Common Themes in Les Blancs and The Dutchman There is little difference between colonialism and racism. The difference is only a matter of semantics. While colonialism is oppressing another group not in one's own country, racism is oppressing another group in one's own country. The Dutchman gives the audience two characters who were ignorant of each other. Lula has certain stereotypes of Clay's race, like the idea of barbed wire, just as Les Blancs gives the audience Charlie, who has stereotypes of Tshembe, like the many wives misconception. Themes in racism and colonialism, just like some of the themes in The Dutchman and Les Blancs, are ignorance of others, betraying one's own people, and how far one goes to tolerate what one believes to be the immoral behavior of another. Les Blancs takes one theme of The Dutchman, that of accepting one's race, and puts an interesting twist on it. Tshembe is not totally convinced that the rebellion is the correct thing until he finds out what his father did. Unlike Clay, Tshembe continues somewhat in the footsteps of his father. The idea of "father" is not only meant in the literal sense but in the figurative as well. It is meant as an embodiment of the African race itself. By joining the rebellion, Tshembe sides with his own race once and for all, and does what his ancestors, and most of the African race, would want. Unlike in The Dutchman, however, Les Blancs gives us more of a tragic villain. While we have little or no evidence to show that Lula was anything more than a cold-blooded murderer, Abioseh is more of a tragic villain, who is so misguided by his newfound Catholic ideals that he betrays his own race and, more importantly, his own brother. He allows himself to let his ideology blind him to the facts of what is going on in his country. Les Blancs and The Dutchman, then, share many similar themes but look at some of them in different ways.
In this particular play we are more focused on black identity in a sense as they are trying to find themselves whether it be as an African American, woman or man. More in a sense they don’t feel complete because of their past and current circumstances that they are in. And just like Dutchman, this play does deal with some racial discrimination. Herald Loomis is taken from his family to work on the fictitious “Joe Turner” chain gang. Joe Turner serves more as a representation than an actual character. He represents the racist Southern white men. He would illegally kidnap free and runaway slaves making them work in spots along the river where labor was
Part of how North America engaged in imperialism was the idea of Manifest Destiny (Age of Imperialism II, 19:20). This was the belief that it was their destiny to take over and expand. The Europeans engaged in imperialism by taking over or having other places join their country (Age of Imperialism II, 28.06). This is important because if they could peacefully gain control it made their job easier. Another tool that helped the West engage in imperialism was the steam engine. They were able to trade with more nations and spread their ideas even better. Advances like the steam engine were key to both becoming what we call “Mother Nations.” When discussing how they believed in Manifest Destiny and the power of whiteness, it is crucial to show the flip side that allows them to take part in this. Morel, the author of the black mans’ burden, sees the burden of imperialism falling upon Africans, and wrote this against Kipling 's poem. The text says, “Thus the African is really helpless against the material God of the white man, as embodied in the trinity of imperialism, capitalistic, exploitation, and militarism…” (The Black Man’s Burden, pg. 2). This statement shows that the Africans were still less than and that there was indeed prejudice. He is saying that the Africans were destroyed by the Caucasians. While it is important to understand how the West became engaged in imperialism, we also need to understand that
Walter Rodney viewed that colonial rule contributed to Africa’s exploitation. “Indeed, what was called “the development of Africa” by the colonialist was a cynical shorthand expression for the “intensification of colonial exploitation in Africa to develop capitalist Europe”(Rodney, p.295). During the colonial rule the biggest negative impact to Africa was it lost power. Power is ultimate determent for a society to prosper. When a society has no power it is not developed. Rodney states, “When one society finds itself forced to relinquish power entirely to another society, than in itself ...
James Baldwin’s Sonny’s Blues tells the story of the narrator and his brother and the hardships that they must endure. As Kahlil Gibran States “Out of suffering have emerged the strangest souls, the most massive characters are seared with scars.” (Gibran). In that very quote the real light is shown as it informs the reader that with suffering comes growth and once the person whomever it may be emerges out of the darkness they may have scars but it has made them stronger. The theme of light and darkness as well as suffering play a vital part in this story. For both men there are times in which they have the blues and suffer in the darkness of their lives but music takes the suffering from them.
Music is a thread throughout the story. In the boys’ childhood, Sonny always loved to play piano; to him that was a way of escaping his environment. Music for Sonny was a way of expressing himself and interpreting the world. Sometimes Sonny felt when he was staying at his older brother’s house, his brother’s wife did not understand Sonny’s mode of communication. This refusal forces him into the streets. When Sonny plays music that’s how he blocks out the world that doesn’t understand him and his passion.
Sonny’s brother and him finally decided to reconcile when Gracie, Sonny’s niece, passed away at a young age. The brothers wrote back and forth and one thing became clear to Sonny’s brother, music affected him. Sonny’s brother always saw the music/jazz scene as an unhealthy lifestyle full of drugs and scandal. The only thing Sonny would really reinforce was that it was not because of the music. Sonny came back to New York after rehab from heroin and came to see the old neighborhood in Harlem. The brothers see that they have so much to be thankful for and that they will always have each other.
