All are white. The one man of honor in this phantasmagoria is 'Nigger Jim' as Twain called him to emphasize the irony of a society in which the only true gentleman was held beneath contempt.”-Russell Baker of the New York Times, 1982. This quote emphasizes the greatness of this book as an anti-racist and anti-slavery book. Anyone that thinks that Huck Finn or Twain are racist needs only to read this quote and their beliefs will immediately change because they will realize the context in which Twain was writing, and the point he was trying to emphasize; slavery and racism are horrible. They will only be able to do this if they think for themselves and challenge themselves to be open to new ideas.
He emphasizes his “intolerable sense of guilt” (313), but also his contradictory hatred of the Burmese, those “evil-spirited little beasts” (314), as well as his callous disregard for the native man killed by the elephant (319). When Orwell reveals he was “glad” over this death, since it protected him from legal action from the elephant’s owner, this detail is typical of how the author generalizes from his own earlier experience to that of other colonizers: the young Orwell’s callousness shows his personal degradation, but since his reaction is shared by all the young white colonizers, his reaction is clearly produced by the inhuman system they are all trapped within (319). The essay’s causal development and personal detail lead naturally to Orwell’s conclusions, which arise out of his shooting of the elephant. When Orwell finds himself with 2,000 Burmese villagers standing behind him, a rifle in his hands, the now-quiet elephant in front of him, he knows there is no reason to the shoot the animal, but he does so, realizing that it is he who is dominated and subjugated, not the colonized. He shoots the elephant, he says later, to
Hazel later creates his own church after he witnessed a blind man preaching about Christianity in the streets. At first, Hazel believes the preacher is sincere but later realizes the man is not actually blind but preaches for money. Hazel names his church the Church Without Christ. Ultimately, a person does not have to be clean in order to be saved at his church. Hazel buys a car, the Essex, to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and preach from the hood of it.
The book focuses on white American myths because Keim feels they are the most dominant, negative, and in need of change. Keim’s argument is that through the media, magazines, newspapers, and children’s books, stereotypes and inventions about Africa are seared into the minds of Americans.
My first example on how deleting our humane feelings caused harm is Document 7 by James Ramsay called, “Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies”. The article speaks about the punishments done to slaves for misbehaving in their eyes and committing mistakes. The white men would beat them with sticks, breaking their bones, chain around their necks, etc. All this was done to cause fear within them. All these people thought since Africans are slaves, it’s okay to treat them as beasts.
In Erdrich's work, she displays the white people very critically by using quotes from the John Wayne movie she uses in her her poem, such as “It is / not over, this fight, not as long as you resist. / Everything we see belongs to us.” (Erdrich 12). This direct attack on the whites from the film gives a glimpse into how Erdrich feels that the white men are the sole reason that the Native American culture has almost been destroyed. She feels that the whites' greed and aggressive nature forced the destruction of the traditions and values that the Native American people once had. Alexie, on the other hand, feels that the blame falls more on the actual people of the new Native American generations becoming more like the white men on their own accord.
Baines encourages Malcolm to question white society, telling him ‘everything the white man told you, you believed.’ A breeding of hated towards all white people ensues, particularly through the use of provocative language, such as referring to white men as ‘blue-eyed devils’. Lee utilises this in a scene in which Malcolm is told ‘all white men are devils,’ pairing this Nation of Islam teaching with a flashback in which Malcolm remembers ill-favoured opinions of white people from his past. This technique reinforces the viewers understanding of Malcolm’s
By feeling sorry for Mayella, Tom put himself above her. This is the ultimate mistake for a black man in a town like Maycomb. No matter what, whites are superior to blacks. This is the way they want to keep things; this was a huge mistake as they now thought he was putting himself above a white. 24.
The endeavors towards freedom and independence eventually lead to the destruction of Winston’s human nature, for O’Brien’s demonstrations of physical and psychological torture transform Winston into a loyal follower of Big Brother, ultimately allowing Orwell to achieve his goal of warning humans about the terrible possibilities of a totalitarian society. A sense of helplessness is exceptionally evident when portraying the world in which Winston lives. Unlike others in Airstrip One, he is aware enough to wish to be free, which is a basic human right, for Winston believes one would not “feel [protest] unless one had some kind of ancestral memory that things had once been different” (59). Ancestral memory consists of one being able to remember something to due a passing down of memories from generations on a subconscious level, rather than actually having the experience, and it is greatly related to spiritual belief rather than scientific theories, for how could Winston be dissatisfied with his current life without a spiritual desire for
Finally, Lessing uses the characters Charlie Slatter, Tony Marston and Sergeant Dunham and its connecting theme, ‘the decay of civilization,’ to depict how quickly everything that is good can become evil and also reveal the true state of the Rhodesian society and it’s dominating ‘white civilization.’ In the following essay I will discuss the above points to comment on and criticize the Rhodesian society in which Lessing was raised. To begin with, I will discuss the ways in which Lessing used the characters Dick and Mary Turner and the theme, ‘white domination and racism,’ to comment on and criticize the beliefs of the white settler’s of the Rhodesian society she lived in. Lessing’s central character, Mary Turner, represents the theme perfectly as Mary, like most Rhodesian women, is overtly racist, believing that white people should be masters over the native people – a belief that stems from childhood teachings. Throughout the novel we see Mary struggle to gain power and dominance over the native servants and farm workers, “…she had to face it, this business of struggling with natives… and felt reluctant, though determined not to be imposed on.” Mary, like all Rhodesian women, was taught from childhood to be afraid of the natives, to never associate