Final Exam Question #4

René Margritte's image of the pipe represents a combination of wealth, race, and age. The image brings an imaginative picture to the mind of an older white male, smoking a pipe with a friend, while having an intellectual discussion. This shows how one image can represent and signify a multitude of of things in society. Semiotics separates the signifier and the signified, the thing that it denotes and the thing that it connotes. Therefore the image of the pipe denotes a tool used for smoking, while it connotes wealth, age, race, etc.