White Culture example essay topic

Max Bunuel 10.2. 03 Problems with Imperialism: Identity and Understanding As human beings, it is instinctual to rightfully justify our actions no matter how atrocious they may be. We use subjective pretexts to mask our greed, ignorance, and hatred, for it is said that nobody looks in the mirror and sees a bad person. Historically, imperialists have embodied this paradox of malice obscured as benevolence; acting under the guise of righteousness by claiming to ameliorate the ignorant native cultures with previously unattainable Western necessities and ideals. These "goals" masked the compassion less homogenization, subjugation and ultimate exploitation of those they deemed simply inferior and subordinate to themselves. To quell resistance, they used subterfuge to manipulate and thereby indoctrinate the natives, concealing the truth and implementing the aforementioned mask of righteousness.

The naivety of the Africans facilitated this deception, for they were so impressed with new Western concepts, such as Christianity, they accepted and integrated them into their culture without realizing the inherent subjugation therewith contained (we see this naivety in the film The Gods Must Be Crazy, in which a native African tribe finds a coke bottle dropped from a plane and takes it to be divine). When they were not so readily received, the imperialists, refusing to even attempt an understanding of the society or its aspects, forced immediate conversion to Western culture and demanded adherence to its regulations and expectations. All three plays, Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman, Walcott's Dream on Monkey Mountain, and Fugard's "Master Harold.".. and the boys, allegorize the lasting detriment upon the African culture from not only the destructive invasion of the West, but of its purported benefit. Without fully understanding the African society and all its intricacies, imperialists have inadvertently manufactured an amalgamated culture at war with itself. Derek Walcott's Dream on Monkey Mountain exemplifies this hybridized culture and its intrinsic internal conflicts. Here the effects of Western culture are explicitly demonstrated and easily determined, yet Walcott also gives us deeper, implicit influences that do not derive from direct imperialist manipulation and point to man's darker nature.

The prologue introduces us to the hermit Makak upon his incarceration at the hands of Lestrade, a mulatto corporal. The subsequent interrogation immediately delineates certain means of oppression utilized by the imperialists and their ramifications. Makak pleads for his freedom, insisting he is no more than a delusional old man, tired and harmless to no one. "English, English!" Lestrade shouts at Makak's native tongue.

"We are observing the principles and precepts of Roman law, and Roman law is English law". (219) Lestrade's speech is riddled with racist invective towards the inmates combined with a self-important reverence to the law of "Her Majesty's Government" and a pretentious use of elevated vocabulary. Here the law is a textbook example of imperialism's imposturous morality in that racists, such as Lestrade, manipulate and abuse it to unjustly castigate natives for their own prerogatives yet themselves are so indoctrinated, they defend their transgressions as righteousness. The interrogation also indicates Catholicism as another disingenuous tool of imperialists.

Catholicism was unlike most other Western ideals used to subjugate, such as education, technology, and law, for it carries spiritual connotations by promising endless reward for its followers and guarantying eternal damnation for those who reject it, and was therefore easier to instill in the hearts of the natives. Walcott demonstrates its vitality to white superiority, for Lestrade frequently invokes the Lord's name in his accusations to assert validity, accepts the testimony of Felicien Alcindor over Makak's simply due to his status as a "God-fearing, honest Catholic", and accuses Makak of "urging destruction of Church and State" and claiming "that God was not white, but black... ". (224-5) The intrinsic ties of Catholicism to the government should conceivably cause dissonance in this instance, however unlike the law, Makak maintains his allegiance to Catholicism, often using God in his own defense, and though he cannot remember his own name and is too tired to state his race, he answers Lestrade's denominational affiliation inquiry with a smiling, "Cat " oblique". (219). We see here how the natives are bound to Catholic doctrine, the tenants of which stipulate obedience to its hierarchy, thereby formulating a subjection to the imperialists in control of the religion.

At one point, the prisoner Souris laments, "And that is what they teach me since I small. To be black like coal, and to dream of milk. To love God, and obey the white man". (290) Through this dependency, the imperialists would manipulate religious doctrine to force the natives into subservience while using Catholic ideals, such as the virtue of suffering, to justify their actions and placate the natives; ideals the natives are forced to accept. After their escape from the jail in Part Two, Souris asks Tigre if he is afraid of God, to which he replies, "I not 'fraid no white man".

(290) They have been taught that God is white, with white power and white authority, which they are bound to obey. Though many eagerly accepted Catholicism into their lives, as Makak did, they were not as eager to abandon those inherently native traditions they had grown up with, despite the direct contradiction with their newfound religion. And so rather than reject one or the other, we see instead an amalgamation of Western religion and native traditions, such as paganism and voodoo, into a new evanescent identity, fluctuating and evolving. Makak's madness is a response to this fragmentary concept of an identity that is fundamentally discordant not only in religion, or even what is explicitly forced upon him by white culture, but implicitly by necessity, opportunity, and practicality. On Monkey Mountain he has visions of a white woman, the "loveliest thing I see on this earth", telling him to return to Africa. If this movement symbolizes a return to the native and reclamation of roots, what are the motives, and why is a white woman the catalyst?

