The Divine Narcissus And Columbus Letter On His First Voyage Summary

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The Contradictions of The Divine Narcissus and Columbus’s Letter on His First Voyage
Reading literary texts from different cultures such as the Mesoamerican natives versus the European explorers can revolutionize a profound understanding. This understanding teaches readers how misinterpretation of language can occur between different groups of people because of different cultural perspectives. Therefore, to illustrate an accurate picture of language barriers between these cultures the reader must analyze two separate texts.
The two literary texts that accurately expresses these communication problems are found in Columbus’s Letter on His First Voyage and The Divine Narcissus. The first text called Columbus’s Letter on His First Voyage is in …show more content…

For example, the character Occident proclaims “I do not understand your words, nor does your argument persuade; I know you not, who, brazenly, would thus our rituals invade.” (Cruz). In contrast, Columbus writes, “I have sent two or three men to a village to have conversation with them a great number of them have come out. But as soon as they saw my men all fled immediately, a father not even waiting for his son. And this is not because we have harmed any of them” (Columbus). This is clear symbolism to the proliferating miscommunication and language barriers between the Mesoamerican people and the European Settlers, because in the play The Divine Narcissus, Occident symbolize the Indian tribes of Mesoamerica. By knowing this critical piece of information, the Indian perspective of a language barrier towards the European Explorers is established. Occident is proclaiming that miscommunication is rampant, because there is no official ways of translating the language of the Indians and the European Explorers, and this can create trust issues. For example, when a person or entity pronounces that, “they don’t comprehend what is being said”, suggests a state of confusion and unclear articulation. …show more content…

Imagine living everyday life, engrossed in the daily traditions of modern day American culture. For example, waking up early morning, and drinking a piping hot cup of fresh roasted coffee. Then driving in a glamourous silver car in congested traffic to execute ordinary tasks at work to pay off bills, such as the mortgage, educational loans, and car payments, and then coming home to joyous children to see brightly colored smiles on their faces. Then a disruption in daily culture happens; now there is an epic alien invasion, and throughout these principal encounters, the people of modern America want to compromise peace, to highlight their cultural heritage, and forge a virtuous relationship. However, these aliens mistake this compassionate and gracious defiance as a weakness, and because of this, destructs the daily traditions of modern day American culture. Therefore, instead of drinking coffee in the morning, the American people are drinking water, because the aliens are exporting the coffee to their home planet as an economic commodity. Furthermore, instead of coming home to joyous children, the American people return from work to an empty house, because their children are exported as slaves. This archetype, illustrates the European explorer’s first encounters with the natives that propagated into a period of destruction,

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