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Prejudice in 'Panache' and 'The Baker's Story'

Good Essays

Kinsella and Naipaul deal with prejudice in remarkably different ways in their two stories "Panache" and "The Baker's Story". Through the use of setting, character, and tone, these authors try to convey their views on the ways that preconceptions can be proved wrong. "Panache" and "The Backer's Story" show how prejudice can be overcome in an idealistic and a realistic manner.

In "Panache", Kinsella used a variety of contrasting settings, by comparison, in "The Baker's Story" Naipaul used a handful of similar settings. The first setting in "Panache" is the classroom at the end of the school year. This is a very important place, for it is where the group of young men have been taking a course on mechanics and it is where they learn the …show more content…

He renames his shop "Yung Man", hires Chinese teller and "never shows [his] face in the front of the shop again".

The development of the main character is done in contrasting ways. In "Panache" the persona of Tom is developed indirectly through the narrator - his friend Silas. Tom says little so it is often difficult to get his opinion, but when he does talk he says highly intellectual things. When then young men are discussing the possibility of hiding their Native background, Tom points out that "With names like Silas Ermineskin, Donald Bobtail and Rufus Firestrider, it not going to be so hard for them to guess." (Kinsella, p.

32). While on the way to the mine, some of the miners look funny at them, Tom exchanges thoughts with Frank.

""Maybe they don't have no Indians in this part of the country," whispers Frank.

"Maybe they do," say Tom Pony."" (Kinsella, p. 33).

Most of the time, however, he keeps his thoughts to himself, and lets his actions speak for him.

When comparing Tom to the narrator from "The Baker's Story", a number of differences can be seen. The baker tells his own story, so his feelings are always made clear "I make my dough from dough" (Naipual, p. 59). The baker is a survivor. He did not have a happy childhood. He has no idea about who his father is "…I don't even know who was the feller who hit my mother" (Naipual, p. 59).

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