Jane Campion's The Piano - A Metaphor for European Domination

In the story the main character, Gloria Fleming, gets surprised with a new neighbor, Francisco Mendoza, and it was love at first sight. They begin down a romantic journey through both of their loves for music and each other. Gloria, a musical piano prodigy herself, after falling in love with the Argentinian boy, gets heart broken when she has to go on an international piano tour, leaving Francisco behind.

At this tense meeting with considerable distrust and suspicion evident in the faces, speeches and body language of the Samoan chiefs, the High Chief expressed considerable skepticism about American plans for the island, such as providing more education in English, teaching the young marketable skills, and developing the country. Being educated at the University of Hawaii, the High Chief would have had very good reason to be suspicious of the intentions of the United States, even when its representatives expressed their goodwill toward the Native peoples and desire to bring 'progress; and 'modernization. He would have learned about the wars against the Native Americans from the 17th to the 19th Centuries, for example, the annexation of Hawaii in 1898, and the Philippines War of 1899-1902, if indeed he had not known all about these before.

The play first reveals the shortsightedness of stereotypes made by Westerners, when the submissive Asian woman is awaiting a dominant Western male. Throughout the play, Gallimard is reliving his experiences that he has shared with Song in prison so he flashes back to describe his story of the perfect woman. Gallimard first flashes back to the German Ambassador house in 1960’s where he first meets Song. Gallimard and Song end up conversing about the opera Madame Butterfly that Song was performing in. Song thinks the opera is ridiculous, but Gallimard likes the opera. Gallimard tells Song how she did a beautiful job as butterfly and how her character was very convincing. Song argues with Gallimard, stating that this opera is only beautiful to Westerners. He asks if “it’s one of your favorite fantasies, isn’t it? The submissive oriental woman and the cruel white man” (17). After hearing these words, Gallimard turns rather defensive; despite his own stereotyping of Asian women, he does not want to be trapped in a stereotypical Western mindset. Song effectively trashes this stereotype by using his devious skills to manipulate

When the first colonists landed in the territories of the new world, they encountered a people and a culture that no European before them had ever seen. As the first of the settlers attempted to survive in a truly foreign part of the world, their written accounts would soon become popular with those curious of this “new” world, and those who already lived and survived in this seemingly inhospitable environment, Native American Indian. Through these personal accounts, the Native Indian soon became cemented in the American narrative, playing an important role in much of the literature of the era. As one would expect though, the representation of the Native Americans and their relationship with European Americans varies in the written works of the people of the time, with the defining difference in these works being the motives behind the writing. These differences and similarities can be seen in two similar works from two rather different authors, John Smith, and Mary Rowlandson.

In his article “The Columbian Voyages, the Columbian Exchange, and Their Historians”, Alfred W. Crosby seems to think that much of the Columbian voyages and what came out of them was detrimental to many cultures, most of all the Native Americans. Crosby brings up many institutions and ideologies to re-enforce his opinion, such as the slave trade and the conquest of many Native American

Wilson highlights the fact the piano is full of stories that are directly linked to Berniece, which affect her current negative feeling towards it. Also, as a young girl, Berniece had to play the piano for her mom, so she could talk to her dead father. This demonstrates that not only is her family physically depicted on it, but also spiritually connected to it.

Kamaunuaniho, daughter and wāhine of Kananananuiʻaimoku and Hina, daughter and sister of Kamaunuaniho and second wāhine of Kananananuiʻaimoku, sailed on the red canoe they inherited from Haumealani, the first wāhine of Kananananuiʻaimoku, to the island of Oahu. It was a kapu made by ʻOlopana, King of Oahu island that no “canoe could” “land, because all of the Oʻahu shorelines were made” (Kameʻeleihiwa 8) off-limits. ʻOlopana made all the shores off limits so no predators to his ruling could threaten his reign. However, his trusted guards let down their shield to the presence of these women because of their observations of such beauty sailing on a special red canoe. For these guards knew that a chiefess were standing before them. Hina’s status, purity, and beauty spared her life and Kamaunuaniho’s as they were brought to King ʻOlopana and became his wāhine. These events can easily be compared to the arrival of Captain Cooke. Cooke’s sails were large and white on a boat in similar appearance to a huge canoe just like the god, Lono whose arrival was said to be soon. The advisors of the King of the Island said to kill Cooke warning the king that he would take everything from them. However, just like ʻOlopana, he oversaw Cooke’s arrival and Cooke

In the 1820’s Missionaries have been starting to visit Hawaii inspired by Henry Obookiah who the first Hawaiian Missionary. Henry Obookiah was a Hawaiian missionary that told the English about the Hawaiian religion and how it works, and it convinced the English to go and spread their religion. But not everything ended well according to the plan for the Hawaiians. People only notice the negative effects that the missionaries cause the Hawaiians to go through, but they miss the benefits that the missionaries gave the Hawaiians. Although the missionaries have brought negative effects to the Hawaiians, they also have given the Hawaiians some benefits with the new religion, new language, and new technology.