In conclusion, “Sonny’s Blues” is the story of Sonny told through his brother’s perspective. It is shown that the narrator tries to block out the past and lead a good “clean” life. However, this shortly changes when Sonny is arrested for the use and possession of heroin. When the narrator starts talking to his brother again, after years of no communication, he disapproves of his brother’s decisions. However, after the death of his daughter, he slowly starts to transform into a dynamic character. Through the narrator’s change from a static to a dynamic character, readers were able to experience a remarkable growth in the narrator.
The First Great Awakening was an extremely important religious revival that moved through the American colonies. This spiritual revival took place in the American colonies around 1730 to 1760. The First Great Awakening was able to gain a lot of momentum because of the influential preaching that taught the citizens of these colonies that the only way to salvation was by accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. Many of the colonists believed that they lived proper and just lives by attending church and doing good deeds. It was by the strong influential preaching that took place during the Great Awakening that preachers informed these believers that their works and good deeds would not save them; only salvation through
Colonialism and imperialism are hard to differentiate from one another because they are both underlying repression of a dependent state. In many instances, those two concepts are regarded as words with the same meaning (Kohn, 2012). Although colonialism and imperialism, both refer to political and economic domination of the other, thus having a great deal in common, they also have real differences. Both of them refer to the practice of one country suppressing another. In both suppressions, the dominant country has political and economic control of the country or region that it is dominating. In this sense, the two are very much the same thing. Though they both refer to the domination of another country, colonialism is
Colonialism is a relationship of ascendency between an indigenous (or forcibly imported) majority and a minority of transcontinental invaders. Colonial rulers have the power to make the essential decisions that affect the lives of the colonised people, which are implemented in pursuit of interests defined in a distant metropolis. Through the ability of rejecting cultural compromises with the colonised population, the colonisers extend their supremacy and their ordained mandate to rule. Nonetheless, Colonial conquest is a term that undermines the complexity within colonialism. To fully understand this period of time, you need to recognize and accept the complication of the motives, methods, the events that occurred and the history involved.
The concept of racism is a relatively modern term that made its appearance in the 18th century. The practices and processes that have helped shape racism in British society today must be looked at as a series of ideologies, that have been built into British institutions and organisations as a consequence of the historical contexts of colonialism and imperialism. However, ideas of race and differences between races are rooted even earlier than this, even as far back in history as the 16th century. Even though racism can operate on levels of both individual racism and institutional racism, it is the later that will be looked at in this essay together with the historical context of Colonialism, and the political ideologies in the form of the Immigration acts that have shaped and still shape racism in British society (Mason 1995).
Conrad shows racism against Africans in many ways throughout his novel. “Black figures strolled about listlessly...steam ascended in the moonlight, the beaten nigger groaned somewhere (Conrad, 30).” The most clear and obvious instance of racism is the use of the word “nigger”. It is a word that is viewed as extremely negative and demeaning towards Africans by many. Conrad uses this word many times to address the Africans throughout his work. “Nigger” has come to be extremely frowned upon in cultures across the world and has come to be unacceptable to be used in people’s vocabulary for its derogatory meaning that it has come to have, originating from racism and prejudice against Africans in the nineteenth and twentieth century.
. The company lacked working synergy, as workers did not know one another. As a result, Meyer was looking forward to promote synergy in the organization and make workers feel part of the organization. The company had various idle infrastructures. As a result, Mayer saw the opportunity to bring workers together as a means of doing away with laziness, and utilizing idle infrastructure (Carlson 2).
The particular justification of colonialism I’m going to focus on is the bringing of higher civilization to the African people. I believe that this one was one of the most compelling arguments for the Europeans because of what it actually means. Higher civilization means that Europeans had the higher civilization that they can bring to Africans. This was based on their racial prejudices and their ideologies of racial hierarchy. These feelings were very prevalent in Europe during the time of colonialism. It was almost common culture for the Europeans of this time to believe that Europe had one of the most advanced civilizations in the world. And because of this, a lot of them saw it as their mission to "enlighten" and "civilize" the people of the rest of the world and bring them higher civilization. These racial prejudices and ideologies of racial hierarchy can also be shown in the poem, “The White Man’s Burden”. It showed a lot of incorrect and erroneous racial stereotypes of African peoples. This is part of the higher civilization just...
Colonialism describes the domination of one nation over another nation of lesser means. Postcolonialism explores what happens to the substandard nation after the parent, dominating nation leaves. In relation to the definition of colonialism/postcolonialism, common aspects of colonialism/postcolonialism include: racial and cultural inequality between ruling and subject people, what’s left behind when the parent state leaves, the occupiers, move out, and exploitation of the subject people. The stories, On Seeing England for the first time by Jamaica Kincaid, Civil Peace by Chinua Achebe, The Divorcee by Ken Saro Wiwa and The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn 't Flash Red Anymore by Sherman Alexie, display these aspects in some form.