlo.

Analysis

The first paragraph is the most important, because it tells you why the rest of the passage talks about Aztec symbols. The passage examines the political aspects of Kahlo’s work. The author is giving us a fairly unique interpretation of existing evidence.

We need to learn about the Aztecs. In the 1920s and 1930s, they represented a Marxist ideal for some Mexican intellectuals.

Mexican intellectuals were not imagining the Aztecs as they actually were. They idealized them. They got rid of their bad side, and made their good side sound even better than it was.

People often do this with the past. It’s called nostalgia. People are especially likely to do this if they want to use the past to change the present.

Kahlo used Aztec symbols in her paintings for political effect.

The fourth paragraph is vague, and not very important for answering the questions. It’s the sort of paragraph you should look back to when you’re asked about it, but otherwise you don’t have to put much effort into analyzing it.