Pearls And Swine From A Eurocentric View

In Leonard Woolf’s “Pearls and Swine,” the eurocentric perspective of India creates unreasonable stereotypes which alter the reader’s pre conceptual view of India.
The West positions themselves on a pedestal by creating a sense of superiority over the East, making the reader see the West as civilized and modern unlike the East who is stereotyped as undeveloped. As the three men in the smokeroom pontificate about the East with their preconceptual views, all the men unknowingly put the Western culture above the Eastern culture. After the archdeacon stated that the West should not be so imposing of their culture on the Eastern people, the stockbroker states, “Look after ’em, of course: give ’em schools, if they want education––schools, hospitals, roads, and railways…… But let ’em know you are the top dog” (Woolf 203). The

These negative attributions of the East from the West, make the East seem very uncivilized and undeveloped. The stock broker forms an idea that the West is the parent of the East and the West has to take over all the burdens of the East. These burdens that the West has to fulfill include building schools, hospitals, roads, and railroads for the Eastern communities. Based off of the stereotype that the West has to fulfill the burdens of the East, the East look as if they are lazy and cannot build their own communities. Another stereotype of the East is that they do not have any system of education, medical aid, and transportation. This statement is completely untrue which proves that the Western people have a large prejudice over