Racialization In Mark Carson's 'Its Wavering Image'

The newspaper has a way of swaying the audience one way or another, capturing them with sensationalist titles and material. Falsified ideas are spread unbeknownst to the reader because they take what they read as truth. Racialization was a practice that the media used to segregate a group of people and ascribe certain stereotypes to fulfill a certain idea that was comfortable to them. The assimilation of various races in American culture was discouraged and to be avoided, an idea that Sui Sin Far reinforced in her short story “It’s Wavering Image”. The newspaper article that was written through the lens of a white man interpreted Chinese culture in a fallacious way, making it a spectacle and exploiting the trust between races. In addition,

The pure act of the story being written brought upon different initial reactions to the main characters regarding racial injustice. Mark Carson’s identity was that of an unscrupulous reporter for a white newspaper and each story was a cathartic release, his “clear” and “clever” eyes could deceive even the most suspicious person. He was illustrated as a man who would “sell his soul for a story” (86). He was a man driven by professionalism in a way that was debilitating to those around him. For him, writing this story was the crux of his career and he did not see the implications that were generated from exposing falsities of an entire race. For this reason, he exposed the customs and ideas that they held dear to them without their consent, especially without Pan’s consent. He was described as being received as a “brother” (87) while with Pan and used this to his full advantage only to gather material for his article. Pan suffered from his actions emotionally as he brushed her aside once the article came to completion, the sight of the article burning “red hot; agony unrelieved by words, unassuaged by tears” (91). However, while Carson would have willingly sold his soul for a story, Pan would “rather that her own