Since Makak's cultural identity is constantly redefining, there are countless influences, both conscious and subconscious, that both shape him and give him purpose. It cannot be denied that from subservience and prolonged exposure to white culture, even certain deplorable characteristics can be assimilated subconsciously by the colonized culture. Therefore, the white face behind the return to Africa is not only representative of Makak's unattainable desire to be white, but to assert his power, his "whiteness", over someone else. In fact, his biggest and most explicit motive is his supposed royal African lineage, for in Africa he believes he will be the "white man", ruling over his subjects as a king. As violence begets violence, Makak's usurpation of power comes hand in hand with the spilling of blood, culminating in a trial seeking to reconcile the inherent desire for "white" by wiping out every white influence of history, from Aristotle to Al Jolson. This "split-personality" and desire for whiteness as a symbol of power is epitomized in Lestrade the mulatto.

Literally split between both black and white, he uses the authority of his white half to exercise "whiteness", self-consciously over-compensating for his darker side. However, when white power and authority are usurped, he advantageously identifies with his black half, this time overcompensating for his white half by provoking white bloodshed. Although Makak's power and influence grows, and he achieves his "whiteness", he is not content. By the end of the play he is still trying to reconcile his inner conflict, and is searching for a concrete identity founded in his culture, his roots, and a past free from any semblance of white oppression. He would rather kill all whites and eradicate their importance than accept countless apologies, prizes, and authoritative positions; yet the systematic destruction of white influences still cannot satisfy his need. Ultimately he is faced with the white woman, his ultimate motivation for everything he has done thus far, and must kill her to complete the cycle of bloodshed that she and her "whiteness" are responsible for.

By killing the apparition that he created, he frees himself from the insatiable desire for the unattainable: a poetic ideal of the past, free from corruption and imperialism, which can link him to his true identity. When Makak awakes to realize it was all a dream, he rejoices in his reality, accepting the permanence of the past, the ambiguity of the future and finding his own identity "in the dreams of his people."Now this hermit is going back home", he says, "back to the beginning, to the green beginning of this world". (326) In the same vain, Death and the King's Horseman illustrates the both the cultural and personal afflictions caused by the meddling of an imperialist society without the slightest regard for native inhabitants or cultural understanding. As with Monkey Mountain, Soyinka utilizes the first impressions of introduction's to immediately characterize the discrepancy between the native culture, the Yoruba of Nigeria, and those who mean to govern them, exemplified here by Colonial District Officer Simon Pilkings. Pilkings first appears dancing with his wife Jean before a European ball when they are interrupted by a native policeman, who suddenly becomes inexplicably frightened by their costumes.

"It belong to dead cult", he explains, "not for human being". (24) He is so shocked by the sight of their dress that he refuses to talk or even look at them, only pleads that they change their outfit. Rather than sympathetically acquiescing to his request and acknowledge their egregious cultural error, the couple simply laughs it off. "Come on A musa", Pilkings replies, "you don't believe in all this nonsense do you? I thought you were a good Moslem".

(24) Not only is the Colonial District Officer completely ignorant of the culture he is responsible for governing, he refuses to even respect it, dismissing it as "mumbo-jumbo". (24) Soyinka also contrasts the Yoruba reverence for death and all of its connotations with Pilkings and Jane's almost mocking irreverence for its gravity by literally wearing death as a costume. All it takes for Pilkings is a slight insinuation from higher authority to set him on the task of preventing Elesin's ritual suicide. Without hesitation he sets into motion a disastrous chain of events precipitated by his ignorance and lack of foresight. Jane cannot even understand the implications of the tradition when Elesin's own son, Olunde, intelligently explains them to her in her own language.

"How can I make you understand?" he asks, unable to get through to her. (53) Returning from four years of study in England, he demonstrating a facility with the language, debate, and characterization of the English people. "I have discovered you have no respect for what you do not understand", he says. (50) Although he criticizes it, Olunde has clearly gone to great lengths to understand the English culture, and he never asserts superiority in either society, only analogous yet distinct circumstances that render qualitative comparison impossible. Though he does not illustrate the connection, Olunde clearly has in mind the analogy of the self-sacrificing captain and his father's suicide. The average Yoruba may not be able to comprehend the nobility of the captain's suicide in comparison to Elesin's, yet Olunde is enlightened enough to see how neither sacrifice is more or less prestigious, but rather distinctly noble.

Jane, however, is incapable of such a mature comprehension, and earnestly gives her culture superiority over that which she refuses to understand. "How can you be so callous!" she exclaims. "You " re just a savage like all the rest!" (55) Though Pilkings succeeds in deterring Elesin and detaining him, Elesin knows the Colonial District Officer is acting under orders without any comprehension of why. "You don't quite understand it all", he says from his jail cell, "but you know that tonight is when what ought to be must be brought about".

(62) Elesin exposes Pilkings' ignorance, yet admits to approaching the English culture with a similar mentality himself. "Once I mistrusted him for seeking the companionship of those my spirit knew as enemies of our race. Now I understand. One should seek to obtain the secrets of his enemies. He will avenge my shame, white one.

