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Orientalism In M Butterfly

Decent Essays

In David Henry Hwang’s play, M. Butterfly manifests three keywords that have a profound meaning: Race, Gender, and Orientalism. Junaid Rana starts her definition of race by stating that it is a social construction. Race did not exist early until the government used it as a classification. The creation of race is to separate cultural and biological differences in a corporate class. Race was not an issue when it came down to deciding the victor Ozawa V. United States in 1922, or even in Thind V. United States in 1923. Rana then goes on to say “...In which biology and culture are often conflated as a rhetorical logic and material practice in a system of domination.” (Rana). Rana clarifies how race is made up of both biology and culture, and is combined to be used as a stamp to categorize anyone person to a group. Personally, I believe race to be a social construction of grouping similar biological people, regardless of culture. I am an Indian in today’s society, born in Frederick, MD. I attended elementary, middle, and high school all in Frederick, MD, and now I am furthering my education at the University of Maryland. I have even worked for several different companies in the state of Maryland as well. I have lived every second of my life in American culture, however I am still an Asian in any American eye. There were a couple of ways race was displayed in the scene I will write about first. The end of act one, scene six (1:6), Song Liling said, “the submissive oriental woman

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