Examples Of Colonialism In Midnight's Children

Throughout the centuries, there have been an infinite amount of literary works written by a sea of authors that write a variety of genres. All of these works are precious in their own way, and even if their theme is similar to that of another, the author always ads a bit of his/her own flare in order to make said literary creation unique in some way. William Wordsworth’s “London 1802” and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “Douglass”, although quite similar in form and sentence structure, do add their own flare through the use of specific details. Through the use of these devices, the speakers show their disgust for the evil deeds humans do and

Most kids in early colonial times never had the chance to see the inside of a schoolhouse. Instead, colonial children usually learned about the adult world by doing things the way their parents did. But, just because they didn't go to school, their lives were not easy. Children were expected to help with a share of the family's work. Boys helped their fathers and girls did chores at home. By a time a girl was four she could knit stockings! Even with all the work they did, colonial children still found time to have fun. They cared for their pets, played with dolls, shot marbles, pitched pennies, and went fishing. They also played tag, stickball, and blind man’s buff. By the time they had reached age 14, most children were already considered

Joseph Conrad’s book, Heart of Darkness, Francis Coppola’s film, Apocalypse Now, and Werner Herzog’s film, Aguirre Wrath of God are very interesting productions, each with their own unique point of view and illuminating agenda. The book in itself and the films prove to be an excellent source about violence brought on by imperialism and/or colonialism and how, as a consequence, the definition of civilized and savage becomes blurred. Via the films, “The audience can derive a lot of pleasure not only from listening to melodies and rhythms that create moods and heighten emotions provoked by the story, but also from analysing the ways the music reinforces the symbolic richness of the literary work, establishes new relationships between its elements, sheds a new light on its meanings and multiplies its interpretative perspectives (Marciniak 67). Having said this, that is not to say that Heart of Darkness lacked in keeping my attention. I very much enjoyed the internal and external dialogue that Conrad provides along with his descriptive commentary about the events at hand. Although the films are considered adaptations of Conrad’s book, they both have distinctive ways of getting the same concepts across to an audience. All in all, after reading and viewing these constructions it is clear that every individual is able to create their own outlook on how they prefer to view the delineations of what it takes to be considered civilized or savage; of course, through the mediums

The reader gets a rare and exotic understanding of a totally foreign and ancient culture experiencing the growing pains of colonial expansion during the British domination

Why does an author write about his/her feelings? Or maybe even why do they express their ideas? Jamaica Kincaid, the author of A Small Place talks about the struggles she experienced through her life. The key concept of her essay was various dealings she had during the British ruling in Antigua. Understanding her point of view may be difficult, but one may get an idea of her thoughts by looking through a Marxist, Postcolonial, and a Psychological lens.

While the motives of colonists in the Americas were various- to build a new society, to promote Christianity, to acquire riches, or, as early colonists in New England expressed it, to secure a ‘competencie’ ; they all faced the same challenges of establishing themselves in an alien environment that would require them readjust and respond to new circumstances. It would be justifiable to submit that the main consequences of colonialism were largely detrimental for the native population. The colonisation of the Americas throughout the early modern period resulted in the decimation of the native population as they increasingly lost their traditional lands to white settlers. This can be attributed to

Momaday's book collapses conventional divides between myth and history: by fusing the two he suggests that the conventional white conception of history as an enclosed and protected category is inherently suspect, and without speaking of politics makes a claim for other, equally valuable ways of knowing. However, in this sense his method of storytelling is political, because he suggests that the Indian ways of interpreting experience are just as valid as

Canada has been well regarded with its attitude towards multiculturalism, establishing an Act that protects the rights of people who have different beliefs and the encouragement for all cultures to work together. While being the only country to have a policy such as the Multiculturalism Act, racism has been a part of Canadian history, including but not limited to the colonialism of Indigenous Peoples and the internment of Japanese Canadians. The effects of colonialism on indigenous culture and the treatment of Japanese Canadians are reflected in the novels Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson and Obasan by Joy Kogawa. The main characters of the novels, Lisamarie in Monkey Beach and Naomi in Obasan, both come to terms with the effects of growing up in minority communities in British Columbia, as well as discovering their own identities, by reflecting on their pasts during a time of family tragedies. Lisamarie struggles with accepting and understanding her spirituality in a family that mostly ignores and denies their connections to the spirituality of their ancestors, due to the effects of colonialism and residential schools. Naomi reflects on her family being removed from their homes and the racism that the Japanese faced after the Pearl Harbour attack. Robinson and Kogawa use their protagonists to look back to the past and reflect on the events that have shaped their families. Lisamarie discovers how spirituality and relationships have been molded due to the colonialism and the

Scott Russell Sanders uses many rhetorical devices and strategies to address Salman Rushdie’s writings and to go against Rushdie’s writings. These devices and strategies provide a deeper meaning to the paper and insight into his words.