His spirit will destroy you and yours". (63) The "he" Elesin refers to is, of course, his son, and by acknowledging the error in both men's ways he praises Olunde's educated understanding of each conflicting culture and his aggregation of the collective good to be found in each. Despite Elesin's aforementioned ignorance of and hatred for his English "enemies", it is their manipulation from their own cultural agenda that planted the seed of doubt in his head; foreign doubt that he was unable to understand or make sense of. Unable to reconcile the guilt about his failure, he laments, "My will was squelched in the spittle of an alien race, and all because I had committed this blasphemy of thought-that there might be the hand of the gods in a stranger's intervention". (69) Impotent in his cell, Elesin is internally torn between guilt, anger, and misunderstanding, when his son's body is brought before him in full completion of his father's deed. Horrified and confused, Elesin is suddenly moved to do the same and strangles himself quickly and deliberately.

Olunde is Soyinka's ideal character: fully immersed in both the colonized and colonizing cultures, his intrinsic understanding facilitates clear, educated decisions, but more importantly, a choice. Elesin's duty compels his suicide just as Pilkings' duty compels his interference, and neither man feels they have a choice in the matter. However Olunde, incorporating both the Yoruba ideal of ritualistic death and the English notion of free will into his decision, makes a clear choice to redeem his father. Olunde's graduated understanding allows him to healthily assimilate the two contrasting cultures into his own personality, while Elesin's guilt and anguish demonstrate how the inability to understand solely breeds internal strife.

The play ends without any semblance of resolution, and the impact of Olunde's suicide is quite unclear. However, we do know the hope and respect each character had for Olunde and can therefore infer the lasting affect of his martyrdom on the future actions of each character involved. In this inability to understand, it was only the character with the most understanding that could demonstrate how tragic their misunderstanding truly was. Fugard's "Master Harold.".. and the boys examines the role of indoctrination, exemplified in the clash of instilled values and human understanding. Hally represents a transitional period for South Africa, marking the rise of a new generation with the potential to eradicate previous social injustices.

Constantly at odds with his parents, most of Hally's childhood memories pertain to Sam and Willie, who played an instrumental role in his upbringing. Utilizing their different experiences, they are able to teach each other things about life, all in all bridging the gap between them to facilitate a deeper, human understanding. Despite the intimacy of their relationships, they are not exempt from the antiquated social norms of subservience, hindering them from complete understanding. As a white boy and the son of their employers, Hally is conflicted between his racial "superiority" to Sam and Willie, and his youthful inferiority, a contradiction that not only establishes a general awkwardness and displacement, but also manifests itself in sporadic outbursts of self-assertion and condescension. At one point Hally is trying to study while Sam and Willie practice dance moves, teasing each other until they skirmish playfully. Their harmless noise begets a belittling castigation from Hally, chiding them for their "childish" behavior, yet the mood is quickly restored, and the three easily settle back into their friendly dynamic.

This back-and-forth behavior illustrates the heterogeneity of the imperialist youth: a new, more human and mature understanding of race and culture trying to reconcile the fleeting yet pervasive disingenuous imperialist tendencies of the past. This amalgamated identity can be just as self-destructive as those in Walcott and Soyinka, for in each case, the characters struggle with contrasting influences without fully understanding what is pulling them in each direction. In the end of Master Harold, Hally makes a choice that elucidates which is the stronger of his two tendencies. After a phone cal from his father, Hally goes on a vindictive rant so scathing, it compels Sam to interject, almost shouting, "Stop now!" (52) Sam's assertion of authority over Hally relegates all of his negative energy towards Sam. "My mother is right", he says. "She's always warning me about allowing you to get too familiar.

Well, this time you " ve gone too far. It's going to stop right now. You " re only a servant here, and don't you forget it". (53) He then denigrates Sam further by indignantly demanding he use "Master Harold" instead of Hally, and finally spits in his face after Sam playfully mocks him.

Sam's final allegorical speech about the "White Only" bench he watched Hally sit on symbolizes the lingering effects of racial subservience, and he urges Hally to choose to leave it, to stand up and walk away. This is the culmination of Sam's influence, and he reveals his motives as such. In Hally he sought to facilitate, through understanding, a departure from the previous racist tendencies by his own free will, rather than match the subterfuge used by his parents and the white supremacy. Unfortunately, Hally is too weak to resist the temptations of asserting racial superiority, and succumbs to the imperialistic ideals of subservience instilled in him. In the end he cannot get past his indoctrination to fully understand himself, Sam, or his objective situation. These three plays have exemplified certain detrimental effects of imperialist tendencies and deceptions on native peoples and cultures.

The imperialists' unmitigated manipulation and complete lack of understanding facilitated tragic internal conflicts and self-destructive identity crises that linger, unresolved, even to this day. Progress can only be made through a mature understanding of cultures, an open exchange of ideas without oppression and subjugation, and a complete lack of judgment, free from false pretenses and evil disguised as good.