In Player Piano, everything is controlled by machines and computers and depends on productivity. The managers and engineers only create new programs for more productive production. Even the rates of production and consumption are calculated by a computer (EPICAC), which is seated in the large Carlsbad cavern system. The EPICAC computer even determines the people's careers and in this way their whole lives. It gives intelligence tests to everyone, and on the basis of their results it sorts people into two categories - suitable for university entering exams and suitable for 'work'. The university studies allow their graduates to become managers, engineers, writers or public relation workers. You may become a writer only if

The Pianist is a movie that shows the life of one man, Wladyslaw Szpilman who was a popular Jewish Pole radio station pianist. In the World War II which is a background of the movie, How Szpilman suffered and how he survived are presented in the movie. While the movie portrays Szpilman’s life, it also shows how the Jewish people are dehumanized by Nazi during the war. The director, Roman Polanski, successfully uses camera angle, lighting and plot structure, and characterization to present the theme of dehumanization.

The play starts off with Boy Willie and his friend Lymon heading towards north to Pittsburgh. Their intentions are to sell a truck load of watermelons, and most of all to convince Berniece into selling the piano. Boy Willie knows very well that Berniece will not give up the piano, but resumes with his journey to sell the piano. The piano in this play is the heart of the play. It is the main cause for the tension between Boy Willie and Berniece. The piano has brought upon many grieves to the Charles family, and has caused many lives. The piano is a symbol for every life that it has taken. And for those lives, Berniece resists in letting go of the piano. Even though, it is the most important matter in the family. To Berniece, the piano is also a prize possession because of their ancestors, but most of all she refuses to sell it because their mother polished it everyday after their father died. Berniece accuses Boy Willie of not considering what their mother has done. But even after all that their family has gone through to finally claim the piano, Boy Willie wants to sell it anyway. The piano is the only family value that both siblings can hold on to and pass on to next generations. Boy Willie feels

Boy Willie, however, wants to release the past and sell the family piano so he can have a new start in life and forget the painful past. "The Piano Lesson" is both unique to the plight of African-Americans and universal in its depiction of the human condition (Gale, 2000, p249). The sibling rivalry, past history versus present time and future, storytelling and gender relationships all cross both unique and universal boundaries. To illustrate, even in today's society there are sibling rivalry that pit brother against sister, brother against brother or sister against sister together to the point of bitter battle. In addition, there are still people in today's society that have difficulties in resolving painful past experiences with the present and future. In regards to gender relationships, there are still a lot of mysteries in the realm of love between two people. Bernice is the African-American way, staying true to her roots and not parting with the heritage. Although she finds this painful, she will not part with her heritage. Her heritage is “tangible in the presence of the piano itself” (Sparknotes, 2014). Therefore, even though the theme of this play surrounds itself around African-Americans, the situation can easily be applied to all races and time periods.

The original African slaves in America had quietly disguised the dictates of the colonizers and it in the end taught them a feeling of inadequacy. The oppression and abuse they went up against in America brought with permanent injuries and incredible disgrace in the mind of the original slaves which they attempted to hide from their children. August Wilson's The Piano Lesson is a typical example which has an African-American sister and brother fighting over who the rightful heir of a piano, investigating the disgrace is confronted by blacks in America and its metamorphosis portrayed through the medium of theater. Wilson utilizes the "blood memory" as a locus of energy to hold over the psychic outcast endured by his characters.

My life has always been tied to the piano in some shape or form. I can remember the first notes I ever produced. They came from a large Cable upright piano that had sat unused and out of tune for decades. From my early childhood and on my relationship with the piano consisted of nothing more than fleeting encounters. Some days I would sit down and simply play notes I thought sounded nice, but mostly the piano acted as a decoration in my home. It wasn 't until moving to Oklahoma to be with my mother 's family that anything serious developed concerning the piano. I had always been far away from my family, so when I met up with my grandmother we took the time to catch up. She mentioned that my mother used to play the piano quite well. Up until that point I had never given the piano much thought, but I began to think about my mother and all the old piano books she had accumulated from her adolescence. That set in motion my desire to learn how to play and an eventual reappraisal of the way I looked at music and the world around me.

Everyone possesses passion inside of them from the time they are born. Some find it difficult expressing this personal deep feeling while others easily find life partners that return the same mutual love and affection, getting through any difficulties that may come in the way of their unity. This theme is expressed in Jane Campion’s movie The Piano. This films main character is Ada (Holly Hunter), who comes closely to experiencing this fulfillment. Ada is mute but very articulate through her piano. She chose to not speak by the age of six years old. She uses the black and white keys of her piano to express her emotions but she also develops a hand language with her illegitimate daughter, Flora (Anna Paquin). Ada’s father chooses to send her to New Zealand to marry a man she has never met. His name is Stewart, but he unfortunately doesn’t seem to understand Ada as do Baines, and English born Maori. Baines is Stewart’s aid in negotiations with the Maori people who own most of New Zealand’s rainforest, where he lives. In the 19th century the Catholic religion was a great influence on everyone’s life. Catholicism strongly influenced honoring ones parents so Ada never objected to going away to New Zealand but she did throw all of that out the window when she fell in love with Baines. Ada’s movement away from her religion is shown in the opening scene of this film.