The dominant idiom of Indian writing today is firmly entrenched in pain, anxiety of displacement, nostalgia, yearning to belong to roots, and so on. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss are two such novels that explore the tragedy of man on several levels using different perspectives. Both the novels are about averted culture-clash tragedies, homogeneity vs. heterogeneity, and about Indian sensibilities.

Culture is passed down to us by the previous generation and we are expected to uphold the traditions of our culture, it becomes a symbol of our way of life, a reminder of our identity, and guides us. When our traditions are scrutinized and silenced it deals a blow to our identity as a whole causing us to become lost in our own way of life, some of us may lash out at the ones who attempt to silence our culture while others become integrated with the new societal norm. This becomes a problem as we start fighting with our own, damaging the bonds that we have created. In the novel Monkey Beach, Eden Robinson uses the setting of a First Nations village situated in modern times called Kitamaat to depict how First Nations people have suffered due to the ever so present effects of colonialism. Colonialism has caused the First Nations people to endure many hardships by attempting to assimilate them into modern European influenced society through the use of residential schools. Due to this, throughout the novel we see a village whose residents struggle with maintaining a sense of identity, some wish to hold on to the old ways of their ancestors while the others wish to move on and become a part of the Western culture that is surrounding them. In the novel, we see the effects of colonialism through the life of a young woman named Lisamarie Hill, Lisa struggles with her identity as her parents have adopted a modern Canadian style of living while her

Postcolonial critiques of literary works are often accomplished by reading and interpreting the work with a specific theme in mind or a ‘lens’. By allowing oneself to use a ‘lens’ when reading specific works, it allows the reader to interpret the effects of the themes and the changes throughout the writings. The goal of the critical lens is to seek to understand the behavior of characters or the society ("Post Colonialism," 2016). A few of the most popular themes used to view literary works are identity, oppression and power; applying this ‘lens’ can give the reader a different perspective and experience while reading the writings.

In fact, by attempting to glamourize suffering by portraying it superficially, writers may lose the connection with us that appreciates literature. Instead, what we are left with is an over extended attempt to glorify suffering, or hide it within a guise of reality that is too savage to be true. Instead of the appreciative feeling that reality imbues within me as a reader, I am left with a sense of disgust, confusion and dissatisfaction. This feeling almost overwhelmed me while reading Adiga’s “The White Tiger” and it tainted my experience with the book. Adiga had written the novel without any firsthand experience in the rural areas of India to which his main character referred to as the darkness. Instead, being of a higher class, his accounts were based on second or third hand experiences which do not adequately depict the lower class’ realities. I found the following depiction of India’s ghettos both farcically unrealistic and eventually

Bildungsromane follow the journey of individuals who often seek both their self- and national identities. The story of Lucy revolves around the “intersections of colonialism, racism, sexism, and heterosexism” (Lima 130) in contexts that limit her individuality. In order to stop her her present that is defined by the violent history of her ancestors from becoming her future, Lucy migrates from her motherland, only to discover herself in a situation where she must contend with internal struggle, exploring “complexities and contradictions” (Lima 129) which are the result of the life she is born into. In her novel Lucy, Kincaid adeptly chooses the Caribbean as Lucy’s motherland—a place with a “history of foreign domination, slavery, imperialism, and neocolonialism”—to juxtapose the “revolt, resistance and struggle” (Lima 129) embodied by Lucy. Mariah serves as a provocative reminder of the very past that triggered Lucy to leave her mother and Antigua, through embodying colonialism as a mother figure. The eponymous protagonist’s futile attempt to elude the reigns of Mariah is a reflection of the inevitable intergenerational damage of not only gender oppression in a patriarchal society, but also colonial violence on a marginalized person like Lucy.

E.M. Forster’s classic novel “A Passage to India” tells the story of a young doctor, Dr. Aziz, and his interactions with the British citizens who are residing in India during the time of the British Raj. Throughout the novel, the reader gets many different viewpoints on the people and the culture of India during this point in history. The reader sees through the eyes of the Indian people primarily through the character of Dr. Aziz, and the perceptions of the British through the characters of Mr. Fielding, Adela Quested, and Mrs. Moore. Through the different characters, and their differing viewpoints, the reader can see that Forster was creating a work that expressed a criticism that he held of the behavior of the British towards their Indian subjects.